Mills of Mystery

Here are some random excerpts from Solon Robinson's "Lake County, 1833 – 1847"[1] that amused me:

In the summer of 1834, most of the land in the county was surveyed by the United States Surveyors, and settlers began to "make claims," and four or five families settled that fall.

One of these I found in October, 1834, in a little shed roof cabin on Sec. 6, T. 35, R. 7, at a place afterward known as "Miller's Mill." His name is already among those that once were, but now are forgotten.

I am inclined to think that an old man by the name of Ross, also settled on the same section that fall. This man was killed by the falling of a tree near Deep river in 1836. (I believe King Alcohol was there to see, and it happened on a Sunday.)[2]

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The next family [after Robert Wilkinson's] was that of Lyman Wells; (afterwards well known as "Lying Wells.") With him came "Irish Johnny", now known as John Driscoll.

They came in January, 1835, and settled on Sec. 25, T. 33, R. 9, near where Driscoll now lives. Driscoll was then single, but has since obeyed the scriptural command to multiply and replenish the earth.

Wells had a wife and 4 or 5 children. He lived a few years here and moved further west, and his wife died, and some say the world would not have suffered much loss if he had died too.[3]

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Walton's saw mill on Turkey Creek, Wood's and also Dustin's on Deep River and Taylor's on Cedar Creek, were all building during this year [1837]. But with the exception of Wood's they might as well never have been built for the good they have done. The same may be said of the one called "Miller's Saw Mill" on Deep river. Dustin's, Miller's and Walton's have been in utter ruins for years, on account of the difficulty of making a dam of dirt stand, and Taylor's is about half the time without water, and the other half without a dam.[4]

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The accommodation of the people of the county was greatly increased this year [1847], in getting grain made into bread stuff, by the mill of Wilson & Saunders on Deep River below Wood's (and as he thinks not quite far enough below).[5]

A little snark livens up history, doesn't it? But I was also intrigued by the references to several local mills I had never heard of before. I wanted to see what information I could find about them (excepting "Taylor's on Cedar Creek," which is outside my bailiwick).

First, let's deal with "Miller's Mill."

Upon learning that this mill was built in Section 6, Township 35 N., Range 7 W., I consulted the 1874 Plat Map and was puzzled because it does not show the Deep River crossing that section:


(Click on image to enlarge)

But here is that section as it appears on the Lake County GIS parcel viewer:


(Click on image to enlarge)
Screenshot from the Lake County Indiana GIS Hub Parcel Viewer Page.

You can see that 61st Avenue, a/k/a Bracken Road, crosses the river in the southwest part of the section. Also, Solon's Robinson's 1838 map shows the river crossing Section 6. I think we can conclude that the mapmaker of 1874 made a mistake.

The Lake County Encyclopedia, in a chapter containing "Memorial Sketches of Early Settlers," includes this information:

Miller. — There was beyond any room for doubt an early mill seat found and a mill built on Deep River. The Claim Register, which is authority, says: "William Crooks and Samuel Miller in Co. Timber and Mill Seat." Claim made in June, 1835, but settled in November, 1834. Locality, Section 6, Township 35, Range 7. W. Crooks from Montgomery county. This William B. Crooks was elected, in 1837, Associate Judge, and a "Permit" was granted, July 31, "to Samuel Miller to retail foreign merchandise at his store on Deep River." That he had a mill and a store is certain; but of himself very little is known. It is said, and this is tradition and not history, and for its accuracy no good authority can be named, that his wife was part Indian, that he had sold property at Michigan City for eighty thousand dollars in gold and silver, and that much whiskey, as well as other articles of "foreign merchandise," was sold at his store. This last particular is no doubt true. If the gold and silver tradition is true, he must have been the most wealthy adventurer who came into the county in those early years. He made no long stay at that store but sold it to A. Hopkins, who soon sold it to H. Young, and he sold the mill irons to a mill builder, and for himself opened a gun shop which he kept for several years.

A gravel road crosses Deep River now at this locality and a few years ago some of the old timbers of Miller's mill could still be seen in the waters. Somewhere there may be descendants of this Samuel Miller.

