Historical Sketches of Southwest Virginia
Publication No. 7 – 1973
OLD
MILLS OF FAR SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
By Emory L. Hamilton
Preface
Not long ago
nearly every rural community in Southwest Virginia had a grist mill, and
oftentimes one mill house enclosed both a grist and a flour mill.
Oftentimes, they served as gathering places for the men of the community,
especially on Saturdays. Nearly all were water powered. The overshot wheel
type predominated, because even a brook in the hills could be turned
through a flume and made to spill on the big overshot wheel. This type
also was the most picturesque. However, turbine power wheels were
especially used in large creek or river mills where it was necessary to
empound water with dams.
In
order to preserved as much history as possible of these mills, Emory L.
Hamilton collected what information he could about as many of them as he
could, and L. F. Addington photographed them.
The
Wynn Mill
Located west of Jonesville, Lee Co., VA, just off highway 58, known today
as the Wynn Mill, but in earlier days as the Browning-Wynn Mill.
The
mill was built sometime after 1863 and was then only two stories high. The
third floor was added about 1898, when the rolling Mill Machinery was
added for making flour.
Not only did this mill serve
residents of Lee County, but some came from Tennessee and Kentucky to
mill. The mill operated until sometime in the 1930's and was then in
possession of John C. Wynn.
Dr.
James G. Browning, a medical doctor and builder of the mill was born in
Russell Co., VA, July 27, 19827. Died at his home at the Methodist Camp
Ground, Jonesville, VA, January 17, 1896. He married Martha Ann Farley,
who was born April 23, 1829 and died January 11, 1896.
John
Calhoun Wynn, who last operated the mill was a son of Acles Porter Wynn
and Alafair Ledford, and was born in Harlan Co., KY, December 24, 1861,
died at the Camp Ground in Lee Co., VA, August 21, 1940. He married
Henrietta Browning at the old Browning home just opposite the mill.
Henrietta was born September 1, 1866 and died January 22, 1947.
Most, if not all the machinery is
still intact in this old mill, but the building is rapidly deteriorating.
The
Ball Mill
Located on
the south side of Route 58, just west of Rose Hill, in Lee Co., VA.
Built by Moses S. Ball, about 1878. There was once a water operated saw
mill on the north part of the building. The wheel of this mill is the
horizontal type "turbine-wheel". The mill remained in the Ball
family until 1935, when it was sold to Joe Cowan, who continued to grind
meal at this mill for sometime afterward.
The
original mill house which was part log and part frame was torn down by Mr.
Cowan, and the present building erected on the old foundation. The
original machinery, mill wheels and burrs of the original mill are still
intact and in operational use today, even though the old mill has been
silent for several years.
The
Gibson Mill
On Indian Creek, west of Ewing, in Lee Co., VA, and upstream a short
distance from the old Wireman Mill stands the fast decaying Gibson Mill.
Built by the Gibson family and managed by them for most of the years of
its operation.
J.
H. Humphrey, J. J. Gibson and J. N. Gibson replaced the original dam which
was made of logs with the present dam of limestone rocks, and built the
present building around 1910. This mill was a success from the beginning
and made money for its operators. Around 1917 it was operating full blast.
Different
individuals have operated the mill among them was A. M. Clark, B. F. Wail,
a Mr. Profitt, A. M. Blakemore and perhaps others. Blakemore was the last
to operate the mill and perhaps operated it longer than anyone else.
Wireman's
Mill
On Indian
Creek in Lee Co., VA, west of Ewing, and only a short distance downstream
from the Gibson Mill.
Built
by a Mr. Wireman sometime prior to the Civil War, and a skirmish between
Confederate and Union soldiers took place around this old mill during the
Civil War which is locally referred to as "The Battle of Wireman's
Mill."
The
original mill dam was made of logs and the mill was run by a large wooden
"under shot" wheel.
The
mill was sold to W. H. Pridemore, commonly known as "Uncle
Billy" who in turn sold it to W. P. Nash, who was a grandson of Mr.
