Grist is grain, and grist mills of this same basic design have used water power to grind grains into meal for baking bread since at least the first century B.C. By 1840 the United States had over 23,000 grain mills. While some were commercial flour mills milling and sifting flour for distant markets, most were neighborhood grist mills, selling the service of grinding to nearby farmers. The customer paid a toll, or fraction of the grain he brought to the mill, in exchange for having his corn, rye, or wheat ground into meal. (In most of New England this toll was 1/16th of the grain.) The owners of early 19th-century New England grist mills were usually rather prosperous men, and like most of the population at that time, the majority were farmers.

To operate the mill, the miller places the grain to be ground in the funnel-like hopper above his pair of millstones, after first taking out his toll. Then he opens the sluice gate that lets water into his water wheel. As the weight of falling water turns the water wheel, large gears turning smaller gears make the shaft turn faster, much as the large gear on the pedals of a bicycle will turn the smaller gear on the wheel more rapidly. This power is transmitted to a vertical spindle, upon which rests a large, flat disc of stone, often weighing a ton or more. This stone spins just above, but not quite touching, an identical stone set stationary in the floor of the mill. Both stones have a pattern of grooves cut into their faces. As one stone turns above the other, their grooves cross much like scissor blades. Grain falling through the hole, or "eye", in the runner stone is cut apart as it passes between the two stones. The miller can adjust the distance between the stones to regulate how finely the grain is ground. The milled grains moves around the cover that is over the stones, until it falls through a hole into the meal chest. From there it can be scooped up into a sack to be taken home for baking.