§7 The Mills at Mt. Ross

Mills west of the depot. (V06-22.GIF)

A dearth of information has been a major frustration for the current committee researching the history of the 'Mills at Mt. Ross", a problem as well for earlier researchers including Isaac Huntting!

Baron Ross was born in 1690 and deceased in 1762. His gravestone reads "Here lies all that is left of Captain Thomas Ross who in August, 1762 died in the 72^nd year of his age." Today this inscription is almost illegible. The stone is located near the intersection of Mt. Ross Rd. and Columbia County Rt. 2. It is supposed that from him our hamlet, Mt. Ross, received its name (also shown as 'Montross' and 'Mountross' on several old maps). The title is not quite accurate, for the area is hardly mountainous, but rather a lovely range of rounded hills running generally east and west and playing tag with our energetic little creek known locally today as the Roe Jan.

During our readings we noted several different spellings of this creek or Kill... Roloef Jansen, Roeliff Jansen,.Roolofjansen Kill....and, of course, we became curious as to the origin of its name. We may have found it! The Roeliff Jansen Historical Society in 1975 published A History the Roeliff Jansen Area,-- a historical review of five townships in Columbia County, NY.

With permission, we paraphrase sections of the history that deal with the creek at Mt. Ross. Roeliff Jansen, the man for whom this area of New York State is named is indeed a legend. Born about 1602 in Sweden, he emigrated with his young wife and two children to New Netherlands. He came under contract with Kiliaen Van Rennselaer to farm a plot of land near Albany. In 1632 the good farmer was awarded the title 'schepens', probably a law enforcement position responsible to the patroon. The post required some travel along the great river to New Amsterdam.

Late one winter while returning to Albany in a flimsy wooden vessel called a krag, the ice closed in on Roeliff and the crew. They were able to walk ashore and there fortunately encountered an encampment of friendly Indians situated at the mouth of a fairly large stream which somehow had not yet been discovered or named. In order to memorialize their several-weeks adventure the crew decided to name the creek. And what better name to choose than that of their on-board 'government' agent. So, according to the author of this historical review, 'and until someone comes along with a better story', that is how the Roeliff Jansen Kill got its name.

D.W. Voorhees continues the story of Jansen in a recent issue of a journal devoted to New Netherland studies. A family tree of one Tryn Jonas shows that our Roeliff (1602-1637) was married to Anneke Jans and was father to her first six children. Moving from their deLaets Burg farm near Albany in 1634, they eventually became associated with the West India Company and were able to buy another small farm. This was located in lower Manhatten, as we know it today, extending from Warren St. to Canal St., an area one day to become hugely impacted commercially and tremendously valuable. When Roeliff died a few years later, the Jansen farm and the family became the impetus for an almost 200-year-long land title litigation! Anneke and her sister Marritje Jans, now the socially elite, attracted rich merchantmen into their family and created the beginnings of a powerful kinship network. These family ties accounted for the long years of lawsuits and political maneuverings. Although Roeliff Jansen was not long on the scene, the whole story is a well-recommended reading.

Returning to Thomas Ross and Mt. Ross, Huntting suggests that 'probably' during the Baron's lifetime the saw, grist and fulling mills were erected along the Kill. No exact dates have so far been discovered. However, thanks again to Huntting, we note that a Mr. Matthew Winter, who manufactured woolen cloth at Mt. Ross, sued William Slater for 44 yards of cloth at 8 pence a yard! Mr. Winter was a cloth dresser there "for many years prior to 1788". An 1800 account book of Valentine Wightman, who owned the mills and also kept a store, shows "Gidion Jenkins, Dr., to one pair of shoes 10 shillings." Wightman was also a town officer.

In May 1802, Henry Bentley (see history of the Melius- Bentley House) became partner with V. Wightman (Whitman) in the purchase of the mills from Anthony Hoffman. (The Hoffmans also owned the mill now built on that Shekomeko land “fit for a mill” as mentioned in an earlier chapter. Today this is known as the Patchin Mill and is awaiting renovation). Huntting comments that the grist and saw mills at Mt. Ross "which had been there for years" were thoroughly repaired at that time (1802). Other industries centered in the area included shoemakers, a cooper's shop (Isaac Parsons), a store (a 1˝ story log structure) run by Billings and Delamater, and a blacksmith shop. On very close inspection, a wall-painted sign reading 'Bathrick Blacksmith' can still be found on a building located next to the bridge. The eyebrow structure just north of this building may have been the surveyors office used by Charles Clinton in 1743. These thoughts came from a group of historians who visited the building in 1990. Its age was suggested by architecture, building materials and old hardware.

Samuel Nash was cloth dresser at the fulling mill until 1806 and Edward Hart until 1808. Business was greatly expanded in 1806 by the introduction of wool carding and fulling machines by Lewis and Isaac Diblee. Farmers, of course, wore homemade clothing fashioned from the cloth purchased at the mill. Customers of prominence included Benjamin and Joseph Hicks, Philip Knickerbocker, David Winans, Jonathon Case, James Stevenson, Benjamin Bostwick, Henry Hoffman, Job Corbin, Edward Thomas… all local area names recognized even today. Messers Sanford, Macy, Beardsley, and again Edward Hart, were noted cloth dressers through 1810. That year Bentley and Wightman sold the Mt. Ross Mills to Wilbur and Elias who in turn, ten years later, sold to Henry Hoffman and Jeremiah Conklin. This partnership dissolved in 1834 leaving Conklin's son managing alone. An 1827 deed refers to a sale of land by Samuel Wilber to Jeremiah Conklin, apparently a 2^nd piece of mill property. Starting from an 1848 deed we can trace the ownership directly forward to the current owners of the old mill lands. Huntting tells us that Wright and Guernsey was the last firm to carry on a successful business, Wright having acquired the property in 1864 from Benjamin J. Wilber. We have no final date for the dissolution of the Mt.Ross Mills, yet another research frustration. Huntting noted that "at the present time [1897] the mill business has little but a name!". However, a 1917 deed between J.Milton VanTassel and Lewis D. Smith described “that tract of land… Known as the Mt. Ross Mill property, and all of the fixtures, appurtenances and machinery, attached to and used for carrying on said mill…. This deed also conveys … the tackle block and rope, the millpicks and all fixtures and machinery used in running the Grist Mill and Saw Mill on the premises.” This tract contained “nine acres, 3 roods and nine rods of land, more or less the same withall the water priveledges attached … and all millstones and other parts of mill lying about …”

The Dam at Mt. Ross (V06-27A.GIF) Highwater at Mt. Ross (with handwritten note) (V06-27B.GIF)

Today, hints of the whereabouts of these mills and other early Mt. Ross businesses can be uncovered, but only by careful observation. For instance, the remains of laid-up stone foundations are still apparent on both sides of Mt. Ross Road at the dam site; proof of the dam's location can be verified by a number of old post cards of the area. These cards can be seen in our local Historical Society’s card album; the 1857 Beers Atlas map not only lists the recognized names of Mt. Ross families (E. Smith, D. Gifford, Dr. P.S. Cole, B. Wilber, H. Conklin, H. Bentley) but also marks the sites of the several mills ‘wool fact., G. mill, store,’; the 1867 Beers map identifies the mills in relation to the creek as well as naming the various kinds of mills, including a ‘spoke fact. and a s[aw?] mill’. One map points out a ‘spindle mill’. In addition, several very large mill wheels, used today as doorsteps, can still be found at nearby residences.

Country Life	Table of Contents		After the Mills
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