Article Title: Elliot Morse and Friends to Breathe New Life into Old Calais Sawmill

Edition: February 2002
Category: General Interest
Author: Rick Haynes
Article:

"Remove Not The Ancient Landmark Which Thy Fathers Have Set." The words from Proverbs 22:28 hang in raised letters like a charm bracelet above the pulpit in Calais' Old West Church. The admonition may sound puritanical today, but it seems the charm worked. The Old West Church in Kent's Corner still holds occasional religious services today, 175 years after its establishment.

I stood in the cold sanctuary on a recent visit to Kent's Corner. I was there to meet with Wayne and Alexandra Whitelock, Elliott Morse and his cousin Peter Morse, all active members of the Aldrich Memorial Association. We were actually visiting the nearby Robinsons sawmill, but had stopped into the church to have a look at some marvelous pine boards, some nearly three feet wide, which had been produced at the mill.

Like the neighboring church, the mill is still with us. The building and most of the machinery survive in remarkable condition. Even more notable is the fact that the mill may someday actually produce lumber again -- the result of the foresight and hard work of members and friends of the Aldrich Memorial Association.

The mill, built in 1803 by Joel Robinson, was originally an "up-and-down" mill. It incorporated a vertically-mounted blade powered by an "overshot" waterwheel. The water supply was a millpond, formed by damming the outflow from Curtis Pond, a short distance upstream.

"Modernization" arrived in 1876 when Abdiel Kent took over the operation and installed a large circular saw, mounted on a mill produced by Lane Manufacturers of Montpelier. Kent redesigned the whole operation's power system; he replaced the overshot wheel with a turbine manufactured by the Smith, Whitcomb and Cook machine shop in Barre. Kent also constructed a new penstock to carry water from the pond to the base of the turbine. Power from the turbine was transmitted to the mill above via a large wood-toothed bevel gear and a series of wooden pulleys and leather drivebelts. A gate, operated from within the mill, controlled water flow to the turbine. When the gate was closed, the turbine stopped turning and the saw blade would coast to a standstill. It is this arrangement of structure and machine that largely remains today.

A series of operators ran the mill subsequent to Abdiel Kent's ownership, mostly producing small quantities of wood for the local market. In 1958 the mill fell silent, victim to age and rising maintenance costs. Only the benevolence of its next owners, Howard Kent and Laura Cocley, saved the mill from ruin until, in 1961, permanent care and ownership was transferred to the Aldrich Memorial Association. In spite of a large list of sizeable projects and a meager budget, the Aldrich Association is determined not simply to save the structure, but to breathe new life into its shell. Their goal is to saw lumber once again as a working testament to our past.

Help for the group soon arrived. Among the first, in 1964, was the Peace Corps. In the area preparing for a mission to Turkey, Corps members volunteered to work on structural repairs and to clear away mud and debris. Since then, countless others have stepped forward. They have worked on the stone foundation and on replacing wood that is beyond salvation. Recently a group disassembled the turbine housing and removed it to Bernard Morses shop in Worcester, where he has volunteered to rebuild it. The penstock was repaired this past year, a job requiring that the millpond be drained. With the pond empty, it became evident that the amount of silt was substantial -- the pond would someday need dredging. The list continues, but the enthusiasm does as well.

When I first learned of the mill's restoration efforts from Elliott Morse, he explained to me his personal connection with the project: Joel Robinson was his great-great-great-great grandfather. But as I stood there next to the old Lane mill, it was easy to feel the enthusiasm anyone could develop for such an endeavor, no matter what the ancestral ties. The big saw blade still turns, the gate handle is still intact and through the floorboards you can see the turbine impeller, now silent but begging to turn. Close your eyes and it is easy to hear the blunt clack of gears, the low-pitched whir of slowly turning leather belts and, finally, the piercing scream of the saw blade as it meets the log. Supporting you and tons of machinery are hand-hewn beams, mortised and pegged, some two hundred years old. A clearing still stands where logs, stacked ten feet high, used to wait to be milled. And the pond still spills over the dam, the sound of the water the same as when it played a part in the industrial hum of a working mill. In 2003, the mill will be 200 years old. By then, the structure and its working parts will be even further along in the restoration process. And with a little luck -- which seems to be working so far -- Robinson's mill will be sawing logs once again.

You have reached the end of the article.

Select the following link to see all the listings in the General Interest category: General Interest
Select the following link to see all the listings in the February 2002 edition: February 2002
Select the following link to go back to the index page: Index
Select the following link to go back to the introduction page: Introduction