Stanton's Forgotten Mill

Approximate bounds of the 17 acre lot sold by

Isaac Hersey in 1733

Today we think of Stanton as little more than a loosely defined area, anchored by the ever-growing intersection of Newport Pike (Rt 4) and Limestone Road. But in the 19th Century, Stanton was a thriving village with industries of its own, and always seemed to be on the verge of growing into a full-fledged town and industrial center. The recently posted newspaper article/love letter from 1887 perfectly encapsulates this feeling, that Stanton was about to turn into a boom town. As I think we all know, that never happened. It did, however, remain as an economically healthy village.

In the post-Civil War era, in addition to the usual village businesses (taverns, shops, blacksmith, cobbler, etc.), Stanton had in or near it a merchant grist mill, a bone mill (it ground animal bones for fertilizer), and three textile mills. One of the textile mills was the Kiamensi Woolen Mill located below Marshallton, and it was associated with the Independence Mill that stood near the Hale-Byrnes House just southwest of the village. There was, however, a third woolen mill, located even closer to the heart of Stanton. At one time it was the largest, closest industry to the village, yet because it vanished years before the others did, it's been largely forgotten.

It stood, for about 150 years, just behind where the Walgreens is now, across from the end of Telegraph Road. The very early history of the tracts in this area is quite murky, but we do know that in 1723, French emigree Isaac Hersey purchased at a sheriff's sale much of the land below Stanton. In 1733 he sold an approximately 17 acre piece of it to Simon Thetford, who in turn sold it about a year later to Thomas Gray. In 1738, Gray sold the tract to James Guthery. In none of these sales is a mill mentioned, so we can infer that it was Guthery, sometime after 1738, who erected the first mill at this site. It was presumably also he who dug the almost mile and a half long race that began on Mill Creek above Old St James Church. Guthery owned the mill property until 1771, when he sold it to Caleb Harlan and Joseph Pennock.

Harlan and Pennock weren't there long, as they sold two years later to a pair of milling brothers from Wilmington -- William and James Marshall. (Harlan would then go and purchase the Robinson Mill at Milltown.) The Marshall brothers had tried and failed to build a mill on the north side of the Brandywine around Market Street, but the stone excavated from the race was enough for James to build the Lea-Derickson House at 1801 N. Market Street. (That house would later be owned by Frederick Bringhurst, owner of the Marshallton Iron Works.) After James died, the Stanton mill ended up with just William Marshall, who settled in the area with his wife, Mary Tatnall. Among their children were Mary (who married Simon Cranston and was mother to all his children) and Edward.

Edward Marshall inherited the mill after William's death in 1808, and the following year leased it to a textile manufacturer named Mordecai McKinney. McKinney adapted the mill for wool production, and from that point on the old Guthery-Marshall mill would be a textile mill. While its production of cloth would remain constant, its ownership and management would be anything but. Edward Marshall did retain ownership of the mill until 1833, but in that span he leased to several different tenants. Thomas and Stephen Stapler were operating a fulling mill in 1814 in Stanton, most likely at the Marshall Mill. In 1821, Joseph Sykes moved down from the Rockford Mill on the Brandywine for the purpose of "Carding, Slubing, Spinning, Fulling, Dying, and Finishing Country Cloaths."

Even though the mill seemed to be in demand, it must not have been particularly profitable. In 1833, it was seized and sold at a sheriff's sale to the Outlaw Josie John Wales. There must have been another tenant in between, because the sale states that the property contained "a frame cotton factory, stone grist mill, frame dwelling house, three tenant frame houses, and the one half of one other small frame tenant house thereon erected." Just a couple weeks later, Wales sold the mill to James Mitchell and Edward Quinn. Mitchell (and Quinn, who seems to have exited the picture in the 1840's) operated it as a cotton mill, because the next time it was sold it was listed as such.

May 2, 1868

In 1864, James Mitchell's (an English immigrant, unrelated to the other MCH Mitchells) mill was seized and sold to John Wilkinson, who quickly sold it to Matilda Taylor. The Taylors are a little tricky, but here's my best shot at this part of the story. James Taylor, another Englishman, had purchased another woolen mill on Pike Creek in 1853. A book about the wool industry in Delaware states that Taylor opened a mill in Stanton in about 1858, but I think that might have been the Pike Creek facility. An 1860 map still shows Mitchell as running the Stanton mill. I think Taylor bought the Stanton mill and for some reason placed it in his daughter Matilda's name.

When James Taylor died in 1866, the Pike Creek mill went to his son, James H. Taylor. He sold that one in 1869, and in 1871 bought the Staton mill from his sister and her new husband, George E. Wollaston (the couple had moved to Maryland). To confuse things even more, a newspaper article from 1868 states that, "Messrs. Dean and Pilling also own the new mill built by the late James Taylor, near Stanton." I think this was the Independence Mill, but I'm not sure about that. In any case, it appears that the Taylor Stanton cotton mill was heavily damaged by a fire in early 1874, which likely directly led to its being sold at a sheriff's sale that July.

One of the many Sheriff's sales for the property

The mill was purchased next by James Cranston, who was the nephew of Edward Marshall, the owner earlier in the century. Cranston built a new, 100x50 foot mill on the site and leased it to the Dean Woolen Company. (Dean and his associates, like Pilling, were constantly renting and buying various mills depending on their need.) Even before his death in 1887, James' son Edwin J. Cranston had been overseeing the woolen mill. An article about a fire at the mill in December 1888 states that it was being run by Altziser & Brother (A later article names them as Henry E. and John Holtsizer.). That particular fire was minor, but it would not be the last.

James Taylor's mill saw fire and it saw rain

Two years later, in July 1890, a much larger blaze would destroy the mill. An article about the fire gives a great account of the incident, as well as of the mill itself. It states, "The main mill is built against a hill, was of brick and stone and was three stories high. The lower floor is 60x45 feet, and the upper floor, which extended over the top of the hill, is 100x45 feet." It seems that this truly was the end of the line for this mill site, first put in service about 150 years prior.

The best description of the mill, after the July 1890 fire

Cranston would sell the site in 1909 to William R. Wilson, who claimed to have plans to develop it either for a flour mill or to produce electricity. Neither plan would materialize and the site would be seized and sold at a sheriff's sale yet again, late in 1909. The new owner, an attorney named Charles B. Evans, does not seem to have had any plans to rebuild the mill. All I can really find after that is where Evans sold to the railroad the right to take water from the mill race. Eventually the lot became wooded-over, and the old Guthery-Marshall Grist Mill/Taylor Cranston Woolen Mill faded into history.

Feb 2, 1909. It would not be rebuilt