The Spring Mill is an historic industrial property on

Arkansas Highway 69 Highway 69 (AR 69, Ark. 69, and Hwy. 69) is a designation for three north–south state highways in northeast Arkansas. A western route of runs south from Highway 9 at Melbourne to Highway 14/ Highway 367 in Newport. A secon ...

, northwest of

Batesville, Arkansas Batesville is the largest city in and the county seat of Independence County, Arkansas, United States, 80 miles (128 km) northeast of Little Rock, the state capital. According to the 2010 Census, the population of the city was 10,268. The c ...

. It is a wood-frame structure with a

gambrel roof A gambrel or gambrel roof is a usually symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, while the lower slope is steep. This design provides the advantages of a sloped roof while maxim ...

and clapboard siding, set in a stone foundation at the eastern end of its mill pond, with a concrete-reinforced stone dam extending further to the north. The dam was built in 1867, by Colonel J. A. Schnabel, replacing an earlier log dam, and the building was built about 1869. It is the only known operable

grist mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

from the period in the state. A.N. Simmons had the Colonel build the Mill. Mr. Jordan James bought the Mill from Simmons in 1873. It then passed through the McCrory Family, Roland Headstream Family, and Coop Family. The John Anderson Lytle Sr. family purchased the Mill in 1917, then passed it to his son John A. Jr, and daughters Edna Grace Lytle Watts, and Helen Gertrude Lytle Bell, in 1934. John & his wife, Ora Ophelia Stewart Lytle made it an operable community landmark for decades, along with their 7 living children. Cold spring water was hauled to neighbors, as well as folks would bring corn to grind into flour and meal. The store also sold various items as well as fish food to feed the plentiful, large rainbow trout in the Mill Pond. The Mill remained in the Lytle family until 2018 when it was sold to the current owners. The property was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1974. File:Spring Mill, Historic Plaque.jpg, The plaque describing the Mill's history and significance.

References

Oral and written narrative from Ora Ophelia Stewart Lytle to Jim E. Lytle and Alice Ruth Dover Lytle. Grinding mills on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas Industrial buildings completed in 1869 1869 establishments in Arkansas National Register of Historic Places in Independence County, Arkansas {{IndependenceCountyAR-NRHP-stub

See also

References