“This article investigates the multi-level industrial revolution of flour milling in the American Midwest. It explores the proliferation of mostly small-to-medium-sized mills, paying particular attention to the role of manufacturers of flour-milling equipment. This story focuses on Indiana, which illustrates general trends across the region, but is also significant in its own right. As wheat culture moved west and north onto the central and northern plains, Indiana lost some stature as a grower of wheat and a miller of flour. But in the twentieth century, the state remained near the center of the winter wheat belt, and Indianapolis and Evansville emerged as major flour-milling centers. Indiana boasted more than 500 commercial flour mills in 1912—ten with capacities between 500 and 1,000 barrels of flour a day, and six with daily capacities of 1,000 barrels or more. By the late nineteenth century, Indiana also was home to several major milling machinery manufacturers and mill furnishers, including the leading firm in the country in this field: Nordyke & Marmon. By 1900, flour mills of all sizes around the world were planned, built, and equipped by Nordyke & Marmon of Indianapolis.”
Copies of this issue and subscriptions to the IMH are available at https://iupress.org/iu-press-journals-pricing-and-ordering/
The Indiana Magazine of History is a peer-reviewed, scholarly journal of Indiana and midwestern history. Published by the IU Department of History and IU Press Journals, the IMH features articles, research notes, annotated primary documents, critical essays, and reviews. To subscribe or purchase copies of recent issues, go to https://iupress.org.