One of the fun facts I recall learning in elementary school – after memorizing all 120 counties, which has actually been beneficial in my career – is that Kentucky has, after Alaska, more navigable miles of water than any other state in the country. Without these waterways, the development of Kentucky in the late 18th and early 19th century would have been radically different. Across the Commonwealth, mills located beside creeks, for water power was essential in the days before steam-powered equipment. While many mills and their associated buildings no longer stand, there is one mill site in Jessamine County with a rich history and intact buildings. I was lucky enough to list this property in the National Register of Historic Places, and its preservation is a positive note for Preservation Month!
The Glass House is one component of the former Glass Mill Complex.
The Glass Mill Complex through many different uses and owners prior to John Henry Glass purchasing the property in 1874. In 1898, Bennett Henderson Young, Jessamine County native and author, wrote that the “stone mill, known now as “Glass’ Mill” three miles from the Kentucky River, is certainly over 110 years old. It is supposed to have been laid out as a mill-site as early as 1782. It was subsequently turned into a paper mill which was operated as late as 1849.” Bennett declared that “The rag house and office still stand in a perfect state of preservation.”
Diagram of papermaking with rags, from the 1751 Encyclopédie, Ou Dictionnaire Raisonné Des Sciences, Des Arts Et Des Métiers by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert
It’s hard to conclusively prove that a mill was operating in the late 18th century, at least as far as publicly available primary sources are concerned. But the Glass mill was once a paper mill, and the little bit I learned about the early paper making industry in Kentucky was eye-opening.
Papermaking in the late 18th and early 19th centuries was a laborious process. Prior to woodpulp, rags were used to make paper – hence, the “rag house” that Young referenced. Water, rags, and many hands to transform the cloth into different grades of paper would have been necessary components when Glass Mill functioned as a paper mill.
First, a quantity of rags had to be collected. Then the rags were sorted, according to Hiram E. Steadman, into nine grades, with one being the finest and used for the best sort of paper. Then the rags were cut into strips, dusted clean, and then transported to the rag engine. This device washed the rags and ground them into a pulp or slurry. Once the proper consistency was reached, the slurry material was drained, put into forms the size of desired sheets of paper, and a pile of these “pelts” were pressed under a large screw. The resulting product went then to a drying room, where it was tidied up, pressed, and finally tied into reams to be sold.
Advertisement from the February 9, 1833 edition of the Kentucky Gazette.
Thomas Bryan is the first verified operator of the paper mill. His father, Daniel Bryan, Sr., started a paper mill, “the third notable Fayette County paper mill” of the early 19th century, on Wolf Run Creek in Fayette County in 1815.
He then financed his son, Daniel Bryan, Jr., in purchasing the mill on Jessamine Creek. But the younger Bryan’s tenure lasted only two years until his untimely death, at which point his brother, Thomas Bryan and their brother-in-law, John Womack, purchased the property. In the 1824 deed transferring the 100 acres from Daniel Bryan Jr. to Thomas Bryan, the property is described as “where the paper mill now stands.”
The former early 19th century rag house at the Glass Mill complex.
One of the Bryan brothers likely built the two-bay wide stone rag house (above) as well as a stone mill office. The office is now the ell to a “new” frame house built in the late 19th century by John Henry Glass.
Glass, born 1838 or 1839, grew up in Jessamine County. According to the 1860 census, the 21-year-old Glass was living with his parents, Casper and Elizabeth Glass, both German (Prussia) immigrants, in Nicholasville. The elder Glass was a cabinetmaker. J.H. Glass married Mary Ann Hagedon on August 31, 1862.
John Henry Glass, circa 1907.
In 1879, the property was described as having “two dwelling houses – one of them roomy enough for a large family, a still house, two springs, and the five-story mill building with a tin roof.” Other buildings included a stone warehouse near the mill, a stable, wagon shed, and outbuildings. There were also, at the time, two mill races.
In the 1880 Special Schedules of Manufactures, the Glass Mill, with a capital investment of $12,000, was capable of milling 400 bushels daily. The company employed five workers and was able to operate for nine months of the year.
This two-story, frame, central passage house was added to the front of the existing stone house between 1873 and 1879.
In 1882, Glass added the rollers for making flour. The Glass Mill produced flour under three different names: Bouquet, Daniel Boone, and Silver Lake. The most instrumental change, however, was the mechanization of the mill. Originally, meal at the Glass Mill Complex was ground by a stone turned by water turbine wheel. The dropping levels of water on the creek meant that the mill could only operate for around two months a year. In 1887, Glass installed the first steam-powered roller mill in the county.
Remains of the mill along the creek.
In 1898, the Glass Mill office moved into Wilmore. In 1907, the decision was made to move the milling operations into town, with the objective to “save a large amount of hauling.”[1] A new company, known as Glass Milling Company, was also incorporated. The new mill, built opposite the railroad depot in Wilmore, was estimated to cost $30,000 and would be one of the “best equipped plants in Central Kentucky.”[2] A spur would connect the mill to the main line of the railroad and the water would be supplied from an artesian well.
Mary Ann Glass died in 1907, and this, combined with competition from mills located near railroad lines, likely spurred the decision to move the business into Wilmore. John Henry Glass died in 1910, survived by seven children. His five sons all worked at the mill: Will Glass was head miller; George was the engineer; Harry Glass oversaw the corn crusher and corn meal; and Frank, Ed, and Charlie Glass packed the flour.
An early 20th century view of the Glass Mill complex from the Wilmore News.
Unlike many former mill sites across Kentucky, time and a series of committed property owners kept the main domestic complex at the Glass Mill Complex in good shape, allowing the remaining buildings and the foundations of the mill buildings to tell an important story about early industry in Kentucky – one that is visible today mostly through road names across the Commonwealth.
Sources:
[1] “Wilmore News.” The Jessamine Journal, Friday, June 7, 1907. Page 2, column 4.
[2] “The Glass Milling Company.” The Jessamine Journal, Friday, August 23, 1907, page 1.
Hiram E. Steadman. Bluegrass Craftsman: Being the Reminiscences of Ebenezer Hiram Stedman, Papermaker, 1808-1885, eds. Frances L. S. Dugan and Jacqueline P. Bull. (Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky Press, 1959), xv.
Jessamine County Deed Books F/303 and H/32.
Kentucky Gazette, Saturday, February 9, 1833.
“Fence Fight Caused Scott’s Station to Become Wilmore.” Lexington Leader, Section 3, page 2, June 30, 1938.
Bennett Young. A History of Jessamine County, Kentucky: From its Earliest Settlement to 1898. (Louisville, Kentucky: Courier-Journal Job Printing Company, 1898), 151.
