The Stringer and Weston Flour Mill

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

The economy of Lewis County, dating from its creation in 1816 until after the Civil War, was almost exclusively a self-sufficient, agricultural one. Unmilled wheat and corn were of considerable bulk and somewhat heavy, costly in time and money to transport any distance. Therefore, mills had to be near farms where grains were grown. Of at least a dozen mills scattered about the county in the 19th century, one was in Weston, on the east bank of the West Fork River, at the west end of what is today First Street. The original Weston Flour Mill was built by John Brunisdie & Daniel Stringer. Burnside later sold his interest after a few years of being in business. It then became Bland Property for many years and was adjoining the Bland House Property which was located in what would now be the middle of Main Avenue.

Images

Road, Neighbourhood, Road surface, Property

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

The local mill, established in 1817 by town father Daniel Stringer, had many different owners and names during its century of operations. As well as a grist mill, it also sawed logs into lumber. Fires and floods plagued it, and, when there weren’t floods, often there were droughts. Several times the river came close to drying up in late summer, just when grain was being harvested and the mill was most needed. To solve that problem, steam power was substituted for the water wheel in the 1840s. The old mill, in its last reincarnation, was demolished in April 1921. Traces of the original stone milldam, beginning to fall away in 1919 and finally washed out in 1923, can still be seen a short distance upstream from the footbridge now crossing the river.

Today the building is being re-envisioned as the "The Weston Town Hub" which will include a local craft beer tap room, butcher shop, book store and coffee shop. With apartments on the upper levels of the building.

Sources

Smith, E. C. (2010). History of lewis county, west virginia. Place of publication not identified: Nabu Press.

Gilchrist-Stalnaker, J., & Oldaker, B. R. (2010). Lewis County. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Pub.