Gristmill shows kids how pioneers lived

FIDGET THE GOAT provides milk (above) while another group of Few students watches Jill Fowler grind cornmeal.

Students from Few Primary School in Jasper got a rare glimpse into the past with a visit to The Gristmill in Kirbyville.

The Gristmill is a working mill for stone grinding cornmeal. The children also get to see a goat milked, take a hay ride through a cow pasture, see a wood splitter operate, and play games of tag on the big front lawn.

Cecil Fowler bought the mill in 1995. It became a family project for Opal Fowler, daughter Jill Fowler and granddaughter Amy Stewart, who thought children need to know how their ancestors lived on early Texas farms.

Jill Fowler explains to the children how the gristmill can grind corn, wheat or rice flour from natural grains. The machine grinds and separates the flour meal from the grits.

"Nothing is ever wasted," Fowler tells the kids. "What ever is left over at the end of the process becomes animal food."

Four cows and two donkeys are lined up at the fence behind the shed because they know whenever the noisy mill is fired up, they are going to get a treat.

Newsboy photos/ Sharon Kerr

Next, Opal Fowler invites the children into her quilting room. The shelves are lined with cubbies full of fabrics sorted by color. On the quilting frame, she is finishing a quilt following a heartshaped stitching pattern.

"When I was a girl your age," she tells the children, "it was hard to get enough fabric to sew a dress. Now I have all the colors of the rainbow to work with."

Then it's out to the porch, where children take milk and make butter, passing a jar around a circle of hands, vigorously shaking it until it congeals. That butter goes to the kitchen, where plates with fresh corn muffins and homemade jam await.

The Gristmill will grind corn or other grains for a small fee, and Opal Fowler will do custom quilting, but they don't really have regular hours like a retail business. Asked what days she's open, Fowler says, "Why, I live here. All the time."

The Gristmill is on Main Street, one mile east, more or less, of U.S. Hwy 96 in Kirbyville, and marked only by a guinea crossing sign and a John Deere mailbox. For more information, call 423- 2764.