THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

October 22, 1992

 

WHEN THEN WAS NOW

By Wayne A. Guyant

 

            Samuel “Sam” T. Oborn, who became a successful miller in Waupaca in the early years of the 1880s, was a son of Samuel Oborn Sr., and the grandson of Thomas Oborn, who were both millers in England before coming to America.

            Samuel Oborn Sr. was married in England to Mary Milsom, and they had a child, Edwin, born in England.  In 1842, Sam Sr. disposed of his milling interest in his native England and came to America with his wife and son, Edwin.

            In America, the Oborn family settled in Schuyler County, New York, where he purchased a mill and operated it for the next 17 years.  It was in Odessa, (Schuyler County) N.Y., that a son, Samuel T. Oborn, was born on February 14, 1849.

            In 1859, the family moved west, locating first in Neenah, where Mr. Oborn became engaged in the milling business with A. W. Patten.  From Neenah, he had milling interests in Mazomanic and Platteville.  Young Samuel T. Oborn learned the milling trade with his father in the various mills.  The senior Oborn passed away in Neenah.

            In 1876, Samuel T. Oborn came to Waupaca where he found employment with Milton Baldwin and William Dayton in their City Grist Mills.  Here, he assumed full charge of their flour operations.

            Milton Baldwin bought out the interests of his partner William Dayton, and became the sole owner of the mill until Samuel T. Oborn purchased half interest in the mill in 1878.  The City Grist Mills was destroyed by fire on Jan. 26, 1883.  The location of the City Grist Mills was on the east bank of the Waupaca River, where it flows under the Mill Street bridge.  Today, this is the beautifully landscaped area on the Waupaca Foundry property next to the river.

            After the mill was destroyed by fire in 1883, Mr. Baldwin and Mr. Oborn dissolved partnership, and Samuel T. Oborn became associated with Major R. N. Roberts under the firm name of Roberts and Oborn.  They selected a new site for a mill, less than a mile down river where the City Grist Mills and the Waupaca Roller Mills were located.

            The Crescent Roller Mills that were built during the summer of 1884, under the supervision of Samuel T. Oborn and J. Johnson (a millwright from Neenah), was a 40’ x 50’, three-story frame structure and cost Roberts and Oborn nearly $20,000.

            The original land where Crescent Mills was built was first owned by Waupaca’s first doctor, the Rev. Dr. Cutting Marsh.  After that, other people owned this property and one of them erected a dam and mill pond for a sawmill,, a foundry and feed mill.

            The two partners had to dig across the road, where the Waupaca River makes a loop, to build a flume to pass under the road from the mill pond, under the mill and into the river as it runs behind the mill site.

            The mill rested on a fieldstone foundation, and the 45” Monitor turbine that powered the machinery was located beneath the mill basement under a 14’ head of water.  The mill was fitted wit the latest in modern equipment of the day, including six double sets of Stevens Rollers.  It was during this period of time that there was a transition from the millstones to the rollers.  This is why they were called roller mills.

            The new Crescent Roller Mills began operation in September of 1884, with a daily capacity of approximately 100 barrels of flour.  The mill operated throughout the year grinding wheat, oats, buckwheat and rye.  The large three-story frame building, through several renovations, additions and improvement in machinery operated successfully for 85 years before it closed its doors.

            The farmers brought in their grain by horse drawn wagons or sleighs and either sold it for cash, feed or flour, or requested that it be ground for feed.  The horses could be tied to the rings on the street side of the building, and a watering trough was located near the millpond.

            While most of the Crescent Mill flour was sold locally, Roberts and Oborn contracted with the Wisconsin Central Railroad to lay a spur track along the side of their building so barrels of flour could be shipped to lumber camps and other markets in Wisconsin and neighboring states.

            After successfully operating the Crescent Mill for 17 years, it was sold June 20, 1901 to J. C. Eilertson, former manager of the North Star Mills in Stevens Point.  Mr. Eilertson changed the name to the Waupaca Roller Mills, but April 1, 1902, he sold the business to the Fallgatter brothers, Walter, Victor and Ward.  The Fallgatter brothers owned a small mill in Marshalltown, Iowa, and Ward and Victor came to Waupaca to operate their new acquisition while Walter remained in Marshalltown to operate the mill there.

            The Fallgatter brothers spent a large amount of money in completely remodeling the mill, and installing new machinery to meet the new processes in the manufacturing of flour.  This enabled them to put a flour on the market and with it a guarantee that there was no better flour made.

            They were manufacturers of “Wiskota” flour.

            After purchasing the Waupaca Roller Mills, the Fallgatter brothers hired Fred Fisher to manage the Iowa mill.  In less than a year, the Fallgatters sold the Waupaca Roller Mills to Milo P. Merritt of Onawa, Iowa, and then returned to Iowa.  In March of 1903, Victor, Ward and Walter repurchased the mill from Mr. Merritt, but within a year, Victor and Walter returned to Iowa.  Fred Fisher came back to Wauapca, and in May of 1905, he established a partnership with Ward Fallgatter as co-owners of the Waupaca Roller Mills.

            Mr. Fisher had started working at the Old Red Mill, just east of Amherst, when he was only 18 years old in 1889.  He worked for two years at the Hatton Mill in the Town Lind, then for three years at ---- he operated mills in his own right in the wheat country of Canada and the Dakotas.

