The Loomis Sawmill, 1896
Nestling in the valley, between the hills of the range dividing the Chenango and Susquehanna rivers there is an old mill which is a busy hive of industry. Although built way back in '59, it has all the improved machinery of this date. This mill has always been in the Loomis family and today is operated by Norman T. Loomis, who keeps a dozen men busy in the mill and woods. The waters of Brockett pond furnish the power for this mill and merrily the wheels turn in response to its mighty force, and many a hill of lumber has been sawed there. Accidents have been few and far between at his mill and there are none alive today who have left a finger or thumb there, in fact but two accidents can be marked against the old mill's record; and they were sad ones in the extreme. The first occurred just after the mill began business. A new styled saw had been put in and a young man who was going to work there the following Monday, went down with a companion to see it run. While coming down the sidehill he stepped on a log, fell and another log rolled upon him and broke his back. That man was Gilbert Rhodes, and he lived seven years after but never stirred from his bed. The other accident happened only a few years ago when a board flew from a saw and struck Richard Loomis in the stomach, bursting a small blood vessel from which he died soon. Aside from these two fatal accidents the mill has had a very clean record, and has turned many an honest dollar for the farmers in that vicinity in the last 37 years.
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