USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men > Part 28
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In those early days when roads were few and trails and bridle paths were the avenues of traffic, it was no uncommon thing to go to mill by horseback, the women frequently performing that duty while the husband and sons were carving farms from the forests. Many of these trips at first were ten to fifteen miles to the mill and back, and some much farther, tiresome journeys, indeed, espe- cially by bridle paths and with the probability of even meeting redskins on the way.
At that period the mills were more or less of a rude and simple construction. A clumsy water wheel, with intermediate cogs put the machinery in motion. From a hopper the wheat was fed to the stones, where a rough bolting cloth separated the wheat from the bran. The present milling machinery is one of the most re- markable inventions and is in general use.
The Waggoner Mill. Alexander Roddy was the builder of the first mill in the territory, upon the site of the present Waggoner mill, it having been long known as the Roddy mill. He first came to Tyrone Township from Chester County and located on what
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later became the Stambaugh farm and erected a cabin of poles near the spring at the picnic grounds of a generation ago. This was before 1754, the year of the treaty with the Indians for these lands, and he was accordingly driven out with other "squatters," in fact, tradition has him driven out several times. He evidently did not return to the Stambaugh tract, for as early as March, 1755. he is mentioned as an adjoiner of a warrant just east of this mill tract. He did not warrant the mill tract though until May 13, 1763. The previous year, 1762, was the time of the return of the great number of settlers to the territory, and it is likely that he built the mill that year, as it was already on the tax list of 1763.
The Waggoner mill is located on Roddy's Run, between Centre and Loysville, in Madison Township, one and a half miles west of Loysville. The warrant calls for "one hundred and forty-three acres, including his improvements, and adjoining John Byards (Byers), George Robinson, Roger Clark, James Thorn and Wil- liam Officier, in Sherman's Valley." In research work it has been found that frequently settlers lived for years on a place before applying for a warrant. In the case of the adjoining James Thorn tract Provincial Secretary Peters attached a note, dated April 22, 1763, which helps bear this out. It says: "The land for which this warrant is granted, having been settled upwards of nine years ago, the interest and quit rents is to commence from the Ist of March, 1754."
In March, 1763, the stream is mentioned as the dividing line be- tween Tyrone and Toboyne Townships, upon the erection of the latter : "Alexander Roddy's mill run to be the line." As the mill race had to be constructed and as the dam originally covered twenty-three acres of ground, he evidently had been there long enough before this to dig the race and build the dam-a task of no mere days. The first mill, on the site of the present mill, was built of logs, but was torn down and replaced by the present one in 1812. There is a reliable family tradition that there was no mill yet in the Tuscarora Valley, now in Juniata County, and that women came alone to the mill on horseback by way of Bigham's Gap ( Bealetown). After the erection of the first mill Indian up- risings were still occurring, and when conditions became alarming the millstones, even in those days imported from France, were re- moved from the mill and sunk in the mill race until the danger was over. Fort Robinson was less than a half mile to the west, and to this the owners fled for protection.
The dam was washed out by the great flood of 1889. At times when the dam has been cleaned as many as thirty bushels of fish have been captured, but those were the days when the game and fish laws were less drastic. There was also an old "up-and-down"
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sawmill and a clover mill here at one time, the clover mill still standing.
Alexander Roddy later located in Virginia, where he died be- fore 1786, as at that date a property transaction refers to his tract as "the late Alexander Roddy's." His son, James Roddy, became the owner, and for some years it changed hands frequently. In 1784 James More purchased it at sheriff's sale. In January, 1793, James Irvin bought it, but two months later sold it to Henry Rickard. In 1804 David Showers purchased it, and the next deed is from the sheriff to Frederick Bryner, who erected the present mill in 1812. In 1816 he sold it to his son, Henry Bryner. At executor's sale in 1831, it passed to William Miller, who sold it to Jacob Weibley and John Weidman in 1837.
On March 29, 1839, it was purchased by Benjamin Waggoner, and it is still in the ownership of the Waggoners. The new owner was an experienced mill man and came from a generation of mil- lers. His father, John Waggoner, as early as 1785 had purchased the Garwood stone mill, located in Kennedy's Valley, and in 1805 had built the Snyder mill at Bridgeport (near Landisburg). Ben- jamin Waggoner's brother, John Waggoner, was the owner of the Patterson mill. Benjamin Waggoner operated the Waggoner mill until his death in 1850. In August, 1854, Moses Waggoner, a son, purchased it from the heirs and erected the commodious brick dwelling house adjoining. He died in possession in 1876.
