History

Brief History of Mill 1757 Until Now

John Richardson built mill April 1757 and died 1802 - mill passed to his son William Richardson who died 1822 - mill passed to his son Dr. Joseph Richardson who died 1840 - mill passed to his son Lunsford Richardson who drowned at the mill in 1856 at age 48. He had five children, William, Clement, Martha (Pattie), Rozetta and Lunsford II. Rozetta married Dr. Joshua Vick of Selma. Her brother Lunsford II operated a drug store in Selma; thus Vicks Vaper Rub was developed along with several other Vicks products, that was later known as the Vick Chemical Company, which became a world wide empire. Mill passed to Martha (Pattie) Richardson, who married Thomas H. Atkinson, a wealthy land owner near Boone Hill (Princeton) in 1859. Thomas died 1905 - Pattie died 1912. At that time the property consisted of a cotton gin, sawmill, general store, blacksmith shop, wheat and corn mill. Thomas and Pattie Atkinson had seven children, Robert, Minna, Joseph, Albert, Robena, Thomas II, and Wade. Mill passed to their son Thomas Atkinson II and later to another son, Dr. Wade Atkinson. Wade died 1942 - Thomas died 1947. Mill passed to Mrs. Mary Atkinson, widow of Dr. Wade Atkinson who owned and managed mill until it burned in 1950.

Atkinson Milling Company was incorporated, with shareholders being Mrs. Mary Atkinson (widow of Dr. Wade H.), Jean McLean, Ruth McLean and Cora MacLean. The McLeans are daughters of Robena Atkinson, granddaughters of Thomas H. and Pattie Atkinson. Present Mill building was erected by Atkinson Milling company in 1951. Stock in the Atkinson Milling Company transferred to Ray and Betty Wheeler, present operators, June, 1971.

Dr. Wade Atkinson owned the mill in 1930. He was the first owner to attempt to build a concrete dam across The Little River. He was probably the first owner in the history of the mill that could afford the labor and materials to construct a concrete dam.

Many neighbors have made the statement in recent years that they helped mix concrete and carry rocks in wheel barrows to help build the dam. Some said they made as much as $1.00 a day, which was a good wage in those days.

Dr. Wade Atkinson grew up around the mill and up and down this river. He gained national fame as a physician in Washington, D.C. and local fame on his summer vacations by giving medical attention to people in Johnston County for very little or no pay. Dr. Atkinson died in 1942. His heirs since then have established the Dr. Wade Atkinson Memorial Library and Community Building (formerly Old Corbett & Hatcher School) in his honor.

Mrs. Mary Atkinson (wife of Dr. Atkinson) owned and managed the milling operation from 1942 until 1950 when the mill was destroyed by fire. Mrs. Atkinson already at a retiring age, decided not rebuild the mill. Dr. Atkinson's three nieces, Misses Jean, Cora and Ruth McLean, who were also raised in and around the mill, approached her about forming a corporation with the four of them to rebuild the mill. This was done in 1951 with Mrs. Atkinson serving as a member of the corporation until her death in 1968. A memorial to her may be seen across the river from the mill as the Mary Atkinson Girl Scout Camp.

The McLean sisters acquired Mrs. Atkinson's share of the stock in the corporation at her death and continued the operation of the mill with Jean McLean as president. The McLean sisters operated the mill until 1971, when they sold the corporation to Ray and Betty Wheeler, who had been employed at the mill since 1958. This ended a 214 year, one family ownership.

Although the ownership had changed , the friendship between the McLeans, and the Wheelers had not. From 1958 until 1971, while the Wheelers were employees, the corporation made sure that the Wheelers and their six children's needs were met, whether the corporation made money or not.

Very few young couples maintain that kind of help and friendship from people who are of no blood relation. Without the McLean sisters past contributions to the Wheeler family and to Atkinson Mill, neither of us would be what we are today.

Ray & Betty Wheeler, Present Owners of Atkinson Milling Company, Inc.
The Following Written By Ray Wheeler

Betty and I are very happy to be running a business with so much history behind it. After over 240 years, it is doing better than ever before.

Forty to fifty years ago each county had at least 20 Grist Mills operating and some counties had as many as 40. Today Atkinson Milling Company is the only water powered grist mill operating in Johnston County. Our neighbors, Wake County, Wilson County and Wayne County don't have any grist mills operating.

Betty and I came to the mill in 1958 with nothing, except ourselves and a desire to make a decent living. We were both about 20 years old and neither of us had any experience in this type of work. I learned a lot about making corn meal by getting people who had worked here in the past to show me what they knew. In a short time I felt I knew enough o get by on. It has been a learning experience ever since and there is still a lot that I don't know. I recall my first year at the mill, working very long hours and my part of the profit for the year was less than twenty-five cents an hour. So Betty had to work at a shirt factory in order for us to live. By 1960 we had two children and the business had grown to the point that she did not return to the factory job, but instead went to the mill to help me bag meal.

In a few days, I would leave Betty to look after the mill while I was gone for a few minutes, and soon after that I would be gone for half a day. She learned in a short time to run the mill as well as I could. That is when our business really began to move. Betty could run the mill and handle all the business in and out of the mill. Than left me free to go where I was needed anywhere in the state, and be gone as long as necessary.

We knew that with both of us working together for one common goal, that we could accomplish anything we wanted in the milling business. We worked for Atkinson Milling Company, Inc. for 13 years as if it belonged to us and built the business to a point that it was worth much more than when we started.

In 1971 the McLean sisters offered to sell the corporation to Betty and me at what we felt was a very good price. They made our dreams come true, by just making the company available to us. Thirteen years of hard work had paid off and we knew that we had been working for true friends all along. By that time we had produced almost as many kids as we had bags of corn meal. Glenn was 13, Ben 12, Tim 10, Gary 8, Cindy 4, and Wendy 2. We were able to make it work by working together for one common goal. We started with 2 and in a short time there were 8 of us.

We thought we had it made, when 13 years earlier we got the job of working for this company making enough money to buy groceries almost every week, All of a sudden we had borrowed more money to buy this company than we thought we would ever see, as tenant farm kids raised in Johnston County.

Now at 48, Glenn is Operations Manager; at 47, Ben is Mill Manager; at 44, Tim is Route Manager; And At 38, Cindy is Office Manager.

Betty works in the office, I, (Ray) don't have a regular job. I try to spend some time in each area of the business and some time with each of the 60 people that make up the company.

Operation of Grist Mill

Grist Milling is a method of grinding grain into bread by having the grain pressed between two stones. This method has been used as far back as time began.

In Biblical days people would put wheat or barley on a stone and rub it with another stone to grind it. That is the very same thing we do today at Atkinson Milling Company with corn meal. The only difference today is that we do it with larger stones, with more power on the stones, for more production per hour. A lot of the grinding is still done with water power.

Corn comes into our mill from farmers by the truck load. It is cleaned at least three times or until there is nothing left, except whole nice grains of corn before it is ground into meal. The meal you buy in the store is never touched by human hands. It is moved by air from one processing place to another, and then bagged by semi-automatic machinery to insure that it is never exposed to any element that could cause a problem.

In the past few years, we have purchased the franchise for Cattail Milling Company, Boddie Milling Company and Ellis Davis Milling and added these brand names to our list of products which we sell in about 10 counties of the state. We are very proud of the success we have had in the grist milling business. The people working with us in this company have played an important part in our success and without the many customers who buy our products we would be nothing.