Naugel Grist Mill

The northeast corner of the ‘T’ intersection of Sweet Root Road and Business Route 220 is occupied by the stone grist mill built by Frederick Nawgel (variously Naugel or Naugle) in 1797. Nawgel had built a grist mill closer to the town of Bedford in 1767. Joseph Shenywolf (variously, Josiah Shoenfelt) warranted a tract of land south of the town of Bedford in 1767, but he did not patent the tract. The tract, named ‘Green Meadow’ was patented on 31 December 1772 by Frederick Nawgel. The tract of land and the grist mill that Nawgel built in 1797 were eventually purchased by John Anderson, who in 1806 built a hotel for visitors who came to ‘take the waters’ of the mineral springs which had been discovered there.

The photo below shows the mill as it appears today. In order to make it accessible to visitors, the ramp has been added in recent years. It is said that the water in the raceway entered the arch at the right and exited through a similar archway on the opposite wall. What type of mill wheel was employed in this type of building and how the mill machinery was operated is not known.

The bottom photo is an image from the early 1900s postcard showing how the road went past the mill. Comparing the two photos, it is noticeable that the water entered the mill on the 'first' or 'ground' floor level and would have exited on the lower 'underground' floor level. It is possible that the mill was a tub mill.