(Click for full size)
Fowler Brothers Grain Mill
Distributors of Feed and Grain Products
Suncook, NH
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Sanborn Fire Insurance map, 1906 (Click for full size) |
Fowler Bros. Grist Mill, ca. 1900 |
History
Fowler Brothers Grist Mill was established as a partnership in January, 19001, by Edward M. Fowler (1868-1937)2 and George Winthrop Fowler (1864-19xx)1. (The brothers were also both directors of the Suncook Bank.) The former's son, Edward Emery Fowler (1906-1973) and the latter's son, George Sherburne Fowler (1890-1957) succeeded them in the trade until the enterprise was discontinued in January, 19643. (The George's also served as officers of the Suncook Valley Railroad management.)
The mill was located on Exchange St. in Suncook, behind the depot, and was served by a double ended siding. The adjacent track appears to have been a public delivery track, or team track. Fowler Bros., as an independent mill involved in retail and wholesale sales, purchased their grain from a variety of sources and sold their Sun Valley line of feeds not only to farms in the Suncook area, but also to other dealers nearby.
Initially, a boiler house was attached at the rear of the main building, supplying power, presumably via steam engine, to the equipment, including a "run stone," a corn cracker, and a grinding mill. Sometime before 1906 electric power was substituted to drive the machinery. In 1915, a " Unique Cracked Corn Separator and Grader" from the Robinson Mfg Co. was added4. Sanborn Fire Insurance maps show that between 1912 and 1923, the boiler house and associated additions were removed; a new storage shed was then constructed along the sidings in that location. A bit further south on the other side of Exchange St. where Pleasant St. intersected, was another flour and grain warehouse; this building may also have been used by Fowler Bros.
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Sanborn Fire Insurance map, 1923 (Click for full size) |
Fowler Bros. Grist Mill, ca. 1932 |
Notes
1:
Granite Monthly, Volume 29, Suncook Today, page 83
2:
Biographical Sketches of the Delegates to the New Hampshire Constitutional Convention of 1918, A. Chester Clark, page 33.
One Thousand NH Notables, Metcalfe & Abbott, 1919, page 58.
3:
Report of the Board of Agriculture, State of NH, 1965?
4:
The Operative Miller, Vol 20, No. 7, July 1915, page 477.
R. G. Dun Mercantile Agency Reference Book, Merrimack County, NH, September 1920
Posted 2/7/17. Updated 2/10/17. Maintained by Earl Tuson.