Granville Bowl Mill Celebrates:
150 Years Old and Counting
By Martha Slater

This lathe that Stuart Boutwell and Greg Upham use at the Granville Bowl Mill to form the one-piece wooden bowls at was built in 1858.

Not many businesses make it to their 150^th birthday, and even fewer get there with only four owners.

Since it was founded in 1857, the Granville Manufacturing Company, known locally as "the bowl mill," has produced unique one-piece hardwood bowls utilizing the technology and machinery of the 19^th century. In addition to creating 35,000-40,000 of its trademark bowls each year, the business also manufactures lazy Susans, and more than 100,000 board feet of quarter-sawn clapboard siding annually.

Now celebrating its first 150 years, the present bowl mill is located on a 55-acre site on the main branch of the White River bordering the Green Mt. National Forest. It still contains the original machinery designed in the mid-1800s, now run by electricity instead of waterpower. The original source of power for the mill was the river. Water flowing over an earthen dam upstream from the mill used to run through the sluices into a turbine that powered the mill machinery. The devastating flood throughout Vermont in 1927 destroyed the Granville Dam, and although the mill survived, its waterpower was replaced by electricity.

In the century and a half since its inception, the mill has been owned and operated by only four families: the Hemenways, Rices, Howletts and the present owners, the Fullers. The business was actually begun by its founders in Ludlow, where the bowl lathe was designed and patented. The mill then relocated to Warren, remaining there until a fire in 1878, until it was rebuilt at its present home in Granville in 1879.

In 1913, the Rice family bought the mill from the Hemenways, and operated it for 60 years, before selling it to the Howlett family in 1972. Bob and Carol Fuller bought the mill in 1980 and brought up their family there. The "kids," siblings Jeff, Cindy and Doug, and Doug’s wife, Kristi, now run the business. Jeff handles the clapboard and building materials division, Cindy runs the bowl mill itself, and Doug is the plant manager and engineer.

Kristi, who shares marketing work with Cindy, notes that the two also "do everything else that needs to be done, including helping out in the office and store, going to trade shows, and taking reporters on tours!"

The company sells its products at its own store (open seven days a week, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.) next door to the mill, in retail and wholesale catalogues, at trade shows, and online at www.bowlmill.com.

Anatomy of a Bowl

The first step in making a nest of bowls at the Granville mill is when blocks of hard maple, yellow birch or black cherry wood are cut with a six-foot bar saw. The quality and diameter of the log determines the length of the block and thus how many bowls can be cut from it. Ideally, a 21 inch by 21 inch block will yield a nest of six bowls. After the bolter saw operator sizes up a block of wood, the center is found and drilled out for mounting on the lathe. The bowl tender then turns a square into a circle.

The bowls are first sorted for quality at the band saw when they enter the sanding room. They are then cut down to a standard size for the sanding machines. Separated by size for drying, the bowls are stacked "heart to heart," in rows north to south. They stay in the drying room three to six weeks until they reach the correct moisture content. During the sanding process, each bowl will be sanded three times, with a different grit inside and out, sorted and graded.

There are four grades of bowls: first quality, "knot perfect," preps and culls. When orders are received, the bowls are stamped with the mill’s brand, and then oiled and waxed or color dyed and lacquered.

The logs for the bowls are trucked in from a 200-mile radius around Granville, and also come by train from Nova Scotia. All the waste products from the mill are used, with the bowl shells sold for firewood and the sawdust for animal bedding.

"A Family Place"

When his parents bought the business 27 years ago, Doug Fuller was 20 and he went right to work, learning every job there.

"When we took over, we brought back some of the older employees, who had retired, and had them teach us how things were done," Doug explained. "It’s a family-owned business, but the employees are our family, too, and we take care of them."

"During one 11-year period, we had about 30 employees," Kristi noted, adding that in addition to the four Fullers, there are currently eight other workers. Many of them have been there for a long time. They get paid an hourly rate, and can also earn a production bonus for the quality and quantity of their work.

Stuart Boutwell of Hancock, who is currently the longest-serving person there, has been at the bowl mill for 28 years. Greg Upham of Randolph is the new kid on the block, having been there just about a year. The two work together like a well-oiled machine, their part of the bowl making process looking like a choreographed routine.

Linda Reed has been a mill employee for 24 years and Judy Jacques has been there for 17. The two women work on sanding and do custom finishing for clients such as Jonathan Pierce. Reed’s father, Sherwood Sargeant, also worked there for many years and Jacques’ husband, Larry is the mills’ expeditor, who "gets things from point A to point B," Kristi noted.

Maintenance supervisor Chuck Brown, who has been there for 19 years, definitely has the shortest commute (less than a tenth of a mile!). His father also worked there at one time, and Chuck started out stacking bowls.

Erin Andrews, who has worked for the company for three years, started out in the mill store, now works in shipping, and is also training in other areas. Carl Curtis, who does bowl finishing and spraying, has been there for almost six years. The "youngest" employee is 16-year-old Frisky the cat, the mill mouser.

"We have our ups and downs financially, as with any business," Kristi observed, "but we have a great life here. We raised our own kids here, too. They got off the bus here after school every day and they got to see their grandparents every day, too. My father-in-law, Bob, who is 84 now, still comes down here on Fridays to keep an eye on things."

Will a third generation of Fullers (Doug and Kristi have two children and Jeff and his wife, Elaine, have three) take over the mill? Stay tuned…

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