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How it all Started...
The Native Americans used a variety of grinding techniques, such as a mortor and pestle to turn their corn or maize into meal. The colonists, accustomed to their age old techniques of stone ground milling other grains, used this technique to stone ground the gift of the Indians corn. Our millstones were quarried from Westerly, Rhode Island granite, known to be one of the hardest granites around.
How We Grind Our All-Natural Meals & Flours
It is said that a miller must “keep his nose to the grindstone”, but a miller must use all of his senses to produce a high quality consistent textured flour. Grinding is considered to be an art, a skill that is passed down from miller to miller. First, grain is poured down into the hopper, and comes to rest in the shoe. The shoe is agitated by the spinning of the damsel. The damsel is attached to the rhind, on which the giant 2½ ton runner stone rests. As the stone spins, the grain falls from the shoe through the boot, which directs it into the hole in the center of the runner stone called the eye. The grain then spirals outward between the runner stone and the bed stone which grinds the grain into flour or meal. The bed stone remains stationary while the runner stone is propelled by a series of belts, pulleys, and gears which are linked together. A miller can adjust the rate that grain enters the stones, and by turning the tentering wheel, he can adjust the aperture between the stones. After the meal passes between the stones, it falls into a trough which encircles the bed stone and is pushed into the chute by metal cards or sweepers. The folks at Kenyon's learned their craft from longtime miller and Narragansett Indian Charlie Walmsley and they remain committed to preserving and promoting the stone grinding tradition. Click here for a cutaway drawing of the mill.
Chronology of Ownership |
1696 |
First mention of an operating grist mill on the property |
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Land tranfer from the Cottrell family to the Mumford family |
1886 |
John Tarbox (built the mill that stands today) |
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John C. James |
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John Woodmansee |
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Stillman Barber |
1906 |
Charles M. Hanson |
1909 |
Charles D. Kenyon (whose name the mill now bears) |
1938 |
Archibald Kenyon |
1954 |
William Sykes |
1956 |
Joseph Crooker |
1957 |
Gordon Pennoyer |
1959 |
Albert E. Powell (established the concession business) |
1962 |
John A. Mulligan Sr. |
1971 |
Paul E.T. Drumm Jr. |
2005 |
Paul E.T. Drumm III |
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