Flour Power: All You Need Is Loaves
Published 4:42 pm Tuesday, February 22, 2011
BUCKINGHAM – Buckingham Mills is falling down-with a little help from some friends. The Route 60 landmark, which operated from the early 1920's to the early 1980's, is being dismantled.
Located across from Maysville Presbyterian Church in the Village of Buckingham Court House, the old mill has been in disrepair for several decades. Over the last few years, the ravages of time and weather really took their toll.
Floyd Rush, who has long admired the mill and once had dreams of turning it into a quaint restaurant, is working with friends to bring the mill to the ground.
Rush offered, “Age and time catches up with you…But it was a dream. It would have made an excellent place like that.”
According to Rush, once the mill is down, they will dismantle the metal silos that once fed it grain. Plans include salvaging any useable wood and recycling the metal.
Unfortunately, much of the wood he hoped would be salvageable isn't. What weather didn't get, termites did.
“A building like that-once the roof is gone, the old wood goes real quick,” he shared.
Rush said there are several large beams that are usable and a few of them are hand-hewn. He thinks those were probably recycled from an old building when the mill was constructed in the early 1920's.
Although his dream of turning the mill into a restaurant remains just that, Rush was able to save and renovate the old farmhouse flanking the mill. He has worked on that project for the last couple of years. In time, once all remnants of the mill are gone, the classic farmhouse will definitely take center stage.
In the book, the authors note that the old mill “was usually surrounded by farmers with wagons full of wheat and occasionally a man on a mule with a bag of grain slung behind him. It was slow and once a young boy said, 'You could starve waiting for flour here.'”
Touting a daily capacity of 25 barrels, the new mill was upgraded in 1925, increasing its capacity to 50 barrels. For those used to the old water-powered mill, modernization not only sped up the process but the wait.
Along with changes in capacity and processing, the new mill experienced changes in owners and operators to include Williams and Steger and later Ferguson and Sadler.
In 1940, a new miller, Joe Thompson, took over and operated the mill until the late 70's and early 80's.
Thompson's daughter, Christine Thompson Huskey, who resides in Dillwyn with her husband Carl, offered a wonderful recount of her family's involvement with a mill that was an integral part of this rural community.
Explained that her father, who was raised in the Bent Creek area, first operated the mill around 1941, Christine said she had not started school.
She also remembers her father working for a mill in Appomattox and Vinton prior to the family's move to Buckingham.
In 1942, Joe decided to take a job in Richmond at a large mill on Hull Street, shared his daughter. However, after approximately three years, he learned the Buckingham mill was for sale so he purchased it and moved his family back to Buckingham.
“That mill used to be run by diesel,” explained Christine. “And then later on he redid the mill and modified it to electric.”
Sharing with her an ad from the December 11, 1956 edition of The Farmville Herald announcing the grand opening for the “Newly Remodeled and Enlarged Feed and Flour Mill,” Christine thinks that is about the time her father made the diesel to electric switch and other major changes at the mill. “It took him several years to remodel and everything,” she stated.
Buckingham Mills was an integral part of this community and the lives of the Thompson family.
Christine's mother worked at the mill and served as its bookkeeper. Although Christine, who was 16 when her brother Everett was born, was his official babysitter, she, too, worked at the mill after marrying Carl.
Carl began working at the mill prior to the couple's wedding and continued until he took a job with the state.
Although the two did not meet at the mill, they did meet because of the mill.
According to Christine, one of the ventures of the mill was supplying chicken feed to area producers. Carl's sister and brother-in-law raised chickens and received their feed from the mill.
“I rode with my dad to Cumberland and my husband's sister came out of the house and we got to talking,” reminisced Christine, adding that at the time Carl was in the military. “Later on, they were going down to the orchard at Arvonia and he wanted to come by and meet me. I went to the door and his sister introduced him,” she shared. “Then I went out to the car and met his mother and his other sister,” she laughed. They were married in 1955 and will celebrate their 56th anniversary in March.