Wireman, the first owner, and Nash was a bachelor. In 1921, Nash replaced
the old log dam with a concrete dam, and erected the present frame
building, the original being of log. Both a grist and flour mill, but
never a success for reasons unknown, and never made money for its
operators. It was remodeled and converted to a rolling mill and Nash's
nephew, Carroll Johnston from Knoxville, was the Miller. This attempt was
another failure and for several years afterwards the old mill operated
only one day a week grinding feed for livestock.
After
Nash's death the mill was sold at auction to a Mr. J. D. Hurst, who turned
it into a furniture factory, which was also a failure.
The
building is now owned by a Mr. Willard Brooks, and has at time been used
as a tenant house, room shaving been built on the side of the mill. When I
visited the mill in 1967, some disgusted tenant has painted on a wall,
"We Democrats can't live here." Recently the old mill has been
repaired and a very attractive log restaurant has been built and opened
nearby as a tourist attraction.
The
Bush Mill
The Bush Mill on Amos Branch in the Copper Ridge section of Scott Co., VA,
is sometimes called the Bond Mill. It is now owned by the Scott County
School Board and is used by F. F. A. students as a tobacco barn.
Valentine
Bush and his wife Nancy Gose moved from Russell County and bought land,
and the first mill was either built by them or was already on the land
they bought. The original mill was destroyed by fire, and the present mill
was built by Bush about 1896 or 1897. The builders were W. T. Frazier,
Stephen and William Bush, sons of Valentine.
The Machinery, part of which is
intact was purchased from Tyler and Tate of Knoxville, shipped by rail to
Gate City, and hauled by log wagons to the mill site by J. R. Frazier and
Jim Bush.
The
mill now has a large, metal overshot wheel, but the original was a wooden
wheel built by James and Franklin Stewart. The sluice way that carried
water to the wheel is no longer standing.
Limestone
rock to build the foundations was hauled from Copper Ridge and the mill
race dug along side the foot of a hill for some five hundred feet
represents a stupendous labor job, the mountain base being an out cropping
of limestone.
The mill was once owned by S. H.
Bond, hence the "Bond Mill."
Valentine
Bush, the first owner also had a water powered sawmill upstream from the
mill and on the stream below the mill he operated a Carding Machine.
Valentine Bush, born in 1809 is said to have lived to be 105 years old.
In
1866, a 16 year old son of Valentine Bush had taken a horse to water at
the fork of Amos Branch and while sitting on the drinking horse a shot was
fired from ambush and the young boy tumbled from the horse into the waters
of Amos branch. The assassin fled and was never caught. The stone at the
grave of this boy in the old Nickelsville Cemetery has an epitaph which
reads: "He fell at the hands of an assassin."
Duncan
Mill
This landmark mill was blown away in the Rye Cove tornado of 1929. It was
built by John Duncan, who came into Scott Co., VA around 1835, built the
mill and his home on Cove Creek in the edge of Rye Cove. The mill was a
log structure and ground both wheat and corn. John Duncan operated it
until his wife's death in 1857 when he turned it over to his son-in-law
George W. Johnson who ran it until his death in 1866.
Johnson
had the log mill torn down and employed Pinkney Carter and George Peters,
both noted millwrights, to build a new mill. Carter designed a three story
mill with improved equipment for cleaning wheat. The new mill was
completed about 1860, just prior to the out break of the Civil War.
This
mill flew the Confederate flag and ground flour for the Confederacy all
during the Civil War. Grain was hauled in from wherever available, stored
and guarded by Confederate soldiers.
The
flour left the mill by wagon and ox-drawn wagons for such places as the
Confederate encampment at Pound Gap in Wise County on the
Virginia-Kentucky line.
The mill was also a recruiting
station for the Confederacy. On Saturdays rallies were held and speeches
given to encourage enlistment in the Confederate Army.
In
1917 the third story of the mill was torn off and converted again into a
two story building and rolling mill machinery added for grinding wheat,
which was still in use when the mill was destroyed by a cyclone on May 2,
1929.
Mr.
