Corning Flour Mill 1898

By J. M. Oliver, Jr.

"The German immigrants to Clay County in the nineties were unaware that King Cotton was an absolute monarch, so they began growing wheat on acres usurped from his  realm.  This flour mill was an abortive effort to revolt from a one crop system of economy.  Sacks of flour bearing the trade label "White Rose" are displayed with pride at the entrance and the editor of The Courier predicted a brilliant future that never materialized.  Two years later, Mr. Sheeks was using the boiler room to run the dynamo of the new electric light plant and the flour making equipment moldered away in idleness.

"The flour mill replaced the Illinois House, a pioneer rooming house on the corner.  The rear portion of the house can be noted on the right.  A one-story frame and two-story Vickrey house appear on East First Street background.

"Employees of the mill are unidentified but Mrs. Dewey Ousnamer, who contributed the picture, is almost certain that her father, Henry Burgess, is the mustached gentleman standing on the sidewalk."

Submitted by Danny Moore