But we started out to write about the old mill. It still stands, and with the exception of the necessary repairs which from time to time have been made, contains the same timbers and lumber it did when built. In the early fifties there came to this neighborhood two men, one by the name of St. John, the other by the name of John Peet, both men of push and ambition. Realizing the tremendous power to be obtained from the waters of the Wapsie, and the ease with which a dam could be constructed where it now is, with the rocky banks on either side, and knowing the great demand for lumber, in the then fast settling community, they begun the construction of a dam with the intention of running a saw mill with it. The work on the dam was begun in 1855 by the two men mentioned, but was not finished until the next year, the work being engineered by old Mr. Bowdish, father of I. P. Bowdish. It was finished in 1856, as was also the old saw mill which stood for many years on the south bank of the river and did a flourishing business. Like many other old land marks it is gone. But many a stick of timber and lots of the old oak boards sawed there may yet be found in the older buildings about town.
The country all about here was fast settling up, and one of the principal crops was wheat. It was a long way to market, the nearest railroad station being at Marion. St. John and Peet concluded that a flouring mill would be a paying enterprise, and began the erection of the mill. The lumber was sawed at the sawmill, and the heavy timbers, of which there were many, mostly came from a forty on what now belongs to the Gus Hatch farm north of town.
Mentioning these timbers calls to the mind of Mr. Outing an incident which he threw into this narrative. There was a character who lived here by the name of Henry Hutchins. He was fond of hunting and fishing and would be gone often for a period of several days, no one knowing of his whereabouts. About this time he disappeared, and his absence became so protracted that his many friends began to fear that something had happened to him. It was while a party of choppers was hunting for timbers for the mill on the forty mentioned that one day they found Hutchins' lifeless body and beside it lay his gun with every indication that he had committed suicide.
When the timbers were all on the ground, hewed and framed, everybody for miles around was invited and came to help with the raising. It was a mammoth job and occupied the better part of a week. Mr. Outing was there from start to finish. The mill was completed and began operations in 1859. St. John and Peet ran it for only about three years when they sold it to E. R. Burns, who ran it until 1867, when it passed into the hands of Hatch & Co., they paying for it the sum of $16,000. They conducted it for five years when it again passed into the hands of Mr. Burns who owned and operated it until sometime in the latter eighties. Since then it has changed hands several times, but the valuation for many years has not been one-fourth of what it originally was. For a great many years it did a big business grinding thousands and thousands of bushels of wheat each season, the flour being hauled across the country to Marion by teams. As the raising of wheat played out so the value and popularity of the mill depreciated until finally, as now, it was used only as a grist mill. The building is now owned by parties in the east and is being run by T. J. Liddington who runs it and any day may be found there taking care of any demands made upon him. He works alone, surrounded by a vast amount of empty space that was once filled with piles of grain, machinery, and the several men required to look after the big business.[O]
LAND ASSESSMENTS
Statement showing total acreage, valuation and average equalized actual value per acre of land in Linn county for 1909 and 1910.
COMPARATIVE TABLE
Showing actual and taxable valuation of Linn county, 1899-1909.
| Actual value | Taxable value | |
|---|---|---|
| 1909 | $67,148,140.00 | $16,787,035.00 |
| 1908 | 64,391,760.00 | 16,097,940.00 |
| 1907 | 63,806,912.00 | 15,951,728.00 |
| 1906 | 59,215,180.00 | 14,803,795.00 |
| 1905 | 57,547,092.00 | 14,386,773.00 |
| 1904 | 59,404,000.00 | 14,851,000.00 |
| 1903 | 57,505,160.00 | 14,376,290.00 |
| 1902 | 51,864,092.00 | 12,941,023.00 |
| 1901 | 50,501,132.00 | 12,625,283.00 |
| 1900 | 48,876,016.00 | 12,219,004.00 |
| 1899 | 48,083,716.00 | 12,020,929.00 |