Family Tradition

Out Here Magazine, Pages 22-24 ^ | Fall 2013 | Nancy Dorman-Hickson

[Yosemitest]

Family Tradition
Sciple's Water Mill has been all in the family for nearly 200 years
By Nancy Dorman-Hickson
Photography by Meg McKinney


The honor box says a lot about Sciple’s Water Mill in De Kalb, Miss.
Attached to a stand that’s filled with the mill’s stone-ground whole-wheat flour, fish fry mix, grits, and meal,
the honor box means visitors won’t leave empty-handed even if the mill is closed.

“Most people are honest,” says Eddie Sciple, the mill’s operator and owner.
“Usually if meal is gone, there is money or an I.O.U. in the box.”

People have been coming to the mill for more than 200 years, and the Sciple family has owned it for most of those years.



“Our family bought the mill around 1830 or 1840.
I’m the fifth-generation Sciple,” Eddie says.
Edward, his father, retired three years ago.
Eddie’s daughters, Anna and Andrea, work in the mill occasionally.
At 4, Anna’s son Seth already has declared his intentions to be mill operator someday.

An American flag provides color amid the weathered gray siding and rusted tin roof of Kemper County’s oldest business.
The mill juts over a pond constantly fed by Running Tiger Creek.



“The water starts boiling out of the ground about two miles from here,” says Eddie.

Two stone steps and the original mill door offer entry.
Antique tools hang overhead while walls feature letters, a Roy Acuff postcard, nd an autographed photo of Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, a former television series about particularly messy occupations, which filmed an episode here.



The mill’s huge grinding stones are housed in a wooden encasement.

“The bottom one weighs 2,100 pounds and the top one, 1,600,” Eddie says.
He tosses in a half of a bushel of corn and pulls a lever, unleashing water that powers a water wheel.
Within seconds, the stones render kernels into finely powdered meal.





A Dr. Hunnelly from South Carolina first built the mill in 1790.
Two families owned it next before George Sciple, Edward’s great-great grandfather, began running the place for Rose McManis, a Michigan woman.
She sold it to George, followed by John, Jerry, George (again), Edward, and, most recently, Eddie Sciple.

The long-running mill is now open to the public only on Saturdays,

because Eddie works weekdays as an East Mississippi Community College instructor.

The stone-ground products engender loyalty seldom seen for steel-rolled products sold in supermarkets.
“Our meal is real smooth and round where theirs is jagged,” Eddie says.

Knowing how much space to leave between the bottom and top grinding stones determines the product’s texture.

“You can make it fine or coarse, according to how far apart your rocks are,” Eddie explains.
No additives make the mill’s products highly sought by those with celiac disease and gluten allergies.
(The fish fry includes added seasonings.)

“We keep a list on the wall of the first farmer that brings the first batch of corn or wheat each year,” Eddie says.
As payment for the grinding, Eddie says, the Sciples “toll” one-eighth of the farmer’s total raw product, “the same amount that they took in 1790.”

Millwork isn’t going to make anyone rich, Eddie concedes.
“There’s got to be a love for it or you wouldn’t be doing it.
It’s a lot of upkeep and a lot of late hours.”

Still, he says, “it’s like it gets in your blood.”

How the Gristmill Works

Pond water fuels the mill’s turbine water wheel, which powers the grinding stones.

“The wheel is like a bathtub stopper,” says Eddie.
“When I pull a lever inside, that opens these floodgates and lets the water into each of the wheel’s little ‘fingers,’ which turns the turbine.”

A dam and floodgates regulate the water.
“But if it rains hard and you don’t open the gates, your dam or even your mill will wash away,” says Eddie.

So he constantly watches the weather.
To alert him at his nearby house, he rigged a light activated by rising water.

“It might be lightning and raining, it might be 1 in the morning,” he says.
Whatever comes, he tries to be ready to beat Mother Nature.

Water Mill Opry

The Water Mill Opera Band performs for 3½ hours every Saturday night in the old country store across from the mill.
Each week, some 25 to 100 people pay $5 each, many carrying potluck offerings.
Gospel favorites such as The Old Rugged Cross and Peace in the Valley start the evening.
Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard standards finish out the night.

