3190 CTY RD Q

Summary

Rising Star Flouring Mill
3190 County Road Q, Nelsonville, Portage County
Date of Construction: 1868

The Rising Star Flouring Mill was the catalyst for the development of Nelsonville and became the nucleus of the community. It served as both a commercial entity and as a local social gathering place. Jerome Nelson purchased wheat from area farmers which encouraged the farmers to clear more land and expand their wheat crop production. Not only was flour milled for area consumption, but security was created for the farmer and his family by having an outlet for their wheat crop.

Jerome Nelson was born in 1829 in Attica, New York. He migrated to Wisconsin in November of 1854 purchasing a forty acre parcel along the Waupaca River in what would become the Village of Nelsonville. Jerome dammed the Waupaca River and built a saw mill. The Civil War interrupted his future plans and Jerome enlisted in the Company H, 3rd Wisconsin Calvary to fight Quantrill’s Raiders in Missouri and Kansas.

At the close of the war, Jerome returned to Nelsonville and in 1867 he built a stone operated flouring mill across the river from his saw mill. Flour was a vital sustenance for the logging industry and the early settlers. As farmers began tilling the soils of the cut-over lumbering lands, they focused almost exclusively to growing soft winter wheat.

In 1881, the mill was expanded and new technology was added. The waterwheel was replaced by an in water turbine and metal rollers replaced the mill stones. The mill was enlarged to support mechanization of the flour milling process. The north and south wings were added in 1893. The Rising Star Flouring Mill continued to produce flour until 1916. The new owners converted the milling process from rollers to a hammermill which ground feed for the local dairy farmers until 1968. The mill operated for 100 years solely on water power. The Rising Star Flouring Mill continues to be an area landmark and a symbol of the nineteenth century industrialization of flour milling.

The Fuldner Heritage Fund paid for the preparation of this nomination. This endowed fund, created through a generous donation by the Jeffris Family Foundation and administered by the Wisconsin Historical Society, supports the nomination of historically and architecturally significant rural and small town properties.

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