Kirtland Flats Sawmill

As the Saints gathered to Kirtland lumber was needed to build homes.  The Kirtland Flats Sawmill was built on Stoney Brook in the fall of 1833. It was built primarily to provide lumber for the interior woodwork of the temple and generate funds to help pay for the construction of the temple. The sawmill also provided work for newly gathered Saints and lumber for new home construction and other buildings.

Turland Kirtland sold much of the land, near the river in the Kirtland Township, to Peter French who built a sawmill and gristmill on the Kirtland Flats as early as 1802. A sawmill was essential for any growing community needing lumber.  Any quantity of lumber could not be satisfied by the slow, labor intensive, process of men cutting with a whipsaw. A single water powered sash  saw could cut about 1000 board feet a day (pix #1-#3).

With the commandment to build a temple, some men proposed building it out of logs. Joseph reminded them they were not making a house for themselves or any man but a house for God. “And shall we brethren build a house for our God of logs? No, I have a better plan than that. I have the plan of the house of the Lord given by himself.”  The Lord had revealed the plans, to the First Presidency, for how the temple was to be constructed (D&C 94-95).

Joel Hills Johnson, a convert who had previously built two saw mills, arrived in Kirtland and was determined to build a sawmill for the Church. Joel designed and built the sawmill with the consecrated labor of others and completed the project within six months, before most of the lumber for the temple was needed. Joel is best remembered today for writing the hymn, “High on the Mountain Top.”

Logs were cut upstream on the Chagrin River and floated down stream to the vicinity of the sawmill and then dragged the last few hundred yards to the sawmill located on Stoney Brook. Between 1834 and 1836 all of the finishing lumber for the temple was produced at the sawmill. The sawmill also supplied lumber for homes and other Church buildings, like the schoolhouse/printing office built near the temple.

The workmen began the day with a prayer meeting seeking a blessing upon the day’s labor. Logs were rolled up a platform over timbers called log ways. A log was rolled onto the carriage and locked into position for cutting.

The saw was run by a waterwheel called a breast wheel (pix #4), which collected water in the buckets at the middle of the wheel, providing the most power from a low fall and small quantity of water. Water was stored in a mill pond diverted from Stoney Brook. When the saw gate was opened, water turned the wheel which had a large gear around the perimeter that turned a small gear about one-tenth its size (pix #5). The small gear turned a shaft in the basement that provided the power to move the sash saw up and down at a rate of between 90 to 120 strokes per minute.

Water also powered the carriage as it pushed the log through the moving saw blade. This was done with a ratchet mounted on a large “rag wheel” which moved the log forward 1/4 inch with each stroke of the saw (pix #6). The carriage was reversed by opening a secondary water gate that turned a shaft connected to a lantern gear (pix #7).

The water wheel also powered a lathe (pix #8) and other tools like a molding plane. The priesthood pulpits were made using hand tools and assembled in the woodshop before being taken to the temple (pix #9-12).