The structure rumbled and shook as the old gears of the mill grumbled into a whirring grind — all the result of a few people willing to cross the line.
Historic Walnford site supervisor Sarah Bent gives visitors a behind-the-scenes tour of the Waln’s Mill during a special gristmill maintenance program at the site in Upper Freehold on July 17. MIKE JAGENDORF Typically while touring Waln’s Mill, the general public cannot cross certain barriers or touch gristmill machinery, but that’s what eight visitors dared to do at Historic Walnford in Upper Freehold on July 18.
Members of the group went beyond the “no admittance” sign to the fourth floor, where they manipulated main shaft bearings and stirred two line shafts for the elevators. On the second floor, they coddled the rear of the cob crusher. They also had the most intimate experience one can have with a gristmill — climbing into its guts to pick its wooden teeth.
Fran Tomasello and her 4-year-old son John learn about the gristmill machinery in Waln’s Mill at Historic Walnford in Upper Freehold on July 17. PHOTO BY MIKE JAGENDORF “This is definitely a behindthe scenes tour,” Sarah Bent, site supervisor, said.
Bent provides gristmill demonstrations on weekends all but three months out of the year. However, once each summer and fall she offers visitors a more hands-on approach to exploring the mill during maintenance sessions. Her co-worker, Bill Banghart, welcomed those in attendance with oilcans and latex gloves.
While visitors oiled bearings, rollers and pulleys with food-grade oil; emptied dustcollector bags; wiped off reflectors and photo cells; degreased and recoated wooden gear teeth and stone nuts; and checked shims, Bent and Banghart spoke passionately about the history of milling operations on the 36- acre site, listed on the state and national registers of historic places, to reveal much about the changing culture and economy of the region during the last three centuries.
Robert Mulvey, of the Cream Ridge section of Upper Freehold, oils parts of the gristmill during a maintenance program at Historic Walnford in Upper Freehold on July 17. PHOTO BY MIKE JAGENDORF Quaker Richard Waln and his descendants contributed greatly to the commercial center and country estate after purchasing the site in 1773. At that time, the property consisted of a gristmill, saw mill, fulling mill, blacksmith and cooper shops, tenant homes, farm buildings, farms and orchards. Waln renamed the site Walnford because people could ford Crosswicks Creek in that location. He and his family moved to the site from Philadelphia once the elegant estate house was complete, according to Bent.
Waln’s son Nicholas and daughter-in-law Sarah RidgewayWaln took charge of the estate in 1799, growing the farm to 1,300 acres and the village to 50 people. After Nicholas died, his wife and their daughter Sarah maintained Walnford. The other two mills on the property ceased operating and the initial gristmill burned to the ground in a fire in 1822, according to Bent.
In its heyday, Waln’s Mill processed wheat, corn and rye 10 hours a day, six days a week from November to May. However, when Sarah Waln Hendrickson wanted to make substantial investments in rebuilding the gristmill, family members cautioned her against doing so because small, automated mills were being rendered obsolete by large steam-milling operations and railroads.
“Sarah believed it was important to rebuild the mill, recognizing that it was not terribly profitable,” Bent said.
Her commitment to tradition paid off and the mill, rebuilt by 1872, operated successfully until 1917. Hendrickson made a few changes to the original structure, including powering the new mill with a cast iron turbine instead of a waterwheel. The turbine, made by Risdon Co. in Mount Holly, proved less costly and more efficient when the creek froze, because it could work under the ice, Bent said.
Further changes to the gristmill took place during the years when later property owners used it as a hobby before dismantling the equipment completely to use the building for storage.
“They kept all of the milling apparatus but stopped maintaining the stream as a power source,” Bent said.
Environmental changes to the creek also reduced the water’s effectiveness in powering the mill. Years of oxidation left the turbine beyond repair. Today, the turbine shaft rotates with the power from an electric motor and a hydraulic drive system, according to Bent.
One of the mainstays of the gristmill is its unique blue hue. Bent said that a historicpaint analysis revealed the shade as one of the earliest colors of the structure. While there are no records of the reasoning for the color choice, Bent said blue is an attractive color that distinguished Waln’s Mill from other mills formerly located within a twothree mile radius of Walnford.
During the summer maintenance program, the visitors helped the Monmouth County Park System lessen dust that could cause friction, which contributes to fire hazards and unnecessary wear of equipment. In short, participants helped preserve the mill for future visitors to the historic site, according to Alexander Hakkinen, of Lawrenceville.
“By working together to maintain the mill, not only did we get to see and learn about a beautiful place and its history, we also got to preserve it for ourselves and others, and that is the sort of involvement we should dignify more of in our community,” Hakkinen said.
After completing the last and most dirty maintenance job — regreasing the wooden teeth of the master gear in the hurst frame on the lower level — Robert Mulvey, of Upper Freehold, said, “The mechanics of a mill are fascinating.”
He and his wife, Ruth, thoroughly enjoyed using their agility to preserve one of their hometown’s gems.
Ruth said having Historic Walnford in Upper Freehold is like having a little Colonial Williamsburg around the corner from where they live in the Cream Ridge section of town.
Bent told the visitors that the hurst frame isolates the vibrations when the mill is operating, which prevents the building from shaking apart. This served as somewhat of a warning for the experience visitors had once she turned the power back on to start the gristmill.
“Listen to the purr of that well-oiled machine,” Bent shouted to the group as the mill started moving and shaking. “It truly comes alive.”
Some visitors volunteered to throw ears of corn through the outside hatch to the sheller. Others watched the sheller separate the dry kernels from the cob and convey them to a storage bin.
The shelled corn then pours into the main elevator to the third floor. Gravity directs the corn down a spout to a bin on the second floor above the millstones. The miller controls the flow of corn from the spout and through the hopper to the vibrating shoe driven by the damsel and feeds the corn steadily into the eye of the runner stone. The runner stone and bed stone are cut with a pattern of angled channels. The sharp edges of each channel cut open the grain while grooves scrape the starch from the bran. The channels then carry the ground corn to the outside edge of the stone. Centrifugal force and friction push the cornmeal to the next elevator, which leads to the third floor and pours down a spout for sifting. The cornmeal can be sifted through three different sized wire screens for three different grades of meal, which are stored on the second floor before being bagged on the first floor. Any edible output goes to feeding the animals at the park system’s Longstreet Farm in Holmdel, according to Bent.
“This was an incredibly noisy, incredibly dusty and incredibly dangerous job,” Bent said, noting that historically one miller was in charge of the whole process.
Bent said she knew little about milling prior to learned the process from millwright Jim Cricker.
“It’s very much a multisensory operation,” she said. “I spend more time smelling and listening than I do hands on.”
She and Banghart encourage those who would like a hands-on experience at the mill to sign up for a maintenance program. Those who would just like to experience the rumbling and the clacking of the gristmill from in front of the barricades can see corn ground into meal during demonstrations 1- 4 p.m. weekends April to November. The site also allows visitors to explore the estate and outbuildings. Special programs, such as the state’s “Oh Freedom” exhibit that explores the roles of African Americans during the American War of Independence, also take place at Historic Walnford throughout the year.
For more information about Historic Walnford, visit www.monmouthcountyparks. com or call 609-259-6275.