Historical Overview
The following is a description of Womack's Mill from Historic American Engineering Record, Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service in 1979 (paragraph breaks added):
Womack's Mill, located on Country Line Creek, near Yanceyville, North Carolina, was built c. 1909. This water-powered local grain mill, not the first to stand on this site, served the farmers of central Caswell County. The mill dam was constructed in 1826 and is intact, as is the head race leading to the mill. The three story mill is heavy timber framed with a gable roof, it has an unpainted clapboard exterior and a stone foundation. The concrete turbine pit contains two cast-iron water turbines, one each for driving the wheat and corn-milling machinery.
The original construction included one set of millstones for grinding corn and our roller mills for wheat, all located on the first floor. The mill also contains grain elevators, separators, bran dusters, bolting reels, sifters, and a flour bleacher. Womack's Mill specialized in custom grinding until operations ceased in the mid-1950's. The mill is scheduled to be inundated c. 1982 by the Soil Conversation Service's Country Line Creek Watershed Project.
For many years, William Henry Hatchett (1860-1941) and his brother-in-law, Joseph Pinkney Gwyn (1861-1929), were partners in Womack's Mill. Womack's Mill, one of the best preserved water-powered mills in the South is now covered by the waters of Farmer Lake, which many believe was a mistake. Note that the mother-in-law of Joseph Pinkney Gwyn was Ann Eliza Womack, thus providing the connection to the Womack family for which the mill and surrounding farm were named. Joseph Pinkney Gwyn married Sarah Eliza (Sally) Hatchett, the daughter of Allen Lellius Hatchett and Ann Eliza Womack. To locate this area today, proceed west from Yanceyville on Highway 158 for approximately five miles. Turn left onto Boy Scout Camp Road. This will lead you past the Womack farm and toward the inundated site of Womack's Mill.
Preface
In early June 1979, a summer recording team of an historian, a photographer and four architects of the Historic American Engineering Record examined Womack's Mill in Yanceyville, North Carolina. This research, conducted in a very brief period of time, includes the historical findings of that team and is to be used in conjunction with the measured drawings and photographs of the mill. HAER was invited to document Womack's Flour Mill as the mill site lay within a proposed watershed project area for Caswell County and the future of the structure was uncertain.
I. History of the mill site, 1826-1909.
Womack's Flour mill is located at a water-power site on Country Line Creek in Caswell County approximately five miles west of Yanceyville, North Carolina. Country Line Creek rises in southeastern Rockingham County and flows northeast across Caswell County into Virginia where it enters the Dan River northeast of Milton. The present mill building was probably constructed in 1909 on, or near, the site of a previous flour mill. The exact dates of the earlier structure are unknown; however, the first use of this site for industry dates shortly after 1826.
Womack's Mill pond is formed approximately 1500 feet west of the mill by a large stone dam. The dam measures nearly 175 feet long and 15 feet high. Chiseled in stone, near the top of the north end of the dam is "T. A. Mera, 1826." The stone dam dates from this time and was constructed under the supervision of, or for. T. A. Mera, a family name not now locally known. Oral history sources relate that the dam was built by black slave labor which is entirely likely in this pre-Civil War agrarian economy. On the north end of the dam, about ten feet away, is the opening for the gate and mill race. Here water from the mill pond enters and meanders in an earthen ditch to the mill site. Womack's Mill dam, because of its date, size and construction is the most historic and probably the only large stone dam still standing in Caswell County.
1
Some type of water powered mill, probably a grist mill, operated on the site shortly after 1826. In 1834, a land deed from William Graves to Thomas Graves included the "mill and cotton gin." Three separate earlier deeds from John Graves in 1819, Benjamin Willis in 1827 and Thomas Gunn in 1833, were combined by William Graves to constitute the mill tract, a total of 68 acres.
2
The earliest owner of the mill for which any statistics have survived is Abner Miles. Miles was deeded the tract in 1845 from Thomas Graves. The industrial schedule for the Census of 1850 registered twenty-three grist mills in Caswell County. Abner Miles is also listed as owning a saw mill on this site, yet statistics appear only for the grist mill. The mill was water powered, probably by an overshot power wheel, and was invested with $2,000 in capital. Miles processed 800 bushels of wheat worth $520 into 135 barrels of flour valued at $600. He also ground 2,600 bushels of local corn worth $1,300 into 2,925 bushels of corn mean valued at $1,462. The grist mill employed one employee, probably Miles, at an average monthly cost of labor of $8. Compared to the other grist mills operating in the county at this time, Miles ran a prosperous business.
