Long before production of electricity was the goal of harnessing rivers, the fortunes of people along the Androscoggin depended upon water power.

Before water surged through the Lewiston canal system to turn the wheels of industry, there were other important applications for that age-old source of energy.

Hundreds of sawmills, grist mills and fulling mills dotted the water-rich landscape of Androscoggin County. Those mills could thrive on some pretty small streams. Sometimes, all that was needed was dependable flow through little more than a ditch.

I found documentation of these many mills in “History of Androscoggin County,” edited by Georgia Drew Merrill in 1891. It’s a large gilt-edged book with pages coming loose from the binding because generations of our family have spent hours leafing through it.

The book’s entries for the town of Wales illustrate some of the early but short-lived enterprises: “During the first 12 or 15 years of settlement, the settlers were obliged to carry their bags of corn and grain on their shoulders 20 miles to the nearest mill.” They followed blazed trails through the forest.

The only grist mill was built by Joseph Maxwell “on a small stream in the eastern part of the town, near his dwelling.”

The first sawmill was built by Daniel M. Labree on a small stream on his farm “where he could saw some boards, shingles, etc., for a few weeks each in the spring and fall.”

If any stream-flow could turn a waterwheel, there was a good chance that Maine entrepreneurs were capturing that force of nature and making some money from it. Some set up water-driven saws that cut with a slow but sure up-and-down motion.

Grist mills also captured the power of water. It turned massive round millstones that rolled over a farmer’s grain, crushing it into flour or meal.

Another kind of local operation was the fulling mill. Fulling was a step in cloth-making (particularly wool) to get rid of oil and dirt. Once again, labor-saving water power was used to move wooden hammers that beat the cloth.

The old volume of history also yielded some unexpected information about a rather tempestuous side of mill ownership and operation.

Moses Little, who plays an early and vitally important role in Lewiston’s history, built a large wooden mill next to the falls in 1809.

It stood at the present Cowan and Libbey Mill location, and was the first to have a sawmill, grist mill and fulling mill under one roof.

In the spring of 1814, fire destroyed the mill. The old history book blames it on arson. Neither motive nor perpetrator are spelled out, but the account says, “There was unquestionably much feeling in the community against Mr. Little.”

In a letter to a friend, Little said his son Michael was urging him to rebuild.

Little wrote, “But I should like to have the timber cut on the old of the moon, that if it should be preserved from fire it might be more durable.” There was a belief that wood cut in the moon’s last quarter would dry better.

Maybe his requirement really did lead to a superior product, because the rebuilt mill operated until 1850.

Dave Sargent is a freelance writer and an Auburn native. You can e-mail him at [email protected].