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Often a gristmill and a sawmill shared power from a single water wheel. Archeologists have uncovered evidence that Romans used a water-powered saw to cut stone as early as the third century A.D. By the 14th century, water-powered sawmills were common in Europe.
The Hierapolis sawmill, a water-powered stone sawmill at Hierapolis, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey, then part of the Roman Empire), dating to the second half of the 3rd century, is the earliest known sawmill.
Workers stand by as logs pass down a conveyor belt in this early 20th-century sawmill. Photo courtesy of USDA Forest Service. Click to see full image.
The first English sawmill was built in Maine in 1623 or 1624 and the first sawmill was erected in Pennsylvania in 1662. By 1700 there were about 70 water powered sawmills in New England and 100 years later there were 250.
America’s first saw-mill was built at the Falls of Piscatauqua, on the line between Maine and New Hampshire, in 1634. Unauthenticated records, however, claim that as early as 1633 several mills were operating in New York State.
The early sawmills in the 19th century primarily relied on water power as their source of energy. These sawmills were typically located near rivers or streams, where they could utilize the water’s force to power the machinery.
Sash-type sawmills have been known for centuries starting in continental Europe in the 13th or 14th century, and were a feature of the New England landscape since the earliest years of European settlement—the first water-powered sawmills in New England were built near Berwick, Maine in the 1630s.
It would have a sawmill and a gristmill: there would also be mills for making cider, salt, flax, plaster, linseed oil, tobacco, barrel staves, axes, bone meal, mustard, and on down to smaller mills that turned out simple necessities of everyday life.
Early Sawmills. During the 3rd century A.D., Romans invented one of the earliest kinds of mechanical mills. This water-powered mill was called the Hierapolis sawmill. By the 11th century, water-powered sawmills were prevalent across the Middle East and Central Asia.
January 10, 2018. The earliest type of sawmill, or lumbermill, was the sawpit. The sawpit was a pit over which the log was positioned and held in place by saddle blocks. The “top” sawyer would balance himself atop the log, and guide the blade for accuracy. This required strength, stamina, and skill.