Bundy's Mill -
Operators of Mill![Ackworth Mill](../gallery/ackworth_mill.png)
Bundy's Mill lasted longer than the institute. Griffith, who started it in 1855, sold it for $1,400 to Miles Jordan the same year. Eight months later, Jordan sold it for $5,000 to Dillon Maxwell and David Houseman. After three months' operation, Maxwell and Houseman sold it for $4,400 to Samuel, Jeremiah, John H., and M. Haworth. Bundy bought the saw mill for $4,000. He added the grist mill operation- the same business he'd been operating in Indianola. He milled corn meal, buckwheat flour and wheat flour. The mill was operated in turn by A. L. Pritchard, Fremont Clark and Mel M. Speed before it was closed finally in 1905. No one now is certain if the mill was powered by water. The mill's foundation, now supporting a barn, is beside a long-gone river channel. Today the South River channel runs a half-mile southeast. But the worn millstones, which weigh about 3,000 pounds, continue to attract the attention of Highway 92 tourists here. [Source: a newspaper clipping with no date or name of newspaper, in a booklet at the Warren County Historical Society Library]
Indianola Weekly Herald, June 24, 1886
The Chapman and Bundy Mill will be completed soon. The motor part came yesterday and we are informed grinding will begin in about a week.
Ackworth - Link Pritchard is repairing his mill. He put in a new boiler.
Indianola Weekly Herald, Sept 23, 1886
Ackworth Mills 1 1/2 miles east of Ackworth, A. L. Pritchard Proprietor
History of Warren County, Iowa containing a History of the County, Its Cities, Towns, & etc, by Union Historical Company, Des Moines, Iowa, 1879, p.683
John W. Bundy; P. O. Ackworth; the grandfather of John W. Bundy came from England in the year 1765, and settled in North Carolina, where his son, the father of the subject of this brief sketch, was born the following year; and at the age of sixteen enlisted and served with distinction in the two last years of the Revolutionary War; after our Independence was gained he settled in North Carolina, where John W. Bundy was born Feb. 29, 1816; thirteen years after his father removed to Wayne county, Ind., and to Quincy, Ill., in 1833; comprehending the future prospects of this promising land, young Bundy crossed the Mississippi in 1844, to be identified thereafter with this State, and located in Van Buren county, where he remained until 1852; when he went to Oskaloosa, living there until he came to this county in 1855; Mr. Bundy went into the milling business early in life, which he was followed with success; is now owner and operator of the "Ackworth Mills," which is a fine steam grist and saw-mill combined; in personal appearance Mr. Bundy recalls the memory of the pioneer; plain in dress, straightforward in speech, blunt and honest in manner, yet warmhearted and sympathetic in nature; he is a fair specimen of the better class of men who have made Iowa what it now is - one of the best States in the Union; on the 6th of May, 1838, Miss Sarah Delamater, of Rensselaer county, New York, became his wife; although for many years an invalid she was one of the most amiable of her sex; she died June 19, 1873; she was the mother of eight children, six of whom are living: Cythia is the wife of J. W. Barnes, now sheriff of this county, Emma, wife of E. R. McKee, a prominent citizen of Indianola, Jane, now Mrs. Joseph Thomas, of Missouri, Effa, wife of Wm. P. Lucas, of Indianola, Geo. A. and Martin L.; Mrs. Mary Peck died May 17, 1869, and William E. April 6, 1879; he married for his second wife, Sept. 13, 1874, Miss Sally Maloy, a most estimable lady, who has borne him one daughter: Iva.
|