By Lynne Schmitz
Contributing Writer
One of the oldest businesses in San Miguel, the San Miguel Flouring Mill, was built by a pioneer, Robert Work, in October 1886. This family still has deep roots in both north SLO and southern Monterey County. San Miguel was the first stop in SLO County as rails were built south by Southern Pacific Railroad. Just one week after the railroad arrived in San Miguel, the lumber to build the Mill was delivered by train and construction commenced.
The business was incorporated in 1903 and thrived until in recent years the decline of grain farming drastically affected their ability to continue. It was finally closed in 2022, but the big red building still stands strong along the railroad tracks — now owned by Union Pacific — in the middle of town. The Van Horn name is forever and indelibly attached to the Mill.
I had a great fun visit with Leslie Van Horn Parker of Atascadero and we reminisced about the old families we both grew up with in our small town. Her mother, Vivian Van Horn, is the owner of the big red mill. The roots of their family tree began to grow in the area with the advent of Leslie and Mike’s maternal great-great-grandparents. In 1875, Swiss immigrant to California, Otto Wyss, settled with his wife, Emily, in the Klau area in Adelaida. Their daughter, Emilie Wyss, was born in 1878. She met and married George Van Horn, whom she met at school in Santa Clara, and they become Leslie and Mike’s great-grandparents. They homesteaded in Adelaida and had eight children.
Leslie and Mike’s great-great grandparents, Andrew and Sophia Lindquist Wickstrom came from Sweden to Nebraska, then to California. They had 10 children. The family moved to Templeton when son Edward was 10 years old. He started working at the Farmers Alliance Mill in San Miguel in 1904, learned the trade and became manager in 1913. Great-great grandparents Fred and Annie Kitchen Houghton had moved their family to San Miguel in 1873. They ran the historic Park Hotel on Mission Street. Edward Wickstrom and Nell Houghton were married in 1908. Their daughter, Leatha (she preferred her nickname Babe) and Lloyd Van Horn were married in the 1940s and had two sons, Bill and Gary.
Lloyd got involved in the Mill, working with his father-in-law. After World War II, they purchased the business from the Work family. In 1952, Bill married Vivian Colburn. Bill and Vivian had three children, Mike, Leslie, and Peggy Rowlett. Their maternal grandparents are Ted and Marge Colburn. When Lloyd died in 1976, Bill became the mill manager. As the manager, he made changes and upgrades in equipment to deal with a changing economic base. When he passed in 1995, Leslie and Mike took over running the business with grateful thanks to Tom Jerman from the Templeton Mill for his expert help. The Van Horn family thrives, with an eighth-generation grandson delighting Leslie and Jeff.
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