Nearby History: Oakesdale flour mill stands test of time

Of the 19 flour mills that once flourished in Whitman County, only the Barron Flour Mill in Oakesdale remains standing. Built in 1862 in Illinois, it was dismantled in 1890 by a man named “J. G. Porter.” Its pieces were then transported by rail to Oakesdale and reassembled, along with its milling equipment.

The mill was subsequently purchased by Harvey A. Gray, a miller from Palouse, who sold it in 1907 for $11,500 to Joseph Critchfield Barron Sr. Barron was a second-generation miller from Barronvale, Penn., where he grew up working for his father, Moses Barron. He promptly changed the mill’s name from Gray & Gray to the J.C. Barron Flour Mill. It remained in the hands of the Barron family for the next 91 years. The youngest of their four children, Joseph Critchfield Barron Jr., began to work in the mill immediately after he graduated from high school in 1927; and he took it over completely when his father died in 1955.

During the mill’s heyday in the first third of the 20th century, the Barrons milled and sold a variety of animal feeds and grain flours, serving both farmers and consumers. Barron carefully maintained the original machinery, which was made of hardwood and steel. As American life modernized, however, the business suffered. It had difficulty competing with larger mills in Spokane, and people preferred to buy flour and cereal from grocery stores instead of directly from mills.