Henry Frederick Fischer began windmill construction in 1865 after acquiring the farmland from his father, Frederick L. Fischer (as an interesting side note, Henry’s brothers-in-law, William Asche and Frederick Graue, bought an old water-powered sawmill site years before. They first built a sawmill, then a brick gristmill, now known as the Graue Mill). The typical Dutch smock windmill was among the first of its kind to be built in the Chicago area. Fischer built the mill with parts from a prefabricated kit imported from the Netherlands that was assembled with the help of two Dutch millwrights and local farmers, including Christian Heidemann, whose own windmill (that was in Addison, Illinois until it burned down in 1958) was based on Fischer’s design. During construction, it is believed that alterations were made to the mill’s height and design which probably caused its construction to span three years. The mill began grinding in 1867.