The Mill: Various times- various names; Hughes Mill, Milford Mill, Soper's Mill
Above and Previous Page Top: From the Iowa Historical Society: These two snapshots from the early thirties, illustrate the area following the removal of the mill away from the river, but before the construction of the new bridge. The photographer for the picture above must be standing about where the approach to the new bridge would later be placed. Note the barn is now on the southwest side of the ravine as the new approach to the bridge would take most of the land to the northeast of the ravine. Perhaps, for the sake of the barn, it's lucky that when it was moved in the early twentieth century, it was moved to the southwest of the ravine. The story is that all the horses and oxen from miles around were used to pull the mill "up the hill" and put it in place. Note the lightening rod in place on the NW (right) end of the barn.
This wintery 2007 scene is the remodeled barn and looking to the south with the grade of an old road going over the nose of the hill. At the top of the hill and just to the left is a depression in the ground where, Max Arrasmith thought, there had been a dugout home from one of the earliest homesteaders. He thought that per- haps it may have been where TR Hughes lived when he originally came out to Iowa, however, while it is true that his family lived in a dugout for at least a year, family history says it had a southerly facing door and they used a blanket for a door. Indians used to simply push the blanket aside and come in and Great Great Grandma Eleanor Hughes (Mrs T. R.) would usually give them some bread or whatever was handy and they'd go on their way.
53