So many people have asked me,
“What are you doing this for?”
“Is there any money to be made grinding corn?”
“What are you ever going to do with this useless old building?”
And most people, when they get an answer, sadly walk away shaking their
heads, wondering.
I suppose no one person or no one episode gave rise to my thought in
acquiring the mill and entering upon a program of restoration, unless
it could be what I have heard in the various entertaining stories of
people such as C. Milton Chase, Dean of the Massachusetts Town Clerks,
and retired Town Clerk of Barnstable, who tells most engaging tales of
his trips as a young lad to the mill with a horse and team, carrying
corn to be ground.
Perhaps I was fired by my friend, George Kelley, a ponderous,
phlegmatic, Cape Codder, attempting to perpetuate some of the
characters of old Cape Cod, personified in Joe Lincoln’s stories; and
perhaps by the stories of Walter B. Chase and Howard Hinckley of their
nostalgic remembrances of the old mill.
If you ever meet Milton Chase, see if you can get him to tell you of
the adventures, and strange doings of an old-time travelling barber,
one Frank Clifford, who went around to all the business places, livery
stables, and grain stores with his little black bag, plying his barber
trade, and who employed a most ingenious method of warming the shaving
lather for his customers.
Or perhaps it was enthusiasm of Margaret Perkins. Maggie, as we
affectionally call her, spent long hours in tedious searching of the
records at the Deed Registry, Town Clerk’s office, Proprietor’s Records
of the Town of Yarmouth, and interviewing everyone she could think of
who might know something of the history of the old mill. Maggie was the
motivating force in presenting an article at our Town Meeting about
a year ago, requesting the Town to purchase the mill or take it by
so-called eminent domain proceedings, so that it might be preserved and
restored, but the townspeople were not eager to invest in the past.
Strange how so many people insist upon their rights and forget their
obligations. Strange again, how so many people are looking for
something without giving part of themselves.
Whatever it was, or however it arose, I found myself engulfed in the
middle of hard but fascinating work.
Having lived for thirty-five years close by the old Baxter Mill in West
Yarmouth, it is not surprising that my curiosity and interest were
aroused. Somehow, I felt called upon to restore this old mill, perhaps
to keep a way of life now forgotten in our present civilization,
perhaps merely as a means of self-expression.
A clipping from the Yarmouth Register, November of 1935, speaks for
itself of the lethargy of present day thought, when the old Farris Mill
that stood for many years at the corner of Berry Avenue and Main Street
in West Yarmouth was purchased by Henry Ford and moved to Dearborn,
Michigan, despite violent protest. The clipping reads as follows:
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO--_From the files of the Register--November,
1935_.
It is reported that the oldest windmill on Cape Cod is to be moved
from West Yarmouth. The West Yarmouth Association is attempting
to obtain the sentiments of Cape Cod residents, both permanent
and seasonal, on the rumored removal of one of the Cape’s most
picturesque objects of great historical value to the Cape--the
old windmill in West Yarmouth. Mrs. George Breed of Englewood and
Germantown has wired Mr Ford, the new owner, direct, expressing
her individual feelings in the matter, and the West Yarmouth
Improvement Society has done the same.
We quote from a letter also dispatched, “If the windmill is to be
retained by you upon its present location, we are delighted, but if
it is to be removed it is a calamity.” “It may be well to explain
that there is no record in the offices of the Town of Yarmouth
whereby any offer was ever made and presented to the voters that
the windmill was to be a gift or offered to be purchased; thus the
townspeople have never been allowed to express their opinion on
this matter, nor have they been allowed to visit and inspect the
mill. The door is always locked.”
I can distinctly remember at about this time the concern and heated
meetings held by civic groups, the letters and telegrams of indignation
sent to high public officials, and the angry voice of the people
protesting the removal of this old landmark, but it struck me as being
a bit strange that not one person (including myself) came forward with
donations to purchase the Farris Mill and keep it where it belonged.
Needless to say, it was the usual story of “Let George do it.”
In looking back, it was probably George Kelley and Walter Chase
who finally prodded me into action. George Kelley is engaged in a
flourishing insurance business in Hyannis and is very handy and
exceptionally good with tools. As a matter of fact, he is better than
the usual expert, and has an extensive knowledge of craftsmanship. He
is meticulous, patient, and without his assistance I don’t think we
could ever have accomplished the project.
Walter B. Chase and his brother, Milton, are two of the last old-school
gentlemen left on the Cape, both of them well-known and beloved by
everyone and the living examples of young boys graduating from high
school and immediately starting in business as a clerk or as an
ordinary laborer. One rose to be the Dean of Massachusetts Town Clerks
and the other rose to be the President of the Hyannis Trust Company,
the largest commercial bank on the Cape. They represent a living
contrast to the average youth of today, the product of our so-called
schools.
These gentlemen, through their own efforts and by virtue of the simple,
ordinary and basic fundamentals learned in their school days, made a
complete success of their lives and are vigorously engaged today in
directing the affairs of two banks. Both are in their 80’s, alert, and
enterprising, as were their contemporaries, young men of 18, 20 and 22
who became masters and captains of deep-sea sailing vessels going all
over the world, purchasing cargo, handling all kinds of men, and making
money and profit for their employers.
I mention this because of the things uncovered in working on the mill
to show the sharp contrast of the average youth of today who is taken
to school on the bus so that he can engage in physical exercise and
who, when graduating from the glamorous schools, hasn’t the slightest
idea of fundamental mathematics, of figuring simple interest, or of
handling ordinary division or multiplication.
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