Feb. 1, 2010

Georgia couple has old mill up and running

By Maci Hughes

CENTRE — Jerry Don Dempsey was born in Floyd County, Ga. in 1941, one of four children of Reverend Eddie Duke and Clara Ruth Dempsey. Jerry spent much of his childhood in Cave Spring, Ga. Peggy Sue Wood was also born in Floyd County, in 1943, and spent her adolescence just across the Alabama-Georgia state line in Cherokee County.

Jerry Don and Peggy Sue got married in December 1961.

Six years ago, the Dempseys purchased land where old Chandler's Mill and the old water races, originally dug by slaves, had once been. They bought the property from George Austin Ashley, a descendant of the Chandler family. The Chandler's Mill was homesteaded land that had never been sold out of the family until Jerry Don and Peggy Sue bought it.

In 2004, the old mill and the land it was located on were both in bad shape, and no one had a clue when it had last been in operation. Upon first glance, one would have been unable to distinguish its past life as an enormous, working grist mill.
 
Jerry Don has worked for the last five years on restoring the old mill site. First, the land had to be cleared off so the original races that ran to Spring Creek could be located. Also, the old mill site had to be cleared off and dug out to see if anything of the original mill remained. Buried under colossal mounds of mud and sand, Jerry found the original turbans. He had them sand-blasted and cleaned up so that they could be put back into their original spots.

“The race way was dug out first,” Jerry Don said, “because you have to control the water that comes down the race way the best you can. Sometimes you can't do that very well given the strength of Mother Nature, so you do the best you can.”

Jerry worked persistently to clean up the turbine and place it in the whole it had originally sat in back in 1860. After some new parts were added, it was ready to run.

Then, Jerry constructed a cabin for the mill house. He built three sides of the cabin in order to place all original grist mill parts back in working order, just as they were 150 years ago.

In summer 2007, Jerry began preparing to build a water wheel. He worked on it that fall and continued off and on until it was completed in 2008. The entire family helped reconstruction the wheel. Jerry ran the wheel for a year with wooden paddles. In 2009, a metal paddles replaced the wood.

By last November, Jerry moved the original grinding wheels, corn-sheller, and other original pieces back to Chandler's mill so people could see how it ran during the 1860s.

“Chandler's Mill is a working project,” Peggy said. “There will always be work to do.”

Chandler's Mill is open and offers fresh-ground corn meal. Anyone wishing to visit the mill can contact Peggy Dempsey at 256-475-3511.