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Shelby County |
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CHAPTER XIII - TRADE AND COMMERCE (CONT'D)MILLS.
In 1858, and probably for some time prior thereto, William Garner was operating a mill three miles from Council Bluffs. As indicating the amount of business done by the mill, the Council Bluffs Nonpareil of October 2, 1858, is authority for the statement that this mill had up to October and since January, 1858, ground more than thirty-five thousand bushels of wheat, an average of one thousand bushels per week, and that in addition to this is had ground many thousand bushels of corn and much buckwheat.
The earliest grist mill in Shelby county was that erected by J. W. Chatborn on the 'Botna river at Harlan, Iowa, in 1867. Mr. Chatburn had before this time constructed a mill in Harrison county. Later he and his son, T. W. Chatburn, in the late seventies, had a mill at Shelby, Iowa. Mr. Chatburn constructed a dam of logs and brush which was more or less frequently washed out by the heavy floods incident to the Botna valleys. The water power for this pioneer mill was permanently destroyed by the public drainage ditch recently constructed for the purpose of draining the Botna valley and of straightening the Nishnabotna river. Mr. Chatburn a short time prior to January 12, 1876, had spent one thousand two hundred dollars installing new and improved machinery in this mill. Mr. Chatburn was one of the forceful and high-minded pioneers of Shelby county. The building of his mill saved many a pioneer a hard, trying trip elsewhere for flour and meal. In 1880 Tibbott & Son had a mill on the 'Botna river at Tibbottsville, a village which subsequently came to be know as Irwin. In 1883 there appears to have been a mill at Panama, Iowa, under the proprietorship of W. R. Townsend. A steam grist mill was operated in Harlan by Isaac Plum for some years. In 1886 the machinery had been sent to Des Moines for repair. A very early mill to which Shelby county pioneers journeyed to have their grists ground was Cutsinger's mill, which was in operation two or three miles below Avoca, on the 'Botna river. At present the only grist-mill, operated by steam or otherwise, is that of Rasmussen & Son at Harlan. This firm has conducted its business successfully, and has marketed many carloads of flour in various parts of Iowa, in the state of Wisconsin and elsewhere. The Rasmussens have been enterprising citizens of the community, and they have done much to encourage Shelby county farms to grow winter wheat.
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