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.
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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 Unon
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
ode 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 ha 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
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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.
Gray Church --Mourner's bench
Springhouse
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Foundation of old School
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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".