deciphering some history

"As early as 1803 Seth Roberts built a grist mill, and the settlement took the name of "Roberts's Mill." It was also called by some "Grass River Falls," but previous to the War of 1812 was changed to "Columbia Village."

Elsewhere, the orginal grist mill is said to have been built in 1806. This mill (and the subsequent ones built in its place after the 1814 and 1856 fires) is gone. Our stone home stands next to it.

"The inhabitants of this town suffered much anxiety on account of their unprotected frontier. A company called the South Madrid Militia was frequently summoned, and took part in several skirmishes along the St. Lawrence, and also guarded public stores kept in the mill at the village. The officers were: captain., Jesse Goss; lieutenant, Richard Blood; ensign, Daniel Richards. In the summer of 1813 a lot of goods, public and private, were captured on a British ship and stored at the village. In the following winter a squad of British soldiers came out and retook a part of the goods and carried them away."

Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia which expounds upon the British/American conflict during the War of 1812:
"The British were potentially most vulnerable over the stretch of the Saint Lawrence where it also formed the frontier between Upper Canada and the United States. During the early days of the war, there was much illicit commerce across the river, but over the winter of 1812 - 1813, the Americans launched a series of raids from Ogdensburg on the American side of the river, hampering British supply traffic up the river."

Perhaps the "lot of goods" (which were captured on a British ship) came from the St. Lawrence River via Waddington or Ogdensburg. Until 1859, Waddington was not a separate township from Madrid. The South Madrid Militia likely claimed the British goods as their own bounty, seeing that they were taking part in "skirmishes" on the river. It would make sense to remove captured goods to a more remote place to be stored in a secure building (stone) for safe-keeping. It is unclear which mill was used for storage, but likely the only stone mill at this time was Seth Roberts' grist mill. The captured goods weren't safe for long though, as this account tells us that a squad of British soldiers came the next winter and reclaimed all the booty back!

"The early mills that have been mentioned as established at the village site were destroyed by fire in 1814, when they were owned by Jarah Meach, to whom the property had been sold by the firm of Lord & Price, who purchased of the builder. After the fire the site and water-power were purchased by Timothy Reed, who erected a grist and saw mill under one roof.
One-half of the mills built by Timothy Reed, as before stated, was sold by him to Safford & Horton. The property was finally sold on execution and Hiram Horton bid it in. The mill burned about 1856, and Horton built the stone grist mill standing opposite the saw mill, and subsequently sold to G. M. Douglass and his brother. The latter failed, and after one or two other changes the property passed to Smith & Hall (B. B. Smith, W. H. Hall) in May, 1893, who now operate it. Mr. Douglass now runs the saw mill under a lease."

This is all I can find online in reference to the old stone mills in Madrid, combined with copies of the 1852 and 1865 maps. The last paragraph is a bit vague, allowing that there are different mills referred to, some re-built after fire, some passing to other owners!