Growing of corn dates back to the very beginning of agriculture in Hardin County, back to a day before it was Hardin County at all, for the Indians of the territory were raising corn when the white settlers came along. The pioneer farmers took it up and added acreage and improved the means of cultivation. The Indians used soft corn for roasting-ears, but after it had matured and hardened, they ground or powdered it into grist on the tops of tree stumps. The early farmers continued the same practice for a time, but afterward fashioned "gritties", made by tacking small sheets of zinc or iron, perforated with nail holes, to boards.
Then they built water-mills. One of the best known of these old mills was Browns Mill, which stood for years near Mount Zion church on the Old Ford's Ferry Road, where many a hapless traveler, crossing from Kentucky into the Illinois country, met his fate at the hands of the notorious Ford's Ferry band of robbers. Another of these early county water-mills, and one which gained a wide and favorable reputation throughout southern Illinois, was Walrab's Mill, situated a mile northeast of the Illinois Iron Furnace. John C. Walrab, a young German settler, purchased the site from a man named Casad. He dug a mill-race half a mile in length in order to gain power for operation of an overshot wheel. The other mills of the region were pulled by undershot wheels. During the iron-mining period in this county the Walrab mill supplied grist for a large portion of the county's population.
It was the first mill in the county to engage in day and night operation that it might meet the demands of customers. A familiar sight around the mill was the load upon load of corn in carts drawn by double yokes of oxen.
At a later date Brown and Walrab installed steamboilers for their grist mills. Today the boiler from the old Brown mill is a roadside derelict near Mount Zion church.
After a few years corn became a money crop in the county as well as a stock and a food crop, and large quantities of the grain were shipped by flatboat down the river to Memphis and New Orleans markets along with potatoes and salt pork. Unlike the crops of potatoes and wheat, which have waned with the years, corn is still produced in the county and holds its place as the major farm yield. The creek bottom lands, fed from the rugged Ozark foothills, are particularly well adapted to production of this golden grain.
Extracted 28 Aug 2016 by Norma Hass from History of Hardin County, Illinois, written in 1939 by the Committee for the Centennial, pages 47-49
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