Buffat Mill

Buffat Mill. . Alfred Buffat (1840-1908) came to Knox County at the age of 10 with his parents from Switzerland in search of religious tolerance and economic opportunity., In 1851, the water milling enterprise was started to supplement the Buffat family's farm income. During the Civil War the mill was in possession of both Confederate and Federal troops. According to Alfred Buffat's memoirs the mill at one time was the largest gristmill south of the Ohio River., In 1859 Alfred Buffat took over the mill from his father and eight years later started to build “The Maples” for his bride, Elisa Bolli, the daughter of a Swiss consul., By this time the Buffat Mill and home with its attendant facilities were the center of community life. Alfred and his father, Pierre, taught in a one-room school house on land donated by the family. The Buffat community, known as Spring Place, featured one of the major grist mills in the county and supplied much of the area with cut timber from the wood mill. The Buffats also ran a blacksmith shop as well as farming several hundred acres. A road was built to Knoxville, still called Buffat Mill Road, for the express purpose of transporting the goods manufactured by the Buffats to Knoxville., This grindstone was used in the milling process at Buffat Mill located on Loves Creek a short distance from here. The Parker Family, descendants of Buffat, donated the land for the park to Knox County in 1976 and the mill stone in 2014., Photo caption: Alfred and Elisa Buffat, Special thanks to the East Tennessee History Center for providing historic information and photos.. . This historical marker is in Knoxville in Knox County Tennessee