Upriver: Granite Mill
*Up Back Creek: Galbraith Mill
Virginia Mills
Downriver:Puryear Mill
John Armstrong built the first mill here before 1764 (OCM Feb 1764; Collett 1770). Archibald D. Murphey bought the site in 1804 (ODB 2, pg 584, ODB 9, pg 41 & 277, and ODB 12, pg 61 & 64) and rebuilt the gristmill and added a saw mill in partnership with his brother-in-law Thomas Scott in 1807. In 1821, Murphey offered to sell the mills to to his creditor Thomas Ruffin, describing the sawmill as rotten, but stating that the dam "has undergone a thorough repair and is much better than it ever was before." (Hoyt) By 1829 Murphey surrendered this property and many others to Ruffin. This dam was swept away in a flood in 1831 (Fayetteville Observer 9/7/1831). Ruffin sold the mill in 1868 to George W. Swepson, who founded the cotton mill ‘Falls Neuse’ here (Hughes 1965).
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Swepson built a new dam in 1876 (Swain 1899) and began shipping raw cotton down from the railroad trestle at the Town of Haw River. They shipped finished textiles on the return trip (White 2002). This went on from at least 1876 to 1912 (ADB 8, pg 331; Gleaner 9/12/1876, 11/16/1912 & 7/10/1913). Starting in 1901, they used a steamboat, but for 25 years four African American men poled a barge on the river (Gleaner 1/31/1901; Oates 1950; White 2002; see also NC Folklore 1954).
In 1895, the dam was rebuilt (Gleaner 8/1/1895), standing 7 feet high. A few rows of wooden uprights remain in the river today. Still fewer timbers (a couple of yards above the uprights) are the last remnants of the 1876 and/or 1830's dam. The Swepson Falls dam began to be supplemented by the Puryear Mill in 1905 (Hughes 1965).
The Falls Neuse Mill suffered a fire in 1881 (Gleaner 6/20/1881). The mill was rebuilt immediately and the name was changed to Virginia Mills in 1886 (Whitaker 1949). Manufacturing ceased here in 1970, although the buildings were used as warehouse space for many years thereafter. The entire mill was razed in 2007, although the powerhouse adn the mill race still stand.
I think the upshot is that there were probably a total of 5 different dams here:
c. 1764 Armstrong Dam
c. 1807 Murphey Dam
c. 1833 Ruffin Dam
1876 Swepson Dam
1895 Virginia Mills Dam
But I can only find the signs of two of former dams in the river bed today - probably the dams were built one right on top of another.
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