Author Archives: dcreamer

By David Freeze

It’s always fun for me when I get a large amount of feedback on a column or a feature story. Almost always, the story has been fun to write in the first place. Such has been the case with the story of the 1850s Sloan Mill, the site of which has just been discovered adjacent to my farm and featured last week.

Always a history nut, I quickly realized that there were others who wanted to know more about the mill. Some communicated that they had long ago relatives who used the mill and others were longtime residents of the Mill Bridge area but knew nothing of the mill’s existence. “I never knew,” was a common statement as was, “Please share if you find out more.”

With that said, I have learned additional information. About the mill itself, the waterwheel power was the undershot style, meaning that the wheel had paddles on it and was driven by the passing water through a narrow area called by some the mill race. The wheel was built entirely of wood and was likely made of a mix of oak, pine and cypress. The wheel itself took constant maintenance.

Two massive stones turned by the power of the waterwheel were used to grind flour, cornmeal or livestock feed from the grain provided by local farmers. Other smaller stones were likely used to do specialized work.

The Post received a call from Dr. Norman Sloop of Salisbury who offered to help as a descendant of mill owner, John Locke Sloan. Sloan was Dr. Sloop’s great-great-uncle. I visited with Dr. Sloop, an authority on most things Mill Bridge and with the Sloop, Sloan and Bradshaw families. He has extensive records and shared some interesting information. Dr. Sloop shared Senate Bill No. 35 from 1863 which exempted millers, blacksmiths, foundry workers and others from service in the Confederate Army. Millers were exempt because their service was critical to the survival of people on the home front as well as supplying food for the army.

Since John Sloan did not have sons old enough to run the mill during the war, his brother Sam was exempted to help run the mill. Dr. Sloop was sure that John also continued the operation of the mill during the War Between the States as well. Both John and Sam were officers in the Home Guard, charged with home defense and arresting conscripts and deserters. The Home Guard was also required to drill at least once a month unless they were called into actual service to repel invasion, suppress insurrection or to execute laws of the state. One brother, Junius, died of disease in Richmond, Virginia, while serving with the 34^th N.C. Regiment. Their other brother, Thomas, did not serve, probably because of poor health.

Mill owner John Sloan, called one of Mill Bridge’s leading citizens, was born in 1823 and died in 1901. His first wife, Mary Cowan, died in 1856 while his second wife, Selena Crowell, died in 1892. Sloan had three children with Mary and eight with Selena. Sam Sloan married Sarah Jane Cowan, so brothers married sisters. And finally, Sam and Sarah were Dr. Sloop’s great grandparents.

We’ve added Dr. Sloop to the Sloan Mill committee that is still in search of the elusive mill photo and what is buried along the Sloan Creek bank, as well any other existing information. We’ll share what we find along the way. And don’t be surprised that a few of us go tramping along the banks of Sloan Creek thinking of what used to be.

By David Freeze

    For most of my life, history has fascinated me. I read all the time, book after book, and most have some historical element. And I’ve been fortunate to see at least some portion of all 50 states by bicycle, always searching out historical sites along the way.

    With all that said, a great mystery has been unfolding less than a quarter mile from my farm. I heard a few years back from a landowner on Millbridge (note the spelling) Road something that went like this, “Oh, you bought that farm where the pre-Civil War mill used to be.” I listened, intrigued, but asked for more info with no results. My farm is located on Weaver Road, between Millbridge and Patterson Roads.

    A handful of years passed by. I figured the phantom mill had to be water driven and my land is bordered by Sloans (listed this way on the 1903 map) Creek. I borrowed a metal detector and walked along the creek on my side, finding lots of hits, but nothing above ground. And nothing that looked like an old mill site. The search was on my mind, but not at the top of my to do list, until the past few weeks.

     After a conversation with a neighbor on the other side of Sloans Creek, I got the OK to go check out the area from their side. What I found was a much wider and deeper pool of water with huge, non-native rocks, some as big as a small truck bed that seemed to have been placed just beside and into the bank. There is also a small dam.

      I live less than two miles from Mill Bridge community and have for 35 years. I knew a little of the area history and much about the famous Kerr Mill at Sloan Park. After mentioning my quest for the history of another mill to long time area farm residents Buddy Hoffner, Bobby Harrison and Ollie McKnight, a certain level of excitement began to drive us all. Add in Brooke Taylor and Gretchen Witt from the Rowan Public Library and Ed Hall of Thyatira Presbyterian’s history room and we got some things going. Buddy came up with a most riveting book ‘Kerr Mill and the Mill Bridge Community’ by Bruce Cheeseman that was published 41 years ago in conjunction with the Rowan County Historical Properties Commission.

     After reading the book twice through, I was more than amazed at the history of the area. Cathey’s Settlement was populated by a group of farmers from Pennsylvania and Delaware area in 1747-48. They followed an old Indian trading path to this area, especially happy with the quality of the soil and the available water. At the time, Salisbury and especially Cathey’s Settlement were on the frontier, with the area west controlled by the Cherokee and Catawba Indians. Rowan had been virtually uninhabited until the late 1740’s. Explorers considering heading west had those Indians and lack of livestock feed as huge issues.

     Almost immediately, just 10 miles west of Salisbury, considered by some the best town in the state, this little band of settlers began to grow. They built a water driven grist (for grinding flour) mill called Cathey’s Mill which can no longer be located. In the 1790’s, several larger plantations began to dominate the area. In 1822, the Kerr family built their plantation home and then followed the next year with the mill that is now the centerpiece of Sloan Park. Most, but not all, of the productivity of that mill was used for the plantation.

     By about 1850, Cathey’s Settlement had become Mill Bridge and was a productive community with about 175 families, two general stores, a school for children, a resident doctor and eventually a post office. Near the junction of the “Trading Path” from the James River in Virginia area and the “Great Wagon Road” from the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, Mill Bridge was thriving.

      John Locke Sloan built a second water driven mill, this one intended as a merchant mill, meaning that the mill was open to the public. He chose Sloans Creek for the site, near Weaver Road and not far from Millbridge Road. In the April 9, 1885 issue of the Carolina Watchman, a traveler described the area with all the amenities mentioned above. He also described that second mill, “One of the finest flouring mills in the county, owned and operated by JL Sloan and Son, who are doing a very fine business.” The mill also provided cornmeal and livestock feed.

     Sloan later added a steam powered flouring mill, a sawmill and a cotton gin, although it appears from the 1903 map that these ventures were located about a half mile away. John Locke Sloan remained one of Mill Bridge’s leading citizens until his death in 1901. Sloan Mill probably had a lesser capacity than Kerr Mill, producing about 2/3rds. the volume of flour of its nearby competitor in 1860. One of John Stone’s sons bought Kerr Mill in 1908.

    Thyatira Presbyterian Church remained as Mill Bridge’s community center, but farmers gathered at the local mills to exchange information on new farming methods, political opinions and some plain old gossip. Milling establishments usually were paid by an in-kind arrangement where 10-20% of the grain was kept to sell to others without grain and in need of mill products.

      In the 1880 census, Rowan ranked first statewide in the production of oats and hay and second in Indian corn and wheat. The NC Department of Agriculture called Rowan the finest grain growing county in the state.

     So, after a decade of wondering, I’ve found the mill site. There is still some exploring and digging to do, a neighboring landowner to inform and maybe a little dreaming too. Just as another friend said, “What if we could somehow go back and visit that mill in 1860?” I sure wish we could.