J. F. Johnson of Fort Blackmore told the writer the following story:
"I have heard my father speak
of John Duncan standing in the door of the mill on April 15, 1865 when a
Negro slave that once belonged to Washington Salling rode up and said,
'Good morning, Uncle John. How is your health? Uncle John have you heard
any good news lately?' He replied; 'Nothing except that it has been
reported General Lee surrendered last Friday morning. The Negro
leaned way back in his saddle, clapped his hands and hollowed, 'Bless God
for that!' John Duncan jumped out the door and threw a rock at the Negro
man. He was chastized for this act and he replied, 'No Negro can shout in
front of me after my people have suffered so.' He had three grandsons shot
down in one day at Gettysburg."
Brickey
Mill
The original Brickey Mill on Stony Creek, north of Ft. Blackmore, in Scott
Co., VA, was built about 1845 by Peter Brickey. Peter Brickey ran the mill
until his death. After his death the mill fell to his son James Brickey
and at his death to his son John Brickey. John traded the mill to George
Wolfe who died and left it to his daughter who was a widow Jennings. Mrs.
Jennings sold the mill to Will Owens who at his death left it to his
son-in-law Graham G. Brickey.
The
present mill was rebuilt by George Wolfe around 1907-1908. The wheels for
this mill were made by James Stewart, who along with his father before him
were noted millwrights of the Rye Cove section. Much of the mill machinery
is intact and the mill ran until just before World War II. The old water
wheel at the back of the building has fallen down and almost rotted away.
The mill was operated by an "overshot" wheel with the mill race
running from a very large spring further up Stony Creek.
Logan
Cox Mill
This mill located in Alley Valley of Scott Co.,VA is a composite, being
made of parts of older mills and is completely functional today. Owned by
Mr. Logan Cox who set up the smaller wheel with intentions of generating
electricity for his home.
The
present metal water wheel of the "overshot" type was installed
in 1936 and came from the old Patterson mill which stood about two miles
up Plank Creek from this mill.
The first mill on this site was
built by Bent Quillen and Henry Kidd, Quillen's son-in-law sometime around
the Civil War. Mr. Cox has converted the original old mill house into a
home where he now lives and has the present mill machinery in a small
building at the rear of the home.
The
old mill house foundation is laid up of large limestone rocks. A cool
mountained stream has been diverted under the basement floor. By lifting a
flat stone in the floor one has access to a fine, clear flowing spring of
mountain water.
Logan
Cox, Sr., father of the present owner bought the old mill from Bent
Quillen.
The
Riggs Mill
This mill no longer standing was undoubtably rebuilt several times, and
has been known by different names, depending on ownership. That this was a
very early mill is proven by a Scott Co.,VA Court Order dated November 13,
1817 wherein Elijah Carter made a motion for alteration in road from his
mill to the mouth of his mill branch.
Harry
Carter, 1799-1872 owned the mill before the Civil War. The pictured mill
was probably built by James Stewart, or his son, who were noted
millwrights and neighbors of the Carters. Harry Carter's wife, Polly McNew,
1810-1903, had twin nephews, Moses and Harry Riggs, who lived on with
their Uncle and Aunt after the Riggs family moved to Kentucky. When Harry
Riggs was twelve years old, the fingers of his right hand were torn off by
the mill, leaving only the thumb.
Upon
Harry Carter's death the plantation and mill were left to the twin
nephews. Harry Riggs operated the mill until about 1925. One reason for
closing it was lack of sufficient water power. It was town down about
1930.
Patrick
Porter Mill
On March 2, 1774, the Court of old Fincastle Co., VA, entered the
following order:
"On motion of Patrick Porter,
leave is granted him to build a mill on Falling Creek the waters of
Clinch."
This
is the first order ever recorded for a mill on Clinch River and it was
probably the first mill ever built in Scott Co.
There
is little doubt that the Porter Mill of 1774 was of log, and that the
picture is of a rebuilt mill on the same site and foundation.
Patrick
Porter, 1737-1828, and his wife Susanna Walker came to the Clinch from
Guilford Co., NC, in 1772, and built a fort house on Falling Creek, as
well as the mill some two years later.
All
that remains of the old mill today is some limestone rock foundation, a
few runs of brick in the old chimney, and the mill burrs which have been
moved to the lawn of the Lee Blackwell home nearby.
