{"id":1377,"date":"2019-07-12T20:15:59","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T20:15:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/?p=1377"},"modified":"2019-07-12T20:15:59","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T20:15:59","slug":"glimpse-into-historic-globe-mill-offers-picture-of-once-thriving-flour-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crosshairscommunity.com\/?p=1377","title":{"rendered":"Glimpse into historic Globe Mill offers picture of once-thriving flour industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Massive wooden hand-hewn beams highlight the historical significance and structural integrity of the Globe Mill, located along the banks of Middle Creek near the town of Kreamer in central Snyder County.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt obviously took one heck of a big tree for each of those beams,\u201d said 81-year-old John Eichman, the grandson of former mill owner J. Alvin Eichman. \u201cAnd all of that work was done by hand, with axes. It\u2019s amazing to think about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The mill hit its prime in the early 1900s as a flour mill that also did custom grinding of grain for local farmers, according to Eichman, who remembers working at the mill as a child.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was 12, maybe 13, and worked there with my dad and uncle, trying to keep the floors clean and doing any odd jobs they needed done,\u201d he said. \u201cThe farmers would bring their grain to the front porch, and there was a rope going down and we\u2019d put two bags on at a time and hoist them up to the third floor where it would be sorted into bins for grinding.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were six different machines that ground the wheat \u2014 the white part that came out was flour and the brown shell part would go into bran. They eventually got rid of those older machines and replaced it with one machine that did the work of all the others.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The operation worked in conjunction with a nearby railroad station, called the Meiser station.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019d back the train cars down into a warehouse and we\u2019d haul the bags from there up to the mill,\u201d Eichman said. The operation took off, and according to John\u2019s wife, June, \u201cit was the largest-producing flour mill in the United States \u2014 maybe the whole world \u2014 at the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The earliest records of the mill date back to 1778 when a frame grist mill was erected on the south stretch of Middle Creek. In 1871, the Sunbury and Lewistown Railroad Company laid track along the south side of the mill property, then owned by Samuel H. Yoder. He replaced the mill in 1885 with the current three-bay by four-bay, 3.5-story brick structure on a stone foundation that can still be seen today.<\/span><\/p>\n

The mill was later bought by J. Alvin Eichman.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe came over directly from Germany and bought the mill right around when he got married,\u201d June said. \u201cJohn\u2019s uncle (Lear) was born in 1900 and father (Mark) in 1903.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The mill was powered by Middle Creek, as water flowed through two horizontally laid turbine wheels.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey were like a jet motor with fins all the way around,\u201d said John. \u201cThere was a big wheel upstairs, and if you wanted more power, you\u2019d open up the fins. That would run the elevators and augers. Elevators would take grain to the third floor and drop into the machines. It was quite an operation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The mill used to have a large sign on the front that John remembers painting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI helped take it down and painted it, but then it laid there for a couple years,\u201d he said. \u201cMy dad and I were talking about it one day, and my grandma told us she\u2019d like to see it back up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what she said, they did,\u201d June interrupted with a laugh.<\/span><\/p>\n

The mill closed in the mid-1950s, according to John, and was eventually sold to a woman named Helen, who used the building to raise chinchillas under the name Pine Meadow Chinchilla Ranch.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe changed a lot, including many of the windows,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey had 1,000s of chinchillas in there. I guess they sold the hides,\u201d added June. \u201cBut rumor has it that the guy she was with left, and the chinchillas, I don\u2019t know, I guess they froze to death.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Guy Graybill, a local historian, toured the mill a number of decades ago before the chinchilla operation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI remember seeing some of the materials in there quite a few years ago before the chinchillas were turned loose,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think the people with chinchillas got to things to the point they expected. I remember when they were in there, but I don\u2019t know who they were. They weren\u2019t natives of area.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

More recently, the mill was purchased by Christ Yoder, a truck driver who lives two houses down from the facility. He is still considering what to do with the property.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWords can\u2019t describe how it makes me feel to own a piece of history like that,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n