Michael Meinhardt came to Troy Grove in 1858. He came here from
Germany. He built a home east of Troy Grove. Three years after he came here he
started to build a grist mill near the Little Vermillion river, north of the old
La Salle road.
He built a dam about sixty rods north of the mill. He
then dug a race so as to get the water in a mill pond, which was also north of
the mill. Then the water came from the pond to the mill and ran over the
over-shot wheel, which was about twenty feet high and fifteen feet wide. By
having smaller wheels on the machinery inside he increased the speed.
The building was three stories high. The first floor was where the grain was
ground, and the second had most of the machinery in it. The third was where they
stored the grain.
As machinery improved, Mr. Meinhardt's sons put in a
turbin wheel in place of the over-shot wheel. When the Meinhardt sons left they
sold the mill to Ben Panton. He ran it until it did not pay. But while he had it
he ran it by steam. He then moved the machinery South. Elwood Burris now owns
the farm with the mill on it. The ruins of it are still standing.
Mr. D.
A. Hapeman started the white sand works in 1890. It cost him about $35,000 to
build a switch from the Northwestern to the sand plant and build a bridge across
the creek.
He sold washed sand or the sand as it was dug from the pit.
The switch which he built down to it started about fifteen rods from the
crossing southeast of town. It ran back about twenty or twenty-five rods. There
still are some of the ties where the track ran.
He ran this for about
ten years but had to stop on account of finances - because the freight was too
high. It cost $5 every time an engine went back after a car, besides the freight
in shipping it when he got it to the track.
Mr. Doffner, an early
settler of Troy Grove, started a brewery in about 1860, southeast of Troy Grove,
on the Little Vermillion. It was a three-story building. In the first story they
stored the hops and barley. In the second story they had the vats and place
where they cooked the beer.
Mr. Doffner hired a man to dig a cave in the
sandrock about two rods south of the brewery. This cave had three rooms, two
running south, then a room branches off to the east. This cave was used to cool
the beer. The doorway was large enough to drive a team of horses hitched to a
wagon through it.
Mr. Doffner used the beer at his saloon, which was
located at the Wild Bill Hickok State park. He ran this saloon for many years.
Extracted 08 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 18.
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