Built in 1849 by Gabriel Baer, Bear's Mill is one of the few operating water powered mills in Ohio today. The site of the present mill, as well as the water rights, was granted to Major George Adams by Presidential Deed by President James Monroe in 1824.

While another mill flourished on this property prior to 1848, it was at this time that the land was purchased by Mr. Baer, a prominent Pennsylvania miller. At the time Baer purchased the land, construction of the present mill had already been started by Moses and Manning Hart, who had searched the virgin forest in the area for building materials