This
mill had one distinction and that was a chimney made of handmade brick. It
has been written that Patrick Porter, his brother-in-law Captain John
Snoddy and others organized a Masonic Lodge and held their meetings on the
second floor of the mill. If this tradition is true it may explain why the
old mill had a chimney and fireplaces, as no other known mills in the area
had chimneys. Also this may have been the first Masonic Lodge organized
west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
After
the Porters, William Nash owned and operated this mill for a number of
years and it was sometimes called Nash's Mill. When the mill was rebuilt
is unknown, but it was torn down after the turn of the century. This old
mill heard the "war whoop" of many Indians as it creaked its way
through more than a century of services to the pioneer settlers.
The
Beverly Mill
The first mill on this site was a small corn grist mill near the bank of
Moccasin Creek, near Gate City, Scott Co., VA. The present mill was built
by the Click family, who sold it to a Mr. McClellan. After McClellan it
was operated by Cephas Meade and also by his son-in-law, Bill Jennings.
William
E. Taylor came into possession of it and had the bolting machinery
installed. After Taylor the mill was operated by Preacher Bill Vermillion,
Harvey Wolfe, and finally sold to Tom G. Templeton, who was once a Mayor
of Appalachia, VA. Emory Bellamy operated the mill for Templeton.
The
original dam of this mill was of logs, which was torn out by Mr.
Templeton, who put in the present concrete dam. L. Farmer was in charge
installing the concrete dam. He purchased a sand rock fence from a Mr.
Thomas Henry and hired men to beat the rocks into sand for mixing the
concrete. Templeton traded the mill to John Ransom (Rant) Beverly for a
farm in Tennessee. Rant Beverly was operating the mill in 1917. Beverly
who was born in 1854 sold the mill to Ike Fletcher, who in turn sold to
Harvey H. Williams around 1919 or 1920. The present owner is L. Kelly
Williams.
The
machinery in the mill is the roller type and the mill produced corn meal
and flour, as well as feed for livestock. A sawmill installed in the
adjoining long shed was also operated by water from the mill wheel. The
mill last operated in the 1940's and the machinery is intact.
Culbertson-McConnell
Mill
This old mill located northeast of Snowflake on Moccasin Creek in Scott
Co., VA, was built by James Culbertson, Jr., probably sometime in the
1880's. The mill was operated by turbine wheels. The original mill had a
wooden dam, replaced by a concrete dam because the wooden dam was always
washing out and flooding the area downstream.
James
Culbertson born 1822, went to California in 1850 to participate in the
famous California gold rush, and stayed there for some thirty years,
traveling back and forth to see his family who never left Scott Co. His
wife was Winney Kilgore.
After
the death of Culbertson, the mill was taken over by W. Pat McConnell who
had married James Culbertson's daughter, Liza. McConnell rebuilt the mill
to three stories in height and put in a rolling mill equipped with Nordike
Rolling Mill Machinery manufactured in Indianapolis, Indiana. This
remodeling took place around 1915 or 1916. The concrete dam was completed
around 1919. At the time of remodeling the mill had three turbine wheels
in three separate pits, one for the grist mill, one for the rolling mill,
and the third and largest operated a sawmill, said to be the heaviest mill
in the county.
After
the death of Pat McConnell in 1929, the mill was sold to a man named
Shephard who operated it a short time. It last operated in the 1930's.
The
Semones Mill
The old Semones Mill stood on Benges Creek on the south side of Clinch
River, about two miles downstream from Dungannon, in Scott Co., VA. It was
down this Creek that the half-breed Indian Chief Benge led the Livingstone
women, crossing Clinch River nearby at McLain's Fish Trap in 1794, the
last Indian raid on the Virginia frontier.
This
mill was first built as a wool carding machines by James Addington. The
land was a grant to William Addington, father of James. Moses Hoge Semones
married Eliza Jane Addington, daughter of James, in 1857, and after
marriage took over operation of the carding mill. He converted it into a
grist mill for grinding corn about 1910. After Moses Hoge Semones became
unable to attend the mill it just stood and rotted down.
