Mt. Vernon's Mill
The first grist mill was built by Edward Britts and Charles Smith in 1858. It had massive wooden wheels and was a formidable structure in its day. In the early 1880's, the wooden wheels were replaced with a turbine water wheel, C. W. Karn made the improvements. It was not unusual for as many as 20 farmers and their wagons to be waiting in line to have their grain ground in the mill. Farmers came from as far away as Argyle and Blanchardville to mill their products. They would haul the wheat in by horse team, stay overnight, and leave the next morning with a wagon full of flour. Mt. Vernon had a livery stable, where the horses were taken care of, and a hotel for the farmer's to stay at. Farmers would bring their grain, and be charged a price according to how much and how coarse the milling was. In 1887, while Nick Hentgen was in possession, the mill burned to the ground. When the mill was water powered, the mill pond would occasionally have to be scraped, the object being to provide more water in the pond to drive the mill. It was done by horse teams hauling a scraper with two wheels on it. Another team, would be waiting to haul the sediments to a field.
George Orr built the grist mill as it now stands. Fred and Ferdinand Koch operated it for many years. Herbert Hankel bought the mill in 1946, from the Koch brothers, along with 19 acres just above the bridge, which gave him the water rights to build a dam for water power. Herbert Hankel recalled that when he bought the mill property in 1946, with the 19 acres, his taxes were $98.00 per year. During his ownership of the mill, there were approximately 150 regular farm customers. It became necessary to convert the mill to electricity, because highway improvements had made it difficult to add spillways to the pond. There would not be enough water in the pond to sustain the milling operations.
In the fall of 1948, Stuessy Feed Co. of Belleville, Wisconsin, purchased the mill from Herbert Hankel. Waldo (Duke) Disch came from Belleville to be the manager. He and Earl (Poker) Marty worked for Fred Stuessy. During the period of five years, 1948 to 1953, some improvements were made. Parts of the flour milling operation were taken out and replaced with more modern feed milling equipment for livestock feeds. The water gates that were built into the road bridges on Highway G, were taken out and replaced. The mill race was also removed to make way for the new road and the entrance road to the mill was replaced with a new service road. The water power had been used to shell corn and elevate feed.
In 1953, Waldo Disch and N. H. Thomsen purchased the mill from the Stuessy Feed Co. and continued to process livestock feed for the farmers in the area around Mt. Vernon. In 1958, Disch and his wife Betty, became the sole owners of the mill and continued to process feed, and clean outs and started one of the first custom weed spraying businesses in the area. He started with a Massey Harris tractor. He took the fenders off and mounted tanks where the fenders were, put a 30 foot boom on the front and had a self-propelled sprayer. Later, Disch went to a commercial "Hi Boy" sprayer that was a three wheeler. After wearing out three of these machines, he changed to a pick-up truck with a 500 gallon tank and a 40 foot boom. This method of spraying continued until 1978.
During their years in the feed business, Duke and Betty Disch offered grinding, mixing and "free" pick up and delivery until they changed over to a shovel veyor and bulk feed. Then they charged a small fee for pick up and delivery. At one time the fees were 10 cents per 100 pounds for grinding and mixing feed. A charge of $5.00 per pick up was added in the later years. Ten cents a bushel was charged for cleaning oats for seed and $1.00 an acre plus chemicals was the fee charged for custom spraying. The average farmer in the 1950's and 1960's had about 30 milk cows, 10 sows and 10 laying hens. During this time period, Disch handled the Murphy and Master Mix lines of commercial feeds, bagged fertilizers, grass seed, seed corn, fencing and other farm supplies. Through the years, there were about ten different delivery trucks from a half ton to ten ton load range.
Some of the people that were employed over the years were: Albert Schwoerer, Charlie Schwoerer, Richard Fargo, Dennis Disch, Terry Disch, Sidney Wallen, Lloyd Robinson, and Reuben Chapman, who was the first to learn the operation of the Massy Harris custom sprayer. Other employees were: Roger Lust, Jim Bryant, Donald Brink, Wayne Eith, Rick Stamn, Don "Jingles" Meier, Wayne Syvrud, Robert Sies, Paul Rhiner, David Ross, Tom Thomsen, Randy Wittman, Terry Cleary, Larry Cox, Lyle Rundhaug, and Scott Ruessegger.
In 1967, Duke and Betty Disch, purchased the Jack Bischoff farm and started a laying hen operation. In 1970, they built a new, more modern laying operation on the farm with a building that was 40 feet wide and 336 feet long having a capacity of 20,000 laying hens. This operation along with the mill operation kept them pretty busy.
In July of 1968, there was a fire at the feed mill that started in the corn cob bin. The fire department from Mt. Horeb was called, and they called for mutual aid from Verona. They were successful in putting the fire out. "Ace" Miller was with the Verona Fire Department and he drove the pumper truck into the creek to pump water to put out the fire.
Other improvements made at the mill were new warehouse and office space built just across Liberty Street from the feed mill in 1968. Then in 1978, the Dischs sold the feed mill and business to Ken Seston from Black Earth, Wisconsin, and he continued on in the feed business taking care of the farmers' needs in the area. Today, the feed mill is operated by Steve and Kris Sherven, under the name of "Sher-Feeds & Management Service." Steve and Kris Sherven purchased the Mt. Vernon mill in 1986, and will soon be opening a second store in Monroe. They offer a variety of sevices, they will pickup ear corn and grind it and clean seed. They also carry animal health aids, dairy protein, pet foods and horse feed and bird seeds. They also make deliveries.