By DEBORAH BEHRENDS
Illinois Correspondent

GENEVA, Ill. — It’s a bit off the beaten path, but Fabyan Windmill is well worth the detour.

In a Kane County Forest Preserve near Fox River, docents offer tours of the windmill from 1-4 p.m. most weekends. And if there’s enough wind, about nine mph, millers will demonstrate how the cap is turned and the sails are drawn, even though the grinding wheels no longer engage.

“We still run the mill year-round, as long as it’s above 25 degrees,” said volunteer miller Mark Rivecco of North Aurora.

Originally built by German craftsmen Louis Backhaus and his brother-in-law Freidrick Brockmann between 1875-76 in what is now Lombard, Ill., the windmill was purchased by Col. George Fabyan from Mrs. Fred Runge for about $8,000.

It was moved to his estate, Riverbank, in Geneva in July 1915.
The windmill was disassembled and labeled with Roman numerals by the Egar E. Belding Co. of West Chicago.

The transporting crew used a team of mules and a 20-foot wagon to move the 50-foot upright beams.

The windmill was reassembled over the next 19 months by a Danish millwright, identified only as Mr. Rasmussen. He was assisted by John Johnson of Batavia, along with the Wilson Brothers Construction Co.

Although the original structure had no basement, Fabyan wanted one under the windmill on his estate.

It took 33 workers mixing concrete by hand to build the foundation. It’s 42 inches deep and 26 inches thick. The octagonal structure is five stories and 68 feet high.

Inside the mill, the beams and shafts are cypress wood trimmed in black walnut. New wooden gears were made as well.

Docent Earl Johnson of St. Charles said some of the gears were made of wood for two reasons. First, if there was a problem with the gears, a wooden gear would shear more easily than a metal one. Second, a metal gear against a wooden one wouldn’t create sparks.

“Sparks are a bad thing in a wooden mill,” Johnson said.
The cap, or hub, of the windmill is a huge cogged wheel turned by wind blowing against the vanes. The cap can be turned a full 360 degrees.

The vanes are covered by canvas sails, and the moving cog rotates a shaft running the height of the mill.

This turns two grinders and the sharpening wheel in the basement.
The grinding stones, each of which weighs about 3,000 pounds, were sent to a company in Indiana for sharpening, Johnson said.
Throughout, the mill is held together by dowels glued into drilled holes, with scarcely a nail to be seen.

Before and during World War I, the mill ground the grain grown at Riverbank and by area farmers.

It was used to feed prize livestock on the estate.
“On a good day, the mill could grind about 400 bushels of grain,” Johnson said.

Several honors have been accorded the windmill. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was honored in 1980 by being selected to appear on a 15-cent U.S. postage stamp, which was part of a series of five American windmills.

This farm news was published in the June 13, 2007 issue of Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.