Nearby
where once the old mill stood, stands the Semones home - a two story
combination log and frame building. First built as a two room, two story
log building other rooms were added as the family grew.
Mrs. Clarice Semones Lee of St.
Paul, VA, says the house was built for her grandfather James Addington who
married in 1857, but a log in the older section bears a date of 1849
carved into it.
Caleb
Hawkins Mill
This old mill, torn down to make way for Route 58, between Dickensonville
and Hansonville operated for many years. The great steel wheel was sold
for scrap many years before the mill was torn down.
Built
by Caleb Hawkins, the mill was once the hub of community life, consisting
of a Roller mill, a Tanning mill which also operated from the mill
machinery, and a nearby Blacksmith Shop.
This
mill was also once a Voting Precinct of Russell County.
During
the life of the mill the following men either owned or operated it: Billy
Gilmer, L. A. Matheny, and George Peery.
In
1923, Roy Kessler, who was working at the mill was accidentally caught in
the mill machinery and died from his injuries.
The
Jessee Mill
The Roller
Process Jessee Mill was built between 1889 and 1900, by Andrew Jackson
Jessee. It is located on Mill Creek four miles southwest of Cleveland on
Route 645 and about six miles from Lebanon, in Russell Co., VA.
The
mill was built from lumber grown and sawed on the Jessee farm which
consisted of several hundred acres of land. Most of the lumber was yellow
poplar and has not deteriorated with age. The machinery in the mill was
made in Salem, VA. All the cogs or gears in the machinery are wood. Prior
to the building of the present mill there had been a grist mill near the
site of the present one for around fifty years.
The
building consisted of three floors and the machinery was installed through
the three floors. For several years the Jessee Mill was the only roller
mill in Russell Co. People came from all over the county and surrounding
counties to have meal and flour ground. Huge storage bins were located in
the mill for storing grain for the farmers.
Mill Creek during that time was a
thriving settlement. There was a general store, a one-room country school
and a church.
The
mill was owned and operated by Jack Jessee until his death in 1922. His
son, Wiley E. Jessee operated it for ten years. The mill closed in 1932.
Mr.
Joe Axem served as the first miller at the Jessee Mill. Melvin Kestner
operated the mill for twenty-five or thirty years. He lived in the white
house just below the Jessee home. Jamie Chafin operated the mill for
sometime, also Tilton Jessee. Other men who served as millers sometime
during the life of the mill are as follows: Vince Fields, Malcom Buchanan,
Red Joe Jessee, Clint Fields, Bruce Campbell and Newton Massie.
Jack
Jessee built a large brick home in 1883 and lived there until his death,
which house is still standing. The home is located just below the mill.
The lumber was sawed on the place, and the carvings on the doors and wood
work was hand carved. Located on the second floor hall is a red stained
glass window which Mr. Jessee imported from England when the house was
built.
In
Mr. Jessee's later life, he was unable to go to the mill, but he would lie
in bed and see people coming to the mill through a large mirror near his
bedroom window. He always wanted everyone to come in and talk with him.
Elk
Garden Mill
This mill located just across the road from the Stuart Mansion at Elk
Garden, in Russell Co., VA, is the only brick mill known to have been
built in extreme southwest Virginia.
Built
by Aaron Hendricks sometime between 1823 and 1840, the mill served the Elk
Garden community and later the Stuart plantation for many years, grinding
corn, wheat, buck wheat and feed for livestock.
Aaron
Hendricks was a son of Thomas Hendricks who owned the land from around
1769 to 1823, and Thomas built the Stuart Mansion about 1806. The land
fell to Aaron Lilburn Hendricks who sold it in 1868 to William Alexander
Stuart, father of Governor Henry Carter Stuart and the Governor held the
land from around 1880 to his death, when it passed to State Senator Harry
C. Stuart in 1933, and is now owned by the Stuart Land and Cattle Company,
the largest cattle ranch east of the Mississippi.
Governor
Henry Carter Stuart was a cousin of the Civil War Confederate General J.
E. B. Stuart.
Robinson
Mill
Located about 300 yards from U. S. 23, on Clintwood Road at Pound, Wise
Co., VA, stood the old Robinson Mill which was washed away in the flood of
1957.
