Bear Mill, The

In 1812, as President James Madison was declaring war on the British, Christian Bear began operating his woodworking (and eventually funeral) business; the funeral business is still going strong 193 years later, and the mill remains operational. Located well off what was once the main road west, the Parkersburg Turnpike, near Churchville, Virginia, the mill survived the Civil War without being burned by the Union, and the Bear business establishment is now believed to be the oldest in Virginia to have operated continuously in one family. This article summarizes what I found in April 2005 when I visited the Bear family's still operational woodworking mill just a few miles from my home.

The mill is unique in two ways-first, it has been operated within the same family for almost two hundred years, and second, its system of power and fantastic grouping of machinery may not exist today anywhere else. The Bear Mill has been reported in a previous issue of the publication of the Society for the Preservation of Old Mills, and in a recent book by the Augusta County (Virginia) Historical Society, The Mills of Augusta County, but neither covered the actual mechanics and equipment related to the mill's operation, which I will attempt to document in this article.

Today, the mill uses water from the millrace (canal) to drive the waterwheel that in turn drives, by a series of belts, sixteen different woodworking machines housed on two floors of the mill. Power from the waterwheel is also used to start a 15 HP gasoline engine that runs in tandem with the wheel to provide additional power for driving the woodworking machines. To cool the engine, water drops from the millrace into a water ram, which pumps some of the water to a reservoir on the hill above the mill, where it then flows by gravity back through the engine.

The Bear Family

Christian Bear (1783-1847) moved with his family from central Pennsylvania to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley in the late 1700s, settling first in Shenandoah County, then moving south to Rockingham County. He was the oldest of thirteen children, and by the time he was twenty he had already served his woodworking apprenticeship. In 1809, he moved to an area called Jennings Branch (now named Churchville) in the adjacent sparsely settled county of Augusta. Here he managed a plantation for his father-in-law and established himself in the woodworking trade. His specialty was making caskets and exquisite pieces of household furniture, including walnut desks and mantel pieces. Christian also made wooden clock cases for his brother-in-law, the famous clockmaker, Peter Heneberger, whose clocks also bring very high prices when found (one sold for $10,000 in the 1980s). Today, Christian's furniture is eagerly sought after by collectors and, when pieces are found, they bring high prices. He often helped his casket customers with other aspects of burial, and he also had a fairly extensive wool processing operation.

The records of his business extend back to 1812, but those were only of charge accounts, so his business may have been in operation before that date with bartering as the medium. According to the account books, English currency was used until 1819.

Christian did his work in a wood-framed mill powered by water. It is not clear if Christian built the mill or occupied one already there. His mill contained both woodworking equipment and wool processing machines. In 1829 an adjoining three-story brick gristmill was added with living quarters and facilities for grinding grain. Christian and his wife Elizabeth had eight children. The eldest, Christian, Jr. (1818-1888), was associated with his father in the funeral business, as well as continuing the woodworking and wool processing business. In 1852 Christian, Jr., constructed a large and handsome brick home near the mill for his family residence, which is still owned by his descendants.

Christian, Jr., lost his eldest son in the Civil War, but another son, Ephraim B. Bear (1848-1902), continued the business as a maker of fine furniture and cabinets. Many examples of Ephraim's work can be found throughout the United States. He also continued to make caskets, and in 1894 received his embalmer's license.

Ephraim's sons, William T. Bear (1877-1970) and Frank A. Bear (1885-1958), continued running the business together. Both graduated from the Renouard Training School for Embalmers. William was also a building contractor credited with building numerous schools, businesses, churches, and homes in the area. Frank, too, was a talented woodworker, making many pieces of fine period walnut furniture that today have become cherished heirlooms.

Throughout these four generations, caskets and fine furniture were produced simultaneously in the Bear Mill. The original wooden mill was rebuilt in 1908, and the wool carding mill was torn down. The brick gristmill was dismantled in 1926 (although the foundation remains), and the brick re-used to build a new funeral home adjacent to the mill and home. Records also indicate that for some period the mill furnished electricity for the town of Churchville, and the water it pumped to the reservoir on the hill was used by the Bear family.

William T Bear, II (Bill), a son of Frank, came into the business in 1947 after graduating from the Cincinnati College of Embalming. Although now an octogenarian, between funerals he continues working on projects at the mill.

Bill has a son, William T Bear, III and two daughters, Judith and Jill, who still continue the adjacent funeral home business. Bill also hopes that the seventh generation, Mary Porter Delp, a daughter of Judith, and Noah Bussiere, a son of Jill, will someday follow in their footsteps.

The Mill

Flowing out of the George Washington National Forest on the eastern slope of the Allegheny Mountains, Jennings Branch joins the Middle River just east of Churchville. The Middle, along with the South and North Rivers, come together to form the South Fork of the famous Shenandoah River. Whiskey Creek joins Jennings Branch on the eastern side of Churchville, and it is on Whiskey Creek that Christian Bear settled and operated his mill. A log dam on the creek fed a millrace that runs approximately one-fifth mile to the mill, where a drop often feet powers the water wheel. The water then rejoins Whiskey Creek below the mill. The original dam and its subsequent replacements were wooden until 1962, when William II built the current steel and concrete dam (Figure 2). The mill-race flows through an underground channel for a few feet before emerging as an open canal, and continues northward from the pond, turns 90 degrees and flows past the Bear Funeral Home to the mill (Figure 3). A pile of bricks near the mill are all that remain from the gristmill addition that was torn down in 1926 (Figure 1). The inlet for the water ram is on the right side of the canal as it approaches the mill. The water ram was installed about 1930, and before that the water had been pumped to the reservoir by a belt-driven pump (Figure 4) powered by the water-wheel.