Edward Sciple is the main singer and guitar player.
“Mama used to blow the harp and play guitar and I learned three chords from her,” he says.
“Other than that, I just picked it up and went.”



Eddie, plays drums and sings, his sister, Ruby, plays keyboard and sings, and friends fill in the rest of the band for their audience’s listening or dancing pleasure.

No alcohol, smoking, or profanity is allowed at the Opry.
“We don’t want,” Eddie says, “a honkytonk.”





Sciple’s Water Mill Prices

10 lbs. meal, $5
3 lbs. meal, $2.50
2 lbs. grits, $2.50
3 lbs. whole-wheat flour, $3
2 lbs. fish fry mix, $3

[Yosemitest]

I've been there a few times, and I recommend it as a place to see, but in the daylight.

Here's some more history from another site.

Celebrate the past and the present at Kemper County Mississippi ( November 6, 2008 )

... By information obtained from Juanice Evans, Executive Director, Kemper County Chamber of Commerce, the county reports a rich history even though little is known of the first inhabitants of the area.
The first recorded history begins with Native Americans, the land of the Choctaw Nation.
One Choctaw legend gives Nanih Waiya Mound
(located northeast of Philadelphia Mississippi, off of State Highway 393)
as the birthplace of the Choctaw Nation.
The Nanih Waiya Mound and Village Park are listed on the National Register of History.
For more information: call (662) 724-2770.

The first white settlers may have arrived in the Kemper County area by the latter half of the 18th century as they established farmsteads and trading posts.
These settlers were in place when Andrew Jackson built the Jackson Military Road from Nashville to New Orleans.
Known today as the Old Jackson Road, parts of Jackson Military Road are still in use.
The 1830 Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek officially ceded the area, and on December 23 1833, the Mississippi Legislature created Kemper County --
naming it in honor of the Kemper brothers, Ruben, Nathan, and Samuel.
Ruben Kemper, at 6' 6" was a giant of a man, even for those days, and served as a spy for General Jackson during the War of 1812.
Dekalb, the county seat of government, was named for Baron Johan Dekalb,
a German soldier serving under French General Lafayette during the Revolutionary War.
After being wounded 13 times, the Baron gave his life for American independence at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina,
an area that reputedly gave Kemper County some of its early settlers.

It was during this time that Sciple's Mill became into existence and the mill is still in operation.
Mr. Edward Sciple is the present day owner of the mill located 10 miles northwest of Dekalb.
The mill was built on the site around 1790 by a Dr. Hunnelly
and was purchased by the Sciple family between 1830 and 1850.
Since that time there have been seven generations of Sciples working the mill.
The mill is powered by a Leffel Water Turbine Wheel, which develops 250 to 300 horsepower.
The mill can grind 32 bushels of corn or wheat per hour.
The present day wheel was placed in operation in 1880.
The mill museum is open for tours (free admission) 8 am to 3 pm on weekdays except during deer season.
On weekends, visitors can tour the grounds only.
The old mill building is a virtual museum of 19th century as there are displayed tools
and implements of every kind that hang from the ceiling and the walls.
Most of the school children in this area have toured Sciple's Mill
and arrive home with wide-eyed amazement to tell their parents and grandparents all about the water mill.

I must tell you that in addition to the mill museum, there is another opportunity at Sciple's Mill.
It's a musical opportunity.
Every Saturday night beginning at 5:00 pm, the mill house is open for music and dance.
Again, there's no admission fee, no smoking, no liquor, and no bad language allowed --
a time of fun for all ages. Musicians come out to sing their songs
-- from Blue Grass to Gospel, Country and a little Rock-n-Roll too.
Mr. Sciple says, "When it gets too hot, we'll just jump in the creek."

...

[Yosemitest]

One more thing>

Grist for the Mill, January 2, 2010

Chew on this…

Grist mills were once a focal point in any early American community just 60 or 70 years ago (all the way back to 200 years ago).
However, in just these recent years, people living in America have witnessed such a rapid transition of livelihood,
such monuments of our history are easily forgotten; their relevance a ghostly whisper from the past.

