Green’s Dictionary of Slang

rum-mill n.

1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 26 Nov. n.p.: The young man who attends a rum mill on the corner of Courtlandt street [etc].
c.1849		Short Patent Sermons in Yankee Humor (1853) 87: Every rum-mill, groggery and tippling-shop [...] is a trap set by the devil to catch those who are guilty of not having over three cents .
1853		Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 8 Oct. n.p.: A young married man [...] loafing in rum mills.
1873		J. O’Connor Wanderings of a Vagabond 229: Many of them [i.e. primitive casinos] were, however, located convenient to some rum-mill, from whence refreshments could be ordered.
1886		Nat. repub. (Wash., DC) 7 Sept. 3/2: Stop the rum mill permanently [...] he liquor traffic is a curse.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant I 238/1: Charter the bar, charter the grocery, to (American), to buy all the liquor in a groggery or ‘rum-mill’ and give it away freely to all comers.
1893		J. Hawthorne Confessions of Convict 137: He kept a rum-mill on the Bowery.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 221: The rum-mills of Portland are the most attractive joints of the kind on the Slope.
1900		Eve. Star (Wash., DC) 13 Jan. 18/4: The rum mill keepers [...] build up a clientele ofblue-jackets.
1908		N.Y. Tribune 26 Apr. 27/2: Where has it [i.e. money] all gone to? QWhy, to these rum mill wheezers, that’s where!
1917		Sun (NY) 18 Feb. 5/5: Professor— We’ve all heard that sort of talk, and always in a rum mill. Host— My place ain’t no rum mill [...] always keep a respectable house.