This mill is known as Novelty Mill, but is often referred to as Bryson's Mill. Jesse Bryson is the owner. Mr. Bryson has been in Indianola since 1869, having owned an interest in the Indianola Mills until 1875 when he sold out to W. H. H. Hursh. He then built this mill in the spring of 1876. The mill burned in April 1885. Mr. Bryson rebuilton the same site six months later. At that time Lee Armstrong was a partner having purchased into the company shortly before the fire. A. H. Swan also had an interest in at this time. It was at the time of the rebuilding that it was named Novelty Mills. The mill has had several owners. In 1902 Mr. W. H. Brown was the owner. He sold to Mr. Chillcoate of Superior, Nebraska and Mr. Hulen of Crawfordsville, Indiana. Mr. Chillcoate's son was managing the mill and both families were making arrangements to move to Indianola when the mill burned. [See Jesse Bryson's obituary on this website which includes an exact location of the Novelty Mill]
From a newspaper article entitled “Old Mill Foundation Comes Down” (no date of publication nor name of paper listed) at the Warren County Historical Library, Indianola, Iowa
The Indianola Novelty Mill was owned and operated by Jesse Bryson. The mill, a frame structure, extended three stories above the foundation. It was burned in the fall of 1902, but had not been operating for some time before it burned. It was the second mill built and operated by Mr. Bryson, the first, on the same site, having burned some time around 1886. The Bryson mill turned out a high quality product. “Bryson Best” made the best bread for Indianola housewives, and sold at retail of $1.25 for a 49 pound sack (The sack made the tea towels for wiping all the dishes in town.) After closing the mill, Mr. Bryson went into the grocery business in partnership with C. B. McLaughlin in a frame building located on the corner now occupied by the Hall & Ewalt law office. Mr. McLaughlin was the retired station agent of the Rock Island railroad. When the first Bryson mill was build is not known, probably in the 1870s. Mr. Bryson is listed as a miller in the George Parker history of the county, published in 1879. The fire in the first mill was started by a wheel that had become loose on the shaft and was rubbing against wood. The second mill fire was probably of incendiary origin.
Novelty Mill
Indianola Tribune, Feb 3, 1876
We enter the office located in the north east corner of the building and find Mr. Jesse Bryson, the proprietor. The office is furnished with chairs, desk, safe and mirror. In front of the office on the east side of the building is a pair of scales and from the office everything is weighed. From the west side of the office a convenient stairway leads to the second floor and on the north we open a door leading to the main room on the first floor, where are located immense bins having a capacity for 2000 bushels of grain. Here also is the foundation of solid stone masonry and ponderous framework upon which is secured the machinery for running the burrs (grindstones). These are immense iron shafts three in number propelled by heavy belting attached at one quarter twist, thus, giving greater power and steadiness. Here is the main pressure of running the entire machinery of the mill and with all the weight and strain; it runs smoothly, quietly and without scarcely any perceptible jar. Upon this floor is construct a graham flour chest, so arranged that fresh graham may be secured whenever desired.
Thence we ascend to the second and main floor where we find three burrs running, two for grinding wheat and one for grinding corn and middlings. Mr. John Kerlerman is head miller and N. C. Westerfield his assistant. Here the machinery is so compact and simplified that it would seem a pleasure to manage it. The burrs are fed by a combination feeder. Simply by changing a slide, grain can be conveyed from either of the numerous bins above to the burrs, to the burrs, which are located on an elevated platform at the west side of the room. Adjoining them on the east is a chest divided into three parts for the reception of meal; number one, number two and number three, white, yellow and bolted meal respectively. In the center of this room are eight stands of elevators so compactly and tastily arranged that they serve as an ornament as well as value. They connect with bins above, bins below, bolts, burrs and scores of mysterious things known only to the lad who sings, “happy is the miller” etc. Here also are four flour chests connected in one for the reception of different grades of flour manufactured. So, alas, is the smut machine finely fixed in the floor of this room which causes the Insurance man to rejoice because of its safety. From the floor of this room every valve about the mill upon all the floors is regulated and controlled at will, so that he who commands here wields the accepter easily. Now we ascend an easy stairway to the third floor where we behold four bolts, two of them twenty feet long and two are ten feet, four stock hoppers, used in supplying the burrs. To these are attached feeders easily managed from the second floor. The famous wheat and oats separator is located on this floor and does its work well. We are now upon the top most round, within a room on the fourth floor where we find a receiving separator which industriously performs the duty to the letter. Here is a funny little arrangement called a “shaker” and it is rightly named to a certainty, the way it shakes up corn is a caution, and to see all the dirt, silks, etc. go “up the flue” gives no room imaginating ones teeth will be filled with corn silks and sand from “Novelty Mills.” The mill machinery and gearing are by Brooks, Wilson and Stein of Des Moines and speaks volumes in favor of their machinery. In closing, it is but just to the enterprise of Mr. Bryson whose skill in the milling business is so well known, to state that the entire business is under his immediate supervision, and his present facilities for meeting every want of both producer and consumer, should meet the hearty acknowledgement of all classes. None but the most experienced millers will be in his employ.
On April 25, 1885, a fire alarm sounded and in less than an hour Novelty Mills went up in smoke. The smoke stack, walls of the engine house and the engine were the only part to escape destruction. It was a great financial disaster to the owners and a serious misfortune to the town. Jesse Bryson’s reputation as a miller is known all over the state, many invitations were extended to him from a number of cities to superintend their mills. In a few weeks the debris of the old mill was cleared away and a new structure was rising from the ashes. The foundations were enlarged and now we see a perfect mill on the full roller system. The roller system is an innovation in milling that people have not learned, except in choice flour produced by this process.
There were six double sets of E. P. Alice’s standard rolls; one single set 9 X 18 porcelain; one Garden City Brake machine in all fourteen sets of rolls. There are seven flouring reels; six scalping reels; three centrifugal reels; three number zero Smith purifiers; on Gray purifier; two large number five dust collectors; a full line of cleaning machines; twenty nine stands of elevators; also flour packer and chest, of fifty barrels capacity; storage bins with a capacity of 5,000 bushels of grain; with all other machinery and appliances to make a complete roller mill. All machines, speed shafts and the mill are completely driven by leather belts. The power is furnished by a sixty horse-power balance valve engine, a perfect and smooth running piece of machinery.
The building is forty six by thirty six feet, four stories high. The engine room is thirty by thirty feet, which is outside the main building and is built entirely of brick. The smoke stack is brick, sixty three feet high. The basement is brick, ten feet in the clear, with floor just above the ground level. This of course contains the drive shafts, base of elevator lines, etc. The office too is a wing off this floor. The second story is the roller floor, twelve foot in the clear. Aside from the labyrinth of elevator shafts that permeate the entire structure from the ground floor to roof, it contains a monotonous array of those wonderful roller machines that have worked a complete revolution in merchant milling. The third floor or story is the bolting floor, fourteen feet in the clear, filled with bolts and machinery nameless to the initiated scribe. The upper or fourth floor is twelve feet in the clear with a “Texas” running up six feet above for heads of elevator lines. All the inside work is furnished with two coats of shellac and one coat of varnish. Steam has been up in the boiler for some days and other machinery tested. George L. Jarrett of Des Moines is the contractor. The superintendent in the work of building this mill is Oscar Morris of our town. He is well known and this state as well as others, as a millwright. Two mills, the mill at Avoca and one at Davenport are the only mills to approach the claim of equal to the Novelty Mills. Lee Armstrong purchased an interest in the mill a short time before the fire. |
