The mill made Birmingham important. Before steam and gasoline engines came into the middle west, water power turned mill stones to grind grain. Mill Street linked the Vermillion river bank with Market Street. Area immediately south of the present park still has stone remnants of the mill raceway which conveyed running water against a turning wheel which provided power to turn the mill stones and grind the grain. A plank dam across the river held back the water and forced it to flow through the raceway.

The Birmingham Mill was built by Perez Starr in 1819. It was a three story sandstone building. Later a frame building to the north housed a steam boiler and engine. In 1906 the mill burned and was not rebuilt. In 1913, known as the flood year in Ohio, the dam was washed away. It was a plank dam built by George Arnold in 1878 and was the second dam to be washed out by flood waters. The last dam was constructed of oak timbers laid on top of each other like a wall. They were pinned together with heavy iron bars on an apron across the river bed between two stone abutments. The dam was curved upriver for strength. It was 10 feet high and 150 feet wide.

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Transcribed by Lowell Dunlap