The Building Called Greystone

(As recalled by Bob Maynes)

I concluded from close association with the Greystone building and from watching its demolition, that the Greystone was actually built during three different periods. The western third was laid up on a stone foundation very similar to the mill race. It was well constructed but no mortar or filling of any kind was used. The middle third was laid up in more rounded stones, such as found in a river, with mortar filling. The eastern third was constructed of cut and fitted stone set in mortar.

The building had a center stairway to the second floor and a very narrow stairway to the third floor. The western parlor was approximately 18' x 18' and had a fire place and mantle. There was only one very narrow small window in the west wail downstairs and on the third floor. None on the second.

There was a parlor on the east approximately 14'xl4', heated by a pot-bellied stove. The flu led into the east chimney. A kitchen and pantry led off to the north of this room. There was only a small window in the east side of the kitchen. The first floor had two shuttered windows on each side of a center front door. There was no back door as the building was constructed against a hill along a stone foundation. The second floor had a ground entrance back door. On the second floor there was a hallway the width of the house and it opened through a doorway to the second-floor porch. Four fair-sized bedrooms opened off the hallway.

The porch was apparently added sometime about 1920, as a Walter Cole from Michigan visited the building around 1935 with a picture of the building prior to 1916, and it did not show a porch. I have no idea how the second floor doorway was entered from the front. There was a spring house and a well and, of course, the outhouse which later became the septic tank. A dry millpond was to the south and west of the Greystone, and when the building was demolished, most of the building was pushed into it and covered over.

			Please note that the photo hanging at the Columbia County Historical Society shows a large porch on the rear of the house. If anyone can loan us a picture of Greystone without the porch, we would greatly appreciate it. We are unable to locate any photos that do not show the porch.

What is the history of the Greystone building? It is generally believed that it was built by Ezekiel Cole in the period from 1806 to 1810. It was owned by Ezekiel Cole, Jr. frosm 1820 until his death in 1848. His son Alinas ran the mill and lived in the Greystone until about 1876. The mill and the Greystone building was eventually operated by Alinas' eldest son Albert Cole who operated the mill until his death in 1917. The mill and probably the Greystone building was sold at public auction in 1920 to Byron Keller.

Apparently Ezekiel Cole knew exactly what he wanted when he took up the land on Coles Creek at it's confluence with Fishing Creek. The dam on Coles Creek must have given him more than 25 feet of headwater, because records show that his mill, built by William Hess in 1795, was powered by a twenty-foot overshot water wheel, one of the largest used. The wheel probably developed more than 50 horsepower when it was turning at 8 revolutions per minute.

The mill was historically listed as a four run of buhr stone, feed mill and sawmill. Four of these stones were leaning against a tree on the Greystone site, but apparently have been removed. They weighed more than 400 pounds each.

The best buhr stones were preferably of flinty, quartz-bearing granite found only in the Marne river valley in France. They are not smooth, but are pocked with sharp edged holes that add cutting edges to their surfaces. The air pockets help to cool the grain as it is being ground. If the grain got too hot it can actually begin to burn, thus the miller "must keep his nose to the grindstone."

Buhr stones were usually used to grind wheat, while granite stones, quarried in America, were used for corn and other grain. These buhr stones were often manufactured in quarters and banded with iron rims. Many of them reached America as ballast in sailing ships and were highly prized because they almost never wore out.

In 1794, Cole began to build his dam and millrace. The mill's construction was supervised by a Mr. Black, apparently an itinerant millwright, and built by William Hess. The pair also built the Norton Cole mill on West Creek. The Cole's town mill was put into service in March 1802 and was the first successful mill north of Bloomsburg.

In 1803 the log cabin school house was built on a two-acre plot of land set aside by Cole for a school house, a graveyard and a church, now the St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church and cemetery. The building of the log church was believed to have begun in 1810. However, worship had started there as early as 1792, at the time of settlement.

The Greystone building apparently was the home of the Coles up until about 1916, while the home of the Colleys was probably on the east side of the dam. This is the home that my wife and I occupied for the first 15 years that we lived in Sugarloaf Township. An interesting note appeared in the Press Enterprise dated in 1927. It said that members of the Columbia County Historical Society visited a Miss Katherine Swartout to hear her speak about a very old apple tree on her property. It is the sole survivor of the first apple orchard planted in this section in the eighteenth century. Planted by Alexander Colley, the founder of Benton Schools, the tree stands near the road and is surrounded by pine trees. Miss Swarthout's home, which is located near Saint Gabriels, was once a tavern, and contained a barroom in the cellar.

I must confess that I personally cut down that tree about 15 years ago. The trunk, even though almost rotted through, was more than four feet in diameter, several limbs that broke off from lack of support were more than two feet in diameter. It continued to produce some very wormy apples until cut down. I never did locate any leftover spirits from the basement tavern.

In 1959 the Columbia-Montour Council, Boy Scouts of America, purchased the additional 23 acres of land on the corner on which stood the Greystone, long in disrepair. The camp wanted only the land and offered to lease the building to the Columbia County Historical Society, provided it would be maintained. The society was unable to come up with funding to repair or maintain the building and regretfully decided to give up the lease.

--Bob Maynes (Click here to send the author an email)

"History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon."
--Napoleon Bonaparte

Bob Maynes, right, addressing the North Mountain History Group, August 19, 2002, "The History of the Graystone Building."
History Group President, James Vance, left

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