The mill is now owned by W. H. Waggoner* (who has since (lied) and his sister, Harriet B. Waggoner, who purchased it from the heirs. Mr. Waggoner can remember when the flour was packed in barrels and hauled to Baltimore to market. They are descendants of the original owner. Alexander Roddy, who was their great-grandfather and who was three times driven from the mill to seek protection at the fort at Robinson's. A brother John E. Waggoner, is a merchant and postmaster at Centre, to whom, as well as the owners, we are indebted for much information. As late as 1917 W. II. Waggoner picked up an Indian skinning knife near the mill, and Indian arrow darts are frequently found. In 1900 the mill was equipped as a roller mill and draws a large trade, even from points afar. The first mill dam was almost one-fourth mile farther up the stream.
The Martin Mill. That a gristmill was located in what is now Howe Township, then a part of Greenwood, before the Revolu- tion, is fully established by public records. That its location was
*W. H. Waggoner died in 1921. He resided in the Great West for many years, being in the cattle business from Texas as far north as British Columbia. When the Indians still inhabited the West, train guards were employed, and for a time Mr. Waggoner filled that position on the Union Pacific. The death of his wife, leaving two motherless girls, one but a few months old, necessitated his return to Pennsylvania.
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at the creek west of the farm now or lately owned by Lewis Steck- ley, near the Henry Moretz place, between the William Penn High- way and the river, is likewise established. While the work on this book was in progress, J. M. Martin, a prominent attorney of Min- neapolis, came East, and with Rev. Frank T. Bell, then the pastor of the Newport Methodist Episcopal Church, went to the tradi- tional location of this old gristmill, the property of their common ancestor, Samuel Martin, and still found a part of one side of the overgrown foundation, near the mouth of the run-then "Bright- well's Run"-and the spring near which stood the first stone house of his son Joseph, afterwards Captain. That the sawmill and gristmill were actually built is proven by the fact that they were devised by the will of Samuel Martin, dated August 23, 1769, to his son Joseph, being designated as "all the plantation which I bought from Robert Brightwell, with mills thereon, and all and every of the locations in Greenwood Township, etc." Samuel Martin also owned the property on the south side of the Juniata, on which many years later was located the old Caroline furnace, near Bailey Station. Historical records relate to all the properties, and for that reason are included in one description, under this head. The time of passing of this old mill is veiled in obscurity. That it was one of the first few mills within the limits of what is now Perry County is a fact.
Samuel Martin, who located and built the mill, was a son of Joseph Martin, one of the first settlers of present Dauphin County (then a part of Lancaster), who located 300 acres of land at Pax- tang, now a suburb of Harrisburg, in 1738, part of which is now known as "Willowdale Farm" and owned by Mrs. Alice Motter Lescure, of Harrisburg. The brick house built there by Samuel Martin, the son, in 1760, is still standing. From there came Samuel Martin, who located, on November 18, 1768, by applica- tion No. 5263, 300 acres of land, "on the north side of the Juniata, adjoining Brightwell's Run and Buffalo Hill, including the im- provements bought of James Mahanna." Samuel Martin, how- ever, never resided here. The mills here were in charge of his son Joseph, later a captain in the Revolution. On the same day, this son, Joseph, made a like location of 300 acres, "on the north side of the Juniata, and including a run called Brightwell's Run, joining Samuel Martin, Cumberland County." Samuel also located 200 acres at about the same time, on the south bank of the Juniata. This is the land on which the Caroline furnace was long after- wards built. Samuel Martin, by his will, dated August 23, 1769, proved in Lancaster County, June 6, 1770, devises to his son Jos- eph "the plantation I purchased of Robert Brightwell, in Green- wood Township, Cumberland County, and mills thereon, with all and every of the locations in Greenwood Township," and with one
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location on the south side of the Juniata, described as being "at the Upper Falls, below the Great Bend in the Juniata." By the terms of Samuel Martin's will, the devise to Joseph of the two planta- tions or locations, together with "the Dam Stalion Colt, and his Saddle and Bridle, with a pair of oxen commonly called Duk and Brown, also a low Plantation Wagon," was coupled with the pro- vision that "my son Joseph shall pay the remaining part of the payment due unto John Bowman for the plantation willed and be- queathed unto my son John." The devise of the Bowman plan- tation is made to the son John on the condition that he "make 110 charge for any part or parcel of his work done by him to or mak- ing the mills on the plantation I purchased from Robert Bright- well, in Greenwood Township, Cumberland County," which shows that he was one of the actual builders of this primitive mill.
