The Graue Mill is a water-powered grist mill that was originally erected in 1852. Now a museum, it is one of two operating water-powered

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

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

(the other is the Franklin Creek Grist Mill). It is located on Salt Creek in

Oak Brook, Illinois Oak Brook is a village (Illinois), village in DuPage County, Illinois, with a very small portion in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County. The population was 8,163 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. A suburb of Chicago, it contains th ...

, owned and operated by the

Forest Preserve District of DuPage County The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County is a governmental agency headquartered in Wheaton, Illinois, United States. Its mission is to acquire and hold lands containing forests, prairies, wetlands, and associated plant communities or lands ca ...

History

Friedrich Graue, born in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, emigrated to the United States in the late 1840s. Changing his name to 'Frederick', he brought with him knowledge of the craft of waterwheel gristmilling. Settling in what was the farming village and early transportation hub of Fullersburg, Illinois, formerly named Brush Hill, he and William Asche (whose brother-in-law, Henry Fischer, built a wind-powered grist mill in what is now

Mount Emblem Cemetery Mount Emblem Cemetery is located at the intersection of Grand Avenue and County Line Road in Elmhurst, Illinois. Mount Emblem is perhaps best known as the home of the Fischer Windmill, popularly known as "The Old Dutch Mill", a typical Dutch w ...

) filed claim in 1849 to a tract of damp,

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

-rich bottomland along the banks of Salt Creek that was home to a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

that burned down the year before. Together they built a new sawmill. They together operated this mill for three years, until Graue decided to engage in the milling business on his own. Digging ditches in the poorly drained soil, he and his family recovered clay that could be used to make bricks. The Graues built a kiln on their

farmstead A farmstead refers to the buildings and service areas associated with a farm. It consists of a house belonging to a farm along with the surrounding buildings. The characteristics of a specific farmstead reflect the local landscape, which provides ...

, fired the bricks, and slowly raised the new structure and

waterwheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous blade ...

into place from the on-site building materials. The mill went into operation in the summer of 1852."Recreation/Entertainment: Graue Mill", Village of Oak Brook, accessed March 13, 2007

The ditching and draining of the Graue Mill farmstead was typical of

German-American German Americans (, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. According to the United States Census Bureau's figures from 2022, German Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the US, which is approximately 12% of the pop ...

settlement patterns in the Midwest in the 1840s and 1850s, as the thrifty German emigrants found assets in tracts of land that had been left behind by earlier, English-speaking frontiersmen and women. Graue could not build his entire mill from onsite materials. He bought four buhrstones that turned on water-driven axles to grind locally grown

corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...

and

wheat Wheat is a group of wild and crop domestication, domesticated Poaceae, grasses of the genus ''Triticum'' (). They are Agriculture, cultivated for their cereal grains, which are staple foods around the world. Well-known Taxonomy of wheat, whe ...

. Quarried in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, the buhrstones, a type of

millstone Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, used for triturating, crushing or, more specifically, grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a s ...

, were carefully dressed by specially trained craftsmen so as to form two level, gritty surfaces that would pulverize the grain between them."History of the Graue Mill and Museum", DuPage Graue Mill Corporation/

, accessed March 13, 2007

Graue and his family were

Pietist Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christianity, Christian life. Although the movement is ali ...

Germans who opposed

American slavery The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Sl ...

. The mill is one of three Illinois stops on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

, the

subversive Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to sabotage the established social order and its structures of power, authority, tradition, hierarchy, and socia ...

movement that helped fugitive slaves escape from the

American South The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is census regions United States Census Bureau. It is between the Atlantic Ocean and the ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Today

The Graue Mill operated in eastern DuPage County under three generations of the Graue family for approximately 60 years. In the 1910s, advances in milling technology, particularly the invention of steel

rolling mills In metalworking, rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of rolls to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform, and/or to impart a desired mechanical property. The concept is simil ...

, drove the old mill out of business. The

derelict Derelict may refer to: Law * Derelict, property that has been abandoned or deserted ** Derelict (maritime), property which has been abandoned and deserted at sea without any hope of recovery Arts, entertainment, and media Music * "Dead Man's Ch ...

mill was restored by the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was ...

in 1934–1943, and was opened to the public as a working historic site in 1951. As DuPage County became urbanized in the second half of the 20th century, the mill's surroundings lost their agricultural context. The mill building itself, however, was honored as a survivor from Illinois post-frontier years. The Graue Mill 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 1975, and was recognized as a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 1981. The mill has been periodically re-restored since 1943 to keep it in operating condition, including work completed in 2002. The Graue Mill is located at 3800 S. York Road, on the banks of Salt Creek in Oak Brook, Illinois, and is surrounded by Fullersburg woods. It is currently open to the public; check the Graue Mill and Museum website for dates and times of operation. The Graue Mill is also nearby to

Salt Creek Trail The Salt Creek Trail is a set of public trails across multiple suburbs surrounding Chicago, Illinois in the US. Background Frequent intersections do pose a threat to path users. These intersections are clearly signed both to path users and mo ...

, a trail that follows the path of Salt Creek from Itasca to Brookfield. Recognizing the water quality and habitat impairments caused by run of the river dams, the DuPage River Salt Creek Workgroup and Forest Preserve District of DuPage County retained Hey to complete design and permitting necessary to implement the Master Plan for Salt Creek at Fullersburg Woods. The project includes removing a 6’ tall by 120’ wide dam in its entirety and restoring 1.5 miles of riffles, pools, and floodplain wetlands. Additional project enhancements include motorizing the Graue Mill water wheel (grinding stones in the mill will continue to be powered by an existing electric motor), a pump system to provide water in the mill’s sluiceway, waterproofing a floodwall near the Fullersburg Nature Center, and several scenic overlooks. An improved trail connection below the York Road bridge over Salt Creek and canoe/kayak launch was also designed for a related project. Dam removal was completed in December 2023, and

References

External links

Graue Mill and Museum, Forest Preserve District of DuPage County

Fullersburg Historic District, Fullersburg Historic Foundation

Hinsdale Chamber of Commerce

Oak Brook Historic Timeline

"Chapter 11: Hinsdale" by Shirley Stitt in ''DuPage Roots'' by editors, Stephen A. Thompson and Contributors

"Chapter 16: Oak Brook" by Etta Susan Chapek in ''DuPage Roots'' by editors, Stephen A. Thompson and Contributors
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624125541/http://www.dupagehistory.org/dupage_roots/ , date=2016-06-24 Industrial archaeological sites in the United States 1852 establishments in Illinois Civilian Conservation Corps in Illinois Hinsdale, Illinois Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmarks Industry museums in Illinois Mill museums in the United States Museums in DuPage County, Illinois National Register of Historic Places in DuPage County, Illinois Oak Brook, Illinois Underground Railroad locations Underground Railroad in Illinois Grinding mills on the National Register of Historic Places in Illinois