It was constructed in 1904 by William Van Zant Jobes who relocated to St. Johns from Spokane, Washington.

William Van Zant Jobes of Rockford, Illinois erected the Jobes Milling Company in St. Johns, Oregon in 1904 after leaving his son's flour mill in Spokane, Washington.

[3] That same year he was discovered by a woman from Washington who said he failed to pay back a loan she made out to him in Spokane.

According to a city attorney, Jobes used the loan to purchase lumber for a new mill in Spokane but sold it when he decided to relocate to St. Johns, Oregon.

[5] Following his death his sons, Allan R. and William Haskell Jobes took over the ownership of the mill.