Paul's Stories from The Mill

Paul recalled  being a young boy and having to work a team of oxen hauling wood to the saw mill. One day, after some heavy rains, he had to drive the oxen through the swollen river. Noting that oxen like to dip their heads when they are pulling a load, Paul remembered how alarmed he became when the animals sunk their heads completely beneath the water. When he  reached the far bank, he was relieved to see them raise their heads and with a great "woosh" clear their nostrils.

I told my Daddy I wanted to stop because I was afraid the oxen would drown. He said "Boy, you ain't going to drown them oxen" and sent be back to work. And he was right.

The mill claimed part of Paul's right index finger. It was cut off at the first joint because he tried to pick up a string wrapped around a line shaft. The string whipped off his finger so fast it took everything but the bone.

Paul reminisced about one instance when his father had to leave Paul in charge of the mill. A man came and said he wanted some corn that had gone bad to be ground for feeding. Forbes said he didn't want to do it because the meal from the bad grain would mix with the good, but the man said he had several bags of good corn to run behind it and clear it out. Forbes did the job, but it was not until his father returned that he learned the man in all likelihood was going to use the bad meal for making whiskey mash. Needless to say, the man was from Franklin County.