The 1852 Graue Mill

Frederick Graue was born in Germany, came to the United States and settled in Fullersburg,
Illinois, in 1842. In 1849, he purchased the site of a sawmill that had burned down, along
with his partner William Asche, and constructed a gristmill there. Asche later sold his share
to Graue. Limestone for the basement walls was quarried near Lemont; bricks for the rest of
the walls were made from clay from the Graue farm and fired in kilns near the mill site;
flooring, beams, and posts were from white oak timbers cut along the I & M canal. The four
one-ton buhrstones used for grinding were imported from France. After the gristmill opened
in April 1852, it ground wheat, corn and other grains produced by local farmers.

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