3
The Census of 1850 recorded eleven flour mills, twelve grist mills and three sawmills in the county. Apparently definitions were not consistent among Census takers as no flour mills and twenty-eight grist mills were recorded in the Census of 1860. Part of the inconsistency may be due to the fact that the terms "grist" and "flour" mills were used interchangeably since early American millers were grinding all types of grain. At one time, a grist mill may have only referred to grinding corn, and flour mills only to grinding wheat. However, there was an increase of five flour or grist mills in the ten-year period and the number of sawmills had grown to nineteen.
4
George W. Swepson acquired the mill property from Abner Miles in 1856. Swepson's name unfortunately does not appear in the industrial schedules for the Census of 1860. He was a land speculator and likely an absentee owner. Research did not reveal the name of the miller operating the flour mill in 1860. George W. Swepson later earned a repudiation as a chief scalawag during the Reconstruction Period and has been referred to by one local historian as "one of the greatest rascals of North Carolina history."
5 At the height of the Civil War, in August 1862, Swepson sold the "grist and saw mill" to his brother-in-law, Thomas J. Womack. The mill came to be known locally as Womack's Mill and the business specialized in custom grinding of corn and wheat for the farmers of central Caswell County.
6
The Womack Family came from Virginia and settled in the county sometime in the mid 18th century. John Womack represented North Carolina at the Constitutional Convention in 1788 and the family became prominent in local political and business affairs. Thomas Jefferson Womack, born in 1831, married Anne E. Yancey in 1855. Anne was the daughter of Bartlett Yancey, Yanceyville's patron son and first historian in 1810. Yancey represented the county in the United States House of Representatives from 1813 until 1817 and served as the speaker of the North Carolina Legislature from 1817 until his death in 1828.
7
The Civil War dealt an immense economic blow to the Southern agrarian economy.In Caswell County only nine flour mills were registered in the Census of 1870. There may have been many more however, as the schedules are incomplete and no statistics are recorded for Womack's Mill. Thomas J. Womack probably hired a professional miller to run the business, as he was certainly a gentleman farmer. In 1872 his 788-acre estate, mostly under tobacco cultivation, was valued at $7 an acre. According to
Branson's North Carolina Business Directory, Womack's farm was not the largest but was certainly the most valuable per acre in the county.
8
The industrial schedules for the Census of 1880 record the operations of three flour mills along Country Line Creek and allow for some comparison and analysis. The mills, owned by T. J. Womack. W. B. Graves and M. King, all did custom grinding for local corn and wheat farmers. Womack's Mill, situated first on the Creek as it flows to the northeast, ran under ten feet of head (amount of water above the turbines), Grave's Mill ran under eight feet of head and King's Mill under seven. Womack's and Graves's Mill ran two water turbines, while King's ran only one. At this time, flour mills elsewhere in the county were operating turbines and many still had overshot water wheels.
Womack's Mill and Graves's Mill were operated by two men while King's Mill was operated by one man and one boy under sixteen years of age. Womack's Mill ran on twelve hour days for only six months while Graves Mill ran on five hour days from May to November and eight hour days from November to May. King's Mill operated on twelve hour days from May to November and on ten hour days from November to May. The skilled millers at Womack's and Graves's Mill earned $1.50 per day and the unskilled workers were paid $0.50 per day at Womack's and $0.75 at Graves's. The skilled miller at King's Mill earned $2.50 per day.
9
Each mill ran two sets of grindstones, one for wheat and one for corn. Womack's Mill processed an estimated 40 bushels of grain per day while Graves's Mill ran 100 and King's Mill 240. This wide range in production figures is possibly a seasonal variation or an error on the part of the Census taker. Within one year Womack's Mill processed 4,000 bushels of wheat into 800 barrels of flour. Graves's Mill turned 2,000 bushels of wheat into 400 barrels of flour and King's Mill, 3,000 bushels into 600 barrels. These figures are consistent, as the wheat, reduced by the operation of cleaning, grinding and sifting, was reduced by a factor of five to one. Womack's Mill also processed 8,000 bushels of corn into 432,000 (number suspect, probably 43,200) pounds of corn meal, 72,000 of animal feed and 100 pounds of hominy, a coarsely ground corn. Womack's Mill was the largest business with $10,367 recorded for the value of all products. King's Mill was second with $7,205 in gross sales and Graves's Mill next with $5,544.
