Davis Mill

The plaque says Davis Mill made flour. The dam behind it made a fight. William A. Davis's log dam backed Salado Creek over two springs the town drank from, and when the Salado College board asked him to lower it, he cut a notch in the top log. The board sued in 1870. A jury hung, a second verdict favored Davis, the Texas Supreme Court sent the case back, and in 1878 a court ordered the dam cut by eight inches. Davis later sat on the college board beside his old opponents.

What the plaque says

Davis Mill Built in 1864 by William A. Davis; first stone mill with carding machine in this vicinity. A sawmill and gin were added in 1866. French burrs, Leffel water wheel and silk bolt brought from Galveston by wagon in 1871. Made flour for Central Texas homes. No widow paid toll at the Davis Mill.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Temple Railroad and Heritage Museum — 15 mi
  The Santa Fe depot of 1911 in a railroad town that began in 1880 as a construction camp, now a museum with locomotives and cars parked beside the active rail yard.
• Williamson County Courthouse — 23 mi
  The fifth Williamson County courthouse, a Beaux Arts building by C. H. Page, rises over a Georgetown square of more than 50 Victorian-era buildings.
• Inner Space Cavern — 25 mi
  A Georgetown cave found in 1963 when highway engineers drilled test holes, holding Pleistocene fossils and 72-degree rooms that visitors reach by an artificial tunnel.

More markers nearby

• Kate Crawford and Zachary Clay Taylor — steps away
• Home of Orville Thomas Tyler — steps away
• Salado Creek — steps away
• Salado — steps away