The first mill in this site was
built sometime after 1816 by James Mullins and Greenberry Robinson. From
the Russell County records we find that James Mullins and Greenberry
Robinson bought several thousand acres of land on Pound, Indian Creek and
Bold Camp creeks in 1815. Two years later Robinson sold his interest in
the land and moved to Pike Co., KY.
It
is said that James Mullins built his house near where the Gus Roberson
house once stood and that he built a mortar for pounding corn into meal
nearby. This pounding mill was first built for his own use, but a short
time later he conceived the idea of enlarging it and operating it by
horse-power, and people of the Pound area would come for miles around to
Mullins' pound for their meal.
Mullins
continued to operate the pound until 1837, when he sold to William
Roberson, who moved there from Gladeville (now Wise), and replaced the
pound with a small watermill which he operated by himself and his son,
James, until the year 1857, when James Roberson employed C. Pinkney
Carter, of Scott Co., VA, to build the mill which was washed away in 1957.
It was probably at the time that Carter rebuilt the mill that rolling
machinery was added for making flour.
William
Roberson operated the mill until about 1869, and James Roberson from then
until about 1900; and Augustus Roberson from then until about 1934.
Augustus was the last to operate the mill and he was a son of James
Roberson, the former owner.
The
old mill was four stories high. The first floor contained the water wheel
and machinery. The second floor the corn mill and the third the flour
mill. The wheat was poured into hoppers on the second floor and was
carried by conveyors to the top floor, cleaned and then brought back to
the second floor where it was ground, and then again to the third floor
where it was bolted, ending up again on the first floor through elevators
to the waiting customer.
The
old mill had a forebay and overshot wheel. Later Gus Roberson installed a
turbine wheel. There was also a sawmill connected to the old mill which
operated from the water power of the mill.
Bickley
Mills
In Castlewood, on lower Mill Creek there are the foundations of two old
water mills and three abandoned mill burrs. In these remnants of a by-gone
day one could almost say lies buried the history of Castlewood - the
history of the first settlements ever made along the Clinch River, for it
was around this spot that John Morgan led his settlers in 1769. Little is
known of Morgan and his settlers who came into the beautiful Clinch River
Valley, other than that each was to take up 400 acres of land for
settlement. We do not know the names of any of the original settlers for
sure, other than John Morgan and John Smith, not even the number in the
settlement party, or from whence they came.
Somewhere
in this vicinity also lived the legendary Jacob Cassell, for whom
Cassell's Woods was named, shrouded in the mists of the past, about whom
all sorts of legendary tales are told. Despite the fact that he was an
ordinary person, but who probably preceded even Morgan's settlement the
place bears his name after more than two centuries have blown over his dim
footprint.
Mill
Creek is a clear, beautiful stream emerging from under the red hills of
Russell and cascading over an ancient limestone cliff to form a lovely
waterfall. Just below this fall, which furnished water for the mill race,
lie the two foundations and three grinding wheels, nostalgic reminders of
a restless roaming race of men who were not content to remain here, but
who helped to settle the great central part of America.
Nearest
to the fall is the smaller and older of the two foundations. Some fifteen
feet downstream is the other and larger of the two foundations and here
lies the three heavy stone grinding wheels. This latter mill, built
probably around 1783, creaked and groaned its way through well over a
century of time, and lasted well into the memory of older citizens of
Castlewood. No doubt the Red Men many times gazed upon these mills with
hatred, seeing them as the symbols of the ever encroaching white men upon
their land.
From scanty records it appears
that John Lynch, who was a merchant and who did not live in the area had
the smaller mill built and it was probably operated for him by Frederick
Fraley. Colonel Daniel Smith, who was assistant Surveyor for old Fincastle
County, which Russell was then a part of, wrote to his superior Colonel
William Preston, on March 22, 1774, saying: "Yesterday, (March 21,
1774) I surveyed John Lynch's mill seat."
