The Great Mill Towns

Medina Village Grist, Saw and Wool Carding Mills, photo circa 1900.  Grist and saw mills built by Mr. Ripley 1837; at that time the grist mill was one and a half stories and a smaller footprint.  Later expansion time unknown. Also unknown when carding mill came in but probably after Mr. Bassett closed the Tiffin carding mill 1854 or earlier.  Photo taken by Perley Lord of Hudson from the collection of Joyce Longo.

This is believed to be a portion of the Medina Village grist mill (above photo) before demolition in early 1900's, found in Armstrong family photos of Hudson.  One of the Armstrong's married Pearl Allen, daughter of hotelkeeper George Allen at the main four in Medina.  She grew up next to the mill and it's my guess that she had something to do with the taking of this photograph.  Otherwise I don't know where or why it was taken as these snapshots were usually taken with a purpose.  Photo donated to Hudson Museum by Barbara Rupp Brockway in 2021.

Everything in 1830's rural Michigan centered around the saw and grist mills--lumber was needed to build elegant homes and barns, and, of first importance, was getting the grists ground into bread flour and corn meal for sustenance (also coarse grind for animal feed).  Medina, Tiffin, and Canandaigua were beautifully situated in oak openings on the Tiffin River, more commonly called Bean Creek.  Great milling enterprises were started at each hamlet.

Canandaigua got the first saw mill, built by Laban Merrick of the Merrick family of Adrian.  Laban had been swindled out of his share of $5,000 by a building partner in the East, and so he was eager for the work.  That saw mill was completed in 1836 and immediately that year residents started building permanent houses.  Dr. Increase Hamilton built his 2-story and wing house at the head of Chapel Street in Canandaigua, and John R. Foster built his house on Section 3 across from the future Tiffin Mills.

John R. Foster house built 1836, photographed in 1873.  Section 3 Medina Township, across from the Tiffin Mills.   Photo:  David V. Tinder Collection of Michigan Photography, Wm. L.Clements Library, University of Michigan

Dr. Increase Hamilton house built 1836, the house that was moved from Canandaigua, shown circa 1920 with Eudora Griffith on right with friend at left (Griffiths lived in the house at the far left in this picture, lot 14 Sec. 9.) Both houses no longer exist.; Dr's house was at lot 13 Sec. 9.  Photo from a scrapbook at Lenawee Historical Society Museum. Eudora's friend in this photo is Euletta Shaffer and may have lived in the Hamilton house.

Around 1840 Lauren Hotchkiss went to Tiffin Mills area and purchased land from C.P. Warner, who had acquired it from the land patent of Dr. Caleb Ormsby and Addison J. Comstock of Adrian.  Ormsby and Comstock recognized the excellence of the water power in the region and had invested there early on, later selling to their early Adrian colleagues Warner and in turn to Hotchkiss.  Ebenezer Daniels also later acquired a part of the Tiffin Mills farm, and Lauren Hotchkiss built a saw mill there in 1840.  Nathan Bassett had come and built a wool carding mill that operated until around 1854 when he moved out; then Lauren Hotchkiss converted it to a grist mill, presumably increasing the height of the building.

Mill at Tiffin converted/expanded by Lauren Hotchkiss in 1854, later owned by Charles C. Morse and John Christophers--later still by Morse's sons who ended the milling operations at Tiffin, or Pegtown.  Photo from my collection, later donated to Lenawee Historical Society.

Unfortunately there are no known photos of the mills at Canandaigua.  There were numerous grist mills as one very expensive grist mill caught fire (Apparently the grind stones must be calibrated precisely or they get extremely hot and set the product on fire--they are not really supposed to touch each other I have read.  I do not know the exact cause of the big fire at Canandaigua grist mill.)

It was eventually replaced.  There was also a saw mill and these were situated on the Bean Creek to the west of Canandaigua.  They are marked on the 1857 map and I will write more about them in the future.