THE WAUPACA POST

October 8, 1883

 

Our Flouring Mills

 

            Waupaca people hardly appreciate the fact that the two flouring mills in this city are the means of bringing a very large amount of money into the community.  A POST representative took a little stroll through the City Mills.  Baldwin & Oborn proprietors, and the Star Mills, Lord Bros. proprietors, Tuesday morning, and was somewhat surprised at the volume of business transacted.  The City Mills have been vastly improved the past summer, and the flour manufactured there is made entirely by what is known as the roller system.  The wheat is not ground by mill stones as in the olden time, but is broken up by steel rolls and the flour extracted in that way.  There are several different kinds of rolls and each, of course, have their admirers.  The ones used in the City Mills are the Stevens Rolls, patented by a brother-in-law of S. T. Oborn, and manufactured by the large mill furnishing establishment of John T. Noye & Son, of Buffalo, N.Y.  Mr. Stevens gets a royalty on every machine, and has received over $350,000 as his share of the profits in the last five years.  The City Mills have an excellent reputation among our farmers, and enjoy a liberal patronage.  Messrs. Baldwin & Oborn ship large quantities of flour and feed both north and south.  From Oct. 1, 1882, to Oct. 1, 1883, their sales amounted to over $80,000.  A large share of this money is paid out to our farmers who sell their grain here.

            The Star Mills were next visited.  Everybody was hard at work, and it was learned that the reason of the apparent commotion was the fact that two carloads of flour and feed had to be got off before noon.  “Going up the line,” said Mr. W. Lord, in answer to the look of inquiry on the newspaper man’s face, as he threw a 150 pound sack of corn meal about ten feet and landed it into Barney Boughton’s dray.

            REPORTER – How much flour and feed do you ship north in the course of the year?

            W.H.L. – Well, from October 1, 1882, to the first of this month our sales up the Wisconsin Central road will not vary much from $50,000.  Two-thirds of this amount is feed.

            REP. – What do you ship south?

            W.H.L. – Oh, mostly flour.  Quite a good deal of buckwheat flour, though, in its season.  I just received an order for one hundred barrels of this pancake necessity from a Milwaukee firm, and we shall try and ship it Thursday.  How much do we get a barrel, did you say?  Oh, enough to give us our toil; the grain is pretty high now, and we get a fair price for our flour.  You see we don’t adulterate our buckwheat flour, and it commands a little better price than that made at some other mills.

            REP. – How much do your sales amount to south?

            W.L. – About $20,000, I should say.  Our entire sales for the past twelve months were about $70,000.  We expect to increase this $20,000 the next year, and shall be obliged to run day and night.

            REP. – Do you lose much in bad debts up the line?

            W.L. – No, not lately.  A few years ago, before we understood those fellows up there we lost $2,500 or thereabouts by failures, but we are very careful now and don’t ship our stock unless we know the men to be all right.

            REP. – Do you use the roller system in manufacturing flour?

            W.L. – No sir.  We like the good old-fashioned way.  We can’t make the patent flour such as is made by that process, but we make an excellent straight grade that gives universal satisfaction.  Farmers as a general thing prefer it to this high-toned plan, while our city people use patent almost exclusively.

            Both of these mills are a good thing for the city.  Together they ship from Waupaca $150,000 worth of flour and feed, paying the railroad company hundreds and hundreds of dollars for freight.  They receive large quantities of wheat and corn from Minnesota and Kansas, and consequently are not dependent on farmers here for the grain to run their mills.  When farmers have grain to sell, however, they buy it at what it would cost them elsewhere, paying a cent or two more a bushel, just to make the honest granger feel good, you know.