The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1938-08-11
FROMAN'S MILL: The FIRST
MILL IN GARRETT COUNTY
BY CHARLES E. HOVE

some convenient stream. Before mills
were built the earliest settlers made
their course meal as the Indians did
breaking the grains in a stone or
wooden mortar with pestle. Hominy
and parched corn were prepared by
hand.
Naturally the mill became center
for trade and exchange for gossip and
news. So the history of our first grist
mill, located on Mill Run prior to 1774
and shrouded in the mists of the
American Revolution, is subject of
keen interest.
Bear Camp Or Mill Run
At the west foot of Kissan's key
ser's) Ridge the Sandy Creek Indian
Path iutersected the old Nemacolin
Path, which led from Wills Creek
(Cumberland) to the Western Waters.
Doubtless the red tribes once camped
here. Certainly the earliest hunters in
these mountains and the traders who
passed over the paths to trade with
the Indians in the Ohio Country,
camped, hunted and fished where the
trails met They named their camp
Bear Camp, referring to the numer-
Gus bears they found on the surround
ing hills and in the nearby valleys.
At the Bear Camp hunters and trad
ers found a small open glade, supply
ing forage for horses, and an abun-
dant supply of pure spring water;
there was also a little brook empty
ing into a stream from the Ridge,
which became known as Bear Camp
Run"
On its way to Fort Duquesne i'll
1855, General Braddock's army camp
ed at the Bear Camp, and here,
while the army marched on, Colonel
Washington was obliged to remain
several days, fighting "violent fevers'
until cured by OR. James's Powders
And here, about 1887, Judge John
Simkins built his noted Bear Camp
Tavern near the present Beeghly log
house in which Louis SpiEer now re-
sides
From the old camp ground the Run
ripplcs on toward the northwest al
most to the Mason and Dixon line,
then bends westward, breaking thru
the Winding Ridge. Finally it unites
with the Youghiogheny few miles
north Of old Shelby's Port. Within
about seven miles-from the Camp
to its mouth-Mill Run has a fall Of
one thousand feet. 1t was (and is) fed
by hundreds Of mountain springs and
drained densely forested area, It's
banks were thickly lined with rho
dodendron and mountain laurel, brok
en- by overhanging rocky cliffs-ideal
refuge for the bears which fed on
the acorns and nuts of the surrounding
hills.
Bad Is The Best OF 1t
Soon after the French and Indian
War pioneers began the SANDY Creek
Settlement" on the territory drained
by Sandy Creek in Virginia, and the
adjoining lands in Pennsylvania and
the Youghiogheny Valley in Mary
land The first of these were the
Friend brothers on the River in 1865.
And, soon after, came Jacob Froman,
a miller and man of substance, from
the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Probably the Friend and Froman were
acquaintances in Virginia; certainly
the Friends helped Froman build his
mill in their neighborhood.
On April 20, 1771, Jacob Froman
surveyed bad Is the Best Of 1t" 12O
acres, on Bear Camp Run near its
mouth. Coming from the wide and
fertile Valley of Virginia, Froman was
not impressed with the land in these
mountains from an agricultural stand
point, hence the peculiar name he gave
his tract; but he was not looking for
a farm, and as a mill site Bear Camp
Run was "The Best of It." In fact, the
stream selected provided such excel
lent water power that mills continued
to operate there until very recent
years. In time even the name of the
stream changed to "Fike's Mill Run,
now just plain mill Run"
Building The First Mill
In It'll Lord Baltimore's land office
patented to Jacob Froman his Bad
land tract 1t was probaly during the
following year that Froman, with set
tiers help, built his mill, his house
and cabins for his Negro slaves. We
know that in 1774 the mill was in OPP
Grafton and had become a noted land
mark, because three of the land sur
yeys Of that year refer to "Froman's
Mill" The surveyor of nearby Small
Glade wrote of Jacob Froman's Mill
Branch which empties into Deer
Creek" and of "a path that leads from
romans Mill to the foot of Keyser's
Ridge on Braddock Road"-the old
Bear Camp.
II. -,