Coles / Wines Mill

By 1834 – 1871

Founded: In existence by 14 June 1834 — Bates, section XXVI, states expressly that "the exact date of the erection of the David Coles sawmill on the Maumee River is unknown," and dates its known existence from Coles advertising the mill for a buyer in the Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel issue of 14 June 1834. No erection year is printed here. Two conflicts stand open: (1) Bates's front map lists the mill from 1834 — that is the advertisement year, not an erection year, and must not be quoted as one; (2) the archive.org Bates text renders the newspaper name as "Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinels" (plural), while the name is also given as "Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel" — the variant is printed, not silently resolved. The 1889 Valley account independently confirms a Coles-built mill on the Maumee sold to Marshall Wines in 1838, but gives no erection year either.

Founders: David Coles, founder of the original sawmill — first name from Bates alone; the 1889 Valley account says only "one Coles." Marshall Wines, purchaser in autumn 1838, who added the flour mill. A later summary conflicts on the builder and is flagged, not followed: the Canal Society's September 2017 Tumble says Wines himself "built a saw mill and later another flour mill," whereas Bates and the 1889 Valley both attribute the original sawmill to Coles and the flour mill to Wines after his 1838 purchase. This entry follows Bates plus Valley on that point.

What it did: Originally a water-powered sawmill on the Maumee. After Wines's purchase, a flour mill was erected immediately to the east of the sawmill. Bates's later-years description — three-and-a-half stories, $6,000 capital investment, storage for 20,000 bushels of grain, one 5-foot and two 4-foot stone buhrs powered by three reacting wheels, about four men employed, about fifty barrels of flour daily — describes the mill in its later years, not the original Coles sawmill, and is not backdated here.

Course: Located, per Bates, between the river and the north bank of the Wabash and Erie Canal at Hanover Street, about three blocks due north of the present Concordia College; the Valley phrase "south bank of the Maumee" is compatible with that site and is not treated as a conflict. Wines's estate there was known as "Woodlawn," and the mill took the same name; later names in Bates's heading are Coles Mill, Wines Mill, Woodlawn Mill, and Volland Mill. Wines died in 1842; Bates says he sold the mills shortly before his death to Samuel Hanna and Oehmig Bird, trading as Hanna & Bird, and separately says "Woodlawn" was purchased in 1848 by St. Paul's Lutheran Church — the mill sale and the estate purchase are kept distinct here. Ownership then changed frequently: Eli Bostick and Reuben Fronefield bought the mill in September 1858 from Hanna & Bird and completed extensive repairs on 16 February 1859; Bostick sold his interest to Henry Volland in September 1859 (Fronefield & Volland); Fronefield withdrew in September 1860 and Barney Trentman became Volland's partner (Trentman & Volland); Trentman sold to Christian Orff in 1861 (Orff & Volland); David Comparet and Washington Haskell took over in 1863 (Comparet & Haskell) and erected a new dam at a cost of $5,000 at the site of the present municipal "Hosey" Dam, a short distance west of the Anthony Boulevard Bridge; Esther A. Orff later became sole owner.

Fate: Totally destroyed by fire on 24 March 1871, while Esther A. Orff was sole owner, and never rebuilt (Bates gives the exact date and "never rebuilt"; the Canal Society summary independently agrees the mill was completely destroyed by fire in 1871 and never rebuilt).

Sources:

1. Roy M. Bates, The Water-Powered Mills of Allen County, Indiana (1942), section XXVI, "Wines Mill (Known also as the Coles Mill, Woodlawn Mill, Volland Mill)" — https://archive.org/stream/waterpoweredmill00bate/waterpoweredmill00bate_djvu.txt
2. Valley of the Upper Maumee River, with Historical Account of Allen County and the City of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Vol. I (Brant & Fuller, 1889), Part 24, "Early Enterprises" — https://ldsgenealogy.com/IN/books/Valley-of-the-upper-Maumee-River-with-historical-account-of-Allen-County-and-the-city-of-Fort-Wayne-Indiana-Volume-I-part-24.htm
3. Canal Society of Indiana, The Tumble, September 2017, "John Orff – 1821-1897" (Wines/Orff/Volland mill passage; builder attribution conflicts with Bates/Valley, as flagged above) — https://indcanal.org/newsletters/the-tumble-september-2017/