The Auburn Flour Mill has been quite a
factor in Auburn and the surrounding country. The farmers
found a ready market for wheat and the housewives found mighty
good flour for their biscuits. My mother made many thousands
of biscuits from the flour milled in Auburn, to-say nothing of
the million or more tea-cakes or cookies, as we called them,
also cakes and pies, and they were A Number One.
I
remember Mr. Jack Gordon, tall and strong, as the miller. He
and his wife, who was a Miss Darby, (sister of Miss Mary
Darby, the milliner), had three children, Charlie, Jessie and
Flora. Charlie and I were classmates and desk-mates at Auburn
College and I recall that we were great rivals in algebra. As
soon as the bell rang for “books,” the boys would see which
could reach Prof. Burnett first and ask to go and bring water
from the well or spring, not far away. I can see Jessie now
rushing up to Prof. Burnett and saying, “Can I and Charlie go
after water?” So, they took the two buckets, one for water for
the boys and the other for water for the girls and in a few
minutes would return with two bucks of water. Then there was
another rush for the privilege of passing the water to the
students, one going to the boys and another to the girls.
Every boy drank from the same bucket and same dipper and every
girl drank from the same bucket and same dipper. WE had never
heard of germs or microbes and some of us are still living in
spite of such unsanitary proceedings in the long ago.
Jessie
never married. Flora married and lived in Denver until a few
years ago, when her husband, a doctor died. Charlie has
married twice, has two daughters by his first wife, both of
whom are married. He has no children by his second wife. They
all four live in Columbia, S.C., where until recently Charlie
had charge of the Imperial Hotel there and Jessie was and
still is an engineer. Flora makes her home there.
When
the children were in their teens, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon moved to
Bowling Green. This family was not as large as some, but as
fine as any – being one of the most substantial in Auburn. Mr.
Griffith afterwards became the miller.
