One of the most noted grist mills in Madison County was Butler
Mill, situated in the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter of
section 27, township 5, range 3-east, along the Paint Rock River.
Originally part of a tract of land ceded by the Cherokee Indians to
the Federal Government on February 27, 1819, the area was incorporated
into Jackson County by an act of the newly formed Alabama Legislature in
December of that year. Two
years later it became part of Decatur County, with Woodville as the county
seat.
Housing in Woodville, and throughout Decatur County, consisted
mostly of log homes, usually constructed in close proximity to a spring or
similar water source. The
necessities of life such as candles, soap, bread, and all of the clothing
were made at home. Shoes were
made from leather tanned on the homestead, and the soles were connected to
the uppers with wooden pegs. Although
this frontier existence was difficult at times, the settlers still managed
to relax by telling stories, playing cards, or just visiting neighbors in
the immediate vicinity.
The educational system of Decatur County, like the living
standards, was quite simple. To
be a teacher, one had to know only the basics of reading, writing,
figuring, and using the switch well.
Classes were conducted either in a home or church.
Tablets were nothing more than slates, spit upon by the students in
order to erase. Such an educational system, though, satisfied the needs of
the citizens of Decatur County.
In 1823, many of the people who lived in Decatur and Jackson County
resided on public land. This
land, in most cases, was greatly improved by its inhabitants, thus
increasing the value of the various tracts.
At about that time, the Federal Government surveyed the public
lands with the intentions of selling to the settlers.
Yet, many of them were taken advantage of by shrewd speculators and
businessmen who coerced them from these improved Government lands, thereby
forcing the pioneers to settle on other unimproved, unsold Federal land.
Although these individuals again made improvements to these newer
areas, they were not able to purchase them, for the price of cotton had
fallen as well as the existence of a depreciated paper currency. Therefore, the Federal Government postponed the sale of the
public lands but created a provision by law with the stipulation that
those who made improvements on public domain were given the right of
preemption, or first choice, to one 160-acre quarter section or an 80-acre
half quarter section of public land.
William Burns and William W. Pruitt were probably given preemption
privileges at this time to the area where the mill later stood.
In order to secure these rights, they perhaps formed a partnership
and built a grist mill about 1824.
On December 28, 1825, Decatur County, which included the mill, was
abolished by the Alabama Legislature because it did not contain enough
acreage which the Constitution required.
Subsequently, the Legislature divided the County, part of which
went to Jackson County and another area, roughly between the Old Cherokee
Boundary Line and the Paint Rock River, was designated New Madison.
The Burns and Pruitt Mill was nestled in this latter area in
section 27 on the Paint Rock River. A
Government survey described this region as hilly, stony and swampy with a
variety of trees including oak, ash, cedar, hickory, persimmon, and maple.
On January 24, 1829, Burns and Pruitt were authorized by the
Alabama Legislature to continue their mill operation on the Paint Rock
River, in spite of an act declaring the river a public highway.
Shortly thereafter, Burns and Pruitt turned their operation over to
David Cobb and his two sons, Williamson R.W. and Bryant Cobb.
In May of 1830, a preemption law was enacted which gave an
individual who had occupied or improved a tract of public land in 1829,
the right of filing a preemption claim on that property which eventually
resulted in a patent. A short
time later, these lands went up for sale on two separate occasions, July
and October 1830. Judge
Thomas J. Taylor recounted concerning the latter sale:
The second sale commenced on the first Monday in October, and at
that time Huntsville was thronged with an eager crowd of purchasers, some
of them speculators but the large body of them small farmers with the
means to purchase a home, or here endeavoring to raise money for that
purpose.
On October 5, 1830, David Cobb and his two sons, were issued a
patent, certificate number 103, on the northeast and southeast quarter of
the northwest quarter section 27, township 5, range 3-east, a half quarter
section. On July 7, 1836, David Cobb and W.R.W. Cobb conveyed their
$450.00 interest in the property to Bryant Cobb. In October, he was given permission to build a larger mill
that would grind both wheat and corn.
The court decree stated:
An inquest upon the petition of
Bryant Cobb, for a writ of Adquod Damnum having been made and it appearing
to the satisfaction of the Court, that mansion house of no proprietors,
nor the offices, curtiledges, nor gardens thereto immediately belonging
nor orchards will be overflowed and that the health of the neighbors will
not be materially annoyed by the stagnation of water, loan is granted said
petitioner to build a water grist mill and saw mill and it is ordered that
the proceedings herein be recorded.
Thus began Cobb Mill.
Bryant Cobb’s father, originally from Virginia or North Carolina,
migrated to Rhea County, Tennessee, around 1800.
In 1809, he came to Madison County with his children and settled on
a plantation near Bellefonte. Judge
Taylor stated that the Cobb brothers became prominent in the community,
though Bryant Cobb “met disasters that seriously affected his business
enterprises…”
Bryant Cobb’s largest business interest was the Cobb Mill at
Paint Rock River. Keel boats,
flat-boats, and skiffs floated down this river from Cobb’s Mill, as well
as other business concerns, to the Tennessee River, where products were
loaded on to larger craft to make the trip to New Orleans.
