Frontier Milling in Western New York

Abstract

Sawmilling and gristmilling activities shaped the economic geography of the nineteenth-century eastern North American frontier. Placement and development of mills in western New York are analyzed to measure the effect of a large private land company on the geography of mills and to consider a set of general theoretical concepts that assess factors of frontier-mill location. Results illustrate the variety of assistance provided to millers by land companies and demonstrate their crucial role during early years of settlement. Physical site, demand, and access to capital and technical expertise were interrelated locational factors affecting the geography of early mills. SAWMILLS and gristmills provided key economic services on the nineteenth-century American frontier. Their distribution shaped evolving patterns of settlement and economic development. In this article I assess the role of a large private land company in the geography of early frontier mills, and I suggest a set of general theoretical concepts that describe locational factors for mills during initial eras of settlement. Westernmost New York is a useful regional context in which to reconstruct and to evaluate patterns of mill location during such an era. The area was one where a large private land company exercised considerable control over development. A group of Dutch banking houses, known as the Holland Land Company, acquired 3.3 million acres in the region during the early 1790s, opened the tract for settlement in 1800, and retained an active interest in the area for several decades (Fig. 1).1