The water entrance to the ram is controlled by a gate. Figure 1 shows the location of the ram (foreground) to the mill. The ram (Figure 5, from above) uses the power of the flowing water and a valve system to pump water up the hill to the reservoir. It was made in Waynesboro, Virginia, probably in the 1920s. The ram appears to be about ten feet lower than the millrace, and the reservoir about fifty feet higher than the millrace. Today, the reservoir supplies water to the gasoline engine used by the mill for cooling and to the funeral home for washing vehicles.

The waterwheel is ten and a half feet in diameter. The early wheels were wooden, and the pattern for making them is still in the mill (Figure 6). The current wheel (Figure 7) is steel and was made between 1926 and 1928 by the Fitz Waterwheel Co. of Hanover, Pennsylvania, for $800. There are controls on both floors for raising and lowering the gate in the flume to control the amount of water entering the wheel and thus the speed of the wheel. The waterwheel shaft and main gearing are well below the first floor of the mill. The wheel drives a large gear that in turn drives a smaller gear, which then drives a belt (Figure 8). That belt drives another (Figure 9) that connects up through the ceiling to the first floor above where it drives the main belt drive shaft (see "First Floor Operations"). From there another belt connects through to a secondary drive shaft on the second floor for driving some of machines located there (see "Second Floor Machinery").

The original mill was rebuilt in 1908, and around the same time, a 10 HP gasoline engine was installed to provide supplementary power for all the machinery. The engine was connected to the first floor main drive shaft by belt, and was operated in tandem with the waterwheel. (I have not had the opportunity to investigate exactly how the mechanisms are synchronized to drive the shaft at the same RPM).

After about twenty years, that engine was replaced with a 15 HP Titan one-cylinder gasoline engine (Figure 10). The Titan, (serial number CD643) was manufactured in early 1915. Its screened cooling tank was removed and water was piped to the engine from the reservoir via gravity for continuous cooling of the engine during operation. Because of the size of the engine, it is started using power from the waterwheel, which is on the opposite side of the mill, through the main drive shaft.

The Mill's Machinery

In spite of appearances, the mill is operational, and Bill still uses the machinery for occasional projects. On my last visit, he had three huge piles of pine boards (mostly ten to twelve inches wide and two plus inches thick) at the mill waiting to be ripped by Bill Bear into framing for a planned addition to the funeral home. Most of the belts are off the machines, or on idler wheels, so that when the mill is running only the machine being used is operating. There are sixteen belt-driven machines on the two floors.

Other items

In addition to the belt-driven machines, there is an electric lathe and an electric drill press. On the walls hang all types of patterns, including well over a hundred for different sized wagon wheel felloes (Figure 11). Bill told me that everyone seemed to want a different sized wheel, and they kept all the patterns over the years.

I noticed fifteen planes on a bench (Figure 12), and eight of them are unmarked. Of the five that are marked, four have Christian Bear's mark (Figure 13), probably as the owner rather than the maker. One of those four has a blade marked "W. ASH & Co." Another of the four with Christian's mark also has the mark of "GABRIEL." Goodman1 lists three British planemakers with this mark from 1770 to 1822. Two others have only the mark of Bear. A fifth plane is marked "H. CHAPIN" and has a blade marked "W. BUTCHER." According to the Dictionary of American Toolmakers,2 Hermon Chapin made planes in Connecticut from 1828-1860, and a W. & S. Butcher of New York City was a filemaker from 1840-1841. Two other planes are marked, one on the blade and the other on the wood, but I have not deciphered the marks. I did not inspect all the blades for marks.

There are a lot of other tools, piles of spare belts, and miscellaneous parts scattered throughout the mill. At the time of writing this article, Bill has a lot of pine lumber to rip and several other items to finish when he gets the time. Beyond that, what will happen to the almost two hundred years of history contained at the mill? I am hopeful that the Bear family will see that it is appropriately cared for, and that some day this unique piece of history might be opened to the public.

I wish to thank Bill Bear for graciously showing me the mill, demonstrating its operation, explaining all the machinery, and answering my questions.

Notes

1. W. L. Goodman, British Planemakers from 1700, (Mendham, NI: The Astragal Press, 1993) 248.

2. Robert E. Nelson editor, Directory of American Toolmakers, (South Dartmouth, Mass.: The Early American Industries Association, 1999).

Author

Bob Roger is a regular contributor to The Chronicle and resides just a short distance from Bear Mill. He is a member of EAIA, PATINA, and the Canadian Corkscrew Collectors Club, and maintains his own tool museum for research purposes. He is also the author of A Guide to Gimlets, which is available through the EAIA book sales.

Copyright Early American Industries Association Jun 2005
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved