Though Graue Mill is of an era long past, the lessons it imparts to today’s visitors are worth remembering in any era, said Warren Barr, the mill’s executive director and chief executive officer.
“It’s a family- and school-centered learning experience of values that are timeless,” Barr said, adding that visitors learn the importance of family members working together for a common cause, making maximum use of the bounty nature provides.
Many who visit with their children experienced the mill the first time as children themselves, on school field trips decades ago, said Sandy Brubaker, the mill’s communications committee chairman.
Built over a three-year period and opened in 1852 by Frederick Graue, the brick structure was originally designed as a water mill. Sometime before 1874, water power was supplemented by steam. In 1880, an enormous explosion destroyed the steam power plant, which had been built on the north, or opposite, bank of Salt Creek. Four years later, the steam power plant and steam stack were rebuilt on the east side of the mill.
Wheat was likely the main grain ground in the earliest years. As farms were established farther west in the plains states, wheat farming moved westward, “and corn became a more profitable crop” here, Brubaker said. “They raised corn as a money crop, and also raised other grains–oats, barley and rye–in lesser amounts for their own use.”
Farmers came from all directions to have their corn turned into cornmeal at the mill. The miller took a percentage of the unmilled corn as his fee for the milling job, then bartered the grain for goods and services from local merchants.
Graue Mill operated as a commercial mill for more than 60 years. Early in the 20th Century, industrial and transportation advances allowed larger, more efficient mills to be constructed, rendering the mill and others like it obsolete. “What affected it, too, was that people began to have more cash, so the barter economy was becoming outdated,” Brubaker said.
The mill still operates on the first floor. A bucket full of grain can be ground in approximately a minute, Brubaker said. The resulting cornmeal is “famous,” she added. “People who have lived in the area will write in, requesting the cornmeal they can’t get anywhere [else], and we’ll ship it to them.”
The DuPage Forest Preserve Commission owns the mill; the DuPage Graue Mill Corp., a private, non-profit volunteer organization, operates it.
For the mill’s 150th anniversary next year, the nearby Frederick Graue Residence will open to the public following a $1 million restoration. “We’re planning a special celebration and we’ll probably have the opening of the house at that time, in the spring of 2002,” Brubaker said.
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Graue Mill & Museum, Spring and York Roads in Oak Brook, is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It also is open on holiday Mondays. For more information, call 630-655-2090 or visit the Web site at www.grauemill.org.
