LIBERTY MILLS

“Liberty Mills Founded”, in Weesner, History of Wabash County, 373:

At the same time that North Manchester was being born through the efforts of Messrs. Ogan, Harter and others, the Town of Liberty Mills, two miles further up the river, was being created. The story has already reached the point where James Abbott had sold the land upon which it was afterward platted to Alex McBride upon the condition that he erect a gristmill upon the property. Mr. McBride failed to “make good,” but in June, 1836, there came a man for whom the township and the county had been waiting, John Comstock, with his brave wife and six children. He assumed all the McBride obligations, building not only a gristmill, but a sawmill, a woolen mill, a distillery and a high-grade flour mill. In 1837 Mr. Comstock laid out the Town of Liberty Mills and, as we have fully described elsewhere, became in many ways the broadest, strongest and most helpful citizen in Wabash County. He put Liberty Mills fairly on the map and wrote himself into a large chapter of the county’s history.