On this Saturday, we decided to visit a historic site in Pickens South Carolina. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing the old grist mill which was running and making flour, the local musicians that were "picking and grinning" and playing bluegrass music, the local weavers that were spinning yarn and making fabrics, and especially meeting and talking to the old gentleman Robert Perry, who moonshined in Pickens County many years ago.
It is noted that this Hagood Mill site may have been originally owned by William Jennings around 1773, and then Benjamin Hagood purchased the grist mill in 1823. The mill as it stands today was built by his son, James Hagood, about 1845. It was willed to John Hagood in 1865 and, on his death in 1879, it was willed to Ester Benson Hagood. Upon her death, it was willed to James Hagood in 1891. Following a line of heirs it was eventually conveyed to J. Bruce Hagood in 1958, and continued to run commercially until 1966. The grist mill and surrounding property was donated to the Pickens County Museum Commission in 1973.
The wooden water wheel is 20 feet in diameter by 4 feet wide, and produces 22 horsepower. The wheel and mechanical components were rebuilt in the mid-1970's using as many original parts as possible. Restoration work continued in the mid-1980's, and again in the mid-1990's. The ring gear is 18 feet in diameter, and the two granite millstones weigh about 1600 pounds each.
During most of it's life, the Hagood Mill was producing 2500 bushels of meal (140 000 pounds), and 200 bushels of flour (11 200 pounds) in the year 1870. 120 000 pounds of meal, and 20 000 pounds of feed were produced in 1880.Hagood Mill was added to the National Registry of Historic Places in 1972, and is one of the oldest surviving grist mills still producing grain products in South Carolina.
DIANNE AND BRUCE, CHAD AND BELLA
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