Bisbee Mill Museum

06/03/2026

Hello Friends of the CHS!

The Edwards Museum and Historical Society have a favor to ask. 2026 marks two very exciting (and historical) milestones. It’s the 250th birthday of our country and the 75th anniversary of CHS! We have some ideas on how to celebrate this summer and one of them involves your help. We would like to honor the veterans of Chesterfield with a military memorabilia exhibit on the Fourth of July. We are looking for letters, medals, uniforms, patches, photos, etc… that could be loaned to us for our display.

All loaned articles will be photographed, cataloged, and safely stored until the weekend of the Fourth. We’ll also ask you to give us some details for the Town Hall display.

If you’re interested or have any questions, please get in touch with me either here or DM my private account (Shannon Kate).

Thanks so much everyone!

05/13/2026

The building in the center of Chesterfield that houses the Post Office was formerly Baker’s Store. The sign, visible in this 1940 postcard reads “William Baker & Son.” We have that sign on display at the Bisbee Mill Museum. We recently uncovered a photograph of the Baker family from 1927 and we identified everyone:
1. Charles A Bisbee (1873 – 1960)
2. William Bisbee (1926 – 2018)
3. Ruth (Anderson) Baker (1901 – 1989)
4. William Baker Jr. (1897 – 1980)
5. Emily (Baker) Bisbee (1889 – 1982)
6. Mary Lou Bisbee (1927 – 2024)
7. William Baker Sr. (1864 – 1937)
8. Lois Baker (1925 – 2013)
9. Mary (Hatch) Baker (1867 – 1942)
10. Louisa Baker (1891 – 1972)
11. Charles A. Bisbee Jr. (1918 – 2004)
12. Janet Baker (1923 – 2021)
13. Russell Bisbee (1923 – 2014)
14. Robert Bisbee (1920 – 2017)

With a little more investigation, we were able to connect everyone:
• William Baker Sr ( #7) married Mary Hatch ( #9).
• They had three children: Emily ( #6) Louisa ( #10) and William Jr. ( #4)
• Emily married Charles A. Bisbee Sr. ( #1)
• They had six children Charles A, Jr ( #11) Robert ( #14) Russell ( #13) William ( #2) Mary Lou ( #6) and Henry (b. 1930)
• William Jr. Married Ruth Anderson ( #3)
• They had three children Janet ( #12) Lois ( #8) and Ruth (b. 1930)
• Louisa never married

04/15/2026

Springtime is finally finding us here at Bisbee’s Mill. The ice is gone, maple sugaring season is over and the spring peepers are doing what they do. We, apparently, have a new neighbor at the museum. He moved in last fall and built a stylish riverside lodge with locally sourced timber. I saw him once in December, but lately he has been as busy as a beaver (literally) trimming the trees for a better view of the museum.

03/17/2026

It’s March here at Bisbee’s Mill and that means it’s time for making maple syrup. The first step is to tap the maple trees. Originally, wooden taps, or “spiles” were used. At the museum, we have a small belt driven jig that was used to bore a hole through the spile. We also have buckets full of completed spiles. These wooden spiles were superseded by galvanized steel taps, both requiring a 7/16th inch hole bored into the tree. Now, 5/16th inch taps have become common. Smaller taps create smaller scars on the tree. We use 5/16th inch taps (stainless steel for buckets and plastic for pipeline) and a maximum of two taps per tree.
Come check out our maple sugaring display this summer when we are open. Planned open dates are July 19, Sept 13 and Oct 11.

02/22/2026

At the Bisbee Mill Museum, we have a few kitchen related items including a hand crank ice cream maker, a Conservo stove-top steamer &canner and a Eureka warming box
Our wooden ice cream maker was made by Blizzard and works similar modern ones. Ours, though is just for display purposes. Thanks to Andrew for restoring it.
Our Toledo “Conservo” steam canner was meant to sit on the wood stove. The bottom has a chamber for water which creates steam to seal canned fruit or other foods placed on the racks.
We also have a Eureka food warmer. This heavily insulated box contains a covered aluminum pot and a piece of soapstone. The soapstone would be heated up on the woodstove and food would be placed in the aluminum pot. The heated soap stone would be set on the bottom and the pot placed on top of that. The whole unit would keep food warm for several hours.
Come check these out when we’re open this summer.

01/19/2026

According to my 1856 map of Chesterfield, there was a sawmill, a gristmill and a wheelwright shop at Bisbee's Mill. We have some of the wheelwright’s equipment in the woodworking shop on the third floor of the museum. We have a wheel hub in progress, a completed wheel hub, several spokes, a mostly assembled wheel and the iron wheel. We also have a traveler, a tool for measuring wheel circumference.
Come check it out this summer when we’re open.

12/18/2025

For this post we’re going upstairs to the woodworking shop at the Bisbee Mill Museum. Over in the back corner we have a display of 45 molding planes. In the days before fancy moldings were made with routers, moulding planes were common. They consist of three pieces: the body, the blade and the wedge. Each plane had a specific blade that matched the profile of the bottom of the body. Different planes cut different shapes. At least one of our molding planes is marked Eagle MNG and apparently made in Williamsburg, MA. It is also marked AH Damon, who was probably the proud owner of this particular plane. Be sure to check them out when we open next summer!

11/22/2025

11/22/2025

For this post, we’re going behind the scenes at the Bisbee Mill Museum or, more literally, beneath the floor. There is a lot of clever engineering going on here. The main gear that drives the gristmill is about seven feet in diameter and has wooden teeth. This gear meshes with smaller gears that drive the cob crusher, the lift conveyor, and the millstone itself. Additionally, there is a bevel gear assembly to change the axis of motion from horizontal to vertical.
Why wooden teeth? In a word: Sparks. The smaller gears have conventional metal teeth cast into the gear itself. If these metal teeth were to engage with other metal teeth, there would be a high probability of sparks. With corn dust floating around, the possibility of a fire would be high. Wooden teeth greatly reduce this possibility.
The wooden teeth also act as a break-away. If something jams on the stone, the wooden teeth would break and could be easily replaced. The downside to wooden teeth is that they wear considerably faster than metal teeth and need to be replaced.

10/27/2025

Before the cordless drill, before the bit & brace, holes were drilled in wood with a hand auger. We have several on display at the Bisbee Mill Museum. One of them is 2 ½ inches in diameter (third from bottom.) That would take someone with a bit more strength that I am capable of. Another auger is engraved by the maker and says KINGSTON D BISBEE. It turns out that a gentleman by the name of Daniel Bisbee made this particular auger sometime in the 1840s. That’s kind of cool.