Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society
History Quarterly Digital Archives

Source: 1944 Volume 6 Number 1, Pages 1–7

The Great Valley Mill

Franklin L. Burns

• References

Page 1

Since our forefathers ventured over the sea to settle in Penn's woods in the hope of bettering their condition economically as well as securing the right to worship God as they pleased, soon after the seeding of the stump land their most pressing and immediate necessities demanded mill, market and meetinghouse.

The mill to grind the grain for their bread, the market for the produce from their clearings, and the meetinghouse for their spiritual refreshment, and with these three indispensables they needed roads over which they could travel in safety to mill, market and meetinghouse. The tavern followed the road, but seldom, if ever, anticipated it.

In the early settlers' time, no industry was more important in the rural district than that of the miller's trade, where in lieu of cash the miller "tolled" or tithed the grain. The erection and operation of a grist mill was in effect the practical answer to the prayer "Give us this day our daily bread." An ancient Welsh proverb translated into English roads:

"Grain for men is proper treat
Flesh is food that dogs should eat."

Page 2

It is recorded that John Roberts of Merion erected and operated in 1683 the first flour mill in the Province. This was a water-power mill after the English model, but of course it was not the first erected on the west side of the Delaware River. As early as 1646 Governor Printz caused to be built a most primitive corn mill of the Norse type, better known as the "splash" water-power, on a rock in the creek now known as Cobb's, and immediately above the bridge near Blue Bell Tavern. Campanius stated that it was the first that was ever seen in the country, but neglected to inform us that it displaced the still earlier windmills of the Dutch and Swedish settlers.

Thomas Jerman, noted Quaker preacher and thrifty miller, arrived in Philadelphia in March, 1699, after a long voyage in the "William Galley" from the River Towy, Wales. The fare was five pounds per passenger, with free freight not exceeding twenty tons weight, and sufficient meat, drink, and all other necessaries at the cost of the owner and master.

Map of Malvern-Paoli-Berwyn-Devon-Valley Forge area with mill locations noted

It had been thought that the family name of Jerman or Jarman originated with the old Flemish colonists brought into Wales by Henry the First in 1107, but a descendant of the American branch whom I interviewed assured me that the original uncorrupted name was Jermyn.

The most fertile part of Tredyffrin, the Duffryn Mawr or Great Valley, for some reason unknown was actually settled at a later date than many other parts of the great Welsh Tract, although the dates of the original grants were in some instances quite early in Penn's time.

William Powell's warrant for 500 acres of land in Tredyffrin, by right of his purchase of 1250 acres of October 17th and 18th, 1681, is dated 4th month, 19th day, 1684, and patented 3rd month, 31st, 1688. He sold to Thomas Jerman, 5th month, 8th, 1701, the easternmost 300 acres of unimproved land through which ran the north branch of the Valley Creek at about where the Swedesford Road most nearly approached and paralleled that never failing stream. The above dates are of course Old Style, and it must be remembered that March was then the first month of the year.

Page 3

We do not know the exact date of the establishment of the Great Valley mill. It may have been as early as 1702. It certainly was in active operation, by 1710. An old Court Record dated June 21st of the latter year refers to a return on the order to lay out a road from Thomas Jerman's mill to the Great Road from Radnor to Philadelphia.

Apparently there is neither authentic drawing nor photograph extant of the original mill, but it is described as a small structure of logs, and it was doubtless quite primitive in its equipment. The great overshot waterwheel was constructed of native wood, as were all other fixtures that could be hewn from the same material, but the millstones wore imported. The liberal allowance on shipboard for the Jerman family of three may have included all the essential parts of the mill not available in the New World.

An incident in the life of Thomas Jerman has had such wide publicity that I shall touch upon it as lightly as possible. It is related that some time after he had settled in Tredyffrin he had occasion to drive into Philadelphia, and that while there a ship arrived with some redemptioners aboard. Jerman was moved to redeem a bright Scotch lad for his passage money. That lad was James Anderson, who became bound to his service for a specified number of years.

