The Painter-Bernatz Stone Mill

The Painter-Bernatz Stone Mill

by Steven Johnson and James Hippen

The largest and most prominent structure in Vesterheim’s Open Air Division is the PainterBernatz Stone Mill, located at the corner of Mill and Heivly Streets. The mill was built for the manufacture of flour and feed, and was in use for that purpose for more than a century. The

architectural design of the building and the machinery used in it both illustrate the important fact that, by the midnineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution marched along with the advancing frontier. In fact, in this case the factory production of grain products arrived on the banks of the Upper Iowa River along with the first settlers. The postindustrial history of the mill began in 1964, when feed grinding stopped, the machinery was removed, and the building was purchased by Roy Carlson. In 1968 the building was donated to the Norwegian-American Museum. It opened as part of the Vesterheim complex in 1971.

The founder of the mill was William Painter, who grew up in southwestern Ohio.1 As a youth (he was born in 1821), Painter was surrounded by a concentration of western industrial growth. Cincinnati and the Ohio River were only 50 miles from his home, and Dayton and Springfield, Ohio, were even closer. In 1847 Painter took his family to Wisconsin, and two years later he moved on to northeastern Iowa.

In 1849 the Painters shared Decorah with only one other group of non-Native Americans. This was the Day family. William Day chose to settle in the east half of Decorah and eventually went into the hotel business. William Painter claimed the west half of the future town and began to develop its water power. His first grist mill was built in 1849 on the north bank of the Upper Iowa River at what is now Dunning’s Spring. This location, depending on the water supply from a small tributary to the river, was only temporary, a small beginning. In 1851, with the aid of a newly arrived sawyer, Philip Morse, Painter constructed a diversion dam and mill race to bring river water from upstream directly to the present mill site. In 1852 he began flour production from his new wood-framed structure.

Such rapid industrial development is certainly noteworthy. Even more remarkable is the fact that both of Painter’s mills were powered by water turbines that he built himself. The water turbine was just becoming popular in the United States at this time, and would, within a decade or two, displace the old wooden water wheels. A progressive manufacturer would choose turbine power, but cost, of course, was a deterrent. Only a very few had the knowledge and skill to build one, and Painter was one of these. He was apparently a master tinner as well as a millwright, and therefore had the ability to solder up water turbines out of sheet copper. Painter made and used a small copper turbine in his first mill.

The construction of mills filled with ingenious mechanical contrivances was of intense interest, as witnessed by frequent stories in the Decorah Republican. But this interest was more than curiosity; it was at the heart of an agricultural

Opposite: Painter-Bernatz Stone Mill, ca. 1905.The original appearance of the roof was altered in 1890 by the addition of the clerestory. Courtesy of the Winneshiek County Historical Society.

Portrait of William Painter, ca. 1855. Vesterheim archives.

Plat map from 1886 showing the mill race, pond, and stone mill (“Grist Mill” on the map). Courtesy of the Winneshiek County Historical Society.

community. The transportation of farm produce was always a growth-limiting factor on the American frontier, at least until the railroad arrived. To save on haulage, crops could be processed—grain into flour, for example. Even after the railroad came (to Decorah in 1869), the added value due to milling could be kept at home by local flour production. As W. E. Alexander in his county history of 1882 noted: “There are in this county six mills devoted wholly or in part to the manufacture of flour for the eastern market, and sixteen more devoted to custom work.”2 That amounted to a grist or flour mill for every 1,000 inhabitants. Two of the largest flour mills were in Decorah, one of which was started by William Painter. His wood-framed mill was soon judged inadequate in size and permanence. By 1858 Painter had enlarged the structure by enclosing it within a circuit of stone walls, retaining the original framing and machinery as part of the new mill. In that year he sold the mill to a group of investors led by Henry

Heivly.3 Heivly remained the operator until 1870, when the mill was bought by Ammon, Scott & Co. They prospered at first, but by 1878 they were bankrupt and the stone mill returned to the ownership of Henry Heivly. In 1890 it was sold to the Bernatz family, who continued milling grain for feed and other “custom work” until 1964.

William Painter, of course, was not in control of the stone mill after 1858. By 1864 he had established a grist mill near Highlandville, northeast of Decorah in Winneshiek County. He continued to build water turbines for use in local mills. But competition from larger manufacturers, with higher standards of accuracy, took over the market. Painter, who according to an anonymous “Phrenological Character” (ca. 1855) “evinces great mechanical talent” and “has much … indicative of the pioneer spirit,” moved on. By 1880 he was established in South Dakota; he died there in 1902.

After reviewing the history of the stone mill, we may now

View from Water Street toward the mill, upper right, ca. 1885. Note the hip roof on the mill. Vesterheim archives.

Barrels of Decorah flour, as depicted in Sparks, History of Winneshiek County, 1877.

Interior of the mill, ca. 1900. Courtesy of the Winneshiek County Historical Society.

consider its future. Having opened as an important part of Vesterheim’s Open Air Division in 1971 and qualifying for the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the mill has housed various exhibitions and storage areas for agricultural artifacts and hand tools.4 Current plans for the building include structural repairs and the installation of exhibitions emphasizing technology. These may include the reinstallation of the Small Town Enterprise exhibition, a new exhibition on agricultural machinery, and a techno-scientific hands-on display on industrial power, emphasizing water power. If only we could find a Painter turbine as its centerpiece!

Endnotes

1 The sources on the life of William Painter are few and scattered. The Decorah Republican newspaper, which began publication in 1860, has occasional references to his career. There is an obituary in the issue of August 7, 1902. The United States Censuses for 1860, 1870, and 1880 confirm his residences during those years. Brief details of his early life, along with his portrait, are found in a printed “Phrenological Character” by “H. K.” written about 1855. A copy was sent to Vesterheim by Painter’s great-grandson, Russel Painter, of Spearfish, South Dakota, in 1974.

2 W. E. Alexander, History of Winneshiek and Allamakee Counties, Iowa (Sioux City, Iowa: Western Publishing Company, 1882; reprinted Decorah, Iowa: Anundsen Publishing Company, 1992), p. 323.

3 Chas. H. Sparks, History of Winneshiek County, with Biographical Sketches of its Eminent Men (Decorah, Iowa: Jas. Alex. Leonard, 1877), pp. 88-90. The sale of the mill to Heivly in 1858 is recorded in the early Winneshiek County property records, in the Winneshiek County Recorder’s Office.

4 The Painter-Bernatz Stone Mill was recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1934, designated as the “City Stone Mill (Painter-Bernatz Mill).” The records from the survey are filed in the Library of Congress. The mill is listed with a drawing in Wesley I. Shank, The Iowa Catalog: Historic American Buildings Survey (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1979).

Basement plan of the mill, by the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), 1934. Note location of original Painter water turbine (“wheel”). The columns show what was probably the outline of the original wood-framed building. Courtesy of the HABS.

South wall of the mill with concrete mill race (see plan in previous illustration). Carl Bernatz is standing right, over the inlet to the water turbines. The Bernatz family operated the stone mill from 1890 to 1964. Vesterheim archives.