Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-12-14
0LD:M|LLSFORM
HISTORICAL STUDY
Allen c. Clark Visits Sites Of
II Plants in and Near
National Capital.


on the banks of nearby Maryland and
Virginia streams has been compiled
by Allen e: Clark. president of the
Columbia Historical Society. who. dur
ing recent months, has visited the
ruins Mr.. Clark often followed the
make a Photographic record Of them
as they appear today.
In his tramps in search of the miii
runs. Mr. Clark often followed the
path of the Rambler of The sta.
from whose articles he has quoted al
length in his own account. Paying
tribute to the Rambler in the preface
of his story, the president of the Co
lumbia Historical Society recalls thdl
the first "rambie" was made July y,
1912, and of the writer he says: Il do
no. believe IN the life OF the clty any
one has given one-tenth the pleasure
he has"
CLARK discusses is Motley Young
mill. from which the land in the neigh,
borhood derived its sobriquet. Mill
Tract"
Was on Tiber Branch,
eft was on a branch of Tiber Greek.
MIR Clark writes of Motley, Young )
and il was near the south side of y
street between First and Second
streets northeast. Latrobe, the archl-
tect and engineer, figured its water
sunplv together with that of Cool
Spring, near Fifteenth street north
east would suffice to make dock a
the navy yard.
Mr.. Clark remembers seeing this
mill in operation. -
In giving an account OF RiSgs NH,
located on what is now Riggs road on
the hank of the northwest branch of
(S12 rs has
quoted the Rambler. who reported on
June Z. 1914, that he had talked with
H. T. Freeman, resident at that time
of the brick house adjoining the mill
house. The mill itself is or the west
side Of the road3and the miller's house
is on the east, and in the material
quoted from the Rambler it is set forth
that Mr.. Freeman was born in the ad-
Joining brick house in 1857, where had
lived his father, William II. Freeman,
and his grandfather. Thomas Sheckles.
From them Mr.. Freeman learned the
mill was erected $50 years before 1914.
Still quoting the Rambler, Mr.. Clark
has written;
mfr. Freeura n had learned from his
father who got it from his father and
mother, that an English family named
Scofield moved. into that part of the
country a god many years before the
American Revolution and built the
brick house on the hill. the stone
house opposite the mill and then the
mill. 1t was operated as Scofeld's
mill 80
Later Became Riggs Mill.
The property later was acquired
by another English family named Lo-
gam by whose name 1t long was
H. 70 x,IhSs..
ouently came into possession of the
plant and shortly before the Civil
War, it became Riggs Mill" 1t was
said by Mr. Freeman, that ships once
were moored In the branch near the
mill, and Mr.e Clark suggests this is
likely because vessels from Liverpool
frequently were seen at the point
near Bladensburg where the North
west and Eastern Branches merge.
Burnt Mills, on the Colesviile road.
adjoining the Northwest Branch. has
no substantiatiou in fact for its
name, the. Historical Society presi.
dent believes. egz ..3-szs
'.The nearest to substa nfiafion in
fact Mr. Clark writes. lis the tradi-
ton that nearby. and long since, stood
a mill which was destroyed by fire.
The Rambler. May. IA. 1916. was in
formed by MIR. Troth, the miller, that
he CTroth1 was told by very old
colored man who had lived in the vi.
cinity all his life that he did not re-
member mill which had been burned,
nor did his father, who lived to a good
old age.
The Rambler then quotes from Sam
uel ID. Waters: When 1 moved to
Burnt Mills in 1878, talked with an
old' resident, Louis Patten. then 30
old Tho dot NJ III h
carry us back to 1888. He told me
that the mill had not been burned
down in his lifetime, but that the
story was handed down to him as a
boy that mill which stood above the
site. Of the present mill had been
burned He never heard the. date of
the destruction of the mill. ! but he
thought it had occurred half or
three quarters of century before his
births''
Mill Important Historically.
Mr.. Clark considers Nelson's Mill,
the ruins of which are still TO be seen
in a humble pile of stone. which once
was part of the buildings wall. on the
Big Pimmitt Run at the Kirby road,
adjoining the Virginia bank of the
Potomac just above Chain Bridge, one
OF the most. important mills histori.
records, that Stephen Pleasonton. a
Government auditor of the State De.
partment. stored the original "Declara-
ton of independence, the laws. the
secret Journals OF Congress then not
publislled), and the correspondence OF
GeHs Washington, >. during the Brit
ish Occupancy of Washington in the
War tof 1872, -
Quoting Mr. Pleasenton, the pres
;x,1I dkzr, ~, ~ aan
ssKilereupon / proceeded to pur-
chase coarse linen and caused IT 10
be. made. into bags of convenient size,
in~ which the gentlemen OF the once,
assisted by me. placed books arld
other papers, after which 1 obtained
carts and had them conveyed to
grist mill, then unoccupied, belong
ing TO Mr.. Edgar Patterson, situated
3 short distance on the Virginia side
Of the Potomac, beyond the Chain
Bridge, so called; two miles above
Georgetown"
The mill was visited by Dolly Mad1-
eeson on her flight 10 Fails Church
August "a, 1914, and the incident IL
recorded by Ida p. Beall, who quoted
her grandmother's account of it, In
which the mill is called Nelson
Mill"
Two old mills of Bladensburg are
included in Mr.. Clark's account. They
are the Avalon and the Carlton plants.
The former sometimes called Calvert
mill. was located at the eastern end
of Bladensburg and was operated in
1861 by Taylor & Berry. The stream
which operated this mill, the chron'
icler says, supplied the community
with water. and he has seen it work
ing. The latter. plant is often known
as Penn mills and 1t is near Bladens'
burg on the original road leading out
from Washington. IL was near this
mill, Mr. Clark declares, that the bat
tie of Bladensburg was fought.
..n..uL NNall iLxad