Water Powered Mill on Bull Creek

Before electricity, flowing water was a prime source of energy to run mills for sawing lumber and grinding grains. The Mormons are credited with construction, in 1846, of one of Travis County's first mills on Bull Creek. That mill was created after the one at the base of Mount Bonnell on the Colorado River washed away.

The Mormons were not the only ones to build mills on Bull Creek. The one shown here was likely built ca. 1850s by Hughell Walden, one of the early settlers to the Bull Creek Valley. This photograph was taken by H.B. Hillyer, Austin based photographer, variously dated at ca. 1869 or 1875.

Historic Edward Zimmerman house

Clementine Walden Jackson, granddaughter of Hughell Walden, says this mill was used as a lumber mill, shingle mill, and also for grinding corn. The home of Edward Zimmerman, built in 1861, now on the property of The Settlement Home for Children, is said to have been built with lumber from a mill on Bull Creek, quite possibly this one.

Views in Austin from 1880 featured the old mill as one of the sites to be seen in Austin 

 

References

 Barkley, Mary Starr (1963). History of Travis County and Austin, 1839-1899. Waco, TX: Texian Press.

Hillyer, Hamilton Briscoe (1835-1903). Photo titled "The old Mill in Bull Creek". Date of photo is ca. 1875. However William J. Hill Texas Artisans and Artists Archive, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, cites a date of ca.1869. This image was purchased from Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photographs by Richard Denney. DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University. http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/jtx/id/686. Hillyer was a famous early photographer of Texas and opened a gallery on Pecan Street (now Sixth Street) in Austin in 1867 or 1868

Jackson, Clementine (Walden). The Walden home in the valley (book). 1966, Austin, Texas. Copy available in Austin History Center. A history of Bull Creek and the Walden family, early settlers there. See also related newspaper article: “Good Days on Bull Creek”, The American-Statesman, Sunday, April 28, 1963. Memories of Mrs. Clementine Walden Jackson marking the close of an era in the Bull Creek Valley. Also: “She Recalls Bull Creek, Oak Grove of Long Ago!”. The American-Statesman, Sunday, August 14, 1966.

Views in Austin, Texas. The Daily Graphic, Wednesday, June 30, 1880. Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin. The page features 10 printed sketches of various scenes touting Austin. Of the 10, two are from Bull Creek, illustrating the romance associated with Bull Creek from Austin’s founding. http://texasartisans.mfah.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15939coll6/id/1295