Message-ID: <87C6307A36B849FA8C64E7DBC343E33B@OwnerPC> From: "Jim Pellman" <musketeer6@cheqnet.net> Subject: Re: Restoration Policy/Guidelines - The Davidson Grist Windmill of the Old-Brule Heritage Society. Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2019 00:20:53 -0500
The Davidson Grist Windmill of the Old-Brule Heritage Society
I would like to respond to this request by describing what we consider
maintenance of a totally unique structure, built by a Finnish immigrant
with his own plans using local materials and resources, supported by
milling principles he had internalized when living in Finland as a young
man in the 1860s-1880s when he came to this hemisphere to work on the
Trans-Canadian railroad. He had not been a miller in Finland but
possessed mechanical genius and a desire to serve his neighbors in the
remote area of his settlement. Nothing was imported from anywhere with
the steel sheeting, bolts, nails and steel shafts acquired from the
steel making facility in Superior, a few hours west by horse and wagon,
and hardware outlets at the time, with a heavy three armed flange cast
at the Superior Ship Building Company of Captain Alexander McDougall in
Superior, to support the top “runner” of the larger pair
of stones. The grist stones, two pairs, one 51 inches in diameter of
basalt weighing a calculated 3,400 pounds each stone for flour
production and a second pair 36 inches in diameter made of Lake Superior
Brownstone, for cracking cattle feed, all stones from the area of the
Bardon Arcadia Quarry on the Amnicon River now in Amnicon Falls State
Park, three miles south along the Amnicon River, the brown stone
quarried there but in the rough, and all stones hand carved by Mr Jacob
Tapola Davidson. The basalt stones may have been glacial erratics. An
earlier attempt at one of the large stones using granite failed after
almost reaching the finished state by splitting along a schist band or
weak spot. All timbers and wooden structures were of local trees shaped
with a broad axe with minimal refinement and perfect structural
consideration. Hard, straight and durable old growth tamarack was used
for the main long timbers, cedar for cross-bracing throughout, and light
balsam fir for support to anchor and stabilize the outer skin and cedar
shingles above. Pine logs went into the turret. Cedar poles were used
for the two sweeps used for positioning and bracing the turret at the
proper angle into the wind. The shape of the mill was scaled up from
the shape of his coffee pot on his stove. The gears’ teeth were
made of yellow birch and all hand carved, using wagon wheel hub
technology.
The hard work of restoration was done back in the mid-1950s by the
family of Jacob Davidson, the Windmill builder, in particular his son
William and Wiliam’s son, Eugene, just out of the Navy. The 1904
building was patched and leveled. This being a wind powered grist mill
there were sails and blades that had to be restored. The Davidson family
used the methods their family had used earlier in their own maintenance
in the restoration process. They did improve the foundation
substituting creosoted salvaged dock timbers for the cedar timbers that
had been used earlier which had made it only 40 years or so. The choice
was wise as the mill which is floating on a heavy red clay and boulder
base has barely shifted now in the 65 years since the family
restoration. Since that time the metal skin on the structure has rusted
despite being painted every third year, and patching has gone on. The
structure had no paint at all for the first 20 years of so. Rather than
using the original metal sheeting that covered the structure and its
sails, the family had used tinned metal, not bothering to cover the
sails, as the mill’s blades had a bare sheet metal covering that
was removable to prevent structural damage when not in use. The mill
has been displayed this way since, both by the family and by our
organization which acquired the mill as a gift to our society in 2001.
Work has been done by volunteers on a rotated three year cycle for the
exterior. A new roof of sawn old-growth cedar (arbor vitae) shingles
was installed about ten years ago, replacing the local cedar shingles
which may have been original, sawn by Davidson himself. Despite seeing
daylight in a few spots the structure is water tight, but breathes.
Cedar shingles expand when they get moist which seals the roof.
The interior is entirely the same as it was at the time our group
received the mill, with little exception. Vacuum cleaning is the limit.
It has never been painted inside. One structural addition had to be
made to protect the log structure of the rotating turret holding the
heavy main drive shaft which supports the sails against the strong Lake
Superior winds. This was a heavy steel plate 1/2 inch thick, not
visible from the outside and barely so inside, which surrounds the
bearing just behind the blades 3 to 4 feet across. It was installed
with galvanized bolts and square washers and nuts extending through the
logs to the outside. The turret, being of squared log construction with
dovetailed joints, any project in the future to restore this area would
be a huge and expensive task which we hope to have staved off for quite
some time. Birds have always been a problem and some architectural
students volunteered to seal the bird passages with chicken wire fencing
which has worked well.
In the mid 1970s the structure was nominated for inclusion on the
National Register of Historic places and was selected, and we feel we
can follow the spirit and the lead of the family in maintaining and
restoring in the least disruptive fashion any work that needs to be
done. The exterior patching is left obvious to those who come close to
the structure, but they realize they are looking at the original skin,
now 115 years old. One exception is a baked white aluminum flashing
about 16 inches wide that protects the very bottom from rain splash.
This is not noticeable to visitors, and of course never needs paint.
The skin of the mill is white, the turret a dark green. [The contents
of this message Copyright 2019 James C. Pellman]
Best wishes on your project. Feel free to contact us with any
questions. We look forward to visiting your mill some day.
Jim Pellman, Secretary
Old-Brule Heritage Society
4808 S. County Road F
Maple, WI 54854
715-363-2549
From: Richfield Historical Society
Sent: Thursday, October 3, 2019 12:02 PM
To: localhistory@listserve.uwec.edu
Subject: Restoration Policy/Guidelines
The Richfield Historical Society is in the process of restoring the
inside of a 150-year-old grist mill. The outside has been restored.
Currently, we do not have a restoration policy to provide guidelines on
restorative methods. We are looking for help in developing a restoration
policy to fit our needs and felt if any historical societies currently
have one, it could help us.
Thanks
Lois Hessenauer
Richfield Historical Society
Richfieldhistoricalsociety.org
Facebook.com/richfieldhistoricalsociety