In 1840, just 3 years after New Madison was incorporated into
Madison County, Bryant Cobb became indebted to Joseph Talegman and Eleazar
Andrews, merchants and partners in the firm known as Andrews and Brothers
of New Orleans, Louisiana. The
debt amounted to $11,238.41 plus legal interest of the State of Alabama of
which $500 had already been deducted – the price of a young male slave.
Cobb, moreover, had to sell some of his other chattels namely
Caesar, Nance, Amanda, Mill, Mela, Larat, Adeline, Elizabeth, Mealinda,
Betsy Jane, Pete, Meary, and Deci. Under
these adverse circumstances, Cobb decided to deed the mill and other
estate to Daniel B. Turner in trust until he could settle his accounts. Notwithstanding, the debt could not be paid, and so Turner
sold the mill to the highest bidder on August 9, 1843. Fortunately, Bryant Cobb’s son, Alexander, was the buyer.
Thereafter, the Cobbs tried desperately to keep the mill enterprise
in the family by conveying it to various family members to include Joseph
Cobb in 1849 and Christopher C. Cobb of Limestone County in 1853.
Finally on July 11, 1858, C.C. Cobb deeded the mill back to Bryant
Cobb, although Joseph Cobb continued to tend the mill many years
thereafter.
Bryant Cobb’s brother, W.R.W. was less fortunate in his chosen
career – that of a politician. Beginning
as a clock peddler and merchant in Jackson County, he was elected to the
United States Congress in 1847 and served in that capacity until 1861,
when Alabama seceded from the Union.
That same year, Cobb was elected to the Confederate Congress in
Montgomery but did not take his seat.
Rumors circulated that President Abraham Lincoln had appointed him
military governor of Alabama, but this accusation was never substantiated.
He died tragically in 1864, from the accidental discharge of his
own pistol.
After the Civil War, Bryant Cobb somehow managed to maintain the
solvency of Cobb’s Mill in spite of the ravages of Reconstruction.
On August 21, 1881, Cobb passed away and left the following
children: Alexander, Ira,
Joseph, Mary, Naomi, Bernice, Francis, and Annie.
In his will, he appointed Joseph and Alexander Cobb and John W.
Grayson the administrators of his estate.
On October 2, 1882, they sold Cobb’s Mill to James E. and George
W. Butler.
The Butlers, with the assistance of John H. Atchly, John Russell,
Frank Ivey, and “Big” A. Whiterd, rebuilt Cobb’s Mill under the
supervision of E.G. Morris of South Alabama, by adding more space and
equipment. Business activity
thereafter was prodigious, and after about 15 years, the mill was improved
by adding rollers, a grinding stone imported from France, and other
miscellaneous equipment.
In 1898, George W. Butler died and left his share of what was know
as the Butler Grist Mill Company to his wife and children.
James E. Butler, though, continued to operate the mill concern
until his death in 1913. At
that time, Butler Mill was divided among all of the Butler heirs.
Some of the noted millers who ran the mill for the Butlers roughly
between the years 1898 and 1915 were M.M. Downey, William B. Gross, Robert
Whitaker, George W. Anderson, David Jones, and Richard H. Jones.
In 1916, the Butler heirs sold the mill to Frank Bevil and Richard
H. Jones. In 1922, they owed
a sum of money, amounting to $250 to Joseph W. Woody.
Therefore, the mill was mortgaged on the condition that if the debt
were not paid before it was due, Woody would take possession of the
property. Bevil and Jones
were not able to satisfy the mortgage, thereby Woody held title to the
mill until his death in 1939, when the executors of his estate conveyed
title back to Bevil and 42 other individuals who held legal interest in
the mill.
On April 11, 1939, a tornado touched down and destroyed Butler
Mill, except for the stone foundation.
Also destroyed was the nearby covered bridge, stretching across
Paint Rock River, that joined Madison and Marshall Counties.
During this storm, a group of six people, fishing along the river
bank, took shelter in the mill. When
it collapsed, Charles Robert Merritt of Fort Payne was killed, and a small
boy was slightly injured. Shortly
after this disaster, Frank Bevil et al., sold the Butler Mill tract to
Robert Clay. Clay built a new mill on the original antebellum stone
foundation in 1940, satisfied the mortgage in 1942, and operated a
profitable business throughout World War II and the early postwar era. By 1952, though, modern food processing methods diminished
the importance of a grist mill, which forced Clay to close his
establishment.
In 1969, W.W. Crum, a retired Army officer, bought the grinding
stone, imported from France, from Robert Clay, in order to utilize it at
Falls Mill in Franklin County, Tennessee.
Clay also sold Crum a steel-encased small upright, manufactured in
North Carolina about 1920. This
second item was also from Butler Mill.
In 1974, Butler Mill became the
property of Sherman Clay, who lived in Grant, Alabama.
Occasionally, one could observe a person fishing from the mill or a
group of teenagers congregating under the building, but otherwise, Butler
Mill remained inactive.