Price's Mill, also known as Calliham's (Callaham's) Mill, Stone's Mill, and Park's Mill, is a water-powered gristmill about east of the town of Parksville on South Carolina Highway 33-138 (Price's Mill Road) at Stevens Creek in

McCormick County McCormick County is a county located in the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 9,526, making it the second least-populous county in South Carolina. Its county seat is McCormick. The county was formed in 191 ...

. Its name in the USGS Geographic Names Information System is Prices Mill. It was built in the 1890s and was named to the National Register of Historic Places on November 22, 1972. At this time, it was one of the few remaining water-powered gristmills in South Carolina.

History

David Calliham, who was son of Nicholas Callaham and was born in Virginia, acquired land on Stevens Creek in

Ninety-Six District, South Carolina Ninety-Six District (not "96th") is a former judicial district in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It existed as a district from 29 July 1769 to 31 December 1799. The court house and jail for Ninety-Six District were in Ninety Six, South Carolina. ...

, around 1768. He established a gristmill on the creek. He died prior to 1784. In addition to the gristmill, a cotton gin and a flour mill have operated nearby. These have been destroyed by floods. The current mill building was constructed in the 1890s. Starting in 1910, R. A. Price operated the mill. He worked up to seven days per week and produced as much as of

cornmeal Cornmeal is a meal (coarse flour) or a cell membrane ground from dried corn. It is a common staple food, and is ground to coarse, medium, and fine consistencies, but not as fine as wheat flour can be.Herbst, Sharon, ''Food Lover's Companion'', ...

each week. In his early work, he took a toll of the meal ground for farmers. He died in 1968. His son, John M. Price, took over the mill. By this time toll milling ceased and the mill purchased corn to grind meal. He produced around of white or yellow cornmeal in the early 1970s by operating three days a week. He marketed the cornmeal under the mill's own label in McCormick and Greenwood County retail stores. In this period, he had an employee. According to a 2003 travel guide, the mill is no longer operated.

Architecture

The mill is a two-story, frame building with a gable roof. It is constructed of rough-hewn pine. It has by exposed beams that are mortised and doweled. The building's foundation is brick piers. A steel

cyclone In meteorology, a cyclone () is a large air mass that rotates around a strong center of low atmospheric pressure, counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere as viewed from above (opposite to an anti ...

air cleaner can be seen on its roof in photographs. The burr-type

mill stone Millstones or mill stones are stones used in gristmills, for grinding wheat or other grains. They are sometimes referred to as grindstones or grinding stones. Millstones come in pairs: a convex stationary base known as the ''bedstone'' and ...

s are in diameter. They are enclosed in a wooden housing. The upper or runner stone has a round hole. The lower bedstone has a square hole. Grain enters through a funnel and exits into a bin. The stones can be raised or lowered to adjust the texture of the product. A rock and mortar dam, which was built in the early 19th century, was used at the mill to impound Steven's Creek. This dam was replaced in 1913 by a tall concrete dam. Power is produced by a steel turbine and is delivered by a long shaft to a wooden cartwheel gear below the mill building.

References

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina Grinding mills on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina Historic American Engineering Record in South Carolina Industrial buildings completed in 1890 Buildings and structures in McCormick County, South Carolina Watermills in the United States Grinding mills in South Carolina National Register of Historic Places in McCormick County, South Carolina