Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1920-04-11 | Page 8 | Millstones with History to Serve at Sperry Office

MILLSTONES WITH HISTORY TO SERVE AT SPERRY OFFICE Dedicated as a lasting tribute to tho first flour mill In tho Rocky Mountain region and a criterion cri-terion of advancement in the milling mill-ing Industry, one of the historic Italian mlllstonos, serving since 1S50 in tho Advance Roller Mills, will bo placed In the terrazzo entrance en-trance to tho. new office building of tho Sporry Flour company In Ogden, writes Charles W. Robinson, Robin-son, associate editor of tho Ogden Og-den mills In the April issue ot Tho Sperry Family. , This stone, measuring one and ono-tenth motors In diameter, weighing twelve hundred pounds, and of the finest gray granite, was one of eight quarried on thu sunny slopes of Mount Vesuvius, Italy, in 18-14. The eight stones, consigned to Nauvoo, Illinois, wero part of tho cargo of tho foro-and-aft-rlggcd schooner "Blen Viajc" of Cardiff, Car-diff, which sailed from Naples in 1S4 5. bound for New Orleans. On the voyage tho "Blen Vlaje" apparcntlyy did not live up to her name (Good Voyage). While off the Bahamas ono of tho millstones was lost overboard In a violent storm. Possibly tho wily Don In command commandeered it for a deep-sea anchor and the cable parted. Up tho Mississippi from New Orleans to Nauvoo, where a chango of plans of tho consignee caused a transshipment back to tho mouth of tho Missouri, tho stonos wero sent up-stream to Council Bluffs. From Council Bluffs to Ogden, a distance of moro than a -thousand miles, tho seven remaining stones wero transported on ox-carts, and at last put In service almost five and a half years aftor the order was placed. To replaco tho stone lost at sea, one was fashioned out of natlvo granite, whloh, after forty years of continuous service, proved superior su-perior to those Imported.