Mill Details

Dillard Mill

Crawford Co. | Missouri | USA
Known Dates: Earlier mill 1850, This mill 1908
Township: Berwick Twp.
Watersource: Huzzah Creek.

Location / Directions

Dillard Mill

From Cherryville, MO on Sh 19, turn left onto Sh 49. Turn right about five miles later to stay on Hwy. 49. After another five miles, turn right onto Dillard Mill Road/Cr 811. Once the road turns to gravel, the historic site is one mile farther.

Verse for Thought
"Jehoiada the priest taught Joash what was right, and so for the rest iof his life Joash obeyed the Lord."
({2 Kings 12:2 CEV})
Dillard Mill
Kevin Ferguson 05/23/2007

Dillard Mill is the second mill built on this site. The first was a mill built by Francis Wisdom in 1850 and known as Wisdom's Mill. The mill used the same dam as that used by Dillard Mill later and was a sought after site for photographers as a backdrop.

Dillard Mill
Jim Miller 09/08/2004

Joseph Dillard Cottrell bought Wisdom's Mill in 1881; the community of Dillard having grown up around the mill and the village taking its name from Dillard Cottrell.

Dillard Mill
Kevin Ferguson 05/23/2007

The mill burned in 1895; even so, much of the town had already shifted a mile north to relocate near the Sligo & Eastern Railroad line.

Dillard Mill
Jim Miller 09/08/2004

Emil Mischke had purchased the millsite and ruins in 1900 and began to rebuild a 30'X 40' frame structure, using some of the salvaged timbers of the old mill, on the rocky outcrop on the edge of dam. the photo shoes the tailrace coming from the turbine pit.

Dillard Mill
Jim Miller 09/08/2004

Four schoolhouses were located near here consecutively. The first frame one-room school washed away in a flood after 1898; the second, built the same year as the current mill, burned; a 1938 fire destroyed the third (stone) mill; and the 4th mill, another stone mill built by WPA labor still survives, abandoned near the entrance to the present mill along Sh 49.

Dillard Mill
Jim Miller 09/08/2004

Midchke installed two stands of the new steel roller mills and also replaced the wheel with a steel turbine. Mischke sold the mill in 1930 to Lester Klemme and moved with his wife to California.

Dillard Mill
Jim Miller 09/08/2004

Klemme also operated an Old Mill Inn near the mill. A person could swim, fish and eat meals with the Klemme family for $7.00/day.

Dillard Mill
Jim Miller 09/08/2004

The Inn was operated into the early 1960's, but the mill closed in 1956 from its role as a feed mill, grinding livestock feeds. Klemme continued to live on at the mill location through 1974.

Dillard Mill
Jim Miller 09/08/2004

In 1974, Klemme sold Mischke's Mill/Dillard Mill to a non-profit St. Louis based group called L-A-D Foundation. Starting in December 1975, the foundation leased the property and mill to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources as the Dillard Mill Historic Site.

Dillard Mill
Kevin Ferguson 05/23/2007

A final view of the mill and dam from the trail leading from the parking lot to the mill.

 
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