It’s time once again for #FlashbackFriday with the Whitewater Historical Society. This week’s image is from the Scholl Collection of glass-plate negatives from the turn of the 20th century. It is a view of a sorghum mill processing sorghum stems, a common activity in the fall during the 19th and early twentieth centuries. Sorghum is a highly nutritious grain with seeds, that when dried, make a gluten-free flour. The long stems hold a sweetish liquid that can be boiled into a sweet syrup. It was used in the past as an economical sweetener and, during World War II, a substitute for rationed sugar. The photograph shows stems of the sorghum plant in a press, powered by a draft horse, extracting the liquid. In the background is a shed with a working stove, probably heating sorghum liquid down into a syrup. 

Join us next week for more from the Whitewater Historical Society.

(2881GP, Whitewater Historical Society)