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Description:
The first industry in Williamston was milling. Farmers needed a way to turn wood into lumber and grain into flour, and Williamston's location on the Cedar River provided a ready source of power to make those chores less labor intensive.


The Williams brothers, James Miles, Oswald and Horace settled in the Williamston area in 1839. The next year they erected a dam across the Cedar River, and a Sawmill on the north shore to convert trees into usable lumber. in 1842, they doubled the usefulness of the dam by erecting a gristmill to grind grain into flour on the South side of the river. At the time, the next closest mill was in Dexter, near Ann Arbor.


This mill burned early on, and was replaced by the one shown in the photo below. This building too burned around the time of World War II, and was not replaced.

The site is now municipal parking, but a mill stone from the old gristmill has been integrated into the nearby history kiosk (q.v.)

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Williamston History

Tags:

river , history , mi , williamston , mill , grist , gristmill , water power