The Elzer mill
Unfortunately, nothing remains of this very old mill except its ground plan and the mill moat above this location. The first mention of this mill "Ober dem Weg" with a miller named Jeckel can be found in the Baldeneck tax lists from 1563. As a mill operator, he was obliged to pay 4 taps per year to the Baldeneck office. This mill was a "ban mill" in which the electorate subjects of Sosberg (3 families) and Mastershausen (number unknown) had to have all of their grain ground. In 1623 the mill "Ober dem Weg" was operated by a miller named Joes Disseldorf who, according to the tax lists of the Baldeneck office, was one of the largest taxpayers in the community of Mastershausen.
Most of the mill operators were well off financially, which is why care was taken to ensure that the descendants married into miller families again. In 1684, Theobalt Müntenich became the mill operator as the “electoral miller of Sosberg”. In 1689 the miller Johann Georg Hoff followed. From 1723 Johann Schaafs took over the mill. Afterwards, until it is destroyed, the mill is operated by Jacob Elzer from Sosberg. A storm in 1738 damaged the mill so much that it was no longer built at this point, but about 500 m downstream, as the “New Sosberger Bauernmühle” or “Schnorr's Mill”, named after the first mill operator Schnorr from Beltheim. The parts of the mill that were still usable were reused when the new mill was built. The slate stones required were broken in a small quarry (still clearly visible) on the opposite side of the stream, about 50m downstream. Source: Wolf, F.J. Mühlen and Müller Im Großbachtal, 2011