Upriver:Cedar Cliffs Mill
Up Whitehead Creek: None known.
Saxapahaw
Downriver:Elliotts Mill
There was a native settlement in this vicinity before the Europeans arrived in the 1740’s (Bulla 1949). John Thompson built a gristmill here in 1782 (OCM Feb 1782). Thompson's rock dam was about where the present dam now stands and the profusion of rocks below seem to be the remanants of it. Thomas Thompson sold the mill to John Newlin in 1829 (ODB 25, pg 80).
Newlin began building the region’s third cotton mill in 1844, but it took until 1848 to complete it (Hughes 1965). The Newlins ran the cotton mill, a saw mill and a gristmill for 25 years before selling to Edwin M. Holt and his sons-in-law who formed the Holt-White-Williamson Co. The dam was rebuilt in 1878, but no doubt the rock dam went through several iterations (Swain 1899).
The gristmill was replaced with a roller mill in 1891, but that was eliminated in 1898 (Gleaner 7/7/1892 & 7/28/1898). The company built a new dam in 1898 and another wooden timber dam in 1902 (Gleaner 7/28/1898 & 6/19/1902). Apparently both of these were frequently damaged. In 1927, B. Everett Jordan and his family (Seller’s Manufacturing Co.) bought the mill (Gleaner 9/8/1927). Unfortunately the entire original mill building was demolished in 1937. Sellers Manufacturing Co built the present 30 foot high concrete dam in 1938 (Sellers Corp 6/20/1938). The Jordan family sold the mill in 1978, but repurchased it in 1994 after it was closed because of tornado damage (Times-News 5/20/1994).
More info on Saxapahaw:
http://www.rivermillvillage.com/
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