Sec. B Page 5 Missoulian Centennial Bonner Flour Produced Early in ’92
Bonner Flour Produced Early in ‘92
The Bonner flour mill began operations early in 1892 with a capacity of 250 barrels per day. It was constructed by the Big Blackfoot Milling Co., which also owned and operated it. It burned to the ground in 1904.
President of the company was W. H. Hammond. T. G. Hatheway was vice president; H. W. Harrison, secretary, and G. W. Fenwick, treasurer.
The mill was a four-story frame building constructed at a cost of about $50,000. The builder was Thomas Dickson, general superintendent of the Edwin P. Allis Co. of Milwaukee, Wis., the firm which furnished the milling machinery.
When the mill started it was turning out 100 barrels of flour per day. Most of the wheat was coming from the Bitter Root valley, which in 1891 produced 500,000 bushels.
The foreman of the mills was C. A. Peplow. In addition to its other facilities, the plant had storage elevators for 500,000 bushels.