Site of Nix Mill

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Picture yourself standing somewhere along the Nueces River in Edwards County, and you're looking at a piece of ground that once hummed and roared and shook with about as much industry as this hill country ever saw in one place. This is the site of Nix Mill.

It ran from 1885 to 1926, and in that span of forty-one years, it did just about everything a mill could do short of cooking your supper. John L. Nix built it (born 1842, died 1915), and the man was not thinking small.

He designed the place to cut rawhide lumber, grind corn and wheat, and gin cotton. All of that. One operation.

You want to talk about a working mill, well, here you go. The upper floor housed the gin. The lower floor held the grist mill.

And out on the east side stood the sawmill, running off a wood furnace and boiler that furnished steam power. Now, what were they feeding that furnace? Cedar and oak.

Out here in the Edwards County cedar breaks, that was not hard to come by. The timber for the sawmill itself: the Spanish oaks, the white oaks, the elms; those came right out of the Nueces River watercourse. And what Nix cut from those trees was rawhide lumber, the rough-sawn kind, and from that lumber rose the town's wagon yard feed stalls, a dance hall, and other structures.

Think about that next time you hear a fiddle tune. After Nix passed in 1915, the mill kept changin' hands; J. L.

Jackson took it, then W. D. Hutcherson, then Edward Miller, then Matthew Taylor, and finally O.

C. Henderson. Five owners after the founder, and still the place ran until 1926.

Forty-one years of steam and sawdust and cornmeal and cotton, right here on this ground. Some places earn their marker.

What the marker says

(1885 - 1926) Built by John L. Nix (1842-1915) to cut rawhide lumber, grind corn and wheat, and gin cotton. Upper floor housed gin; lower, grist mill. On east side was sawmill with wood furnace and boiler to furnish steam power. Furnace was fed cedar and oak wood. Spanish oaks, white oaks, and elms from Nueces River watercourse were sawed into the rawhide lumber from which were built town's wagon yard feed stalls, a dance hall, and other structures. After Nix, successive owners were J. L. Jackson, W. D. Hutcherson, Edward Miller, Matthew Taylor, and O. C. Henderson. (1972)