MILLS of WARREN COUNTY, IOWA… and the people who owned and managed them

Food and shelter in the early days of Warren County included the need for saw mills and grist mills.  Early settlers used saw mills to saw logs into lumber to build their houses.  They went to grist mills to grind their crops of corn and wheat (grist) into flour to make bread for their family.
The first saw and grist mills in Warren County were powered by water (around 1845 to 1870s) which meant the mill had to be located beside a river or creek.  Later (around 1870 to 1890s) the mills were powered by steam engines.  As larger factory mills came into existence the old mills disappeared and today are only viewed as museums.
Listed below are the mills that existed in Warren County, linked to whatever information I could find on each (diagrams on maps, drawings, tidbits from newspapers, stories), by Karon Velau

Ackley's Mill -T77N, R22W, Richland Twp, Sec 24
Braucht's Mill - T75N, R24W, White Oak Twp, Sec 30
Buckeye Mill - Richland Twp, 2 & 1/2 miles NE of Hartford
Carlisle - Nicholson Mill - T77N, R23W, Allen Twp, Sec 3
Carpenter's Mill - T76N, R22W, Union Twp, Sec 9
Coffey's Mill - T75N, R23W, Otter Twp, Sec 5
Cole's Mill - T74N, R23W, Liberty Twp, Sec 29
Cumming's Mill -T77N, R24W, Greenfield Twp, Sec 12
Devoe's Mill - T77N, R24W, Greenfield Twp, Sec 22
Halterman's Mill - T77N, R22W, Richland Twp, Sec 35
Handley Mill - T77N, R.24W, Greenfield Twp, Sec 35
Hartford Flour Mill - T77N, R22W, Richland Twp, Sec 21
Haworth - Bundy Mill - T76N, R22W, Lincoln Twp, Sec 19
Hoover's Mill - T77N, R23W, Allen Twp, Sec 4
Lawrenceburg - Condit Mill - T74, R23W, Liberty Twp, Sec 7
Lewis Mill - T74N, R23W, Liberty Twp, Sec 8
Lockridge - Thurston Mill - T77N, R24W, Greenfield Twp, Sec 30
McKinney's Saw Mill - T76N, R25W, Jefferson Twp, Sec 22
Milo Mill - T75N, R22W, Belmont Twp, Milo
Novelty Mills - T76N, R24W, Washington Twp, Indianola
Parmalee & Watt's Mills - T77N, R23W, Richland Twp, Sec 8 & 12
Porter - Glascock Mill - T76N, R24W, Lincoln Twp, Sec 7
Summerset - Sprays Mill - T77N, R23W, Lincoln Twp, Sec 31
Stuart - Cochran Mill - T74N, R22W, White Breast Twp, Sec 27
Tomlinson & Stanley Mill - T76N, R23W, Washington Twp, Sec 34
Wallace's Mill - T76N, R25W, Jefferson Twp, Sec 32

[Watch a 7 min. youTube video of how a water-powered grist mill works at the Union Mills Grist Mill in Westminster, MD, “Handcrafted Traditions by Ken Koons”]