The Gristmill of York Center

Mrs. Johanna Fred Finke and Mrs. Fred Runge, Runge’s Mill, photograph, c.1912.

Heavy wooden shoes from Holland made firm impressions now on tall prairie grasses, grinding them into the mud, as Louis Backhaus came to York Center. On the west side of Meyers Road, near Sixteenth Street, he built the gristmill which, for many years, ground the grain for local farmers - built it of red-painted wood held together with wooden bolts he brought from Holland.

Besides being useful, the windmill was a beautiful thing to see, with its four forty-foot arms swiftly yielding to the breath of the wind. Or, if there were no winds, standing a stark silhouette against the sky. No less beautiful was the picture the women made as, with knitting held in their fingers, they herded their geese along the roadside. In this quaint settlement, only wooden shoes were worn; the men wore broad-brimmed Quaker hats; only Holland-Dutch was spoken.

The miller made a picture, too, standing in the doorway - covered with flour. His name was Louis, but millers were always called "Fritz." He had built the mill, so he was known as "Fritz der Erste," Fritz the First. When he sold to Fred Runge, Fred became "Fritz the Second," and when he, in turn, sold to Louis Reineke, Louis became "Fritz the Third." He owned it for twelve years.

His daughter, Edna Reineke Ward, tells that shortly before World War I, the mill was sadly in need of repairs. These would have cost $1,500, so her father sold the windmill to Colonel Fabyan.

The Colonel had Hollanders come over, take it down, piece by piece, repair it, and rebuild it on his estate "Riverbank" on the Fox River between Geneva and Batavia, Illinois. There, in the Fabyan Forest Preserve, it can be seen in all its old-world stateliness and charm.

Wind mill in new location in Fabian near Batavia, photograph, nd.