After the first mill on the site burned to the ground during the Civil War, the Mickey family bought the property, rebuilt, and began operating the present three-story wooden mill by 1871. It continued in operation until 1965 under three different families and a number of names. The mill ground mainly winter wheat and buckwheat. Power was provided by a water turbine, now lost. The mill and its nineteenth-century equipment, which include a scale, stone burr mill, and separators and sifters, are still in place, preserved by the Freeport Area Historical Society and open for tours by appointment.