At one point in history flour milling was the most important industry in Nebraska and virtually all of it depended on water power, something much of the state had in abundance.
A flouring mill, often worked in conjunction with a saw mill, frequently became the nucleus of a community and although no water-powered flouring mills now commercial produce flour in the state at one point there were nearly 150 in existence. In early Nebraska it was not uncommon for a fledgling city to offer a cash bounty or free lots to induce the erection of a mill. Although Dewitt was actually born through a branch of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, a flouring mill attracted farmers from a large area and was a major factor of the city’s initial growth culminating in the birth of the Vise-Grip Manufacturing Company.
Twenty-three acres were platted as Swan City in Saline County in 1868 and two years later, as Dunbar & Baker opened the county’s first flouring mill at the intersection of Swan Creek and Turkey Creek it was reportedly “one of the finest flour mills in the state.” That year there were 40 water-powered flouring mills in the state.
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Civil War survivor Joseph Suiter immigrated to Nebraska, homesteading east of Swan City in 1867. The Republican Valley branch of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad cut through Suiter’s land in 1872 and established a depot at a point they named Dennison in honor of John Dennison. Dennison was uninterested in the honor and offered $50 if the name was changed. The new name of Dewitt was chosen to honor Dewitt Talmage who also gave his name to Talmage in Otoe County.
Joseph Suiter’s brother Frank, who also served in the Civil War, arrived in 1874, began publishing the Dewitt Times, and that July the pair built a flour mill on the nearby Blue River. As Dewitt began to prosper the merchants of Swan City including Hunt’s general store and many residents picked up their homes and buildings and moved them into Dewitt. In January of 1875 a fire burned much of the downtown and most of the merchants of Dewitt lost their businesses while construction of the Suiter’s mill continued and was completed in July. After operating the mill for only two years it was sold to Hiram Webb’s Holt & Webb Company which lasted only until the fall of 1878 when a fire burned 13,000 bushels of grain and 300 barrels of flour.
After a series of owners, a major reconstruction of the mill was instituted by Frederick Thiele in 1886. The resulting mansard-roofed, three-story mill was built on the original Suiter foundations and featured rollers on the second floor with sifters and packing on the first floor, which was almost immediately purchased by L. A. Washburn and O. L. Kent. In 1877 the King Iron Bridge Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, built a 255-foot bridge over the Blue River near the mill.
In 1882 the state of Nebraska supported 140 water-powered mills as technology began to replace the stone burrs with steel rollers. Dewitt, now with a census population of 400 and just incorporated as a village with F. M Suiter as village clerk, supported a hotel, druggist, an elevator, several general stores, a lumberyard, newspaper, confectionery, furniture store, a 22 by 40-foot town hall and three churches. The 1890 census reported Dewitt at its peak population of 751.
The mill again changed hands as John Zwonecek and Joseph Aksamit, who also owned the Wilber Mill, purchased it for $8,000 in 1902. As the number of water-powered mills in the state dropped to 45, Dewitt Mills built a hydroelectric plant at their site which supplied power to the mill as well as the city of Dewitt. After the Great Depression the flour milling operation closed partially due to the added expense required by governmental regulations and permits. At that point there were still three water-powered mills in Nebraska, some grinding grain in the daytime and generating power in the evenings. Dewitt Mills closed the hydroelectric plant in 1950.
In 1902 William Petersen immigrated from Denmark to Boston, moving to Dewitt in 1918 as a blacksmith. Three years later he developed an adjustable locking wrench which he patented as the Vice-Grip in 1924. The new manufacturer again boosted the economy of Dewitt as the firm became a partnership in 1934 and a corporation in 1946. In 1984 the Petersen family sold Vice-Grip Company to American Tool which closed the Dewitt facility in 2008 leaving 330 jobless. Malco bought the physical plant in 2006 and in 2018 announced they would reopen in 2019 to produce Eagle Grip Locking Pliers.
In 1978 the Dewitt Mill and cast iron bridge were added to the National Register of Historic Places There are no water-powered mills still operating commercially in Nebraska today and although the bridge was extended in 1920, it no longer carries vehicular traffic, however its site on an abandoned county road still qualifies it as “the oldest vehicular truss remaining” on its original site in the state.
Historian Jim McKee, who still writes with a fountain pen, invites comments or questions. Write to him in care of the Journal Star or at jim@leebooksellers.com.