At
this time Smith was making surveys for the original settlers from 1769,
and Lynch either had the mill in operation at this time or soon
thereafter. We also find in the court records of old Fincastle County in
the year 1773 where John Lynch and his brother Christopher Lynch, business
partner, brought suit against Castlewood residents for debts which appear
to have been made at the mill. No record has been found permitting the
erection of this mill and it may have been erected without permit sometime
between 1769 and 1774.
John
Lynch assigned his "mill seat" property to Frederick Fraley, the
latter having apparently settled upon the land when he arrived from Rowan
Co., NC in 1769. It is highly probable that Fraley had managed the mill
for Lynch before he bought it, and it may be that he and his neighbors
built the mill soon after their arrival in 1769, as bread is a necessity
and a means of obtaining it would have been their first consideration.
Sometime
around 1780, Frederick Fraley seems to have sold the mill to Henry Hamlin,
and moved to the Moores Fort property in lower Castlewood which he had
bought. Before acquiring the mill seat Hamlin had been living on land on
the north side of Clinch River opposite the mill. Hamlin received his
patent for the mill land sold him by Fraley from the Washington County
Court on November 11, 1782, but had possession for sometime prior to
receiving the patent.
Hamlin
had the second mill built sometime around 1782 or 1783, for it was surely
this mill upon which Charles Bickley, Simon Auxier and Henry Dickenson
were working when 17 Indians attacked and scalped Ann Bush, later Ann
Niece. It was around this old mill which was undoubtably built of logs
that the community grew. The mill shown in the picture while on the same
foundation has to be of later construction.
Again
we go to Daniel Smith, the Surveyor and Captain of Militia for
Confirmation. In a letter written to Colonel William Campbell, dated May
19, 1783, he writes:
"On my return from the
Cumberland, I came through Cassell's Woods, just after the Indians had
been at the Fort at Hamlin's Mill."
Henry
Hamlin ran the mill for a few years and on June 19, 1787 sold it to James
Bush with the deed showing, "it being part of land patented to him on
November 12, 1782, the same land he purchased from Frederick Fraley. As
further evidence of Bush's ownership is a Russell County deed of September
17, 1795 which reads: "lying on the waters of Moccasin Creek and
Clinch River up to Bush's Mill Creek."
James
Bush sold the mill tract on May 27, 1800 to Charles Bickley. It was
Charles Bickley who put Bickley's Mills on the map, and who still had
possession of it at his death in 1839.
Under
Bickley's management Bickley's Mills became a trading center for the
western frontier. He converted it into a rolling mill for grinding wheat
and buckwheat. He opened up a mercantile business which flourished. One of
the old Bickley Mills ledgers is now in possession of Mr. L. E. Gibson of
Castlewood, a descendant of Bickley. Many of the items mentioned in the
1830's sound strange today.
Charles
Bickley not only expanded the mill, but built a sawmill further upstream,
and along with Henry Dickenson, as a partner had installed Carding and
Fulling Machines for cloth work. In his will dated April 3, 1825, Henry
Dickenson leaves to his son, Henry, Jr., "My interest in the Carding
and Fulling machines at Charles' Bickley's."
A
Carding Machine was a machine for carding wool by separating fibers and
cleaning them of extraneous matter, making it soft and ready for the
bobbin. Before invention of the Carding Machine, and for a long time
after, wool was "carded" by hand with devices known as wool
cards. The wool cards were brush like devices with stiff wire bristles for
combing the wool and removing foreign matter much as the carding machine
did, but much slower.
A
Fulling Machine was for fulling cloth by means of pestles or stampers
which beat and pressed it to a close, compact state, cleaned it, and made
a finer, less coarse cloth.
Here at Bickley's Mills on
February 3, 1832, was established a post office, with John Bickley, son of
Charles, as postmaster, known as Bickley's Mills, Russell Co., VA. This
post office continued to serve Castlewood until February 1, 1907. Also
here, for several years the "Bickley's Mills Post" newspaper was
published, copies of which can still be found as proud possessions of
Castlewood residents.
The
late Mrs. Mamie Gose, descendant of both Charles Bickley and Henry
Dickenson, and who remembered the last old mill, told me, "it stood
and rotted and finally the wind blew it down."