Anderson was a native of the Isle of Skye, and there is reason to believe that he could not write his name, but it appears that he was not the penniless waif he pretended to be, for in 1713 he purchased a tract of 500 acres of land in Charlestown Township for the sum of 120 pounds.

I am informed by a descendant of Anderson that he has traced the pedigree of his American ancestor back to a bold almost legendary Scottish chieftain.

Doubtless Friend Thomas Jerman had thought that he had given his bound boy sufficient employment to keep him out of mischief, but alack Jamie found time to fall in love with Elizabeth, the daughter of his master.

The young Lochinvar ran true to form, and, as his ancestor would have him do, he eloped with Elizabeth and they set up housekeeping in the wilderness along the Pickering Creek near an Indian village. In 1719 their son Patrick was born in their one-windowed cabin, the first white child born in Charlestown (now Schuylkill) Township. It is said that when Elizabeth had occasion to visit her mother a few miles distant over the North Valley Hills, she left her infant son in the lodge of her nearest Redskin neighbor. Patrick Anderson became the American-born Scotch-Welsh ancestor of many prominent public officials, among whom I would mention the late Governor Samuel W. Pennypacker and United States Senator Matthew Stanley Quay.

The Andersons prospered, and today the family mansion of stone stands back from the road much in the same simplicity as of yore, and embedded in the masonry of the stone gateway facing the lane we may observe a pestle on one side and a mortar on the other - authentic artifacts representing the primitive millstones of the aboriginal neighbors still in the stone age. Indeed, despite our Anglo-Saxon pretensions, their prototypes hold the prior claim to being the first grist mills of America.

Page 4

Indian Corn Mills

These implements of native manufacture, so uniquely preserved from loss, are not only noteworthy Indian relics, but they have an intimate association with the Anderson plantation from pioneering days, when they probably served for a time at least as the only means for grinding small quantities of meal for household use. Today those ancient relics are spoken of collectively as the "Indian corn mill."

Thomas Jerman died in 1740, lleaving the mill property to his daughter Mary who had married Enoch Walker. Although the latter is said to have built the stone dwelling in 1726, it is not certain that he remained there after his father left him a farm farther down the Valley, It seems probable that he and his son Jarman Walker, who later inherited the mill property, leased out the mill during their time.

Jarman Walker, following the example of James Anderson, married Jane Malin in Philadelphia, by the Episcopal service, and, according to the records of the Radnor Friends' Meeting, the following year made acknowledgment for marrying out of meeting. Jarman and Jane had a son whom they named Thomas Jarman, doubtless after his great grandfather, and it will be noticed that although the miller was consistent in the use of Jerman, his descendants used the form of Jarman.

On April 23rd, 1756, Jarman Walker, describing himself as a yeoman, and his wife Jane, leased the mill to John Rowland, miller, at an annual rental of fifteen pounds, and on November 26th, 1762, sold to him for two hundred pounds the mill property consisting of 73 acres of land, together with the water rights, millstones, dams, race, floodgates, and profits from the tolls of the log bridge.

Page 5

Either the above John Rowland or another miller by the same name though unrelated, who ran a grist mill on a branch of Trout Run at Hammer Hollow in the same township, supplied some flour to Forbes' French and Indian campaign, and the Great Valley Mill undoubtedly supplied flour to Washington's Army while at Valley Forge. There is also a not very convincing story of the hanging of a British spy in the springhouse for attempting to wreck the mill, which I shall not repeat here.

On November 10th, 1789, John Rowland bequeathed the mill to his son Thomas who subsequently met his death inside the waterwheel. I have a manuscript copy of some verses thought to have been composed by Henry P. Morrow of Chester, entitled "A Visit to the Old Rowland Homestead", valuable chiefly for the description of the property and the incidentals, but too long and commonplace to quote here in its entirety. It is in part as follows:

"I saw the old mill, Mother,
They say it looks the same
As when Grandpa attended there
To grind the people's grain.

