The West Creek Mill

Also known as the Norton Cole Mill

The West Creek Mill, which we still locally refer to as the Norton Cole Mill, was located two miles North of Benton on route 239. The 200-year old mill is currently the private residence of artist Ronald Wing. You can visit his West Creek Gallery by going here. Ron Wing is on the left, Harry Warner on the right, standing in front of the house where Harry grew up, which is across from the Norton Cole Mill. The highway is route 239, two miles north of Benton. Click here to learn more about the eventual move of this house.

The story begins, as they say in the fantasy books, with John J. Godhard when he moved from near the country seat of Northampton County in the rolling hills of the Easton area after the death of his wife. Faced with the reality of raising a number of daughters, the Godhard family moved west. Leaving Easton, they probably came through the mountains over the Lehigh and Susquehanna turnpike road from Easton to Nescopeck, then across the Susquehanna River to Berwick. The party then made their way to where Fishingcreek met the Susquehanna river and then up the Fishingcreek valley through the present towns of Light Street and Orangeville and Stillwater and Benton until they settled on a tract of land "near the head waters of Fishing Creek."

John Godhard vowed to "support, protect and educate" his daughters as he and other members of his family, including son-in-law William Hess, sought a new life. This was 1792, the year Mr. Godhard and his family and others including Phillip Fritz, Christian Laubach, Ezekiel Cole, John Kline, William Coleman, Mathias Rhone and Benjamin Coleman came to what they called the "Promised Land." John Godhard and his family settled beside West Creek where what we know as "Norton Cole's Mill" now stands.

The original mill was erected by a Mr. Black, the same man who later built the Shannon mill, about the year 1800. The actual owner of the mill at that time is somewhat unclear. The owner was John Godhard, his son-in-law William Hess, or his grandson George Hess.

The mill building was three stories high. The first story and flume were of heavy masonry. The super structure was of hand-hewn pine timber.

Picture courtesy of Harry Warner. Picture is dated July 5, 1982.
Originally, the wood overshoot water wheel was twelve and a half feet in diameter and eight feet wide.
		The upper floors of the mill were accessed by steep stairs. While showing a lot of wear, the original treads are still in good condition in May, 2003.
		Flour would flow down from the upper floors through the hopper on the top of the machine, and then into the bag stuffer.
The shafting and working gears were all handmade of wood.		Power for machines was transferred through the mill by leather belts running on wooden wheels, like the one above.
		Originally grain was transferred to upper floors by a barrel and hoist. Later a belt and bucket elevator system was installed. The buckets for the elevator were constructed of hand-carved wood and attached to a belt made of "ticking." From there it was dumped into a hopper which fed a hand-made reel which today millers would grade as course bolting cloth. The flour would sift through into a box, and the coarser feed millings would tail off over the end.

The mill changed hands a number of times. William Hess conveyed the property to his son, Elijah Hess, in 1820 and he sold to Waller Hess, who conveyed it to Samuel Hess and Alexander Colley in 1850. Title subsequently passed to Jessie Heacock, Jacob Kimble, Ira Thomas and John Kimble and eventually became the property of Norton Cole in 1892 when he was just 21 years old.

Norton Cole had interests in hunting as a member of Painter Den Club and in banking as a bank director with the Columbia Country Farmer's National Bank, but otherwise for 67 years he devoted his working life to the mill. This picture of his house, contributed by Harry Warner, dates from 1982.

Norton Cole added weather-board siding to the mill. The original nine-foot master drive wheel with its wooden cogs and pinions conveyed power as smoothly and as quietly as later steel construction. Cole kept one of the original hand-made stones and a wooden bucket elevator and added "modern grinders, bolters and mixers."

Picture courtesy of Harry Warner
The side of the mill as it appeared in February, 1957.		The side of the mill as it appears in June, 2003. If you look closely, you can still make out the lettering on the side of the building.

A steel overshoot water wheel replaced the wooden one.

	An addition on the north side of the mill contained a Fairbanks-Morse 42 hp kerosene engine which produced power when the water was low.

Mr. Cole produced "Cole's Celebrated Fishing Creek Buckwheat Flour" and was instrumental in making buckwheat flour used in the preparation of old-fashioned buckwheat cakes unique to this part of the United States.

When the mill ended operation in 1960, it was claimed to be the oldest mill in Columbia County in continuous operation and still operating with water power.

Harry W. Warner, Norton B. Cole's grandson, writes "I lived just across the road from the mill from February, 1941, until August, 1956. The description is limited as I left the Benton area in 1956 with few visits after that time. It is possible that some errors have crept into my memory and that I may have forgotten some things. I do remember many local farmers coming to the mill over the years. First with horse or mule-drawn wagons, later with trucks, tractors and automobiles. As a youngster and teenager I spent many hours in the mill and even worked there from time to time, mostly preparing the "Self-Rising" Buckwheat flour. Many fond memories are connected with sitting on a corner of the bench, trying to be small and unnoticed, while Granddad and his customers/cronies/workers conversed."

Harry notes that Norton Cole was born in 1871 and died in 1962 at the Bloomsburg Hospital at the age of 91, following complications from a broken arm. He had fallen at the Char-Mund Nursing Home where he had been a patient for two years. He had spent around 67 years in the mill. The ledgers, grind stones and many of the tools associated with the mill were sold at public auction in 1965 after Harry's foster mother died.

Historical data for this article came from Harry Warner; from Hiester V. White, Columbia County Historical Society Publications; the collection of John Mather, now owned by Ken and Lynn Dressler; the publication "Old Mills in Pennsylvania," dated 3/83; from the Society for the Preservation of Old Mills; and from the present owner, Mr. Ron Wing.

Click here to learn about the move of the Miller's House February 26 and February 27, 2004. This house was across route 239 from the Norton Cole Mill.