ILLINOIS WINDMILLS

History of the Mill

South of Schick Road on the west side of Bloomingdale Road was the farm and residence of Henry Holstein, who built a windmill in 1872.  The mill was one of the largest in the area and designed for large-scale production, built with a wing building, presumably used for shipping or receiving.  It was constructed with a foundation of stone, a wide base, and a self-governing tail fan to turn the cap.

Holstein hired experienced German miller Henry Raap to operate and maintain the mill.  As experienced as Raap was, he narrowly escaped death when a tornado heavily damaged the Holstein Windmill in 1879.  Holstein did not reopen his mill for business until 1882 after painstakingly reconstructing it with improvements, including a third run of stone to increase the mill’s capacity.

Soon after reopening, however, Holstein sold the mill to a man named Steinbeck.  Steinbeck hired Herman Schmoldt to operate the mill with Raap.  When a steam engine was installed, Raap left to work for the railroad.  The mill was destroyed by another tornado in 1899; this time, however, the mill was not rebuilt, but rather “capped” and served the rest of its life as a grain storage space.

The grinding stones now sit in a small park between two benches next to the Bloomingdale Historical Society, north of Schick Road west of Bloomingdale Road.