A mid-late 19th century turbine powered frame grist mill that is still operational. A wooden flume supplies water from Halawakee Creek via the mill pond to the approximately 12' steel overshot wheel at the rear of the 2.5 story mill. The mill is shown by appointment. Phone (334) 705-0773 by owner John Ross, 6247 US 29 North, Opelika, AL 36801.

Beans Mill on Halawakee Creek, S29 Lee County, AL (Chambers before 1866) is the site of one of the earliest mills in the Chattahoochee Valley. In 1834 Sam Carter and Henry Byrd built a sawmi1l, an up ? down type since the circular saw had not been developed.

In 1836 Mr. Byrd added a gristmill and, when Moses Wheat and son Asbury purchased the property in 1837, they had hopes of great success in the firm of WHEAT AND SON. Tragically, only weeks after the mills were dedicated in January of 1838, Asbury was killed? by mill race timbers falling and crushing his head?.

After several changes in ownership, in 1848, John ?Jack? Floyd purchased the property with his son Charles JetIerson (sic). In 1852, Floyd?s Mill Road was established (now US29 between Double Hill Road and Ridge Road.)

The mills were a vital part of the area during the rest of the 19th century. Hiram Murphy was a partner with James C. Floyd in the late 1850?s.

They had apparently just completed reconstructing the gristmill when, in 1861, Hiram was thrown upon a broken, pointed piece of iron and his thigh pierced, from which he soon died. The mills operated throughout the war years and several entries in the estate records refer to sales to "the government".

The waterwheel. James went off to fight for the Confederacy and died in Richmond, VA in 1864. The Hiram Murphy and James Floyd estates were finally settled in 1869, well after Lee County was created.

A view of the overshot wheel, the gearing mechanisms, and how it transfers to belt drive to run the interior machines.

In 1874 a flood washed out the gristmill (the dam and the sawmill across the creek survived). The property was petitioned by John W. Floyd to be sold, however, the request was rescinded and John W. with partner W.H.H. Griffin built the gristmill now reconstructed and owned the mills until their deaths when B J Meadows bought the mills in estate sales.

One section of many that used to form the dam across the Halawakee Creek. Many of these set next to each other, low end to high, as the stream flowed.

A close-up of the bottom of the waterfall/dam end. In the 1930s a canning school was set up by the extension service. The remains of the "cannery" still exist. In 1939 FDR, on his way from Opelika to Warm Springs, stopped his motorcade for a visit.

In 1897 the first iron bridge in Lee County was built at Floyds Mill. In 1928 the present bridge replaced it and in 1929 the first paved highway in Lee County was opened from West Point to Opelika. Mr. Bean installed a Fitz waterwheel around 1910 to replace the old patched turbine.

A rear view, from the mill, of the store up along the highway.Mr. Bean died in 1952 and the site was virtually abandoned until John and Faye Ross bought the property in 1989. The gristmill built in 1875 has now been reconstructed, not as a business but for folks to get a glimpse of how things were, over a hundred years ago. The big timber on the right side of the store, was found in the creek 200 feet downstream, possible a sill from the 1861 mill, located where the present mill stands.

The mill is shown by appointment. Phone (334) 705-0773 by owner John Ross, 6247 US 29 North, Opelika, AL 36801. www.eastalabama.org(back_slash)beansmill.htmMost of the narrative borrowed from the Stephanie Lane Wordpress website listed above.GPS: 32D 41.82'N, 85D 16.03'W ele 650 feet'/198 meters Opelika Quadrangle