an original building

If you have ever pumped water for even one horse by hand, you will appreciate the tremendous labor saved by a windmill. The earliest pioneers led the stock to the closest stream or spring and sometimes that was quite a piece! Then came the hand pump and the trough, but the windmill was a great advance.

The Perkins Co. of Mishawaka, Indiana sold many wheels in this area. In a package, they provided this wheel, the fan, works, and the fancy gingerbread platform. Our mill wheel is a complete restoration, except for the iron work. It is 10' tall, with 90 redwood blades. Undoubtedly this is one of the most attractive of all the American windmills. They have a beautiful and graceful design that is coupled with probably the most intricately painted ornamentation placed on any widely distributed mill.

Very simply, the wind blew the wheel, the fan kept her headed into the wind, and the wheel turned a cam shaft. This drove a long rod attached to the pump up and down. When not in use, there was a disengaging wire that was pulled, and the wheel stopped revolving, though continued to turn gently about on its axis so the wind wouldn't break it. Unlike metal wheels, it was quiet.

On their way from the dusty fields, the men folk always stopped at the well house for a long, cold drink of water straight from the well. A dipper of tin or graniteware, or one homemade from a dipper gourd, hung on a convenient nail. At threshing time, a bench with bash basin, soap, and towel stood close by. The threshing crew could wash up here and the mess would be kept out of the kitchen.

In 1977, our windmill was included in the book, A FIELD GUIDETO AMERICAN WIMDMILLS by T. Lindsay Baker; University of Oklahama Press.