1843 – Walter Terrell and His Dam and Mill on the Iowa River.
In 1843, Walter Terrell, with the help of a skilled carpenter, Irish immigrant William Windrem, built a dam and a three-story grist (flour) mill on the Iowa River just north of Iowa City (what is today – directly in front of the Mayflower Apartments).
For nearly 40 years, Terrell was a highly successful master miller. His grist mill was equipped with three run (top and bottom) of 3¹/₂ -foot millstones and three run of four-foot millstones. The water wheel was the undershot type where the power wheel that turned the millstones was made to revolve by the water undershooting the wheel. The mill could grind 300 bushels of grain in 24 hours.
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