rick. This was oak lumber, and was used for flooring in his dwelling. The saw was run by water-power. Samuel McDaniel built a water power saw-mill on East Indian Creek, near the fine oak and walnut timber on his farm. Cory had a mill on Squaw Creek, near the mouth. A man named Brown set up a mill on Skunk River, near Story City. T. McNaughton is said to have had a water-power saw on Onion Creek, northwest of Ontario. There was also a combination power, water and a treadwheel, at the Heistand place, northwest of the Industrial College, for sawing and carding wool. These mills all attempted to use water power.
Webb's saw-mill, near Iowa Center, was run by steam power. This, later, passed into the hands of the Ayres Brothers, and did much business. The Hughes mill, in Milford Township, was built and operated for a time as a saw-mill. John Parker and R. D. Coldren had a steam-power saw-mill in 1856, and later, on Block 49, in Nevada. It is said this was afterward run by W. B. Womack on the west side of Skunk River. It also passed into the hands of Jesse H. Talbott, and was run by him. A steam-power saw-mill was built at Fairview (Story City) in 1855 or 1856 by a man named House. It passed into the hands of George Prime, Noah Harding and Henry McCarthy, and was moved to the stream half a mile south of Ontario, where it was run at different times by the McCarthys, Thurmans, Rosses and Lathams. A mall named Guy had a mill for a time in the southeastern part of Collins Township. In 1857 Robert, John and Nelson S. Harmon, brothers, set up a saw-mill near the east line of Section 14 in Nevada Township. It was operated at different times by the Harmons, Jonathan and Earl Lee, John W. Dawson, Bar Scott and David L. Stephens, and was removed by Scott and Stephens to a point just south of Ames.
Joseph P. Robinson & Sons had for a time a mill near their residence in Section 29 of Nevada Township. Most of these mills could be traced through a troubled existence and peculiar history by patient investigation of the court records, if that were worth while. The means by which they were secured generally came from a sale or mortgage of the homestead. They were sometimes foreclosed for balances due on the purchase money, and were often in litigation. They were prominent factors in the improvement of the country, and a common cause of financial embarrassment if not bankruptcy of the owners. There was a saw-mill in Ballard's Grove in 1856-57, owned and operated by J. C. Sladden. There must have been, from time to time, others in the county not known or remembered by this historian. They were known as " portable " mills, transferred as personal property, and had some of the characteristics of the prophet's gourd in the matter of growth and disappearance. One of the few mills which survived the pressure of the times and the exhaustion of timber for profitable sawing, was that of McCowan, at Iowa Center, which was removed to another county some years since. The only saw-mill in the county now capable of doing business is the Nellis mill, on Skunk River, just below Cambridge. This mill may be looked upon as a relic from the days when those of its kind were potent factors in the county's progress.
The native timber on Skunk River and in adjacent groves, as well as on East and West Indian Creeks, was of fair quality, and in furnishing the early population with, fuel, fencing and building material, was of great value. Very few of the trees that were suitable for sawing now remain. A large portion of the best timbered lands was sold off in small tracts to those who lived on the adjacent prairie.