In any town, village, or city across countries and across continents grains have served as a necessary part of providing sustenance and life.
The symbolism I would like to associate with grist mills of our early American experience is exactly that — sustenance — they were an integral part of everyday life.
They were places of gathering and community.
They provided fresh ground grain which is unheard of or almost inaccessible in this day and age.
The nutritional potency of fresh ground grain is far greater compared to what we find on the shelves of the supermarket.
Store-bought white flour is nothing short of dead
(ok, maybe a bit dramatic — how about barely kickin’?)
before it graces our lovely tongues;
there are practically no nutrients left in this over-processed flour
(that’s why it always needs to be fortified!).
As a food activist, it doesn’t take much effort to put the pieces together — the agro-industrial complex has bitten us in the ass.
It’s not pretty folks.

I visited Sciples Mill in Dekalb, Mississippi today.
My mother took me to this mill when I was in middle school.
I still remember the trip. We hung out with Edward Sciples, the mill man and he showed us around.
My grandmother and sister were with us as well.
I actually have pictures of us sitting in a pile of grain sacks
(my sister in I in peg-leg rolled jeans and baggy sweatshirts).
At that time in my life, the grist mill didn’t mean much to me.
It was one of those trips that my mom thought would be enriching for her children.
I had no idea what was going on at the time. I barely knew how to cook for myself,
much less ponder on the origin and quality of my food.

Flash forward about 20 years, and the grist mill takes on an entirely new meaning.
I am currently staying with my mom for a few months in Mississippi after living in San Francisco and Eastern Europe (and the former Soviet Union) for the past 10 years.
Looking back, I realize that much of my time and energy after college (and Mississippi) has been concerned with food and how I feed myself.
And, this makes sense considering the swirl of fashionable foods, diet fads, and ways of eating that I have diligently kept at arms length
while bush-waking through the world to find my own way of eating.
Jessica Prentice in her book “Full Moon Feast” writes about her troubled relationship with food as a youth
and how isolated she felt in her struggle to feed herself and feel satisfied.
She says that “it never occurred to me
that all of America might be suffering from what journalist Michael Pollan would later call ‘our national eating disorder.’”


... My mom and I bought some grits and yellow corn meal and left our money in the honor box.
I love the honor box.
I suppose Edward doesn’t like customer service.

Why is this so satisfying!?
Who the hell knows.
Well, I guess I do know.
There are layers to this transaction:
a native, traditional food adopted by European colonists,
a energy-efficient water-powered mill operating since 1790,
family-owned and operated for 5 generations,
and a locally produced food
(however, I don’t know the varietal of corn — genetically-modified??? don’t know).
That’s why it felt good.

(By the way, due to a recent tornado, the mill has fallen into disrepair.
If any of you out there want to fund/help out with a great project —
check into helping the Sciples get their mill going again!)

And, I’ve been making tons of cornbread since this recent Thanksgiving due to an amazing recipe that has fallen into my lap:

1 1/2 c buttermilk (or kefir/yoghurt)
2 eggs
1 T honey
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda

Stir this together.
Then stir in:

1 1/2 c corn meal
1/2 c whole wheat flour (or kamut/spelt)
1/4 c butter, melted

Cook in a round skillet at 425 for 30 minutes.
I would suggest mixing honey and butter together to slop on the cornbread.
Take my word for it…
The first few times I made this cornbread, I bought Fully Belly Farm cornmeal from Bi-Rite Grocery in San Francisco.

... Here’s a little poem written by Edward that’s outside his mill door:

This little hamlet called Sciple’s Mill
Surely must have been the Master’s will
Tho’ the timbers are worn from rain and storm
The turbines still turn to grind the corn

The water ripples as it flows along
The birds chirp and sing their song
It is so quiet, so peaceful and still
It surely must have been the Master’s will
To have a place like Sciples’ Mill

—–

[OldNewYork]

I love places like this. Thanks for posting it.

[mcmuffin]

Thank you for a great read to start the week!

[Yosemitest]

It's not hard to find, but it is a little difficult.
If you have at least half a day to visit there, then go.
It could take a full day, and I think they do have camping on the weekends, but I'm not sure.

