Willow Leaves, May 10

Graduation Four Willow Mills Seniors will be among those getting their diplomas on May 29 at Manchester High. The four are Thomas Fergusson, Steven Stackhouse, Janice Thompson, and Leslie Springer. We asked each of the four grads where they would be going after the school year and got these enthusiastic replies. Tom Fergusson: “I’m spending the summer as a life guard at Indiana Beach. In the fall I’ll be at Purdue in West Lafayette.” Janice Thompson: “I’ll be finishing up some work here during the first part of the summer, including a part in the summer play at Manchester College. Then I’m headed to Oberlin College in Ohio to study theatre. And to be with Whisper (Townsend).” Steven Stackhouse: “You know, just hang out this summer and make some money. In the fall I’m going to Manchester College part time. I’ll be living at home.” Leslie Springer: “Away. Just away.” Good luck to all four of our hometown grads!	Found Cat Mrs. Harmon would like to thank Billy Peoples who found Cleo late last week. She had taken up residence in the Peoples’ toolshed. Billy found her when he pulled the mower out Friday afternoon. Twelve-year-old Billy earned a $5 reward for finding the wayward cat and escorting her home.
	Pinochle Champs Bob Howard over at the Grange announced a new championship Pinochle team after the final round of this playing season Friday night. Eldon Hayes and Dick Johnson earned the high standard for the year. A close second, Al and Mary Pat White vowed they would catch the old men next year. Laura and Denis Jennings, the defending champions, dropped to third prize this year.
Spring Tune-up Time! Best get that mower into Rasmussen Implement before you have to call in a haying crew to cut your grass! New points, plugs, and blade sharpening, just $29.95.

Willow Mills United Methodist Church

We are glad to have Rev. Everett back in the pulpit this week. Her message this week is titled “The Loving Arms of God”. The reference is I Corinthians 1:1–9.

Willow Mills United Methodist Church sits on the site of the Old Grissom Mill, which burned in 1896. The church was built in 1902 when Willow Mills was at it’s peak population of about 1,500 citizens.

It began as a Methodist Episcopal Church, later as a Methodist Church, and in 1968 as a United Methodist Church.

The current minister is Rev. Nigel Everett. At 81 years of age, she is still preaching in retirement as she is able, and the people of Willow Mills are happy to provide a place for her to continue the calling she answered in 1960.

There are over 100 members of the little church and attendance on Sunday mornings comes to about 50 adults and 17 children. Six of those are Althea Thompson’s, and five more are the Stackhouse grandchildren. It’s not a dying church, but it is retired.

One of the most colorful characters in the church is Albert Bailey whose prize bull.... Well, that’s another story. But Albert always sits in the back row on Sunday morning, handy to pass the offering plate as he’s done for nearly 50 years now. Albert has a short attention span, so the ministers try to keep the sermons under 20 minutes. If Albert feels the minister has spoken too long, he takes off a shoe and waves it in the air.

After church, Albert will step out the front doors and pull out a big cigar. He never lights it. He just bites off a big plug and chews it. Everybody exits to the right, because Albert spits to the left.

Old Grissom Mill

Grissom Mill was the first structure in Willow Mills, built in 1842. The Town was platted in 1849 and grew quickly as a community of note, thanks to the fertile farmlands and booming agricultural industry.

Bertram Grissom, the first miller of the town damned the river just above the confluence of the Willow Creek. He connected the Mill to the quickly growing southside of the river with a wooden bridge below the dam that led only to his mill.

The Mill caught fire in 1896 and burned to the ground because sparks ignited the wooden bridge and the fire department couldn’t get across to the other side. The loss was almost more than the village could bear since so many crops were in storage at the Mill. It was a hard winter, and Bert, at age 92 insisted that his sons were partly to blame and that the old mill site would never again hold so much of the town’s economy.

The county decided to extend Co Rd 400 at about that time and put in an iron bridge to connect the town to points north. Bert’s will, which was read out the next year donated the land to the Methodist Episcopal Church of which he had been a member most of his life. His sons were left without much for their portion, but his grandson Steven Grissom, became the first minister in the new church when it was built.