Joseph Martin, evidently, to secure this charge upon his land, gave a mortgage to the executors of Samuel Martin, dated Janu- ary 24, 1771 (recorded in Book C-I, D. 14I, at Carlisle), for 250 pounds, 19 shillings and 4 pence, mortgaging 300 acres in Green- wood Township, "bounded by Juniata on the south, with gristmill thereon ; also 200 acres in Dublin* Township (now Miller) on the south side of the Juniata, above the falls adjoining Dick's Ilill."
On March 26, 1776, Joseph Martin and wife, by deed, recorded in Book 1, page 101, in Carlisle, conveyed to Hugh Miller, eight acres with house, being a "divided fifth of forty acres, bounded west by land of Hugh Miller, north by Juniata River, east by Samuel Hutchinson, south by William Oliphant." -This deed was not acknowledged, but proven September 4, 1789, by affidavit of Ann Martin (then Ann McCoy), formerly widow and relict of Joseph Martin, deceased. This hasty unacknowledged deed evi- dently furnished Joseph with the money to purchase his equipment for the Revolutionary War. While in the army, the mortgage was foreclosed (Carlisle records, D-I, p. 557), but 400 acres on the
*The name Dublin Township, as recorded at Carlisle, is evidently an error of the transcriber, as the location became a part of Tyrone Town- ship in 1754, the very year of the purchase of the lands from the Indians. Then in 1766, when Rye Township was formed, it was within its borders, and when Miller Township was erected in 1852 it was within its confines. Dublin Township is located in Huntingdon County. The Evarts-Peck History of the Susquehanna and Juniata Valleys, page 731, says of it: "The formation of Dublin Township, in 1767, is so imperfectly defined as to the eastern limits that nothing can be determined by it. It was to bound 'Ayr and Fannett Townships on the one side,' but Lack Township is not mentioned, and there are no dividing lines as to Ayr or Lack. The first Dublin assessment, in 1768, shows no transfer of names from Lack. The only thing that places any part of Dublin east of Shade Mountain is that it was to join on Fannett, which lay on the other side of the Tusca- rora Mountain." That the Martin property is the one located in Miller Township, however, is certain, as the description "above the falls joining Dick's Hill," implies. It is now in possession of Mrs. L. C. Zimmerman.
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north side with gristmill and improvements, was in 1787 deeded back to the widow, then Ann McCoy, with remainder to the three children of Captain Joseph Martin, Samuel, Mary, and Joseph.
The heirs, in attempting to sell this land in November, 1805 (deed recorded Carlisle, Q-1, p. 486), found it necessary in order to supply evidence of a lost deed, to take testimony in "Perpetnam Rei Memoriam." The record of this is in the docket of Cum- berland County, Pennsylvania, at Carlisle, for 1800 and 1803, and pertains to 100 acres of the tract on the north shore of the Juniata, purchased from Robert Brightwell, who had purchased from Frederick Stoner, and recites that the deed from Stoner bore date between the year 1763 and 1767; "that the title to the same tract of land and possession of the same did come by diverse deeds of sale and devises to Joseph Martin, father of the peti- tioner (Samuel), that in the year 1777, the said Joseph Martin marched as a captain to serve a tour of militia, and that he died before his return; that the petitioner and all the children of said Joseph were then infants; that the said deed, during the infancy of the children of the said Joseph Martin, has been lost or mislaid, so that it can not now be found," etc.
Capt. Joseph Martin,* after spending the winter at Valley Forge, was taken with camp fever, and started home, but "died before his return." His fate was never known. Whether he died in the wilderness, or according to a tradition, was captured by the British and died in a British "black hole," has never been known. His three children afterwards moved to Lewistown, Pennsylvania, where Samuel and Joseph became rivermen, engaged in transpor- tation by arks between Lewistown and Columbia, from 1800 to 1823.