Go to www.mapquest.com and paste in "525 Sciples Mill RD, De Kalb, MS 39328". Then click on "Get Directions".
Off H-495 turn North-Northeast on "Smith-Galloway Rd" and from South to North on "Smith-Galloway Rd", you'll turn left on "Curtis Fulton Rd", a dirt road.
As you go down the hill, you'll see this.

Then you'll see this.

You can't miss it, because it dead ends at the mill.
Edward D. Sciple is at the house on the left.
Look for this man.

Have fun.

[Yosemitest]

My pleasure.

[who knows what evil?]

Thanks for a look at America’s better days...

[Have Ruck - Will Travel]

This is just one reason I love my home state. “Old times there are not forgotten.”

Wherever I go, no matter how far I roam in this world, I know that Mississippi is where I belong and, someday, where I will return.

[Yosemitest]

Look for Dirty Jobs: Season 7, Episode 4 Animal Relocator (9 Nov. 2010)

Mike travels to De Kalb, Mississippi, to spend a day at an old-fashioned stone ground corn mill.
Then he heads to Wills Point, Texas, to help relocate a pair of exotic Pere David's deer.

Runtime: 42 minutes
Original air date: November 8, 2010
Network: Discovery Channel

[Texas Fossil]

Thanks for the interesting link and story.

I had never heard of it.

My family has owned/operated farms in this county since 1889, so I have respect for things like this.

We have no water power, this part of Texas is normally pretty dry. Of late very dry.

A side note: my great great grandfather had a mill for livestock feed. It was wind powered and place on the 2nd floor of his barn. When the wind got high enough he would call the family out of the field to grind feed in the mill. I never saw that mill, but my father talks about it occassionally.

We are in the planting seed business. Primarily wheat. We have a seed cleaning and processing plant that my father built. It is not simple, not new, but works very well.

In the beginning we put the seed up in bags. For the past few years we only sold seed in bulk, typically in grain cart size loads.

Again, thank for the article and pic.

[Yosemitest]

You’re welcome.

[Yosemitest]

Source

Countless lyrical variants of "Dixie" exist, but the version attributed to Dan Emmett and its variations are the most popular.^[4] Emmett's lyrics as they were originally intended reflect the mood of the United States in the late 1850s toward growing abolitionist sentiment. The song presented the point of view, common to minstrelsy at the time, that slavery was overall a positive institution. The pining slave had been used in minstrel tunes since the early 1850s, including Emmett's "I Ain't Got Time to Tarry" and "Johnny Roach". The fact that "Dixie" and its precursors are dance tunes only further made light of the subject.^[12] In short, "Dixie" made the case, more strongly than any previous minstrel tune had, that slaves belonged in bondage.^[13] This was accomplished through the song's protagonist, who, in comic black dialect, implies that despite his freedom, he is homesick for the plantation of his birth:

I wish I was in the land of cotton,

Old times they are not forgotten;

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

In Dixie Land where I was born in,

Early on one frosty mornin,

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

The remaining verses drift into the common minstrel idiom of a comical plantation scenario, "supposedly [depicting] the gayer side of life for slaves on Southern plantations":^[14]

Old Missus marry "Will-de-weaber,"

Willium was a gay deceaber;

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

But when he put his arm around'er,

He smiled as fierce as a forty-pound'er,

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

The final verse mixes nonsense and dance steps with the freed-slave scenario:

Dar's buck-wheat cakes an 'Ingen' batter,

Makes you fat or a little fatter;

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.

Den hoe it down an scratch your grabble,

To Dixie land I'm bound to trabble.

Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land.^[15]

The lyrics use many common phrases found in minstrel tunes of the day—"I wish I was in . . ." dates to at least "Clare de Kitchen" (early 1830s), and "Away down south in . . ." appears in many more songs, including Emmett's "I'm Gwine ober de Mountain" (1843). The second stanza clearly echoes "Gumbo Chaff" from the 1830s: "Den Missus she did marry Big Bill de weaver / Soon she found out he was a gay deceiver".^[16] The final stanza rewords portions of Emmett's own "De Wild Goose-Nation": "De tarapin he thot it was time for to trabble / He screw aron his tail and begin to scratch grabble."^[17] Even the phrase "Dixie's land" had been used in Emmett's "Johnny Roach" and "I Ain't Got Time to Tarry", both first performed earlier in 1859.

