Sunday Favorites: The Story Behind The Big Chimney House

Ever wonder about the historic home with the oversized chimney located on 301 in Ellenton? At 97 feet high, the stone chimney reaches far above the gabled roof of the structure, looking almost out of place. As it happens, it is the last remaining piece of the Craig Sugar Mill. Here's the story .

?????The Craig Sugar Mill chimney stands west of present-day Ellenton on the north side of 301. Originally, it was part of a sugar cane mill built by William Pinkston Craig circa 1848 and destroyed by the Federal Navy in 1864. Over the years, Craig’s land was divided up and sold to another homesteader who used the ruins of the mill as a chimney for their home. Commonly known as the ”Big Chimney House“ in Ellenton, the structure was most recently owned by a church.

The story of the Big Chimney House begins with the collapse of a large bank called the Union Bank in Tallahassee, where many of Florida’s most wealthy cotton plantation owners secured their investments. Coincidentally, the collapse coincided with the Federal Government’s decision to enact the Armed Occupation Act, which promised any ”able-bodied man“ a 160-tract of land as long as he inhabited it for five years and built some sort of structure there.

The idea behind the free land was to push a recently established Seminole Nation further south, as their presence and successful farming and cattle businesses were making government officials uncomfortable.

As one can imagine, the idea of free land attracted a lot of attention. Especially from those plantation owners that had just lost everything in the collapse, they saw the potential for profit and Craig was one of them.

A native of Maryland, Craig came to Manatee County in the late 1840s. Prior to moving to the area, he had resided in Leon County. Originally clearing his 160 acres, he planted both sugar and corn and built a sugar and grist mill to process the harvest, according to a historical marker placed at the site by the Manatee County Historical Society.

Over the course of a year (June of 1849-50), the mill processed 140,000 pounds of sugar and 8,000 gallons of molasses. The 45-foot tall chimney was the core of the operation, at its base were two furnaces that heated five 200-gallon copper kettles which boiled the cane juice, the MCHS sign states.

While profits were up, Craig was still aware of the potential for strife among the Seminole Tribe. Some reports say that his wife refused to live on the north side of the Manatee river, due to sporadic skirmishes by Native American bandits, (that did not represent the Seminoles nation). To appease his spouse, Craig traveled to the property daily by boat. In addition, the chimney was outfitted with secret weapon ports that could be used in the event of an attack but were kept sealed during the cooking process.

Craig’s efforts to protect the mill were unsuccessful. In 1864, it was attacked not by Native Americans as feared, but by the Federal Navy during the Civil War. The Union suspected sugar and other local productions like salt were being supplied to the Confederates (and they were).

Historical documents show that on August 3, a party from the U.S. Bark James L. Davis came up the Manatee River in a small schooner and destroyed the mill along with the Gamble Plantation Mill located nearby. Capt. Theodore P. Green reported, ”After breaking as much machinery as possible with the force at hand, loaded shells were placed at various parts of the engine and the building fired. The shell exploded and the factory burned to the ground,“ according to a 1972 speech by JL Harrison titled ”Little Known Manatee Sites.“

It is not clear why or how the chimney remained unscathed. However, it is a present-day reminder that Manatee County was very much a part of the national events occurring hundreds of years ago.