This old Martin location is historic in more ways than one. While Samuel Martin located this land on an application from the province, yet, in his will and in other legal papers it is spoken of by him as "having been purchased of Robert Brightwell." The fact is that a warrant and original order of survey were first ob- tained on April 30, 1765, by a certain Frederick Stoner, who sold
*Captain Joseph Martin was the great-grandfather of Mr. J. M. Martin, of Minneapolis, and of the father of Rev. Bell, the pastor of the Newport Methodist Church, spoken of in the beginning of this sketch. The three generations named are noted historically in three different fields. Samuel Martin erected pioneer mills, almost at the beginning of settlement; Cap- tain Joseph Martin, of the next generation, became a martyr to the pa- triot cause, and Samuel and Joseph Martin, of the following generation, were pioneer rivermen in traffic when it was done with the ancient water craft known as arks. Captain Joseph Martin was married to Ann (Nancy) Baskins, of Duncan's Island, and his two sons, Samuel and Joseph, were born at the home of their grandparents there, while their father was a captain in the Continental Army. Their mother, by the way, was'a cousin of the grandmother of Alexander H. Stephens, notable as the Vice-Presi- dent of the Confederacy.
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and conveyed his interest to Robert Brightwell on March 17, 1768. After eight months it passed to Samuel Martin, it would appear, both by purchase of the previous right and by warrant from the province, thus assuring title. The improvements of James Ma- hanna are taken to refer to an improvement probably made by a squatter, who had no title to the lands. On January 2, 1880, it was conveyed by Samuel and Joseph Martin, two of the heirs of Captain Joseph, to James McGinnes, Sr. (the husband of their only sister Mary). He, in turn, sold to William and James Power, by agreement dated November 7, 1801, thirty-seven acres, at the western boundary, including the mills. On November 16, 1805, his executors gave the deed accordingly. The patent from the state for a part of this original tract was issued to John Patterson, August 19, 1803, of another portion to his son John, July 25, 1863, and remained in his possession for many years. At its east- ern boundary the latter kept a famous road house in turnpike days, and there was located the post office known as Falter Falls, and later as Juniata Falls.
The Patterson Mill, near Millerstown. The first mill erected on the Cocolamus Creek, near its mouth, in Greenwood Township. was built by William Patterson. Jones' History of the Juniata Valley describes it as a "tub mill" and states that it was carried away by a flood. It was built prior to 1771, for in that year it is nained as a point on the road leading from John Gallagher's to Baskins' Ferry. Shuman's inill, at the same point, was built be- fore 1805, for in that year John Shuman is assessed with a grist- and sawmill. John Shuman had come from Lancaster before 1800 and, after building the mill, operated it until his death, in 1818. In that year Col. John Shuman, his son, bought it and 190 acres of land, for $9,000. In 1827 he sold the mill to George Shuman for $5,000. It then passed through the hands of George Maus, Syl- vester Bergstresser, and others. Its location is a half mile east of Millerstown, and it is now owned and operated by J. Keely Everhart.
The Rice Mill. While the Rice mill lays no claim to being the first mill to be erected in what is now Perry County, its history is over a century and a third in years and it is the oldest original mill building to remain standing in the county. It is located near Lan- disburg, in Tyrone Township, on Montour Creek, near the Ken- nedy's Valley bridge. It was on this creek that the first authorized settler, Andrew Montour, from whom it takes its name, was lo- cated, the provincial authorities giving him permission so that he would see that no others would settle in the territory until such time as the lands were purchased from the Indians. In fact, he later warranted 143 acres, located between Landisburg, Mon- tour's Creek and Sherman's Creek, which in 1788 was surveyed
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to William Mitchell, and soon passed to Abraham Landis, who was the founder of Landisburg. In 1787 Landis had also warranted 116 acres adjoining.
On this property the Rice mill was erected about 1786, as some of the machinery had stamped upon it the date, "1786." It was probably built by Shippen Rhine, who operated it until 1795. It was then rented to Jacob Bigler, father of the two governors whose lives appear elsewhere in this book, and others. On June 25, 1813.
Photo by Illick.
THE RICE MILL, NEAR LANDISBURG.
The Oldest Mill Still Standing, but not the First Mill Built in the County, that Having Been the Roddy Mill, now Waggoner's, west of Loysville.
