Upstream:Mccauley Mill
Merritt Mill
David Southern has told me that early land records indicate that Mark Morgan had a mill on Morgan Creek as early as 1744. If that is correct, then Morgan must have been one of the very first colonists in this area of North Carolina.
Apparently a second incarnation of this mill was built by John Morgan (for whom the creek is named) about 1780 (Orange Ct Min). John Morgan conveyed land to William Merritt in 1787 as shown in Orange DB 4, pg 136, "including a mill seat" at the confluence of Obed Creek and Morgan Creek (see also ODB 17, pg 197); Obed creek is now known as Wilson Creek/Fan Branch, putting this mill seat directly at the 15-501 bridge.
William H. Merritt (who must be the son of the man who bought the site in 1787) owned this mill through much of the first half of the 19th century, certainly at least from 1817 until his death in 1850 (Orange DB 18, pg 84). William H Merritt's will left the mill to his daughter Lucy and son-in-law George W Purefoy (Habel 1954). The Purefoys operated the mill until it burned about 1900, afterwhich it was never rebuilt.
Incidentally, Mr. Merritt was a devout Baptist and left $1,200 in his will to pay for the establishment of a Baptist church in Chapel Hill. His son-in-law and other area Baptists used the beqeust to found what is now University Baptist Chuch in Chapel Hill.
Downstream:Daniel Mill
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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