Electric Corn Mill in The Mansion (Location)

The foreman of the Grand Jury in Jefferson in the late 1940s, when Stevens presents his petition for Mink's parole, is described as a man who "runs a small electric-driven corn-mill" (407). Since no other details are given - the size or location of the mill, for example - we can't be sure where to locate this mill on our map of Yoknapatawpha or what this detail tells us about progress in northeastern Mississippi. But assuming it is on an electric grid rather than battery operated, and in or near the hill country where Yoknapatawpha's corn is typically grown (much of it for making moonshine whisky), this could be Faulkner's way of acknowledging the success of the New Deal's Tennessee Valley Authority in bringing electricity to the rural south. Jefferson, of course, has a power plant that provides electricity to the townspeople by the beginning of the 20th century. The place on the map we chose for the mill is closer to the hills than to town.