“I worked at the mill from 1952 until 1956 when my son was born,” said Christine. She worked in the office-mainly sending out bills and getting up orders.
“They weren't my parents when we were working-they were my bosses,” shared Christine. “But, when those doors closed, they were my mother and father again.” She added, “And when my husband worked there, he was not my husband-we were just coworkers.” Christine offered, “You just have to do it that way.”
When Christine brother Everett became old enough, he, too, worked at the mill.
Years later, when Carl was working with the Department of Conservation and Recreation and was transferred to Chippokes Plantation State Park, their son, Carl Warren wanted to finish high school in Buckingham. Christine and Carl agreed to let him stay with his grandparents. And, he became the third generation of the family to work at Buckingham Mills.
Joe Thompson operated the mill until around the late 1970's or early 1980's, shared Christine. Then, the mill went on the auction block and was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Bradshaw.
Her fondest memories of the mill go back to the days before the storage silos were installed, a time when the wheat was stored on the top floor of the mill.
“They had to turn all the wheat then by shovels. My cousins and I would get up there in the wheat and we'd play in the wheat and turn it and play in it all at the same time,” she remembered joyfully.
The mill was also had a small store in the back of the office. “We had dried beans and all kinds of canned goods but we didn't have a meat department,” said Christine. “They did sell butter and milk, buttermilk, chocolate milk, and cottage cheese.”
Although the mill did a good business during its heyday, time moved on and people started using larger companies, shared Christine. “Then Fair-Acre Feeds went out of business and so they didn't have the chicken (growers) like they did one time.”
While talking about Fair Acre Feeds, Christine explained how her father did not process that feed but was its distributor.
“They picked it up from the train and loaded it on the trucks. They brought it to the mill first and then they delivered it to the farmers-the chicken growers,” she stated. “Dad kept two trucks on the road all the time,” she remembered.
“What he processed was the flour-the self-rising flour and the plain flour-the corn meal, and sometimes he would have ground flour. I guess they would call that whole wheat flour now.”
Ground in her memory, Christine remembers the farmers bringing their wheat to the mill. “Dad would weigh the wheat up and all and put it in the mill. Then the farmers would come in and get the flour off of their account. So the farmers didn't buy the flour. What they did, they left the wheat there and worked it out some how or another for the weight of the flour. Then the farmers would come in and get flour off their account. Or they could get cornmeal.” She added, “Sometimes he would buy the corn, though.”
Being around all that flour had a residual effect on Christine who shared she continues to use a lot of it. “I haven't bought a loaf of bread-I don't know whenever,” she stated. However, she did admit that she uses a bread machine for her bread and rolls. She's on her fourth “bread-maker.”
Over the last few weeks, many have stopped by the site to take a last look and share a memory or two.
Margaret Webb Thomas, who was raised in a home across from the mill, was one of many kids in the Court House Village who enjoyed playing in the wheat piled around the silos.
She shared memories of Mr. Thompson covered from head to toe in the flour's white dust. And, she fondly remembers getting ice cream or a cold drink from the mill's store.
Others talked about going to the mill for huge bags of White Lily Flour and how their mothers or grandmothers wouldn't use any other flour but Mr. Thompson's.
A few unused paper bags bearing the Buckingham Mills logo are the only tangible reminder of his special commodity.
When Lorna Scott and Margaret Pennington published, The Courthouse Burned, Buckingham Mills was still in operation.
They wrote, “Buckingham Mills is still operated by Joe Thompson. His is the last operating mill in the county. This operation represents a way of life fast passing.
America was built on the small farm, the small business, the small neighborhood grocery. Mr. Thompson is carrying on their tradition and this building rising against the skyline reminds one of America's roots.”
We all know that skylines are not static-they, like us, change with time.
However, memories of a huge flour bin nestled in the corner of grandma's kitchen and her homemade White Lily biscuits aren't easily forgotten. Neither is the massive mill that stood in this community for almost a century.
