The fist mill of any description in Four Mile was built by John R. Smith; it was of the old stump variety and was operated by horse power.   He ground meal for the surrounding country for miles. Later a water mill was installed by Ennis Maulding and George Mayberry on the Skillet Fork near the present bridge north of Wayne City. A U.S. post office was established there in the 1850’s. The father of the late Oliver Gordon is said to have carried the mail on foot between Fairfield and McLean.sboro, probably including Maulding’s mill on his route.

William Boswell also had a s tunip mill, location not known. Early settlers would sometimes go as far as the Leach mill on the Little Wabash for their grinding.

Many early immigrants from the South came to Southern Illinois by the Goshen Road which led northwesterly from Shawneetown to Vandalia.  Branching from the Goshen Road southeast of Mt. Vernon, perhaps south of the bridge on Casey Fork, was laid out and then known as the Frog Island road. it extended southeasterly to a point abort a mile north of the Wayne-Hamilton county line, which it almost parallels east of the later Four Mile-Big Mound township line. The Commissioners’ Records of Jefferson County’ make mention of this road.

Within Wayne County 1½ miles from the WayneJefferson line and about Ihe same distance from the old Frog Island road was the old town of Middleton, roughly half way between Mt. Vernon and McLeansboro, and probable the source of its name.

Previous to the Civil War a Masonic lodge was organized in Middleton but was later removed to Belle Rive. The town received its mail perhaps three times a week by a star route from Xenia on the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railway. A man named Dobbs carried the mail for many years. On one occasion during high waters when he was crossing Suck Lick, a Rantankerous little tributary of Four Mile creek was overflowing, and over which there was no bridge. His little pony hitched to a cart was swept off the water-hidden tracks. Postman Dobbs was able to save himself and his prized mail pouch from the torrent but his pony was drowned.

When the U.S. Postal service was established on the Airline, the Xenia star route was discontinued and a mail route later established between Six Mile P. 0. (Keenes) and Middleton, the carrier receiving the munificent sum of 35 cents a trip.

Early Mail Route
A mail route was also established between the old village of Belle Prairie in north Hamiilton county and the new village of Wayne City that served the pat rons of the Mayherry post office in Frog Island.  Early postmasters were, William Mayberry and Esq. J. H. Totter. William Good and his sons Charles and Almond, the father having immigrated from Ohio, carried the mail on horseback at first once a week. Roads were frequently almost impassable in winter.

However, the coming of the railroads, Louisville & Nashville Railway and the Louisville, Evansville. and SI. Louis (Airline) proved almost a death blow to the town of Middleton.  The Methodist church built there in 1861 was torn down and removed a few miles east and north near Farnsworth cemetery and renamed Mt. Zion. The Middleton Christian church was later abandoned. The several Catholic families in southern Four Mile had no resident church but in later years worshipped at the new Catholic church at Piopolis. The old public school on the North and Main in Middletcu was renioved farther north and vest. Charles Jacobson. native of Belle Rive and later a druggist at Wayne City, was an early Middle- ton merchant.

Long before the days of modern hi glnvay building, the recurrent high waters of winter and spring made the necessarily poor roads well nigh impassable. The first known trading post in the island area was at old Baltimore with but one store -- a grocery - - which in those days also connected a place were liquor was frequently sold.  This "emporium" stood in the field southeast of the present Olive Branch church.  Merchandise was brought up from S hawneetown, probably to McLeansboro on the Goshen Road, and then across country. The name of tIre proprietor is unknown and the ch ronicles  of old Bal timore unrecorded.  The nearest approach  to a record is on a lone marble slab in Garrison cemetery just over in Hamilton county which reads: "James Barnes died April 17, 1860."  The story, which has become a sort of folk tale of bygone days is that he died in a tavern brawl at the hands of oae "Wild Bill"  Garrison at old Baltimore.