By Tim Richards

The miller was one of the early Cape [Cod] society’s most important citizens…. The mill and he were so important to the towns that they both enjoyed a tax-exempt status. Also, the miller was exempt from serving in the militia and in public office.

— Jim Gilbert, The Provincetown [Mass.] Advocate, April 4, 1977.

In seventeenth, eighteenth, and early nineteenth century America, mills ranked among a town’s most important institutions. As a matter of town business, communities offered incentives to secure and retain the services of skilled millers. The financial value of the Truro Tide Mill on Cape Cod in Massachusetts provides an additional dimension to this narrative.

In 1790, soon after the Truro Tide Mill went into service, one of its owners passed away. Samuel Rich’s estate sold his one eighth share in the mill complex to Benjamin Hinckley (possibly already a co-owner) for twenty-four pounds, six shillings. Converting pounds to 1790 dollars, that sales price valued the entire mill complex at over $850.

To put this valuation in perspective, in the 1787-1790 period two Cape Cod houses sold for an average of $165 and salt meadow adjoining the Mill Pond sold for an average of $32 per acre. These salt meadows were among the most expensive undeveloped land on Cape Cod, probably due to their value in producing hay and as a location for salt-works.

Continue reading “Cape Cod Mill Values: Tide vs. Wind” →

by Tim Richards

When my wife Meg Clarke and I bought a house on Mill Pond Road in Truro Massachusetts four years ago, we had no idea that a tide mill once operated on the pond. Eventually we asked ourselves “Why is the pond called Mill Pond?”

We knew little about tide mills. We did, however, appreciate the power of the tides. I grew up sailing on the Pamet River in Truro, where every outing requires respect for tidal currents and where sailing schedules are dictated by the 8-12 foot tides. I also had a professional interest in tidal power because renewable energy policy, including tidal energy, was an important part of my work for the General Electric Company.

In November 2018, my father and I visited the Truro Historical Society’s Cobb Archive to research the history of Mill Pond. With help from the Archive volunteers, we found that Mill Pond was aptly named: an 1890 history of Barnstable County includes a sentence describing the Truro mill. The Cobb Archive also included Truro maps dated between 1795 and 1858, which showed a mill on the pond (see detail from the 1858 map below). Lesson one from our research was “pay attention to the obvious!” If a pond is called “Mill Pond” or a hill “Mill Hill” it is a good bet that there was once a mill in that location.

Continue reading “Discovering a Tide Mill in Truro” →

by Patrick Malone, Professor Emeritus, Brown University

Walter Edward Minchinton (1921-1996) was a British industrial archaeologist and economic historian.  In 1964, after teaching for 16 years at University College Swansea, he became head of the new Economic History Department and Professor of Economic History at the University of Exeter.  His academic publication record includes numerous studies that he authored, co-authored, or edited. Following his retirement as an Emeritus Professor in 1986, he continued to do research and write about industrial topics, with a primary focus on tide mills.

The John Carter Brown Library at Brown University provided Professor Minchinton with a fellowship in 1993 that allowed him to study early American tide mills.  While in Rhode Island, he investigated the tide mills of that state and collaborated with local scholars such as Dr. Richard Greenwood, one of the early members of the Tide Mill Institute.  The Rhode Island Historical Society assisted Minchinton’s investigation and provided images for the article that he submitted to its journal, Rhode Island History.

Continue reading “Walter Minchinton’s “Tidemills of Rhode Island”” →

A fair amount has been written about Brouwer’s (or Freeke’s) tide mill, built sometime before 1661 on Gowanus Creek in what is now Brooklyn, N.Y. In Gowanus: Brooklyn’s Curious Canal, Joseph Alexiou calls it the earliest tide mill in New Netherland, which consisted of today’s New Jersey, southeastern New York and part of Connecticut. Its early date is reason enough for the attention the mill has received from historians. But it is also closely associated with the 1776 Battle of Brooklyn, when Washington’s Continental Army set it on fire to keep it out of British hands.

Anyone wanting to learn more about the mill’s history would do well to start with a report, “Brouwer’s or Freeke’s Mill,” just produced by Earl Taylor of the Tide Mill Institute. His report is brief but provides some history and several references to helpful books, articles, illustrations and maps. Most of these references are easily accessible on line via the links provided in the report.

Read “Brouwer’s or Freeke’s Mill.“

by Deane Rykerson
TMI President

“Merchant and Millwright, the Water Powered Mills of the Piscataqua” by Richard Candee is a fascinating article about the economy of early New England published in 1970. Although rarely differentiating between stream and tidal mills, the text explains how the resources of timber and water power were integral to the earliest European settlements.

From the first mill (1633-1634) contracted by John Mason on the Little Newichwannok River (presently South Berwick), sawing lumber was a primary activity. Several English maps included show the number of water powered mills before 1700 in the region. Although it is commonly believed that New England wood resources were mostly for ships’ masts, Candee shows that sawn lumber was also an important export.

Continue reading “Sawmills and the Economy of Early New England” →