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    MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF ERIEVILLE ROADS:
     Dugway Rd.

Nelson-Erieville Road, Now Widened, Passes Mill Site

From a Thursday, October 29, 1953 Newspaper Article written by Owen Evans.

The Madison County highway Department has completed the pavement-widening project on the Nelson-Erieville road and is now grading the shoulders.  The old 16-foot pavement was widened four feet, two feet on each side except where it was found advisable to widen it four feet on one side to reduce sharp curves.

On one of these curves is the site of one of the town's early industries known as "Bump's Mill."   It was located on the property now owned and occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Asa Bettinger.  The old millrace and some of the crumbled stone wall on which the mill stood is still visible <in 1953>.  The old washed-out mill dam is located several hundred feet east of the highway on the Donald Stearns farm.

A Madison County Business Directory of 1868-69 gives this description of the property: "Samuel C. Bump, sawmill, grist mill, farmer."

A Madison County history published in 1880 mentions the old mill as follows:  "About two-and-one half miles north of Erieville on the county road is a saw and grist mill operated by water and owned by Eldridge Bump, the motive power is not reliable in dry seasons, it contains one muley saw.  It was built about 1822, by Cyril Green who operated it some 10 years."

The old mill, an imposing three story structure, was closed in the late 1890's, after the death of Mr. Bump, and was purchased in 1903, by Anson O. Nourse.  He took it down and sold the lumber and the machinery.  Mr. Nourse relates that it contained four turbine water wheels weighing about 300 pounds each, two furrowed millstones, one for flour and one for grain, and also the old muley saw.

The Nelson-Erieville road was a rough dirt thoroughfare until 1919, at which time a water bound macadam highway was built by Madison County.  All of the hauling was done with horses and dump wagons.

After a few years' use this road became very rough and a new concrete pavement, which required three years to build, was completed in 1928.  This was built under the supervision of the late Grant Jones.

It is now planned to put a stone and oil surface on the entire pavement next year.

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This website is maintained by the Erieville History Committee.  It was last updated on 7/27/2000.