Anamosa - A Reminiscence 1838 - 1988

Mill and dam on the Wapsipinicon River (Submitted by Jim Chl'i-930118011)
the Wapsi dam and constructed a grist mill just below
Doan's mill. At this time the road behind the middle
school was improved and widened and opened up to the
public.
Charles Cord was the miller with Metcalf for many
years. Up stream 50 feet, Doan called his property The
City Mills. For a time he had a feed and flour store about
where the I-litchin Post is now, east of the intersection
of Booth and Main streets.
In 1877. a law suit was filed between the two mill
owners over water rights. It was resolved in the
December 1880 term of court. Doan had brought suit
against Metcalf for not keeping the dam in repair and
for subsequent waste of water. Doan sought an amount
of $1.500. He was awarded $699.75.
The Doan mill had several partners over the years. In
1880 Doan 8: Son rented a one-third interest to a Mr. A.
Darling of Colesburg. Iowa. The one son of Doan's,
Hayden, left the firm.
In 1885. John and George Watters were part of the
firm for two years. During that interim the
mill was refitted and had the capacity to produce 75
barrels of flour every 24 hours. They were drawing
trade from as far away as Tipton and Mt. Vemon as
farmers were raising a great deal of wheat for home
consumption. By 1888. the mills were running day and
night and were turning out 300 sacks of flour every 24
hours.
On the evening of January 12, 1888. the quiet of the
Sunday evening was broken by the strokes of the firebell
and. in a few minutes, the hose cart of fire company
No. 2 was running toward the mills. The night was cold
and the nearly one-half mile took some time. By the
time they arrived, they found the Doans and several
ladies had partially controlled the blaze. The firemen
could probably have put the fire out completely. but the
water hydrant was frozen up and it was impossible to
put out the fire with buckets. Fortunately, the wind was
carrying the heat and flames away from Doans‘ mill 50
feet above the burning mill. Doans had invested several
thousand dollars fixing their mills with the roller
process machinery.
Metcalf had not used his mill for several years. but
had an agreement with the Waterworks Company to
use his machinery as a back-up. Huggins Gr Griffith firm
had recently purchased nearly all of the stock in the
waterworks and lost $500. The building had caught fire
from a stovepipe running through the ceiling of the twostory
wooden building. The building and steam pump
were not insured.
The senior Doan died in April 1888. and the Doan mill
was purchased by people from Ohio. By 1890 it was
sitting idle and vandals were breaking out windows and
doing other damage.
Metcalf had the mill going again the following spring
and set the rollers in motion to tum out flour. Up to that
time it had been used mainly for com and buckwheat.
He also spent between $5.000 and $6.000 repairing the
dam.
The editor of the Eureka. Thomas Booth, wrote. “The
amount of money spent in patching that dam in the
past 40 years would be difficult to compute. but
presume it is a fact that more water has gone to waste
than has ever been utilized. For once we would like to
see what the available water power of the Wapsi really
is."
The dam was damaged again quite extensively in the
spring of 1900, when 60 feet of the dam was knocked
out by ‘running ice‘. Also the pier at the head of the
flume was hit and carried away. The repair work was