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George D Boyd Mill 1

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years, 4 months ago

Upriver: None known.

 

George D Boyd Mill 1

 

This mill was apparently first built on South Piney Creek by John Owen about 1800, according to Robert W. Carter, Jr.'s article in the Journal of Rockingham County (NC) History. Owen sold the mill to Andrew Boyd, whose son Goerge B Boyd wound up owning the mill. These Boyds were evidently related to the Boyd family taht founded a mill on the Reedy Forkin Guilford County in 1763 or so. The Reedy Fork Boyds Mill was the headquarters of Gen. Nathanael Greene at times in March 1781 during the revolution. The exact relationship between these Boyd families is not known.

 

Carter reports that the mill was rebuilt at some time in the mid-19th century. Although a couple of different sources indicate different dates, one likely possibility would seem to be that the mill was rebuilt after George D. Boyd's other mill (on the main stem of the Haw River) was taken away from him by the court in 1856; the court gave Boyd permission to remove the mill building and machinery from the banks of the Haw and he may have moved it to South Piney Creek.

 

In 1880, the mill had 20 feet of head and used two 15 foot overshot waterwheels with three runs of buhr stones. The mill was in use up until the dam washed out in a tremendous rainstorm in March of 1912 (Reidsville Review 3/19/1912). The dam was rebuilt in the 1930's and washed out again in the early 1940's. A turbine was used to generate electricity in the late 30's and early 40's. The site is now occupied by an earthen dam forming a pond, but an early stone spillway in the center of the dam dates from 1856 or earlier.

 

Downriver: High Rock Mill on Haw River

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