As with other minstrel material, "Dixie" entered common circulation among blackface performers, and many of them added their own verses or altered the song in other ways. Emmett himself adopted the tune for a pseudo-African American spiritual in the 1870s or 1880s. The chorus changed to:

I wish I was in Canaan

Oaber dar—Oaber dar,

In Canaan's lann de color'd man

Can lib an die in cloaber

Oaber dar—Oaber dar,

Oaber dar in de lann ob Canaan.^[18]

Both Union and Confederate composers produced war versions of the song during the American Civil War. These variants standardized the spelling and made the song more militant, replacing the slave scenario with specific references to the conflict or to Northern or Southern pride. This Confederate verse by Albert Pike is representative:

Southrons! hear your country call you!

Up! lest worse than death befall you! . . .

Hear the Northern thunders mutter! . . .

Northern flags in South wind flutter; . . .

Send them back your fierce defiance!

Stamp upon the cursed alliance!^[19]

Compare Frances J. Crosby's Union lyrics:

On! ye patriots to the battle,

Hear Fort Moultrie's cannon rattle!

Then away, then away, then away to the fight!

Go meet those Southern traitors,

With iron will.

And should your courage falter, boys,

Remember Bunker Hill.

Hurrah! Hurrah! The Stars and Stripes forever!

Hurrah! Hurrah! Our Union shall not sever!^[20]

The Confederate States of America War Song Goes Like This:

Southern men the thunders mutter!

Northern flags in South winds flutter!

To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!

Send them back your fierce defiance!

Stamp upon the cursed alliance!

To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!

Advance the flag of Dixie! Hurrah! Hurrah!

In Dixie's land we take our stand, and live or die for Dixie!

To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie!

To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie

Fear no danger! Shun no labor!

Lift up rifle, pike, and saber!

To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!

Shoulder pressing close to shoulder,

Let the odds make each heart bolder!

To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!

Advance the flag of Dixie! Hurrah! Hurrah!

In Dixie's land we take our stand, and live or die for Dixie!

To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie!

To arms! To arms! And conquer peace for Dixie!

Swear upon your country's altar

Never to submit or falter--

To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!

Till the spoilers are defeated,

Till the Lord's work is completed!

To arms! To arms! To arms, in Dixie!

"The New Dixie!: The True 'Dixie' for Northern Singers" takes a different approach, turning the original song on its head:

Den I'm glad I'm not in Dixie

Hooray! Hooray!

In Yankee land I'll took my stand,

Nor lib no die in Dixie^[21]

Soldiers on both sides wrote endless parody versions of the song. Often these discussed the banalities of camp life: "Pork and cabbage in the pot, / It goes in cold and comes out hot," or, "Vinegar put right on red beet, / It makes them always fit to eat". Others were more nonsensical: "Way down South in the fields of cotton, / Vinegar shoes and paper stockings".^[22]

Aside from its being rendered in standard English, the chorus was the only section not regularly altered, even for parodies.^[23] The first verse and chorus, in non-dialect form, are the best-known portions of the song today:^[24]

I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten,

Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.

In Dixie Land where I was born in, early on a frosty mornin',

Look away, look away, look away, Dixie Land.

Then I wish I was in Dixie, hooray! hooray!

In Dixie Land I'll take my stand to live and die in Dixie,

Away, away, away down South in Dixie,

Away, away, away down South in Dixie.^[25]

[WKB]

Mississippi ping

[petitfour]

Thanks for sharing!

[Yosemitest]

Go visit it, and enjoy.

[MissMagnolia]

Love old mills .... this is the one where I buy stone ground corn grits when I'm in the area: Wade's Mill

[Yosemitest]

I do, too.

[Islander7]

My sister gave me 10 bag of their meal as a gift. Good stuff !!

[duffee]

Thanks for the info. will look them up, I sure would like some stone ground grits. Country ham, red eye gravy, eggs, buttermilk biscuits and grits. A nice alternative to bacon, eggs, buttermilk biscuits and buttered grits.

What’s the most important meal of the day?
“The next one.” -— Hagar The Horrible —

[Yosemitest]

Good quote !