Zachariah Rice purchased from George Stroop, who then owned it, twenty-five acres, being a part of the Abraham Landis tract, on which was a house erected partly of logs and partly of brick and a gristmill.
The old mill stands there, the picture of antiquity, with much of its original machinery. On a post is painted "1786," and on the old scale beam were the words "Shippen Rhine, 1789." Hanging against the old mill is the original scales, first used when the mill began operations, the weights being stones, one of which is in possession of the author of this book, a gift from the owner while there seeking information. The weights were correct, the stones being of the same weight as those of the modern scales. The doors were hung with wooden hinges which are still doing duty. The seventh water wheel was being installed at the time of the writer's
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visit in 1919, the life of a wheel being about twenty-four years, according to information furnished by John A. Saucerman, the present proprietor.
These old mills used- burrs in the grinding of the grain and were not as speedy as modern roller equipment, yet a little incident handed down in the Rice family shows that even in that early period things were sometimes done with speed, although the facili- ties were crude. It was related to us by Mrs. A. K. Rice, whose husband was the proprietor until his death a few years ago, she in turn having received the information from the preceding genera- tion. Jeremiah Rice, of the second generation to own the mill, cut wheat in the morning with an old-fashioned cradle, the imple- ment in use in those days for that purpose; threshed it with the flail, that crude and noisy implement which extracted the grain from the hulls; ground the wheat into flour in the Rice mill and turned it over to Katharine, his good wife, who baked bread of it and served fresh and warm to the hungry harvest hands for supper -the entire operation occurring between sunrise and sunset.
Adjoining the old mill stands the old Rice distillery, now used as a storage room, in the basement of which appears the inscription, painted on a beam, "Last stilling, 1822." The brick house, located above the mill, along the stream, was erected in 1822. It is the equal of any summer residence to be found anywhere, and it is little wonder that the fifth generation of the Rice family is still in possession, the owner being John A. Saucerman, who is married to a danghter of A. K. Rice.
There was a sawmill there built in 1842. The gristmill is used now only as a chopping mill.
The Stokes Mill, Once the Blaine Mill. The mill known to the present or recent generation as the Stokes mill was the one built by James Blaine as early as 1778, as it was assessed in that year, and later around it sprang up the settlement now called Blain, the final "e" being dropped. This James Blaine is the one and same man from whom sprang the famous Blaine family, which pro- duced the noted Commissary General of the Revolution, Ephraim Blaine, and at a later day a noted statesman and the candidate of the Republican party for President of the United States, James G. Blaine. The mill later must have come into the possession of James S. Blaine, for on April 20, 1820, the very year of the organi- zation of Perry County, it passed to David Moreland. By inherit- anee it passed to his daughter. Diana Gitt, who was united in mar- riage to Anthony Black, to whom she transferred it on December 20, 1830. On December 21, 1846, Anthony Black's administrator ceeded it to Thomas, Wayne, and James Woods. They, in turn, sold it to Isaac Stokes on October 1, 1857. He owned it until
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April 1, 1905, at which time it was purchased from him by Wil- liam H. Book, the present owner and operator. It is equipped with rolls.
This title is traced for the reason that there has existed a differ- ence of opinion as to who built the mill, Silas Wright, in his His- tory of Perry County (1873) crediting William Douglas with its building, and Professor Flickinger, as a contributory editor of the Evarts-Peck History of the Susquehanna and Juniata Valleys (1886), asking. "If Douglas built the mill, then where was the gristmill situated for which James Blaine was assessed in 1778?" Mr. Flickinger was a native of western Perry and long principal of the Central State Normal School at Lock Haven. He adds that Douglas was the first postmaster, the office being called Douglas' Mill. The fact is that the first post office was called Moreland's, being established in 1820, the very year of the county's erection, but in 1822, when the mail contract was let it was already known as Douglas' Mills.
There is no record of Douglas locating or purchasing lands in that vicinity, and the mill is on the original James Blaine location. There is a probability that he was the lessee of the inill, probably for a long period, and that it came to be known as Douglas' Mill. Should there have been an office there before 1820 and Douglas the postmaster, then, evidently with Mr. Moreland's purchase in 1820, the name was changed to Moreland's, and in a very short time re- stored to Douglas' Mills. One fact is clear, and that is that Doug- las never owned the mill, else the records of the recorder of deeds are wrong.
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