History of the town of Plainfield, Hampshire County, Mass., from its settlement to 1891, including a genealogical history of twenty three of the original settlers and their descendants, with anecdotes and sketches . , were the first mills of any kind establishedhere, being mentioned in the records as early as 1791. In1798 the grist mill was purchased by Joseph Beals, theMountain Miller, who managed the business until hisdeath in 1813. His son, Dea. Robert, then conducted itfor a number of years, and about 1827 or 1828 built thepresent mill, which stands several rods further down thestream than
History of the town of Plainfield, Hampshire County, Mass., from its settlement to 1891, including a genealogical history of twenty three of the original settlers and their descendants, with anecdotes and sketches . , were the first mills of any kind establishedhere, being mentioned in the records as early as 1791. In1798 the grist mill was purchased by Joseph Beals, theMountain Miller, who managed the business until hisdeath in 1813. His son, Dea. Robert, then conducted itfor a number of years, and about 1827 or 1828 built thepresent mill, which stands several rods further down thestream than the original structure. Jared Bisbee, HcjratioLyon, Dexter White and Edwin Torrey succeeded in turnto the management. In 1801 James A. Nash purchasedthe property. He has greatly improved it and still carrieson the business. Samuel Streeters saw-mill stood justabove the site of Streeters factory. A saw-mill operatedby his sons and grandson, also his great-grandson, wascontinued on the same site until about 1870. On the brookin the northeast corner of the town is a saw-mill. Theoriginal mill on this site w^as built by Levi Campbell, andwas for many years operated by his son, Levi N. Campbell. MANUFACTUKES. 69. 70 HISTORY OF PLAINFIELD. About 1884 or 1885 it came into the possession of GeorgeW. Billings. He substituted a circular mill for the oldstyle, and carried on the business until the mill was burn-ed in April, 1890. Mr. Billings has rebiiilt it, and pur-chased new machinery. His specialty is the manufactureof cloth boards. The stream which runs near Wm. has been from early times the scene of many at-tempts at manufacture, most of them being for the timesuccessful. Probably the first enterprise of this sort wasthe grist mill of Thomas Shaw, which was situated somedistance north of W. H. Dyers, near the old exists that places the date of its erection before1800. It was aljandoned about 1830, and no trace of itremains. Who first opened the brickyard
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