(By Stephen Kelley from the People’s Defender 1983)
Featured this week is the old Hood Flouring Mill, a former landmark of West Union. It stood near the southwest corner of Walnut and Market Streets, behind the present-day West Union Electric & Plumbing Service & Plumbing Service building. The view shown was taken looking east from Cross Street. This picture was taken ca. 1902 by photographer, Lizzie Treber and is used courtesy of her niece, Dr. Grace Sproull of West Union. The Hood Flouring Mill was put under construction in 1857 and opened for business in 1858. It was built by James Hood, pioneer and entrepreneur of West Union. Hood was the son of John and Hannah Hood who moved to the new county seat in 1806 when James was four years old.
The frontier community of West Union was, at that time, a collection of only a dozen buildings subject to the frequent visits of “droves of deer” and “wolves howling.. at night.”
James Hood became one of the leading business and politicians of Adams County for over half a century. Politically, he was a Whig and served ten years as county treasurer. As a businessman, he conducted a general store in West Union for several decades and erected numerous commercial structures in the village.
Hood apparently built the mill as an investment and sold it in April, 1862 to Frederick Shuster and George McIntire. They operated the Business for five years before Shuster sold his share to McIntire. During the 1860’s, George McIntire became involved in several businesses in the county seat and apparently overextended himself. In 1872 he experienced severe financial difficulties and was forced into receivership. In August of that year, his mill was put on the auction block and bought by German-born Jacob Pflaumer.
Jacob Pflaumer was born in Neiderhofen, Germany in May 1832. He immigrated to the U.S. with his parents in 1842 and married in October 1855 to Elizabeth Gonawein, also a native of Niederhofen. This couple shared life’s joys and sorrows for fifty-four years and reared a family of eleven children.
Pflaumer was a thrifty businessman and expanded the facilities at the three-story mill to include a planning mill in the basement of the structure. He then conducted a lumber yard adjacent to the mill for several years. The planing mill well as the flouring mill machinery operated by steam power.
Jacob Pflaumer was the last to run the old West Union mill. With the help of his son, Frank, the business was apparently conducted up to the time of Jacob’s death in May, 1910. The mill then stood idle for a number of years. George Pflaumer, another son of Jacob, bought the property in 1919. About 1920 he removed the milling machinery with the steam engine and boiler and sold them for junk. The aging structed then passed through several owners including William Bayless, Edna Abraham and George Scott who used the old building for storage. One of the last owners was Lawrence H. Davis who owned and operated 5 & 10 stores in Seaman and West Union. He used the large mill building in which to store his stock of merchandise.