The
William Gray Mill
I would like to have known William Gray. He must have been a good man,
deeply religious, but humane enough to serve the Biblical wine to his
workmen at the end of each long day. This Biblical wine was made from the
squeezed comb of honey and is known as Methlium or Mede, but by the people
of the day was called "Methiglum".
In
1813 William Gray married Nancy Green Stallard and soon afterward built
his log house in a bend of Clinch River, a short distance downriver from
Dungannon in Scott Co., VA, where his wife's two grandfathers had carved
out a home on the frontier when it was still plagued by hostile Indians.
Here through ingenuity and hard work he built his plantation of several
hundred acres into a self-sufficient and productive farm that eventually
made him one of the wealthiest men of his day and all without the help of
human slavery.
Perhaps the first addition to the
plantation was a mill built about 1835 to furnish bread for himself and
neighbors. Mr. Otto Dingus, great grandson of Gray, tore the mill down in
1957, and retains a vivid memory of some of the unique and unusual
construction methods used in the old log mill house. The wall logs he used
to build a house in Dungannon setting the logs in a vertical position,
instead of the usual horizontal method. He states that the poplar cap log
on the west side of the mill house was 32 feet long and so perfectly hewn,
that when he sawed it into lumber there was less than a quarter inch
variation in thickness in the entire 32 feet of length. The log had been
hewn 10 inches thick and 18 inches wide. The rafters were very unique,
being hewn 5 inches square at the eave end, tapering to 2 inches square at
the ridge where they crossed and were fastened together with a wooden
dowel. The eave ends were doweled into the cap log.
Mr.
Dingus has one of the wooden keys that drove the pinion wheel which he
uses as a door-stop. The stone mill burrs are ornaments on Mr. Dingus'
front lawn.
The mill flume started about three
hundred feet upstream from the mill where there was a small dam of earth
and limestone rocks about three feet deep and raced down a steep incline
to pour onto the large, overshot wheel to turn the machinery.
Mr.
Dingus recalls that his grandfather Dingus and his great grandfather Billy
Gray were great friends. Once when his grandfather Dingus was visiting,
Billy Gray removed a brick from the chimney inside the house and showed
him where he had some money hidden, there being no banks in those times.
That night Mr. Dingus did not sleep and come morning he went to Gray and
advised him to move the money, fearing that if it was stolen, he knowing
its whereabouts, that suspicion might kill their lifelong friendship.
Near
where Billy Gray's L-shaped log house once stood is one of the few brick
spring houses built on the frontier of Virginia, where the family water
supply came from and where the milk was kept cool on hot days. It is
shaded by a large catalpa tree that must be well over a century old and
has been a home for wild bees for many years. The mill and spring house
creek have large catalpa trees spaced from the spring house to where the
creek empties into Clinch River planted by loving hands in the long ago.
Sometime
in the 1890's a school was built on the Gray property and Otto Dingus
attended school there in 1899. His father lived across Clinch River and
the children were rowed across the river in a flat boat to and from
school. It is not known when the last school was taught here, but some of
the teachers were Cowan Stallard, Clara Kidd, Mozell Cox, Laura Rhoten,
Maggie Wolfe and Bascom Dingus.
Upon
a limestone point, a short distance from the old mill site stands a
rapidly deteriorating, but architecturally intriguing Free Will Baptist
Church built by Billy Gray. The lumber in the building is first quality,
whipsawed yellow poplar. Inside the church is one of the few
"Mourner's benches" to be found any where. On the lawn of the
church stands the solitary tomb of the builder with this epitaph:
In Memory of
William Gray
Born February 13th 1806
Died January 14th 1888
Age 81 years, 11 months, and 1 day
This was his last request to sleep
by
the Free Will Baptist Church he
built.
His grave could not be dug deep enough in the hard limestone rock, so it
was built partially above ground with limestone and mortar, with two flat
limestone slabs about four inches thick, fit together to form the top of
the tomb.
Around
the hillside from the church is a low opening in the hillside that one can
only crawl into but which opens up inside to form a fair size cave, and
here during the Civil War the Gray family hid their hams and bacon to
prevent them being taken by the contending armies and
"bushwhackers".
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