Crescent Grain & Feed Mill, 1015 Twiggs Road, Augusta

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER GA,123-AUG,55-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Robert L. Spude, It is understood that access to this material rests on the condition that should any of it be used in any form or by any means, the author of such material and the Historic American Engineering Record of the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service at all times be given proper credit. Crescent Grain & Feed Mill HAER GA-11 (Page 2) CRESCENT GRAIN & FEED MILL (SOUTHERN MILLING COMPANY) A grain mill has stood at the end of the second and third levels of the canal since Water power furnished by the Augusta Canal turned the machinery through the turn of the century, and much of the overhead shafting and belts once turned by a hydro-mechanical system still exists intact.

Though now powered by an electric motor, belts open and close wooden grain bins and run the auger which pushes the grain to the bagger, also powered by the belts and shafts. Of the industries once powered by the Augusta Canal, the Southern Milling Com- pany is one of two firms still using belts and shaft-drive. [1] (See photo.) Grain and feed mills are necessary industries to an agricultural community. Augusta's development owed much to its role as a trade cen- ter, and part of that trade was the selling of fodder and feed to countryside farmers. In Thomas J. Cheely built a small grain mill and cotton gin factory at the end of the recently completed second and third levels of the canal. To power the mill, he installed a "vandewater" turbine and contracted for 10 hp of canal water power.

Up until the Civil War his Crescent Grain & Feed Mill supplied Augusta area farmers. [2] Augusta business directories for and list Cheely's mill as operating at upper Twiggs Road, but in the directory T. J. Cheely's name is absent. The name of a Martha Cheely appears, possibly his widow; these were the Civil War years and Cheely Crescent Grain & Feed Mill HAER GA-11 (Page 3) may have been one of its victims.' [3] The mill at the end of the second level may have remained idle until the mid-1870's. The Handbook of Augusta includes the fol- lowing information: The Crescent Flour mills on the third level of the canal, nearby opposite to the Ice Factory, are owned by J. F. and L. J. Miller, well known merchants. The mills are built principally of wood, but are substantial and well constructed.

The establishment grinds five hundred bushels of wheat, per day, producing eighty-five barrels of flour. This is manu- factured by a new process. During the twenty-four hours the mills also grind five hundred bushels of corn into meal and pearl grits. The owners find ready sale for all their pro- ducts and carry on a large business. [4] Between the Civil War and the mid-1870's the old grain mill was rebuilt, and an list of the canal water power users includes the Millers' mill. It used 75 hp.

[5] Observations made at the mill and compared to the Sanborn-Perris fire insurance map of the mill lead to the following conclusions: (1) the water wheel pit of pre-1875 still stands; (2) the headrace entered through two brick archways to two small turbines, then exited to the third level through two brick arches lower and on the opposite walls; (3) the turbines were probably vertical turbines; and (4) the main (or jack) shaft was directly above the turbines. From here, belts went up into the flour mill proper. [6] An fire totally destroyed the mill, while only doing major damage to the wheel pit. [7] The Miller brothers rebuilt the mill on a smaller scale, only to have it burn down again. Discouraged, they sold out to a corporation called the Southern Milling Company. The company c.

built the present brick structure (see photo) and changed the Crescent Grain & Feed Mill HAER GA-11 (Page 4) power system from hydro-mechanical to electric motor drive. [8] Small DC motors still turn the machinery. The Smith, family, the present owners, became involved in the com- pany, and by or J. Dan Smith, Sr. , became the Southern Milling Company's majority stockholder. Since World War II, his sons, William H. and J. Dan, have taken over the business. [9] The mill supplies the Central Savannah River Area (CSRA) Georgia and South Carolina- with poultry, hog, cattle, horse, and pet feeds. Their "Duplex Feeds," claims an advertisement, "are high in quality and reasonable in price." The Southern Milling Company is not a big "glamor" industry.

Rather, it is an example of one part of the wide variety of industries required to strengthen a community's economic base. Also, it is one of the few buildings still standing that once used Augusta Canal water power and still uses overhead shaft and belt drive machinery. OPERATION OF THE SOUTHERN MILLING COMPANY'S GRAIN MILL Grain is stored in 8 large and 12 smaller metal bins (4,000-bushel capacity each) on the northwest end of the building. From here the grain travels by conveyor to the old wheel pit, where a grain elevator carries the grain five stories up to the top of the building. Chutes in the tower redirect the flow of the grain into 10 wooden bins on the sec- ond floor of the main mill building.

All the preceding steps are accom- plished through the use of recently installed machinery. The remainder of the operation is more than adequately propelled by Crescent Grain & Feed Mill HAER GA-11 (Page 5) shaft and pulley drive. A small DC electric motor mounted on a wooden platform in the north, end of the first floor turns a 6-inch belt that drives a 3-foot diameter wheel. This wheel turns, the main power shaft. From it extend other belts and a chain. These belts, and chain perform three duties: (1) open and close holes in the bottom of each grain bin (the 10 bins contain different types and qualities of grains); (2) turn the screw auger which pushes the grain from under the bin to a conveyor; and (3) turn the conveyor mechanism.

From the conveyor, the grain feeds through a bagger, which fills paper bags and sews them closed. The bagged feed then travels by conveyor to storage within the building's southeast end. Purchasers pick up their supplies at a dock on the building's south side. Crescent Grain & Feed Mill HAER GA-11 (Page 6) Footnotes 1. Th.e other is the Augusta Iron & Steel Works in the old Lombard Iron Works. See HAER, Augusta Canal Project, Report i/10. # 2. Augusta Canal Record Book II, p. 89 for December 23, p. 113 for May 29, 3. Augusta Directory for and Augusta Directory for 4. John L. Maxwell, Pleasant A. Stovall, and T, R. Gibson, Handbook of Augusta (Augusta, p. 34.

For a contemporary description of "New Process Milling" see James Emerson, Treatise Relative to the Testing of Water Wheels and Machinery (Springfield, Massachusetts, pp. 5. Byron Holly, The Enlarged Augusta Canal, Augusta, Georgia (New York; Corlies, Macy & Co., p. 2. 6. Sanborn-Perris fire insurance maps for Augusta, Georgia, in Map Room, University of Georgia Science Library, Athens. 7. "Minutes of the Canal Committee," p. 15, July 15, Vault, Municipal Building, Augusta, Georgia. 8. Sanborn-Perris fire insurance maps for Augusta, Georgia, in Map Room, University of Georgia Science Library, Athens. 9. Interview with J. Dan Smith, August 25, Augusta, Georgia, 10. Price list from Southern Milling Company, August 8,