Rockbridge Mills Millstone

Boone County Historical Society collection. Donated by Susan Dennis and Gene Riddell, children of Joe and Betty Jean Traxler.

The millstone pictured is a runner stone that came from the last mill at Rockbridge Mills, Boone county, Missouri. It was given to Joe Traxler probably in the 1930s.

The runner was the top stone that rotated opposite the mating bed stone that remained fixed in place. We do not know what happened to the bed stone.

From around 1822 into the early years of the 20th century, a grist mill and accompanying distillery operated at Rockbridge, approximately six miles south of Columbia. Though the original mill was probably small, by 1880 the mill under David M. Emmitt had been enlarged to include four sets of millstones, or burrs.

The granite millstone pictured is 36" in diameter x 16" overall thickness and weighs an estimated 1,300 pounds. It has an 8" center through hole with four rynd notches. The rynd was a piece of iron crossing the hole in the upper millstone by which the stone was supported on the spindle. It also has two lift holes each on opposite sides of the stone by which it could be raised from the bed stone for maintenance.