Grist Mills in Colonial America

Grist Mills were vital to the development and sustenance of any community in Colonial America, especially on a plantation such as Smithfield. Without a mill to grind meal and flour, a community lacked long-term food storage options for cereal crops. The Prestons not only ground corn and oats into meal and wheat into flour, but they also would have provided this service to neighbors for a fee. Cereal crops included corn, oats, wheat, buckwheat, barley, etc.

Corn

As it was a New World crop, corn’s importance to Native American diets can scarcely be overstated. Corn was an efficient crop and one of the most efficient foods known to man to this day. It’s an excellent source of fiber, protein, and Vitamin B. Corn is also rich in minerals like zinc, copper, manganese, magnesium, and iron. There can be as many as 30 grams of carbohydrates and as many as 5 grams of protein packed into just one cup of cooked corn. Pound for pound, there’s no food that provides so much benefit in the same serving size.

Corn was also a versatile crop. It could be fed to humans and animals alike. Kernels could be ground into meal and the process makes it possible to store cornmeal away for another time in which it will be needed. Cobs were burned for fuel. Finally, corn could be distilled and made into whiskey. Col. William Preston turned a profit off of whiskey sales among several other sources of income. Distillation activities are recorded as being performed at Greenfield, but probably would have likewise been in progress at Smithfield.