He and his cousin built their homes near the Mississippi River and named the settlement Montpelier as they were originally from Vermont.

Nye built a water powered saw mill further upstream to the North on Pine Creek.

[2] Benjamin Nye was murdered by one of his two sons-in-law (George McCoy) in 1852 and the mill passed to his other son-in-law Robert Patterson.

The creek was easily crossed for most of the year, but when the water was high it was difficult for farmers to bring their grain to the mill.

The main plant is a “three stand” double roller mill that produced wheat flour and is located on all three floors.