10
During the 1880s Womack's Mill operated in much the same fashion. In 1889, Thomas J. Womack died and deeded the mill property to his first son, Thomas P. Womack. Thomas J. Womack left $12,000 in his estate to pay the other children, Bartlett, Nannie and Sally, each one-quarter interest. The mill remained in the family another twenty years until 1909 when J. P. Gwyn and W. H. Hatchett purchased the Womack Mill tract of 68 acres and the water power privileges for $1,800 from T. P. Womack. The original mill had burned sometime prior to 1909 and a new structure was erected on, or near, the old foundation. According to an oral history, the old flour mill was deliberately burned by persons unknown and the new construction began within the year.
11
II. History of Womack's Mill, 1909 - c.1955.
There is a date "1909" in the metal letters on the outside door on the north side on the first floor. The mill was deeded from Womack to Gwyn and Hatchett in May 1909 and one former employee of the mill, at the time of the burning and reconstruction, recalled the date specifically as 1909. These are the three main reasons that 1909 was chosen by this researcher as the construction date for the present Womack's Mill. The timber for the mill was cut right on the site and the structure built under the supervision of Mr. Yarbrough, first name unknown, a member of the well known family of millwrights from Milton. Oral history sources, the mill site and the remaining machinery, constitute the evidence available to document the mill's history from 1909 until operations ceased around 1955.
The mill was designed for one run of stones for grinding corn and four roller mills for reducing wheat into flour. Most of the extant wheat processing machinery is original to the 1909 construction. Some additional machinery was introduced by William Carter in the late 1930s. The existing water turbines may have been in the old mill and reused in the new construction.
The single story building directly across the road was probably built as a general country store, yet when it was built is uncertain. Local residents recall it being a store operated by a man named Hatchett. This is probably the same W. H. Hatchett that purchased the mill property with J. P. Gwyn in 1909. A 1913 deed records W. H. Hatchett selling his one-half interest in the mill property to T. P. Womack for $3,000. Whether this transaction refers to an unpaid debt on the 1909 sale of the mill or on the country store across the road is uncertain.
12
Womack's Mill remained in the ownership of Joseph P. Gwyn during the 1910s until 1921 when he sold his one-half interest in the mill tract including "all old iron shafting, boilers, engines, water wheels, etc." to E. A. Allison. Graffitti revealed the name of "Hupp" who ground wheat at the mill in August 1934. E. A. Allison sold the mill to Edmund E. Thomas in October 1936. At this time, the mill tract contained 100 acres of which Edmund Thomas later sold 75 acres to Samuel H. King in August 1941 and 25 acres, which included the mill and water rights, to Charles R. Thomas in 1942.
13
William Carter became a half partner with Edmund Thomas in late 1936 or early 1937. Carter, born in Caswell County, was the son of a farmer and apprenticed the craft of grain milling at the Milton Rolling Mill in the northeast corner of the county. Carter came to Womack's Mill in early 1937 and was the miller until probably 1946. Many missing pieces of information about the history and operation of the mill were obtained in a series of oral interviews with Mr. Carter.
Carter ran a family business centered around his four sons and two daughters. His business depended on a vital local corn and wheat supply. The wheat harvest began shortly after the first of July and introduced the busiest time of the year for milling. During the harvest the mill operated six days a week for several months. Caution had to be exercised in not running any wheat that was too green as it had to be thoroughly dried before processing. Carter often found himself in the storage business keeping hundreds of pounds of wheat around for a single farmer until it was dry enough to mill. He called the business the Yanceyville Milling Company and it prospered as a large trade followed him from the wheat fields near Milton and Semora to Womack's Mill.
Carter added a self-rising flour mixer to the mill and the new pre-mixed flour was a big favorite with local housewives. Wheat flour was sold to local farmers and town folks, not to merchants. Corn meal, bagged in 2, 5, 10, 25, 30 and 100 pound bags, comprised his largest trade. He employed a boy to drive a Chevrolet truck on Tuesdays and Fridays to deliver and take orders for custom grinding. Carter built all the large wheat storage bins on the second floor and added the porch or loading platform to the west side of the first floor. He kept pits in a yard on the east side of the mill near the road. They were well fed from all the excess corn cobs. When Carter first came to the mill in 1937, the Fairbanks Morse engine was not running. Carter started the engine after it had set idle for nearly 25 years and used it to power the mill in times of low water. He also added an electric generator and ran it off the second floor line shaft. The small generator provided sufficient electricity to run six light bulbs and allowed him to run the mill all night during the busy wheat harvest season. William Carter dissolved his partnership with Thomas after World War Two in 1946 and left the grain milling business to pursue a new venture in house construction.
