 The mill in its most active years (1864-1890) ran 24 hours a day, using a turbine/waterwheel combination to turn the grindstones.Families would sometimes wait three days for their corn to be milled at Beck's, forcing a settlement by the mill.Eventually, the modern roller mills far surpassed the capability of gristmills, and urbanization made rural mills difficult to transport to in comparison, causing Beck's Mill to stop operating in 1914.