Custom Windmills
Franzen Windmill
Old Flax Mill
Wood Street and Barron Street
Bensenville, IL 60106
Status
Destroyed
Owner
John H. Franzen (1850 - ?)
History
John H. Franzen built a windmill sometime between 1847 and 1850 on a
site on Wood Street near Barron Road in Bensenville, Illinois.
Unlike any other windmills listed, this is the only known windmill in
the vicinity known to be used to grind flax seed into linseed oil, a
product then used for making paints. Farming and milling flax seed
was profitable until about the Civil War when flax production was moved
exclusively to Chicago. The upright mill stones still stand in
front of the Bensenville Public Library at the corner of Wood and Church
Street. A plaque on one stone reads:
“These mill stones were used by John H. Franzen in 1850 to grind flax
seed from which linseed oil was made.”
Sources
-Bensenville Public Library
-Personal records / observations
Images
Photo of the millstones once used in the mill (2008) by Tom Haskell
Photo of the inscription on the millstones (2008) by Tom Haskell
