The Mills of Person County

Person County includes the sites of a number of mills from earlier days. Ken and Becky Dalton have undertaken a project that will identify and document the sites and the history of Person County mills. These web pages are a work in progress as information is gathered.

• Cameron Mill - located on the South Fork of Flat River.

• Barton Mill - located on the North Fork of Flat River.

• McGee's Mill - site now rests underneath the Progress Energy afterbay. The mill building has been moved to Roxboro and now serves as an office.

• Moore's Mill - located on the Flat River near the Durham County line.

• Old Burnt Mill - site is on Story's Creek just before the Roxboro City Lake.

• Mills on Storys Creek below Chub Lake - One or more mills were situated on Story's Creek just below the dam for Chub Lake.

Online Resources

Read a facinating story about Danny Ricketts' discovery and excavation of the remains of the Beaver's Mill in Pittslyvania County, Virginia.

The wheel measures 16 feet long by 8 feet in diameter. The water wheel was built in 1792 and was used to power a grist mill owned by William Beavers on Sandy Creek.

Pond Lily Mill Restorations

Historic Stagville

Cameron Family Information (Stagville Foundation web site)

Old Mill of Guilford, Oak Ridge, NC - The Old Mill of Guilford was founded in North Carolina on Beaver Creek in 1767 to grind grain for the early settlers of what is now Guilford County.   Today, the mill continues to produce all-natural, stone-ground, whole grain foods, just as it has for over 250 years.

Murray's Mill, Catawba County, NC - built by John Murray, whose father, William, had operated a mill on the site since 1883. In 1913, John replaced his father’s mill with the current two-story structure, adding a 22’ overshot waterwheel, in lieu of the former turbine. In 1938, John’s son, Lloyd, raised the dam six feet and installed the 28’ waterwheel.

Dellinger Grist Mill on Cane Creek, Bakersville, N.C.

List of pre-1860 Textile Mills in North Carolina

Historic Yates Mill County Park, Wake County, NC

West Point on the Eno, Durham, NC

Books & Papers

Anderson, Jean Bradley, Piedmont plantation : the Bennehan-Cameron family and lands in North Carolina. Durham, N.C. : Historic Preservation Society of Durham, 1985.

VOLUME 7 SPECIAL ISSUE, JULY 1978, Papers from the seminar on Water Wheels and Windmills
Complete text of three of the papers is posted on the Eno River Association web stite. These are:

• A Community of Men and Mills by Jean Anderson
• Mill Sites on the Eno River: A Geological Viewpoint by Duncan Heron
• The Hartford Mill Complex During the Revolution by Mary Claire Engstrom

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