Mickey's Mill, also called Valley Mills. Buffalo Creek is to the lower left of the mill.

Hungry? Want a sandwich? Maybe some toast? How ‘bout a slice of bread with peanut butter on it? Don’t have any in the house? That’s ok, just run down to the local…MILL? Today, you might possibly run down to Pittsburgh Mills Mall for a sandwich at the huge food court. But from the early 1800s until around 60 years ago, if the only general store in town was out of what you needed for your bread, you might have had to go down to the nearest mill…and I’m not talking steel.

I’m talking Mickey’s Mill, on Buffalo Creek in Freeport, PA. You can still go there today—you probably pass it all the time if you live in the Alle-Kiski area. But 100 years ago, it wasn’t called Mickey’s, and if you were out of bread, you might have been waiting a while.

You see, Mickey’s Mill—not far from the Rt. 356/Buffalo Creek bridge in front of Devereaux Chevrolet—was where grain transformed into flour, the main ingredient for bread (using the flour to make the bread was up to you.) The transformation wasn’t magic. Rather, the mill itself was like a giant machine you could walk through, as grain was crushed several feet away and processed mechanically into flour and even animal feed.

Mickey's Beach, the swimming hole behind the Mill. Kids still swim there today.

Still, it was kind of neat being around Mickey’s or Valley Mills as it was known for a long time. “The Mill to a kid was a place of Industrial Wonder, with its belts, gears and grind stones,” notes William White, who as a child swam in Buffalo Creek next to the mill. In a posting on mickeysmill.org White adds, “I can still think back and hear the low-pitched rumble it seemed to continually emit.”

Alan Bennett remembers it the same way from his childhood swims, in his post on the same website. “It was a very interesting place to be in. It was quite an engineering marvel. It never ceases to amaze, all the elevators, sifters, and stone burr. The ‘Miller’ had to know where each [conveyor of product] would end, or it might be sent to the wrong operation, mixing with other separate flours, or animal food.”

The memory of Mickey’s Mills seems to be vivid to many who were children then, because of the waters of Buffalo Creek (which also happened to provide power to the mill.) White mentions, “I think half the kids in town learned to swim there. We would change into our swimming trunks under the mill, girls in one place, boys in another. The water would get low and murky, especially in the late summer, but after a hot ballgame in the sandlot, it felt really refreshing, especially near the rocks, where it was shaded and deeper.”

Millrace: water used to flow through here under the mill and turn wheels for power.

Gerald Straughn echoes the same sentiment, saying, “I too remember learning to swim at the mill. We lived in Laneville and every summer was spent swimming at the mill,” as does Barbara Noble-Carbnetti, who mentions “I went to Mickey's Mill when I was a child, with my father to get some grain, and corn ground for the Feed Store my father and grand-father owned. The most memorable times were when my Mom took me, my sisters and brother and half the neighbors’ kids to go swimming in the creek… [known] to us Mickey's Mill. It was a great place, and many long time friendships were made there.”

Mickey’s Mill began life in 1816 as a sawmill owned by Alexander Girt, then doubled in size in 1819 when a gristmill was added alongside. This is not long after Massey Harbison’s family was savaged nearby by Indians, before Freeport formerly became a town incorporated, and WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY before the canal came to town. In other words, we’re talking pioneering effort here. By 1842, the two mills had fallen into the hands of Abner Lane, and they became known as Lane’s Mills. Lane sold them in 1861, but kept most of the nearby land until his death in 1869.

The area around the mills was then parceled off into lots and sold; today though part of Freeport, it is known as Laneville. The mill continued to be resold through the turn of the century. The sawmill burned, the technology was updated and in 1883, the mill picked up a new name: Valley Mills. Later in 1898, Elmer J. Mickey moved to Freeport, got a job at the Mill, and then purchased it himself in 1906. Mickey kept the name “Valley Mills,” but from then on, most folks knew it as “Mickey’s Mill.” The Mickeys worked the mill until 1965, when, the Alle-Kiski’s last remaining flourmill closed.

Swing hangs down from tree across from Mickey's Beach

As the top supplier to all area bakeries, hotels, and restaurants at one point, according to mickeysmill.org, Mickey’s Mill in its heyday sold flour in many area towns, including Vandergrift, Leechburg, Apollo, Natrona, Butler and even Pittsburgh. At one time, between the 1850s and 1930s, most areas had their own mills for grinding flour or cutting wood. In fact, there were mills everywhere! Vandergrift had Stitt’s mill. Tarentum had a mill. Burrell/Allegheny Township possibly had two. Crooked Creek may have had at least two; one where the swimming area is today (before the creek was flooded into a lake) and also Cochran’s Mills. There were several time has forgotten, except for their grindstones that are left in numerous areas as part of various public monuments or in museums. Of the many mills that were here in the Alle-Kiski region, few are still standing. Saltsburg has a large nice one, an old saw mill now housing a river outfitting company. Only one in our area, however, is currently being restored, with the hopes of perhaps one day seeing it run for visitors: Mickey’s Mill in Freeport.

Currently, the Freeport Area Historical Society (FAHS) is working to renovate Mickey’s Mill into a working mill, realistic to the time period. Operationally, “it’s sitting just the way it was when they shut it down in 1965,” says Don Collar, FAHS President.

“I kind of enjoy the whole mill. The whole mill is unique…how they drove everything with one belt, from one power source [Buffalo Creek], that and the grain elevators. It’s pretty neat when you get in there and look at it. It’s a piece of history that should be saved. The Society has done a lot of work on Mickey’s Mill since they acquired it in 1998, including putting a new roof on. “The old roof we took off,” Don tells us, “had a patent date on it of 1880. It had been on there since then until we changed it a couple of years ago.”

The next big project may entail replacing the siding, painting, and repairing windows. “Money is the big thing,” Collar says. Mickey’s Mill runs on donations and does not charge admission to tour the facility. Open Houses for the summer season begin the fourth Saturday of every month from 1pm to 4pm. Directions to Mickey’s Mill in Freeport may be found at www.mickeysmill.org as well as a virtual tour of the entire Mill, complete with floor plans. And, Our Local Heritage visited Mickey’s Mill with a video crew! We had a camera and weren’t afraid to use it! We take a look at what it took 100 years ago just to make flour so you could make bread for a sandwich…Watch it here, coming soon!!

You can watch other Heritage videos at: http://www.allekiskitoday.com/webcasts/archive/78