Grain elevators and mills were a common rural industry, especially in Botkins, Anna, Jackson Center, Maplewood, Hardin Station, Pemberton, and Russia, all with direct access to steam railroads. Allinger’s Mill, in Port Jefferson, had no railroad, but did have direct access to the Sidney Feeder canal.

Sidney, triply blessed with feeder canal access to the Miami & Erie Canal and two railroads to foster grain shipments, hosted a thriving milling and grain shipping industry. An artifact of that industry is the Ginn Grain Company at North Street and West Avenue.

Even before large elevators, the countryside was dotted with mills to produce flour for local use. Jackson Center’s first mill, for example, was built in 1839 by Daniel Davis, and "was a horse mill, there being little or no access to water power in this part of the county." In the area later platted as Pontiac, now Kirkwood, William Berry built a flour mill in 1812. He reportedly ground meal for Harrison’s soldiers on the march to the northwest. Lockington’s first flouring mill was erected in 1830. John Medaris erected a mill --called a "corn cracker"-- near Plattsville around 1824 (Memoirs of the Miami Valley, Vol. I, Robert O. Law Co., 1919).

Whiskey production, reducing a bulky corn crop to a profitable, compact item, was popular at several milling enterprises. The old Maxwell mill on upper Mosquito Creek "maintained...a small distillery—or old-fashioned copper still—which produced a moderate amount of whiskey" (Memoirs).

Villages Benefited From Railroads
The D.T. & I. railroad, constructed in 1892, spurred growth in the small towns along its route, helping them become centers for grain shipping. Jackson Center’s Briggs elevator shipped from 150,000 to 200,000 bushels of grain each year, including corn, oats, wheat, and rye early in this century. Buckland Milling company rivaled the Briggs plant.