Building Description Bunker Hill Grist Mill - Cline and Chapman Roller Mill, Bunker Hill West Virginia
The water which powered the tandem overshot wheels of the Bunker Hill Mill was drawn from Mill Creek, a spring fed tributary of Opequon Creek. A dam on Mill Creek immediately downstream from the tail-race of another mill diverted water into a supply canal emptying into the mill's forebay. Between the mill pond and the water wheel header box, water traveled through a stone-lined headrace. Currently a concrete pipe conduit serves as the headrace. Above and between the two water wheels is a single rectangular steel header box with an individual water chute for each wheel and a single overflow discharge gate.
The mill is equipped with Fitz Water Wheel Company (Hanover, Pennsylvania) "IXL" steel overshot wheels, set number 7741. Although tandem water wheels were used on this site as early as 1879, neither the construction of these earlier wheels nor the installation date of the Fitz steel wheels is known. The wheel closest to the mill pond is 14 feet 8 inches in diameter and 5 feet wide- The second wheel is slightly larger, being 16 feet 2 inches in diameter and 6 feet wide.
Each wheel is connected to an external spur, master gear inside the basement of the building and turns a separate line shaft. The smaller wheel drives a wooden main drive pulley. A single four inch wide pulley on each line shaft permitted the cross connection of the shafts so that one wheel could power both line shafts when necessary.
All of the mill's machinery was exclusively water-powered until circa 1920 when a 20 horsepower Fairbanks-Morse diesel engine was installed and connected to the line shaft with the large wooden pulley. The installation of the diesel engine permitted the mill to operate even when the volume of water was insufficient to drive both wheels, A 115 volt, 38 amp, direct-current electric generator was used to supply electricity for illuminating both the mill and the miller's house and for operating two electric flour bleachers.
The Bunker Hill Mill operated until 1964, and although most of the machinery is still connected to the line shafts, the absence of the spouts between the grain elevators and machinery makes it very difficult to recreate the exact routes of the various milling processes. The arrangement of the scales, elevators, horizontal augers, and storage bins, however, makes it possible to describe the general operations of the mill during the twentieth century.
Wheat brought to the mill was unloaded at the dock and shoveled into one of three basement hoppers. From here, elevators carried the grain to the mezzanine (attic) level above the third floor. Chutes from the mezzanine level fed the wheat to a "Monitor" receiving separator manufactured by the Huntley, Cranson and Hammond Company of Silver Creek, New York. Using screens and sieves, the receiving separator removed the coarsest impurities, such as sticks, straw, and stones. An air blower within the separator discharged dust, chaff, light weed seeds, and sand outside of the mill. This machine was located on the third floor and had the capacity to clean approximately 500 bushels of wheat per day. A "Eureka Dustless" receiving separator currently stored in the mill's basement was most likely also originally located on the third floor. The "Eureka Dustless" was manufactured by the S. Howes Company, also of Silver Creek, New York. whether the "Eureka" separator was used simultaneously with or replaced by the 'Monitor" separator is unknown.
Wheat cleaned by the receiving separator was returned to the first floor for weighing before being elevated once again to any of four temporary storage bins on the third floor. Subsequent cleaning operations prior to the actual grinding of the wheat into flour involved the use of a milling separator and a wheat scourer. The milling separator used blasts of air, suction, and multiple sieves finer than those of the receiving separator to remove oats, barley, and undersized, immature grain. The mill was equipped with two milling separators, both housed on the second floor. A "Eureka Perfected" milling separator manufactured by the S. Howes Company remains attached to the second floor line shaft. Standing unattached and most likely not in its original working position is a Barnard and Leas Manufacturing Company (Moline, Illinois) milling separator. Dust and chaff removed by the milling separators was expelled from the mill through an exhaust duct connected to each separator.
Adjacent to the milling separators was a "Eureka Horizontal" wheat scourer which polished the wheat, removed the fine dust and dirt still clinging to the grain, and vented these fine particles from the inside of the building. After scouring, the wheat was ready for the roller mills.
A small, unidentified roller mill is located on the second floor; however, the bulk, of the flour produced at the mill was ground by a single "Midget Marvel" rolling mill located on the first floor. The "Midget Marvel," manufactured by the Anglo-American Milling Company of Owensboro, Kentucky, was a small commercial mill.
The 'Midget Marvel," driven by a single 11 inch wide drive pulley, used corrugated reels to break apart the wheat and sieves to separate the bran from the flour. After two passes through the break reels, follow by two passes through the reduction reels, the fine bran was separated from the flour and the flour was sifted into two or three grades. The "Midget Marvel" installed at the Bunker Hill Mill had the capacity to produce 25 barrels of flour per day.
Flour produced by the "Midget Marvel" was elevated to the second floor where it was stored in any of eight small storage bins. Some of the flour was then bleached in the mill's two Alsop Electric Flour Bleachers. Bleached flour was obtained by passing a thin stream of flour through the bleacher where air and high voltage, low amperage direct-current electricity mixed to create oxide of nitrogen. Contact with the oxide of nitrogen whitened the flour.
The Bunker Hill Mill contains two other pieces of flour processing machinery: a gyrating flour sifter whose manufacturer is unknown and a flour dresser manufactured by the Jonathan Mills Machinery company of Cleveland, Ohio. Both pieces of equipment are located on the third floor.
Corn was both ground and cracked at the mill, cracked corn was produced by the mill's "Monarch" corn cracker which was manufactured by the Sprout and Waldron Company of Muncy, Pennsylvania. A corn cracker manufactured by the Munson Mill Machinery Company of Utica, New York was also used but is currently lying disassembled on the second floor.
Flour ready for shipment in bags, and barrels was gravity fed from the second floor storage bins to a "Monitor" automatic packing machine located on the first floor near the loading dock.
Animal feed, which the mill produced in large volume, was mixed in the "Whirlwind Feed Mixer". This machine was a product of the Brower Manufacturing Company of Quincy, Illinois.
Other mill machinery includes a small steel burr mill and two hammer mills. The steel burr mill, manufactured by the Wolf company (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania) is located on the first floor. Two "Daffin" hammer mills, all purpose high speed grain grinding machines with steel teeth, are currently stored in the basement. The original location of these two machines is unknown.
