Volume 4, Number 4 - Summer 1971
The Pedrow Moberly’s Grist Mill
By Almer A. Ridge
One of the many changes brought to Taney County by the construction of the Dam at Powersite, Missouri was the loss of the post office and grist mill at Pedrow, Missouri. The Pedrow Mill was located on Bull Creek one mile above where that stream joins White River.
William Pedrow Moberly came to Taney County in the early l880’s and built the dam and the grist mill on Bull creek. He had been a miller in North Central Missouri. I recall his telling my Father that he had traveled twenty miles up Bull Creek looking for a favorable site for a dam and found the only one that was suitable. He explained that to have a good mill, a narrow place in the stream with high banks on both sides was essential. There was a bluff on he east side with a rather steep hill on the opposite side.
Pedrow Moberly built his mill dam out of oak planks with oak pilings set in bed rock. The Dam was about seven feet on height. The mill was a two-story building built out of rough sawed oak lumber. The rather steep bank made it possible to have an entry to the second story from the hillside. The construction must have been done in an excellent manner as high water never apparently damaged the mill.
Harrison-Springfield Freighters passed the mill one mile before crossing the White River at the Hensley Ferry.
I first saw Pedrow Moberly on a chilly rainy September afternoon in 1911, from the back of a covered wagon. Dad had stopped briefly at the Pedrow store to get a pound of coffee. This store was located one mile from the farm we had purchased. Mother and we three children had arrived at Branson, Missouri, by train the day before. Dad had arrived with a freight car in which was stored our household goods, a team and two cows a couple days before.
Mr. Moberly came up a path toward his home and store from his mill and for a seven ear old boy, was an awesome and unforgetable figure. In a day when many men wore beards, Mr. Moberly's beard was particularly long and bushy. His hair came down to his shoulders. He was a stockly built man. He had been working in the mill and his clothing, hair and beard was covered with meal dust and the rain had caused streaks down his face. I recall that he talked in a loud voice—the apparent result for so many years in the noisy mill and needing to raise his voice to speak above the roar of the mill.
Pedrow Moberly seemed to me to be a very old man. I do not know his age but believe he must have been in his late sixty’s or early seventy’s at the time as he had grandchildren who were nearly grown.
I later learned that all of the mill machinery and the big stone burrs as well as sawmill machinery had been brought in by wagon freighters from Springfield. This was long before the coming of the railroad to Branson.
Moberly, in addition to the mill site, also purchased a small farm, which he operated One room of his house was used as a store and post office. The post office was given the name Pedrow. I do not know who was responsible for naming the post office for the owner. Here in the small store a general line of groceries was kept. In front of the store and above the mill there was an open space of about two acres. Here we were told freighters in the days before the coming of the railroads, camped at night. Here, also people tied their teams while waiting for their corn to be ground.
Old timers told of there being, at times, many teams tied up with their owners waiting their turns for grinding. The corn meal ground by Pedrow Moberly was famous all over a wide area for it’s quality. Old timers always said that cornmeal crushed by stone burrs was far superior to that cut by fast moving steel burrs. They claimed that the crushing of the grain resulted in cornmeal that was not heated in any way. There was no effort to screen the meal. This was done by the housewife before she baked the cornbread. Only white corn was used for the best cornmeal.
Wheat was also ground for flour at the Moberly mill, but at the time we moved to Taney County almost all of the output of the mill was cornmeal.
In addition to doing custom grinding Pedrow Moberly, in early days, found a ready
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sale of his meal to the Springfield-Harrison Freighters for resale at both Springfield and in Arkansas. Pedrow took a toll of one-sixth from each "grist" of corn and found a ready sale for all surplus. It is interesting to know that after the taking of the "toll" the remaining ground meal filled a sack fuller than the corn brought to the mill.
I recall going to the Moberly Mill with my Father and marveling at the mill operation. The noise of the turning machinery was almost deafening and the sight of the belts operating was a marvel to a small boy.
The noise of the mill in operation seemed to almost carry a tune and some of the local boys said that the grist mill kept repeating "Moberly this and Moberly that,— Moberly, Moberly."
In addition to the operation of the grist mill, Moberly also operated a sawmill. Logs brought in by farmers in the area were sawed into lumber. Here again the system of belts and gears was a marvel to me. I have heard my Father say that Pedrow Moberly was a good mechanic. The sawmill made a much louder noise than the grist mill.
Two grandchildren, Homer Moberly and Birdie Moberly, lived with Pedrow Moberly and his wife at the time we moved to Taney County. Both were about 17 and attended the Flint Hill School. Homer was most helpful to me and befriended me from the good natured teasing of other older boys. A few years later Homer lost his life in an Illinois coal mine disaster.
A daughter and Moberly’s wife kept the little store and post office. Mail was carried by horseback from Branson to Pedrow. The carrier continued to Walnut Shade, Missouri. The mail route from Branson to Pedrow followed White River along "the Narrows" to Bull Creek before reaching Pedrow.
The deep hole below the Moberly mill dam was a great fishing place. I never fished there but several of my schoolmates caught strings of fish there. Pedrow Moberly was reported to have some kind of a trap where he caught fish as they tried to enter the mill pond. Several boys told of his giving them fish when they failed to make catches.
I recall that the Moberly mill pond froze ice several inches thick during the winter of1911-1912. Dad and several neighbors "put up ice" from the millpond. The ice was stored in a building on Moberly’s property. The layers of ice were covered with sawdust from the Moberly sawmill. The following summer we and other neighbors were able to make ice cream using the stored ice.
Pedrow Moberly was given credit by some of the neighbors for bringing to the Bull Creek neighborhood Johnson grass and talking several farmers into sowing some of this crop. To this day the Johnson Grass is a menace to farming on many Bull Creek farms.
In 1912 the erection of the dam at Powersite was a certainty and Company buyers began buying the farms that would have land inundated. The surveys showed that the backwater would fully cover the Moberly Dam and negotations with Pedrow Moberly for the purchase of his mill and dam began.
Pedrow Moberly had at the time he built his dam and mill obtained a Federal permit (Miller’s Right) for the construction which stated that no other dam could be built above or below which would interfer with his dam and mill. With this "Ace in the Hole" Pedrow Moberly held out long after most of the other land had been purchased.
The records at the Taney County Recorder’s Office, Forsyth, Missouri show that on Janurary 27, 1913, William Pedrow Moberly and Anjentta Moberly deeded to the White River Construction Company 82 1/2 acres more or less for a recorded consideration of $5000.00 with Moberly keeping all of the grist and sawmill machinery. Moberly was also given permission to retain possession of the house until May 1, 1913.
My Father always said that Mr. Moberly could have gotten far more than the $5000.00 but I am sure that this amount seemed large to Pedrow Moberly. The grist and sawmill machinery as well as the large stone burrs were hauled to Branson and shipped by Moberly to his new home in North Central Missouri. Whether be built a new mill I do not know, but he, even at his advanced age, planned to build a new mill.
It must have been in the early 1930’s that a picture of Pedrow Moberly appeared in he Pictorial Section of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. I believe that at that time he lived at Eldorado Springs, Missouri and to me he did not appear to be much older than when I first saw him in 1911.
To this day there are people in Taney County who will tell you that there has never been corn meal ground that equalled that which was ground at the Pedrow Moberly mill. I, relying on boyhood memory, agree.
There are still traces of the old mill dame to be seen in the Bull Creek arm of Lake Taneycomo.
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