Upstream: Brockwell Mill
Jones Saw Mill on Bolin Creek
Downstream: E P Ferrinton Mill on New Hope Creek.
The 1792 Daniel map of the UNC area shows the Jones Sawmill on Bolin Creek near where the road to Oxford crosses the creek. That is basically the vicinity of the Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen on Franklin Street. David Southern has pointed out that it appears that the road to Oxford may have already been moved by the time that the Daniel Map was drawn. The road apparently previously followed a more northerly alignment through Tenney Circle and down to the vicinity of Hoot Owl Lane. Perhaps there had been a ford near Hoot Owl Lane, which might have been superseded by a bridge closer to the sawmill. Regardless, it appears that the mill was closer to modern Franklin Street.
According to deeds in Hillsborough, Jones bought the mill from its builder Hardy Morgan in 1792. He soon sought to capitalize on the proposal for UNC to be built in Chapel Hill, as Senator Hargett's notes on the selection of the site include the following detail (per Battle's History of UNC): “November 7th, 1792 . . . Mr. Edmund Jones made proposals for supplying plank and lumber, which are presented to the board.”
Jones submitted a petition to the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions in August 1793, asking to build a gristmill on Bolin Creek (presumably at the same site as the sawmill). The petition asserts that the site had formerly been Benjamin Hart’s grist mill, for which the Court had granted permission in 1763 or so, but that the records of the approval had been destroyed during the Revolution. Perhaps because Benjamin Yeargain's Gristmill just upstream was already thought to be sufficient for the area, Jones was denied, the petition bearing the word 'Rejected' on the back.
Perhaps related to the denial of the request for a gristmill, or perhaps because UNC did not contract to buy lumber from him, Jones sold the sawmill to James Patterson in 1793. Patterson was the contractor who built Old East, the original building at UNC, no doubt partly using lumber cut at this very mill. Patterson renewed the petition for a grist mill on 2/23/1794.
1. Daniel Mill
2. Merritt Mill
3. Mccauley Mill
4. Lloyd Mill
5. Pickard Mill
6. Yeargin Mill
7. Brockwell Mill
8. Castleberry Mill
9. Prestwood Mill
10. Patterson Mill 2
11. Breached Dam Mill
12. Johnston Mill
13. New Hope Mill 1
14. New Hope Mill 2
15. Morrow Mill
16. Union Mills
17. D Thompson Sawmill
18. H Thompson Mill
19. Pritchard Mill
20. Powerline Mill
21. Patterson Mill 1
22. Leigh Mill
23. Jones Saw Mill
24. Meeting of the Waters Mill
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