About The Oldest Mill In America
This hard-working Colonial grist mill uses town water and still operates today
A mill is defined as a building provided with machinery for processing and especially for grinding, crushing, or fine-cutting of materials. Mills take the power from running water, like a river, and turn it into machine-power to run machines.
Old Stockbridge Grist Mill located in Scituate, Massachusetts is the oldest mill in America of any kind. It is described by the Scituate Historical Society as both the oldest mill of its kind in America and the oldest grist mill in the United States. The mill is defined as the oldest water driven mill in the United States by The North and South Rivers Watershed Association.
Old Stockbridge Grist Mill is still operational today although used infrequently. The site is opened and operated a few times per year by the Scituate Historical Society for the general public. Corn is ground during historical tours.
The mill uses town water and needs to be cleared for use through town officials as it takes a lot of water from Greenbush Pond. It’s an issue of the water levels. It is considered a gristmill which grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings.
Isaac Stedman and his family worked their way from Plymouth to the part of Scituate known as “The Greene Bush”. In 1637, he was allotted a Kings Grant of land of about twenty acres near the end of the old Driftway. On his property were three large brooks with strong water supply.
Up until this point, little or no natural water power existed in the Colony for milling purposes. Stedman proceeded to dam First Herring Brook – forming the pond later made famous by the poet Samuel Woodworth – and built a much-needed sawmill in 1640.
A few years later, in 1650, John Stockbridge constructed a water-driven grist mill for grinding corn alongside the Stedman sawmill. Before moving his family to Boston, Isaac Stedman sold the saw mill In 1662.
John’s son Charles Stockbridge would become sole owner of both the saw and grist mills. They would be known from then on as the Stockbridge Mills. On the pond, Charles Stockbridge also built his family home – so strongly constructed as to serve as the principal garrison for the Greenbush colonial settlement.
The Stockbridge Mills – both the sawmill and the grist mill – would remain in the Stockbridge family for over 160 years – through the horrors of King Philip’s War, the years of the American Revolution and beyond. Around 1794, the Clapp family of Greenbush became involved with both mills – first as managers of the mills and eventually, in 1830, as owners.
William “Pete” Clapp died in 1935 as the “last miller of Greenbush”, but not before deeding the pond to the Town of Scituate and donating the Grist Mill to the Scituate Historical Society. This venerable structure – a hard-working Colonial grist mill – remains today the oldest mill of its kind in America. It truly is America's oldest mill.
The mill is one of nine historical sites in Scituate entrusted to the society, including Lawson Tower, the Scituate Lighthouse and the Maritime Irish Mossing Museum off the Driftway. It still stands in its original condition, complete with its original gate wheel, crane, iron screws and other machinery. Much of the machinery seen in the mill today was installed by John Stockbridge over three hundred and eighty years ago.
With the exception of a newer power unit and the running millstone, the mill stands in nearly original condition. The Nether millstone, the gate wheel, as well as the original crane and large wooden screw used to lift the millstones, are all original. The cast iron drive gears are believed to have been cast in England.
*Note: Some sources claim The Old Schwamb Mill in Arlington, Massachusetts to be the oldest mill in the United States. However that is not quite accurate. While it is true the mill is on the oldest continuously operating mill site where mills have been located since the late 1600s, the existing mill structure was built in 1864. This makes Old Stockbridge Grist Mill the oldest mill in America of any kind.