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The Echo Roller Mill records were donated to USU Special Collections & Archives in two batches by the Jones family. The first batch was donated in 1964 by A. Marlow Jones, the last owner of the Echo Flour Mill. The second batch was donated in 1976 by Margaret Wright, the daughter of A. Marlow Jones.
Echo Roller Mill records, 1885-1946. (COLL MSS 127). Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives department.
In 1871, Ben Lamb built the Echo Flour Mill one mile east of Echo, Utah, for William Turpin at the cost of $8,000. Used by local farmers, the mill produced flour, bran, shorts, and germade. Owners of the mill used wheat purchased from the Wellsville, Utah Co-op to produce flour for merchants in Echo, Coalville, Grass Creek Mines, and Devil's Slide. Due to its location near the Union Pacific Railroad, farmers and merchants as far away as Fort Bridger, Millburne, and Burnt Fork, Wyoming, traveled to use the mill.
For the first twenty years of the mill's existence, two 500-pound stone burrs imported from France were used to grind the wheat. In 1893, steel rollers and silk reels replaced the stone burrs. Remodeled again in 1906, sifters replaced the silk reels. Wooden spouts were added to the sifters in another remodeling during 1920, and they remained in use until the mill closed in 1942.
A dam across Echo Creek provided the power source for the mill by means of a steel 12-inch waterwheel located below the mill's ground level. Originally an overshot waterwheel generated the water, but the lower wheel provided more power. The mill's lower-level housed grain bins and roller machinery; the second level contained the sifters, choppers, and rollers; and the third floor held the elevator heads and bran bins. With this machinery the mill could produce up to nineteen barrels of flour a day. Each 60 pounds of wheat produced approximately 30-32 pounds of flour, 14 pounds of bran and shorts, and 5 pounds of germade.
Several owners managed the mill. William Turpin directed operations until 1897; Heber Bennion supervised it until 1899. Marlow and John Jones purchased the mill in 1899 and ran it until 1914. After buying the mill from his brother, John, Marlow Jones operated the mill until it closed. Marlow donated the building to the Man & His Bread Museum located in Logan, Utah, in 1964 when a proposed highway construction threatened the mill. While the original intent of the donation was to salvage all machinery, elevators, windows, and doors, the Man & His Bread Museum (now the American West Heritage Center) received only the machines that housed the roller mills.
Source: Wright, Margaret J. "Echos from the Past: The Story of the Echo Flour Mill."
The six-box collection contains the papers of the Echo Roller Mill Company. The materials in this collection provide a detailed glimpse into the operation of a grist mill in rural Echo, Utah, around the turn of the twentieth-century.
Boxes 1-5 contain twenty-five ledgers concerning the mill's operation from 1897-1846. Boxes 1 and 2 contain a comprehensive look at the mill's overall finances, and Boxes 3-5 contain a record of the mill's gristing. The grist (grinding) records are recorded longhand in pencil, as are other records kept by the mill's owners. Some ledgers in this collection sustained rodent damage prior to donation while other items have been spotted with mud. Preservation efforts have been made to clean, preserve, and prevent any further damage to the materials. Box 6 contains mill papers in the form of correspondence, legal documents, account information, mill workings, and other papers. Folders 13 and 14 of Box 6 contain various papers and a ledger concerning the Echo Water System Company. The Echo Water System Company was partially owned and managed by the owners of the Echo Roller Mill, in large part because the mill was powered by water.
Researcher Note: Researchers interested in viewing photos of the Echo Roller Mill should see USU Special Collections & Archives PO131: Daryl Chase.
(rodent damaged).
(first pages cut)
(also includes grain cleaning records for 1933-35, 1938).
(rodent damage).
(rodent damage).