This mill was probably built in the 1800's by Henry C. Spengler. Spengler, however, was not the first to operate a mill on this site. The 1797 map of the town of Chatham shows a grist mill at this location. In 1848, Abraham Van Alstyne sold "the Van Alstyne Mill Lot" to George Kessler. By 1850 Kessler's mill was the largest of the flour and grist mills in the town.

In 1860, with a crew of four men, he reported grinding 30,000 bushels of rye, and other grains. Kessler had mortgaged the property as early as 1851, and after his death in 1872, the property was acquired by the Hudson City Savings Institution, from which Henry Spengler bought the mill in 1876. Spengler is best known for introducing electricity to Chatham.

In 1885, he organized the Chatham Electric Light Co. He installed a 75-kilowatt, Stanley Single-phase generator in the grist mill. He continued to supply electricity to the town and village for the next decade, until a fire destroyed the electric generating plant. In 1898, he sold the entire mill property to the power company's director, Joseph M. Klinglesmith.

. When the power Co. sold the mill to Clarence Van Alstyne in 1905, it included a clause prohibiting the owners from producing electricity. It is unclear if Van Alstyne ran the mill himself or not. He then sold the mill property in 1927 to James D. Shields who made it part of a farm and summer home.

Robert and Marian Van Ness moved into the small frame house next to the mill c1920. Robert became the farm superintendent and continued to run the grist mill about 3 days a week With the breaching of the dam in the `930's, the mill ceased operations.

Thereafter, the mill was used primarily as a barn. The Amoco executive, Jacob Baldes owned the farm and mill from 1941 to 1948, and John J. Leu owned it from 1949 to 1972. GPS: 42' 25.49N, 73' 35.56W