In October 1946, Charles R. Thomas sold the mill property for $4,800 to Albert and Jack Robinson of Danville, Virginia. In September 1947, they sold the mill to B. F. Clark of Danville. Clark was probably the last miller to operate Womack's Mill until business ceased about 1955. In 1955, Clark sold the mill to Charlie T. Grant and Grant resold the mill in 1958. In 1962 the property was sold to the present owner, James J. Martin of Danville, Virginia. Within recent years Martin has removed some of the mill shafting and iron work and sold it for scrap.
14
Since January 1979, Caswell County has held a purchase option on Womack's Mill and are awaiting the final state legislative decision on the proposed Soil Conservation Service watershed project for Country Line Creek. If the project is funded the 1826 mill dam and the 1909 flour will be removed.
III. The Mill Building
The present three story mill, which has an earth cellar, was constructed at one time and remains essentially intact. The mill, nearly a square measuring 40' 6" by 36' 9", is framed of very timber and has a stone rubble foundation. Some pieces of millstones from the old mill were broken up and used as internal column bases when the new mill was built. Concrete was poured as bearing supports for the new millstones. The porch or loading platform and its roof, on the west side of the first floor, are later additions to the original 1909 construction. The mill has a sheet-metal covered gable roof, an unpainted clapboard interior and 6 over 6, double-hung wood frame sashes.
The earth cellar provided space for the main mill shafting. Suspended from the ceiling, it runs nearly the length of the mill and powers all the machinery on the top three floors. The bottoms of the wooden grain elevators sit just above the earth floor and are used to transport grain to the top floors. Also suspended from the ceiling near the southwest corner is a large storage bin divided into two compartments. One side is for raw corn and the other is for raw wheat. Presently the earth floor and foundation along the sough wall are badly eroded and water runs freely from the mill race into the cellar.
On the first floor in the southeast corner sits the grindstone platform. The four wheat roller mills sit in line (running south to north) near the middle of the first floor. The flour bagging machine and several storage bins are also located on the first floor. A stairway on the south wall leads to the second floor. There are three doors on the first floor. The divided door on the west wall leads to the porch or loading platform. The door on the north wall was also used for loading and unloading bushels of grain and barrels of flour onto wagons. The door on the east wall is apparently only for ventilation or design as there is no stairway and it was not used for loading wagons.
The second floor contains a wheat separator, a bolting reel, a self-rising flour mixer and two plansifters. There is a small electric generator powered by the shafting suspended from the ceiling. There are two large and two small wheat storage bins built in on this floor. In the southeast corner is a large corn storage bin built in. All machinery is in its original position except the plansifters which are disassembled. There is a stairway on the south wall leading to the third floor.
. . . .
Sources Consulted
_______________
1"T. A. Mera, 1826" is chiseled on the dam and recorded in the J. B. Blaylock Collection, Book 3, p. 45, Caswell County Registry of Deeds.
2Registry of Deed Boot T, pp. 109-110; Book X, pp. 233-234, pp. 420-422; Book BB, pp. 369-370 (1834).
3Deed Book BB, pp. 369-371;
Book GG, p. 360;
Census of 1850, Industrial Schedule No. 5, p. 609, State Archives, Raleigh, North Carolina.
4Census of 1850 and 1860, Industrial Schedules for Caswell County.
5William S. Powell,
When the Past Refused to Die: A History of Caswell County North Carolina, 1777-1977, p. 116, 232-233. Deed Book II, p. 660.
6Deed Book JJ, pp. 298-299.
7Powell, pp. 552-553; See also Womack Genealogy in Blaylock's Collection Book 2, p. 122; Womack Cemetery at Yancey Homestead.
8Powell, p. 275, 418, 487, 553-554.
9Census of 1880, Industrial Schedule for Caswell County.
10Ibid.
11Book of Wills, Book A, p. 577;
Deed Book 61, p. 584.
12Deed Book 72, pp. 328-329.
13Deed Book 74, p. 220; 93, p. 26; 96, p. 16; 85, p.527.
14Deed Book 106, p. 392; 108, p.105; 122, p. 270; 118, p. 271; 137, p. 166; 174, p. 470; 199, p. 92.
15A completely accurate account of the wheat milling system is nearly impossible at this time as most of the elevators and chutes have been dismantled. Some of the whet processing machinery is out of place and some has possibly been removed from the mill. Duplicate types of different floors make it difficult to "reconstruct" the correct processing order.
Source: Johnson, John P.
Historic American Engineering Record, Womack's Mill (HAER-NC-14), Washington (D.C.): Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, Department of Interior, 1979.