            During the first years as partners in the Fisher-Fallgatter mill, several structural additions were made.  They installed a complete electric lighting system.  In 1912, the capacity was increased from 100 barrels of flour per day to 135 barrels, when ample storage was added to provide facilities for increasing operations.  A ventilation system was installed to insure the proper curing of the grain before milling it.

            The two partners gradually changed the mill from a largely local retail business to a commercial operation.  Fallgatter replaced much of the old machinery with new equipment that enabled them to ship carloads of flour by rail to distant markets such as New York City.  The mill capacity was now increased to 150 barrels of flour per day.

            When they first started the flour was packed in wooden barrels or cloth sacks, and now the flour was shipped in cotton and jute sacks that held 140 pounds, or five-sevenths of a barrel.

            The Fallgatter Mill purchased about 70% of the local rye crop.  Rye was not a cash crop and the supply became limited, so they purchased rye that was grown in western Minnesota and the Dakotas.

            In 1926, Ward Fallgatter and Fred Fisher applied for and received a patent for their own brand name “Acme” a pure white rye flour.

            After Ward Fallgatter’s death in 1926, the Fisher-Fallgatter Mill was up for sale.

            The Fisher-Fallgatter Mill was for sale for nearly two years without receiving a suitable offer; finally, Ward and Nora Fallgatter’s son, Don, decided to give it a try.  Don Fallgatter brought his family back to Waupaca from Chicago, where they were living in 1938, and became co-partners with Fred Fisher.

            Mr. Fisher was more interested in politics than the mill, so he sold out to Don Fallgatter in 1943.  The mill was still actively involved in custom grinding and selling feed to the local farmers.

            As soon as Mr. Fisher retired in 1943, Mr. Fallgatter decided to curtail the feed grinding business so he could concentrate fully on milling flour.  Without the feed business, the amount of activity at the mill decreased.

            Fallgatter sold the feed machinery and equipment, along with the turbine that powered them, and emptied the feed storage warehouse.

            When Mr. Fallgatter had to turn to buying rye from Minneapolis Grain Market, which was graded and federally inspected, he never purchased any grain that was less than a number 2 milling rye.  By using a number 2 rye or better, he could usually count on extracting approximately 75% flour and 25% by-products.  Fallgatter manufactured white, medium and dark rye flour.

            In the early years as a miller, Don Fallgatter shipped by rail most of his flour to bakers and jobbers in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Cleveland.  New York with its Jewish trade was approximately 70% of his business.  He sold practically none in Waupaca unless a local person came to the mill for a small sack.

            In the ‘40s and ‘50s, more grain was being grown in the east, near the eastern markets.  This gave them a big transportation cost advantage.  Mr. Fallgatter could not meet this competition and lost his eastern markets.

            Don Fallgatter could always tell the quality and grade of his flour by touch, which required a great deal of expertise.  If the flour was off-grade, he could usually remedy the problem by adjusting the rollers.  The actual process of grinding flour was a 13 grinding operation.  Don Fallgatter could sit in his office and tell if the mill operations were working properly by the hum of the machines.

            Mr. Fallgatter’s patent white rye flour was sold to such prestigious eastern firms as Pepperidge Farms.  Another interesting note is that he sold a great deal of flour to the DuPont Company to use as a base in the manufacturing of dynamite.  Throughout the years in business, buyers were increasingly requesting paper sacks holding 100 pounds, and occasionally they ordered cloth sacks holding 140 pounds.

            Eventually, the larger consumers were requiring shipment in bulk tank cars or bulk trucks, and for Mr. Fallgatter to renovate and make the necessary equipment changes to change over to bulk sales, it would not be feasible, so Mr. Fallgatter decided to hang up his hat.  Mr. Fallgatter said that “in his 31 years of business, he had made over one million 100 pound sacks of rye flour”.

            After 31 years in business, the mill closed down on May 2, 1969, after the last bushel of rye was ground.  The last bag of Acme pure patent white rye flour was sold to an employee, who was a baker from Weyauwega.

            Going back to the days when Fisher and Fallgatter were in partnership, they also did custom feed grinding.  There were two turbines, one was a 26” turbine that operated the machines in the production of feed, and the other was the 35” turbine that powered the flour mill machinery.

            After the mill was closed down in May of 1969, all machinery was left intact, and the building was rented out for storage.  Mr. Fallgatter sold the mill’s water power rights, the dam broke and the millpond became marshland.

            Robert and Marjorie Paske purchased the mill in 1978.  The mill structure and its contents had changed very little.  Some milling equipment was missing, and the old feed warehouse at the north end of the flour mill had been torn down.

            The Paskes recognized the historic value of the old mill and it was through their initiation that the old Fisher-Fallgatter Mill was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.  This was the first structure to achieve this distinction in Waupaca County.

            During the summer of 1979, the Paskes opened up the mill as a museum, so that people could see the equipment and machinery, so as to get an idea how a water-powered flour mill operated.

            In 1980, Marcel Van Camp bought the mill from the Paskes.  In 1991, he sealed up the mill’s doors and windows, and made roof repairs, to prevent further deterioration of the building.  To date, he is currently researching potential uses for the building as well as sources of funding to restore the historic structure. 

            This publication can be found in the Waupaca Public Library.  I am sure that you would enjoy reading the article in its entirety.