JACKSON MILL CHANGED THE FLOUR INDUSTRY

JACKSON -- Jackson, known today for good football teams and fine homes and churches, also is the city that gave the world white bread.

It was in Jackson at the turn of the century that James N. Alsop, the brother of a local dentist, installed in collaboration with Philip Heyde a process for bleaching flour with electricity. The Alsop Process revolutionized the flour milling industry and by the 1940s was used by every wheat-producing country in the world.

In the early years of the 20th century, Jackson was home to the county's most important business, the Cape County Milling Company. The company was the first in America to introduce the roller system of milling, and its Alsop Process was the first successful method for turning heretofore grayish flour white.

White flour still accounts for 90 percent of the flour produced in the U.S.

For their work, Alsop and Heyde received bronze medals at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exhibition in St. Louis.

Born in Owensboro, Ky., Alsop was an inveterate inventor who also patented a smoke-cure salt used in curing meat and worked on a process to treat wounds with electricity. He also cross the Atlantic Ocean 20 times in his life.

Alsop patented the bleaching process and made a fortune selling it around the world. The milling company sold rights to the process within the U.S. and in 1913 was sued by Alsop, who claimed he had not been adequately compensated. That suit later was thrown out of court.

Alsop died in 1936. Dr. Adelaide Parsons, a Southeast professor who is a Heyde descendant, says her great uncle Ruddle McCombs eventually sold the patent to Pilsbury. McCombs used some of the money to donate all the windows at New McKendree United Methodist Church, Parsons said.

The Cape County Milling Company was established in 1895 in a merger of previously existing mills. The directors were A. R. Byrd, R.M. McCombs, J.W. Hunter, J.R. Bowman, William A. Heyde Sr. and John R. Mabrey.

The plants were remodeled with the newest equipment by Philip Heyde and later by his son William A. Heyde Sr. and grandson, William A. Heyde Jr.

The company's Mill A and Mill B were in Jackson. Mill C was in Burfordville. By 1914 they were producing 1,500 barrels of flour per day, and the company could store 300,000 bushels of grain in its elevators.

The mills' shipping capacity was eight train cars of flour and up to five cars of feed per day at that time. The company's leading brand was Gold Leaf, which was used for cakes and pastries. Capco was the brand used for bread, and Kitchen Queen was also popular.

A 1983 history of the company prepared by the late Bernice F. Heyde, wife of William A. Heyde Jr. and mother of Adelaide Parsons, says the flour was prized because the highest quality of soft wheat was known to be grown in this region.

Mill A was located in the 400 block of Old Cape Road. The smaller Mill B was located east of the Main Street bridge over Hubble Creek.

The mill had field offices in Havana and in Africa and employed more than 130 people in its heyday.

The company liquidated its assets in 1953. Mill A was purchased by Kasten Building Center and was razed in 1973. Bollinger Mill was opened as a historic site in 1981.