Note. — Since the above was written there has come into my hands a little book of autobiography by Dr. James Crooks, a son of Judge William B. Crooks, who it seems was also a physician, and Dr. James Crooks says that his father settled at Michigan City in the spring of 1834. This James Crooks was then eight years of age. He says that Samuel Miller was then the principal business man of that place, that he "owned considerable real estate, houses, a store, warehouse, and a schooner." He also says that his father, Dr. W. B. Crooks, removed into what became Lake county in November, 1834; and that in the spring of 1835 his father and Samuel Miller commenced building a mill on Deep river. After narrating many interesting recollections of his childhood in Lake county he at length says that his father sold out, in the spring of 1838, "his possessions in Lake county to Samuel Miller of Michigan City," for one thousand dollars, and that five hundred dollars was paid "in gold." So Miller must have had some gold. He further adds that "Miller failed a short time afterwards." In June of 1838 the Crooks family left Lake county.[6]

The "gravel road" crossing the Deep River where the mill had been would be 61st Avenue — that is, by 1904, when these "sketches" were published, it was a gravel road; but when the mill was built, it was likely no more than wagon tracks in the dirt.

In a speech delivered in 1884 to the Old Settlers Association, the Rev. T.H. Ball said:

We date our beginning of actual settlement in 1834; yet there is now evidence, which has lately come to light, that at least one family, the first to open a farmer's home in what is now Lake county, spent the winter of 1833 and 1834 on section six, in township thirty-five, range seven west, now in the township of Hobart, formerly in that of Ross. The name of this pioneer was William Ross.[7] … Next came those whom we have learned to call "claim seekers," men seeking locations on the newly surveyed Government lands. Among these we have the now historic names of William B. Crooks, making his claim, near the home of William Ross, in June of 1834, and in company with him Samuel Miller, these selecting "Timber and Mill Seat," and some of the foundation timber of "Miller's Mill" can be seen on this fiftieth year down in the clear water of Deep River.[8]

At the same Old Settlers Association meeting in 1884, Bartlett Woods commented:

William Crooks settled on Deep River near the bridge across that stream on the present road from Merrillville to Hobart. Samuel Miller, of Michigan City, in company with Crooks built a mill there. I knew Miller but do not remember Crooks; the same Crooks was afterwards an associate Judge. There was a store there in an early day, selling a little of everything. Whiskey was part of the stock in trade. Whiskey was cheap then, and was retailed at a shilling a quart. The mill and store were finally abandoned, but the place always was known as Miller's Mill.[9]

I have not found Samuel Miller in the 1840 census of Lake County; in fact, Ancestry.com's search function doesn't return a single Miller in the 1840 census, which is surprising for such a common surname. Early Land Sales, Lake County doesn't list Samuel, either. Among the names I have indexed thus far from the early ledgers at the Hobart Historical Society museum, I find a few references in the 1840s to a "Miller, S.," but there is no way for me to determine what the "S." stands for.[10] It's possible that Samuel Miller came to Ross Township, built his mill, found it didn't pay, and got out of Lake County, all before the 1840 census.

I suppose it's no use walking along the bridge on 61st Avenue and looking down into the river around there. The old pilings that used to be visible have probably long since worn, or been swept, away.

This post has already gotten too long, with too many footnotes, so I am going to have to postpone talking about the other mystery mills for now.


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[1] Printed in Lake County Historical Association (John O. Bowers, Arthur G. Taylor, and Sam B. Woods, eds.), History of Lake County, Vol. 10 (Gary, Ind.: Calumet Press, 1929), p. 35 et seq.
[2] Ibid., p. 37. This is probably the Ross for whom Ross Township was named. See Howat's discussion, which does not mention King Alcohol.
[3] Ibid., pp. 38-39.
[4] Ibid., p. 48.
[5] Ibid., p. 57.
[6] Ibid., pp. 119-120.
[7] Lake County 1884, p. 18.
[8] Ibid., p. 20.
[9] Ibid., p. 80.
[10] I have also failed to turn up any record of William Crooks, or the purchasers of the mill, A. Hopkins and H. Young.