Byfield Snuff Company Mill #3 ca. 1860

Parker River at River St. Byfield, MA

There has been a mill on this site since the 18th century. John Ewell in his book The Story of Byfield: A New England Parish (1902) includes a map of Byfield as it was in 1795 which listed the site as Thurla's Mill (spelled Thurlow today).The same book also reproduced a map from the Massachusetts State Archives dated 1811 which listed the site as the J. Thurla Grist Mill and indicated that the mill had three sets of grinding stones.

The following is from the Historic American Engineering Record maintained by the National Park Service:

This sawmill, dating from about 1860, was purchased around 1870 by the Byfield Snuff Company and was used to manufacture veneer until the 1930s. From that date onward the mill has been sporadically used to manufacture snuff... The mill is a wooden structure of one story with an attic and basement, 20' x 50', with an attached wheelhouse. Part of the stone rubble foundation was patched with concrete in 1914, and it was at about this time that the stone dam, headgate and penstock were rebuilt. The mill was powered by a vertical Hercules turbine made by the Holyoke Machine Co. around 1880.

The building was last used as a mill around 1966 and has recently been converted to a private residence.

References

Ewell, John Louis (1902). The Story of Byfield: A New England Parish. George E.Littlefield, Boston.

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