Saw, grist mills a vital part of county's early growth

Between 1835 and 1839, 13 sawmills were built on the Des Plaines River and its tributaries throughout the Chicago region. However, the number of sawmills dwindled in the 1850s as cheaper sources of lumber, in particular pine from Michigan, was shipped via the lake. By 1902, the last of Lake County's sawmills closed.

Gristmills, more critical to agricultural-based communities, survived in this region until the 1940s along with a thriving farming industry.

In the early days, the main roads led to the gristmill. Farmers needed local gristmills to grind their grain into flour. They would be charged a "miller's toll" for the service, but then could sell or use the flour and ground animal feed.

Gristmills ground clean grains from which stalks and chaff have been removed, but some mills housed equipment for threshing, sorting and cleaning prior to grinding.

In 1835, Jacob Miller constructed both a sawmill and, shortly thereafter, the county's first gristmill on Mill Creek in Newport Township. In 1849, Miller got "gold fever" and sold his business, thinking he could do better as a gold prospector in California, but unfortunately, he died en route.

Miller's mills were sold several times until finally closing around 1870. Later, the site of the old mills was marked by a large boulder.

In 1888, brothers Silenus and Marion Knedler founded a gristmill in Prairie View near the railroad tracks. Previously they had operated a small feed mill on what is now Route 83 near Long Grove.

The Prairie View operation, a three-story structure, was operated by a stationary steam engine. In its early days, the mill ground grain for stock feed and wheat for flour. By the 1940s, corn, barley, rye and soybeans were also being ground.

During World War II, the mill was given "priority rights" by the U.S. government, denoting their work toward the war effort.

The Knedler brothers were in their 80s, but that did not stop them from working long days to meet the needs of area farmers. The mill served almost all of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

The Knedlers sold the operation to Leonard Liepelt, who operated it as a feed mill until 1973. Then Liepelt sold the mill on contract to Norm Ahrens, who leased it to Robert Miller. Miller continued it as the Prairie View Feed Mill until it was destroyed by fire one night in April 1978.