Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1941-01-23
MONTGOMERY
Nl SIDELICHTS
BIZ ELSIE WHITE HA1NEs


winds its crooked way toward the
main branch-which it joins about
mile above the bridge on the
Rockville orbeck road--must have
been a much more important
stream in the early days, from
the number of mill sites on its
short length.
Most of you are familiar with
Muncaster's Mil-tho it had not
been used since 1925-it was a
favorite landmark-and a mecca
for artists-until it was burned
about five years ago. The Red
land Hunt Club often use it for
meeting place.
Tradition tells us that there
was first a mill a mile or so
below-on what was, during our
childhood, the Roger B. Farquhar
farm, and there is still a trace of
mill race where the water falls
over a rock ledge into pool about
four feet deep in the solid rock.
Between this first site and the
Muncaster mill-Joseph Elgar,
who owned this land before the
Revolutionary war, built small
mill-just one story, twenty-four
feet square-which used the dam
later used by Muncasters.
We are told that the water was
carried across the creek in a
wooden viaduct six or seven hun
dred feet long. In 1920 the
wooden trunk failed and Mr..
Samuel Robertson, who then owned
the property moved the mill back
on the farm where it served as
barn for seventy-five years.
When it was RACED to make
place for a new barn in 1895 the
timbers were still sound and were
used in some Of the small build
ings, where they still are, until
the present owner, Mr.. Winslow,
has torn them down since he has
been there.
Mr.. Robertson then moved up
stream a quarter of a mile and
built on the present site-the new
mill was thirty feet square and
had three stories and basement
and such lovely chip" roof.
For over one hundred years
this mill ran-first making -four,
which was barrelled and shipped
to Washington under the label of
Milton Mills-the old stencil hung
on the wall all during our child
hood-for it was here the White
family lived for over twenty years
after leaving Howard County.
Roller flour mills stopped the
manufacture of flour - failing
water power slowed down the
grinding of meal and feed-then
commercial feed came along-and
the mill was finally abandoned in
1925.
There is a record of $4,000 in
gold having been paid to the
Beckwiths for the dam site-when
it was sold to Samuel Welsh in
1930-one hundred and fifty or
more years later-it brought
.00-in paper!
Mr.. John E. Muncaster, to
whom we are indebted for this
information, tells US the Beck
withs at one time owned large
tracts of land-evidently that
later owned by the Cashells-he
remembers as boy, hearing one
of them tell of the hundreds of
acres they once had-and at that
time they owned only a small
place near Avery-"all lawed
away" they claimed.
When we went to live in the
house on the hill above the mill,
there was beautiful weeping
tree at the end of the lane, and
double row of very old fruit
trees up the lane to the house
which we remember hearing
America Beckwith, then an old
woman, but still riding horse back
to the store with her egg basket
on her arm-say were planted by
her folks. Paul Kelchner of
Rockville is a descendant Of the
Beckwiths.
Like all good old mills this one
had a "ghost"-and well do we
remember the difficulty of getting
the "cullud" help to go into it at
night. Somewhere around 1880
the mill was being run by a Mr..
Haviland, who just simply disap-
peared one night-he was coming
home from the city-his horses
were found the next day but he
was never heard Of again. That
furnished all the material neces-