John Goffe’s Mill
In 1744, John Goffe built a saw and grist mill in Bedford on Bowman’s Brook. This is the same brook in which our children swam in the 1950’s and 1960’s. It flowed through the back part of our animal hospital property on Old Bedford Road. Several miles east, Little, my horse, and I would ride on the bank of the brook and play in the flowing water in the late 1940’s. From there, continuing three more miles east, the water of Bowman’s Brook was held back by a twenty foot high dam, forming a ten acre pond and waterfall. Water flowing over the dam drove the big water wheel that supplied the power for the mill. As children, Tony and I swam in the pond. We used to walk along on the top of the two foot wide and twenty-five feet long dam to then dive off into the deep water on the pond side.
As I think about it now, our playing on that dam must have been quite dangerous.
George Woodbury, whose family owned this property for generations, was an author who wrote a history about John Goffe’s Mill. This best seller was the narrative about his restoring the crumbling ruins of the stone grinding flour mill building and of his refurbishing the machinery of the grist and saw mills. George, an eighth generation direct descendant, inherited his family’s derelict mill in 1929. Twenty years earlier, in 1909, the old dam had collapsed due to a spring flood. His family had owned and operated the mill for almost two centuries. George renovated mill and it was again in operation during the 1940’s and 1950’s, turning out ground flour and pine furniture.
Today, a Quality Inn and the Wayfarer Convention Center are on the John Goffe’s Mill site with walkways over the falls and a gift shop that sells quaint art objects portraying aspects of the mill.
George was highly versatile. Now let me describe an equally unusual project of his; mechanically reconstructing his 1917 Stanley Steamer. This rare, unique automobile used water heated to steam as its source of power. He was a brilliant, inventive engineer and devised remarkable technological advances as he rebuilt the engine. His book about his Stanley Steamer odyssey also became a best seller. An amazing fact about the Stanley Steamer is its top speed. In 1907, one was clocked at 150 miles per hour.
I can remember elderly George arriving at our house in the summertime to visit Mummy and Daddy in his very special, shiny, yellow with black trim, antique roadster. This unusual car would be hissing clouds of steam as it turned into our driveway.
His visits were always exciting.
However, even more unusual to Tony and me was the appearance of George Woodbury’s face. He always had a beard. I remember that sometimes it was a goatee. Growing up, even into my early adulthood, he was the only man I ever had seen that had a beard! (Except Santa Claus).
Last night I mentioned this to Nifty, who is fifty-two years old. She was dumbfounded.
A Stanley Steamer Car
This was not only entertaining, I learned a lot too! What an astonishing man! And the Stanley Steamer could go 150 mph? WOW!
When I read about the adventures that you and Tony had together as children it really touches my heart . I like to imagine the two of you as little children discovering the world together.