Great Grandpa's Enterprise No. 7 coffee mill

I've been told that my great grandfather bought this coffee mill in 1901. The patent date on it says July 12, 98. It retains it's original paint & decals, although it's had a little house paint splattered on it over the years.

I remember it as a child when I would visit grandma's house, they would occasionally use it to grind corn for the birds. I rescued it from my cousins basement when he had water back up from a big rain storm. It caused the wooden base to come unglued. I did a light sanding of the wood before re-gluing it together & applied some furniture paste wax to finish it, otherwise I believe it's been UN-tampered with since it was new.

When I was working on it, I did a little web image search & found pictures of an identical coffee mill in use in the White House kitchen in 1904. If it was good enough for the White House, it's good enough for me. Old ads for this model state that the hopper will hold 28 oz. of coffee beans & weighs 62 lb.

I'm not a big coffee drinker, but this is what I use to grind my coffee when I do. I've tried many grinders over the years, getting progressively older ones, none work better or are more satisfying to use than grandpa's. Before using this one, I was using a small German box mill that required 100 cranks to do what grandpa's will do with six cranks. It is one of my most prized possessions & I wouldn't part with it for a million bucks.