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General Investigation Information
Investigation Number: Investigation number: 080108

Location:

Bear's Mill
6450 Arcanum-Bear's Mill Road
Greenville, Ohio 45331
Phone: 937-548-5112
Fax: 937-547-6044
Date of Investigation: September 24, 2008
Time of Investigation: 19:00-22:30
Type of Investigation: Public Location
Solar Conditions:
Lunar Information:

Weather Conditions:

Location Information
Description of Location:
 Watch a 10 minute video about the mill that was made by iThink.org
Elevation of Location:
 1025 feet
Investigators:
 Amity, Brian, Gene, Joan, Karen, Nathan, Scott, Tammi, Trevor
History of the Home/Area:

  • 1767: George Adams was born in Virginia
  • 1799: Adams organized with settlers of the neighborhood a garrison for the defense of a blockhouse on Zechariah Hole's land and the cabins around. There were no Whites west of the river and it was feared that the Indians might come down the Bear Creek trail to destroy the feeble settlements along the river.
  • 1824: President James Monroe presented Major George Adams the land and water rights at the mill site with a Presidential Deed as a reward for his military service
  • 1832: Major George Adams built a sawmill and subsequently a corn cracker mill
  • 1849: mill was built in Greenville, OH by Moses and Manning Hart. The final completion of the building was done by Gabriel Baer. The mill presently carries Gabriel Baer's name but somewhere the vowels were inverted and today the mill is known as BEAR'S MILL
  • 1827: George Adams being appointed Associate Judge for Darke County
  • 1832: Major George Adams dies
  • 1850: French buhrstones were placed. These have been maintained and are still grinding today
  • 1862: 30.5" turbine is installed at the mill
  • 1862: Jesse Tillman and John Townsend purchased the business for $8,000
  • 1873: John Stoltz & Family purchased a large share of the mill
  • 1882: G. W. Cromer bought a share and converted the mill into a roller mill
  • 1884: Marcellus Cromer, G.W. Cromer's son, purchased John Stoltz's share of the mill.
  • 1887: five roller mills installed; three of them are still in the mill
  • 1922: the wooden dams were replaced with concrete as part of a flood control project. There are two dams. The main dam is 160'. The second dam is 65' long. They are connected by a natural levee
  • 1947: Marcellus Cromer died after operating the mill for 65 years
  • 1947: Charles Andrews purchased the mill and ground wheat and corn that were organically grown without chemicals
  • 1981: Terry and Julie Clark and Paul Carr purchased the mill
  • 1985: Mike Johnson and Jane Hockensmith purchased Paul Carr's share of the mill
  • 1977: placed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

Location Name: Bear's Mill
Year Added: 1975
Building Number: 75001372
Address: 6450 Arcanum-Bear's Mill Road, Greenville
Historic Significance: Event, Architecture/Engineering
Architect, builder, or engineer: Hart,Manning, Moses,William
Architectural Style: No Style Listed
Area of Significance: Industry, Architecture
Period of Significance:1825-1849
Owner: Private
Historic Function: Industry/Processing/Extraction
Historic Sub-function: Manufacturing Facility
Current Function: Industry/Processing/Extraction
Current Sub-function: Manufacturing Facility
Activity Reported:

From The Ghosts and Haunting of Greenville, Ohio

Bear's Mill in Greenville is also rumored to be haunted. Locals claim that the ghost of a former owner still walks around the mill. People have heard him walking upstairs, and heard the floorboards creaking as he walked.

Data Collected
Video Findings:
 Only handheld cameras were used, nothing found.
Photographic Findings:
 None
Audio Findings:
  • mp3= cleaned
  • wav= unaltered

Classification Scale

 None, however we did have one that showed promise. But we could not say beyond a shadow of doubt that it was a true evp. Therefore we decided to error on the side of caution and not display it.
Personal Experiences:
 During the investigations two investigators reported hearing sounds that they could not trace to a source.
Equipment readings:
 None

False Positives
Video:
 None
Photographic:

This is most likely a dust reflection caused but the bright light.
Audio:
 We had several areas of of recordings that were tainted by noise of traffic.

Conclusions
Investigation Summery:
 Bear's Mill, aka Baer Mill, is a fantastic piece of American history. The location has been preserved better than some museums. The staff is friendly and helpful with any questions that you might have. If you have an interest in history, you owe it to yourself to take a trip. We we lucky enough to be able to visit in the early fall and were able to enjoy the beautiful fall foliage and the fall decorations. I am sure the mill is a beautiful place to visit no matter what the season.

On the particular night that we were investigating it was very hot for that time of the year in Ohio. This caused us to have to leave all of the windows and doors open for ventilation. It was also the night of the local high school home coming witch added a lot of traffic to an already busy road. This would be a location that would be prime for a later winter investigation so that the building could be left closed to reduce noise from the outside.
In our opinion, based solely on the evidence collected at the
time of this investigation we believe this location to be:
X No paranormal activity
_ Paranormal activity, but not enough to consider it a haunting
_ Residual Haunting
_ Intelligent Haunting
_ Benevolent Spirit
_ Malevolent Spirit
_ Benign Spirit
_ Inconclusive
Case Status
X Follow-up recommended
_ Case Closed

Additional Notes
General Photographs:
Bear's Mill is water-powered with two turbines located under the mill's first floor. Measuring 44" and 30.5", the turbines receive water from the Greenville Creek.
About 1/2 mile upstream there is a large concrete dam that creates a huge, beautiful millpond in the stream. Water from the millpond is channeled into a millrace that parallels Greenville Creek to the mill.
Greenville Creek creates a 9' head of water at the mill. The water drops into and through the turbines and exits via a tailrace on the opposite side of the mill back into Greenville Creek. The 30.5" turbine has the date of 1862 cast in the crown plate. Both turbines provide 65 horsepower.
The exterior is covered with the original lap siding that Gabriel Baer put on the mill in 1849! Made from American Black Walnut, the siding adds a provocative nature to the old mill. The structure has an extremely textured appearance. The weathered, charcoal-gray siding, the small 6 over 6 double-hung sash windows, and the grain handling doors on all four levels, create a delightful experience.
The first floor has a line shaft that transfers the power from the turbines up to the three sets of French buhrstones and to the rest of the mill.
Antique machinery at Bear's Mill, whether it is functioning or on display as a museum piece, is excellently preserved
The mill store, on the first floor, sells yellow cornmeal, whole-wheat cake flour, unbleached white cake flour, buckwheat flour, rye flour, bran, and pancake mixes. Another portion of the store offers two unique styles of pottery.
Remember, never, ever shoplift.

Related Web Sites:
Investigation Lessons Learned:
 The biggest lesson learned is that you can never control the weather. We held off the investigation until late September in hopes of being able to have a cool evening. Instead we had a warm sunny day. This led to us having to leave the doors open for ventilation witch led to evidence contamination from the outside noise.

With the history of the mill, I feel that this is a very worth while location for other groups to investigate.

Also, it is important to remember that historic places such as this work mostly from donations. Please make a donation when you visit.

Please stop at our guest book so we know you stopped in to say hello, thank you.

Related materials:

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