published in The Bridge in 2002
Egbert T. Bush, who wrote many articles on Hunterdon history, wrote in 1929 that at one time, “sawmills along country roads were almost as common as filling stations.”
White oak was the preferred wood for “frame work, planks and boards.” If any red oak or black oak was included with an order, it was immediately rejected as inferior. Now even pin oak is hard to come by. Bush described the huge piles of logs that lay next to the mills waiting to be cut. But as the 19th century came to an end, the piles diminished, then disappeared, and the sawmills did also.
It was not uncommon for sawmills to also mill clover seed. Other types of mills in the township were grist mills that ground grain into flour, fulling mills that treated newly woven cloth so that it would hold its shape, oil mills that turned flax into linseed oil, and plaster mills that ground lime into plaster. There are some mills identified in the township whose function is not known. The following are mills that were not associated with a particular village.
The Rittenhouse Mill
Located on Old Mill Road, it began as a 100-acre lot and mill that was bequeathed by William Rittenhouse (the first Rittenhouse to settle in Amwell) to his son Peter Rittenhouse in 1767. (The will added this to land on which Peter was already living.) Peter was taxed on a sawmill and 206 acres in 1780 and 1790. Peter bequeathed it to his eldest son Elisha Rittenhouse in 1791, who added a gristmill. The water wheel was built by Theodore Holcombe of Quakertown. After the death of Elisha Rittenhouse, his executors sold the mill lot of 7+ acres to Tunis Myers in 1847. Myers ran the operation there, which included a distillery, until 1871. That year Anderson Bray took possession in partnership with William S. Cobb. Bush wrote that Robert Holcombe was the miller there for many years, though he may not have owned the property. In 1906, J.M. Hoppock wrote that the mill was owned by Mrs. Mathias Pegg and it was still in working order, but had already been made unnecessary by technological advances. When Bush was writing (in 1931) the place was still known as “Holcombe’s Mill.”
The Wilson-Rittenhouse Mill
This mill on Reading Road is no longer standing. It was built around 1817 by Garret Wilson, who bought the property that year and was identified as a “millwright.” By 1830, Wilson had moved to Shekola, Pennsylvania, to run a mill there. He sold the property on Reading Road to Robert Rittenhouse in 1832. Rittenhouse established a “manual labor school” on the site. When the school failed, Garret Wilson re-acquired the property in 1836 and remained there until 1843 when he relocated to Brookville and ran the mill there.
By 1851, Watson J. Rittenhouse, Garret Wilson’s son-in-law, was running a saw- and clover-mill at the Reading Road location. Unfortunately, Watson Rittenhouse had to be committed to the New Jersey State Hospital at Trenton, so Garret Wilson sold the property to Andrew Butterfoss who rented it to Edward G. Phillip, a miller. Because Andrew Butterfoss never made any payments on his mortgage for nine years, Garret Wilson took him to court and the property was put up for sale. The purchaser was William V. Wilson, son of Garret, and a highly respected minister of Middletown, Monmouth County. Wilson sold the property to William Coates, son-in-law of Daniel Butterfoss Jr. Coates was a farmer, not a miller, so one must assume that the mill ceased operation about 1877 when it was sold to William V. Wilson.
An article in the Democrat in 1958 noted that Erva Cline, who owned the farm at that time, was “fond of pointing out to visitors the course of the mill race from the ruins of the dam a quarter mile away. . . . Mr. Cline still keeps the log spindle of the 18-foot overshot wheel which furnished power for the mill.” His son, Roger Cline, having been told that the mill stones were unusual ones imported from England, spent great effort with a bulldozer looking for them, but was unsuccessful. The Wilson Mill used the same tributary of the Wickecheoke that was used by Sergeant’s Mill.
Strimples Mill
Still standing on Strimples Road, this mill is powered by a tributary of the Lockatong Creek. It may have been built by Daniel Carrell (sometimes spelled Carle) who was the son of Daniel Carrell Sr. and Elizabeth Arnwine. In 1847 he bought what was probably the mill property from real estate speculator Asa Jones. Carrell was 33 years old in the 1850 census and his wife Keturah was 26. They had 3 children. In 1852 he sold land on Strimples Mill Road to Everitt Hartpence and Hiram Robbins. In 1856, he moved with his family to Chicago.
Calvin G. Strimple bought the land from Elijah and Catharine Myers in 1858. Whether or not he actively milled, I cannot say, but the road name surely suggests it. Later on, Strimple moved to Brookville where he bought the Deats foundry in 1889 and ran a feed/tobacco store there.
Sandy Ridge is more an area than a village, so I will include the John P. Hunt Sawmill on this list. Hunt inherited his farm from his father, Samuel Hunt, in 1825. He was the one who built the mill, located on the west side of Buchanan Road, on the headwaters of a tributary of Alexauken Creek. It is hard to imagine today that there could ever have been enough water to power any kind of mill. Hunt operated the sawmill until he died, and also hulled clover seed. Thereafter, the mill was no longer run. His executors sold the farm in 1881 to John Bearder, and his heirs sold it in 1890 to John B. “Baker” Poulson.
Another sawmill that lacks documentation was located near the iron truss bridge on the Locktown-Flemington Road. It was owned by John Besson in the early 19th century and was run for a time by Daniel Carrell.
Horne-Butterfoss-Deats Sawmill & Oil Mill
in Brookville starts the list of mills associated with villages. E. T. Bush wrote that the sawmill stood “on the right bank of Horne’s Creek and over a small brook that comes into it from the eastward, crossing the road a few rods above the junction and joining the creek near the street line.”
There were two mills on this creek. Bush wrote that there was a linseed oil mill “on the right had side of the road as you go up the Hollow, standing in the upper corner of the Phillips lot, then owned by Daniel Butterfoss.” Before Butterfoss’s time, the sawmill lot, as it was called in deeds, of 17.5 acres was acquired by Abner Hixon, who was obliged because of debts to sell out to John Anderson in 1797, who sold it to Jonathan Conard, who sold it in 1802 to Thomas Horne. On April 1, 1815, William L. Prall, Jacob Lambert and John Cavanagh bought the 17.5-acre mill lot on the Delaware from Peter Rockafellar for $2,750. Rockafellar had purchased it from Thomas Horne. They built a mill race and dam for $3,000 and called it the Union Mill. Cavanagh took over the running of the mill. In 1828, William L. Prall bought the mill lot at a Sheriff’s sale, it being “late the residence of John Cavanagh.” In 1830, Prall sold his 2/3 interest in the mill to Daniel Butterfoss. Garret Wilson was operating a mill there in 1843.
After Daniel Butterfoss’ time, the mill was part of the manufactory set up by Hiram Deats in Brookville in 1851. Bush wrote that although the Butterfoss mill came into possession of Hiram Deats, it was not used by him. There was a James Snowden grinding feed there in 1870, who was followed by Samuel T. Wilson. The mill was abandoned in the 1880’s and destroyed in the flood of the 1890’s. [The mill does not appear in the Beers Atlas.] Bush wrote in 1929 that there remained only a hole in the ground with a large millstone at its bottom.
Note: At the beginning of this post I mentioned Egbert T. Bush. The quote was taken from “Old-Time Sawmills Were a Joy to Watch,” published in the Democrat on October 17, 1929. I will put this article in a separate post. It is a delight.