I saw the big wheel, Mother,
It stands behind the mill,
And though it is so big 'tis moved
Just by that little rill.

I heard with sorrow when they told
How Uncle Thomas died;
He was at work within the wheel,
And sitting on one side.

When some one raised the Watergate
And in the flood did pour,
The wheel turned round and he poor man
Was crushed beneath its power."

I do not know the exact time or circumstances in which Morrow visited his grandfather's mill, but it is related by the daughter of J. Addison Thomson that he composed "The Little Old Mill" while on his way homeward to Willistown from the Diamond Rock School where he taught. His poem has such refreshing originality that I venture to repeat the opening lines.

"Just in the field across the road
The little springhouse stands,
And by it Uncle Ben's great churn
High as my head and hands."

Page 6

"There's a little rill at the foot of the hill,
And a little old mill, deserted and still,
And the little, old miller who once was there
With his mealy clothes and powdered hair,
Who measured the grain and took the toll
While the burrs went round in their tireless roll;
He is now silent, his hands are still,
As the motionless wheels in the little mill,
And he lies in the church-yard, cold and lorn
Near the little mill where he ground corn.

Long years ago, in the summer's glow -
In the autumn's blow and winter's snow,
The waters poured through the narrow bay
And the tic-tac song was heard all day
Grinding the grain they daily bore
Down the crooked lane, to the old mill's door.

Boys and men -- men and boys
Chatted amidst the old mill's noise,
Related their sorrows, spoke their joys,
Joked and laughed for many an hour
While the miller turned the grists to flour.

Where are they
To be found today?
They silent are and still
Like the miller and the mill,
And their grist of life has been ground;
All of them sleep beneath the mound:
For like the mill
At the foot of the hill
They had their day
And passed away."

The four-storied mill on the east side of the Jerman Mill Road was erected by Joseph E. Jeanes in 1859, but it was the old mill, abandoned and forlorn, subsequent to the Rowland regime, which inspired the poetic mind.

It is said that Joseph E. Jeanes left a large estate from the merchant marine business, but even in his time the housewives complained that they could not bake good bread from the flour ground in the local mills. One by one our township mills became abandoned for want of custom and our local wheat growers sold their grain where they could, for to many it was the money crop depended upon to pay their taxes.

Richard Haughton bought the Great Valley mill from David Whitworth in 1913, and up to the present time the mill is serving mankind with wholesome breadstuff made from the whole grain ground by the French Buhr stones. I do not know whether the proud claim that this mill holds the All-American record for continuous and probably uninterrupted operation can be substantiated, but after nearly two and a half centuries of active service on the same broad acres of the Jermyn development, the Great Valley mill grinds on, and again quoting our local poet:

Page 7

"--- the rill runs along with the same old song
And the same fresh glow as years ago,
Through warm and cold - it never grows old,
And its banks still bloom with crimson and gold -
Still the life stream flows through joys and woes -
And others now ride on its life-long tide
Just as they did who went to that mill,
Till the wheels of time shall stand as still
As the mouldering wheels of that old mill."

References

Great Valley Mills, Advertising Literature.

Paxson, Henry D. Where Pennsylvania History Began, 1926.

Pennypacker, Samuel Whitaker. Annals of Phoenixville and Vicinity.

The Autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.

Streets, Priscilla Walker. Lewis Walker of Chester Valley and His Descendants.

Watt, W. H. Great Valley Hill, West of Paoli, Main Line Times, April 2, 1942.

I am also indebted to the following for valuable information: Mr. N. T. Anderson, Ridley Park, Penna., Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, Penna., Mr. Harry W. Frazer, Phoenixville, Penna., Mrs. Frank J. Hall, Racine, Wis., Mr. Richard Haughton, Paoli, Penna., and Mr. Howard S. Okie, Berwyn, Penna.