Whenever history goes up in flames, the loss is felt very deeply and very differently throughout a community.

It was the recent Cowen Mill conflagration that kindled many local memories. A few years ago, fire also destroyed the adjoining W.S. Libbey Mill, and both of the familiar massive brick structures on the Lewiston side of the Androscoggin River’s Great Falls have disappeared.

These were large mills that were significant in terms of America’s textile industry and Lewiston’s history. Dozens of other small mills of all types once dotted the banks of nearby waterways, and most of them were lost to fire or flood. A few thrived and others came and went quickly, but each played a critical role in this area’s development.

The first woolen mill in the United States was built in Gray. The owner had learned the manufacturing process in England, but that country forbade export of the technology. Samuel Mayall smuggled himself out of Britain and started his business in Maine in 1791.

Other area mills were recalled in an article written nearly 50 years ago by Dick Murray, a frequent contributor to the Lewiston Journal Magazine Section.

Murray said the first mill near L-A’s present business centers was on Auburn’s Foundry Brook where water originating in springs on outer Summer Street and Lake Street flowed to the “Big Falls.” That neighborhood produced a succession of sawmills, grist mills, tanneries and the once prosperous Penley Packing Co.

The Dillinghams built these early mills, Murray said, and Edward Little had a small carpet factory that did a sizeable business. Knight Street in that area later had a grist mill owned by J.E. Tibbetts, and it is said to have ground 60,000 bushels of grain annually.

The Stevens Mills area of Auburn got its name from enterprises of Jacob Stevens in the late 1700s. He made good use of a 30-foot drop over two miles of the Taylor Pond outlet. The original grist mill was changed to a sawmill around 1800 by Jacob’s sons, Moses and Parker, and the mill turned out clapboards, laths and shingles into the 1860s. Later, the site produced cardboard and fiberboard products.

The Stevens family had another mill farther down Taylor Brook. Features of the dam and original grist mill are still easily seen where Minot Avenue crosses Taylor Brook. That mill dated nearly back to the Revolutionary War.

It was sold to Parsons and Willis in 1875 and became a carding mill where wool was converted to yarn. Until some 60 years ago, it ground locally-grown corn, barley and buckwheat.

Murray also describes the ruins of the Nason Mill site which was downstream and “just to the right of Washington Street near the old Crystal Spring location.” Murray’s account gives details of the East Auburn mills on Bobbin Mill Brook. That outflow of Lake Auburn comes close to our family farm, and I spent many boyhood hours on its banks.

Samuel Berry built a grist mill at East Auburn as early as 1793, and he later added a sawmill.

Around 1850, Zenias Whitman erected a carding mill. The site was bought by Bradford and Conant for use as a furniture factory, and its quality products were sold at a fine store in downtown Lewiston.

At North Auburn, Isaac Brett built the first mill for grinding corn, and the Packards improved it and built more mills after 1820. Some of them were lost to fire.

O.C. Cobb had a large grist mill on the Royal River at Danville Corner and Moses Emery built a sawmill at what is now Hackett’s Mill. The Hackett family made waterpower improvements and their rights were taken over for a leatherboard factory around 1884.

Murray tells of the grist mill erected at Poland Corner in 1772 by Capt. George Waterhouse and of Michael Little’s under-one-roof sawmill, grist mill and carding mill where the Libbey Mill would later stand.

Stetson Brook and the Sabattus Pond outlet also provided water power long ago, and the Nezinscot River at Turner powered many industries including the Priscilla Rug Co.

Mills came in all sizes for many purposes, and the waterways of Androscoggin County hold a treasure of historical lore about them.

Dave Sargent is a native of Auburn and a freelance writer. He can be reached by e-mailing to [email protected].