The McClenahan Mill

 

The following comes from
"THE MCCLENAHANS, Mt. Pleasant, Utah

James Kemp McClenahan

and 

Catherine Kidd McClenahan 

Souvenir for Centennial 1959

Ellice McClenahan Carter

In 1908  we displayed various artifacts gathered over the years from the various mills once located in Mt. Pleasant. This article was found on the internet. It tells of a very important part of Mt. Pleasant History.

THE McClenahan MILL

The McClenahan Mill was built according to certain specifications recommended by the territorial authorities. It was a two-story building with a granary and ample space for wheat and bins for graham, cornmeal, and ground feed, also a 20-foot reel for bolting flour. The mill, which was equipped with two elevators, operated with water power from Pleasant Creek, using a Leffell wheel, a wooden flume, and penstock. The flour was good and found a ready market with quantities being shipped to Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Pioche, Nevada. It was not long until the mill operated on a twenty-four-hour basis and required three extra men on the force. One policy of the McClenahan Mill, while under grandfather's jurisdiction was that no family man was ever to be refused flour or feed, whether he had the money at the time of delivery or not. There was no record that any man extended this kindness ever defaulted in his obligation to grandfather. Furthermore, grandfather never reminded anyone of an obligation by sending them a statement of debt. An excerpt from a "tribute" to James Kemp McClenahan and Catherine Orthelia (Kidd) McClenahan on their wedding anniversary. This tribute was written by Ellice Adelaide (McClenahan) Carter. Source: Information copied by Dorothy H. Erickson from the files of Blanch McClenahan (Mrs. Frank) of Toulon, Stark Co., ILL. Mrs. McClenahan is now deceased. Records in possession of Mrs. John Montgomery, Rockford, ILL.

My grandmother, Catherine Kidd McClenahan was a true southern lady and to the "manor born." She bore no resemblance to the "Sure 'nough, honey chile," or the "you all" types so often dramatized. She and the well-to-do and aristocratic James Kemp McClenahan were true examples of the Old South. My grandparent's life together was a beautiful one and a "love affair to the end." In referring to the hardships of pioneer life, Grandma always said, ---" Kemp felt we should settle here, and I think Kemp was right."Sometime after 1856, the James Kemp McClenahan family left Provo, Utah, where they had been for a time and located in Mount Pleasant, Utah. Here in 1866 James Kemp McClenahan began the operation of the milling business. In the beginning when the mill was almost ready to operate they were unable to secure any bolting silk which was necessary to complete the process of turning wheat into flour, and what to do was the question. Grandma had the solution. She offered to sacrifice her beautiful (voluminous) white silk wedding dress as a substitute for the silk bolting cloth, which was not available elsewhere. There was no alternative, sentiment must be made to serve a practical need, the wheels of industry must turn that the people might be fed. (Note: The author remembers seeing in the museum at Marietta, Ohio, beautiful old wedding gowns older than the one above, made of bolting silk. First settlers in Marietta 1790)While Grandma gave her lovely white silk dress, her dress of romance, to be used as bolting silk in the mill, she always kept the foundation, a stark naked wireframe, which we called hoops. It remained a sentimental reminder of the man she loved and cherished, It was part of her "wedding dress," a wedding dress that helped in our city settlement. Among the first houses built in Mount Pleasant, Utah after it had been surveyed and platted was Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was a large house made of adobe facing North on Main Street. It was built close to the street with pine trees on either side. While the house is very plain with no verandas, it had an air of distinction. On the back of the lot were a barn, chicken coop, and smokehouse all built of white adobe. The hop arbor was of light lumber. Between these buildings and the house was a garden. My grandmother's home was always rather special with its grandfather clock, its round rosewood center table, and horsehair sofa, which was not too comfortable. One of Grandmother's prized possessions was a walnut cupboard with glass doors that held her best dishes. In the bedrooms were four posters and marble-topped bureaus and washstands. Grandma's room was rather special. It had a walnut four-poster tester bed with canopy and ruffled valances with walnut bureau and washstand. In the dining room, the chairs were arranged geometrically along the wall. Guests were always welcome at my grandparent's home, either for supper of afternoon tea. If a casual caller came in to see the house or wait for her husband to pick up his grist at the mill, she was served tea with a cinnamon toast by Grandma, gracious as always, in a starched white apron, which was the mode in those times. Very humbly and with great appreciation I record the following tribute to my grandparents, which was given at my grandmother's funeral in 1912. In tribute to her and my grandfather's contribution to the success and early settlement here, it was said: If all the flour and milk products that were given to these good people, and all the money given and loaned without security, together with contributions they made to the needy, had instead, been put in the bank at compound interest from the date of settlement of Mt. Pleasant until the present date (1912), the remaining members of the McClenahan family would be the possessors of great wealth. Such kindness and consideration for his fellowmen remind us of these words, "Charity suffereth long and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth, not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil." I Cor. 13:4 - 5.And thus passed the original family of McClenahan's who helped build Mount Pleasant, Utah. The name has been immortalized on a beautiful monument bearing proof that the McClenahan's were there. Source: Information copied by Dorothy H. Erickson from the files of Blanch McClenahan (Mrs. Frank) of Toulon, Stark Co., ILL. Mrs. McClenahan is now deceased. Records in possession of Mrs. John Montgomery, Rockford, ILL.