 When Joseph Jr. and Julia Courand took over from his parents, the mill was processing lumber, cotton, wheat, and over a million bushels of corn per year starting in the 1880s.The mill was the industrial center of Castroville until the 1920s.The Courands bought the Vance property in 1899 from John and Rowena's children, and converted the 1859 Vance residence into a warehouse.