The Many Updates to the Rotheram (Harmony) Mills House Post

NE exterior of the Rotheram House,
showing the original gambrel roofline
and window (1971)

I have always viewed this blog, and historical research in general, as an ongoing, continuous endeavor. It's not at all unusual for me to come across new information on an old topic, at which point I'll either just correct or add it to the original post, or maybe write a full follow-up post with the new information. I've done that a few times recently. Sometimes, though, I find so much more stuff that more drastic measures must be taken. Recently I fairly accidently came across something I had in my collection but hadn't realized the significance of. That set me off doing more digging on a topic I had first written about almost nine years ago, and I ended up finding a lot more. I decided the only fair thing to do was to do a massive update to the original post about the Rotheram (or Harmony Mills) House.

I chose this route mainly because of the amount of new information I added, plus the breadth of it. I found new stuff about the early years of the mill, the middle years, and the later years. The real quick version of this post is "Go read (or re-read) the original post." The link's right there. Frankly, you have no excuse not to. At this point the "new" post is probably about twice as long as the original version, and is now much more of a complete story. There are still a few holes to be filled, but most of the story is pretty clear.

However, if you either did not want to re-read the original post or wanted to know what the new information was, here's a brief rundown, in chronological order, not in the order I found it. And since I've already woven the new finds into the story of the house and mills in the original post, I thought I'd just do a quick bullet-point rundown here. Any objections?....No? Good. Here we go:

• In the later 1795 deed (ok, this is slightly out of order) I found reference to the earlier 1739 deed in which Joseph Rotheram, Sr. purchases the mills. It gives the date of August 22, 1739 and that it was purchased from Sheriff Henry Newton. Frustratingly, I've found other 1739 Sheriff sale deeds from Newton, but not this one. Other researchers have also been unable to locate it, and blamed it on it being destroyed by the British during the Revolution. Apparently the Delaware President (what would now be the Governor) John McKinly was captured by the British with papers on him that he had been trying to save. When Rotheram died just a few years earlier, there was court action regarding the property. I wonder if the 1739 deed had been pulled and never properly refiled, making it accessible to McKinly to take and have with him?
• I added a photo of the exterior of the house, showing evidence of the original gambrel roofline
• In looking more closely at the 1794 will of Joseph Rotheram, Jr., I noticed that it mentioned two slaves that he owned. I added their names, which were Tom and Sam. No, Quakers were not supposed to own slaves. Yes, sometimes some of them did anyway.
• I added the 1795 ad for the sale of the Rotheram property, as well as more detailed information about the three men who bought it -- Joseph Israel, Henry Geddes, and Thomas Latimer. Israel acquired a half share of the property, while Geddes and Latimer (who also happened to be brothers-in-law) each owned a one quarter share.
• I added the 1801 ad for the sale of Harmony Mills. It shows that it was Israel who lived onsite. It also shows that the name "Harmony Mills" predates the ownership of James Price, to whom the name has always been attributed.
• Still not sure exactly when Price and family moved in. I found the deeds from Geddes and from Latimer to Price, and they were done in 1805. It's always stated that Price moved to Harmony in either 1802 or 1803. Maybe the half share from Israel was acquired earlier?
• I found and added more details of the Canby period for the mills (Mary Price Canby inherited the mills from her father). James Price Canby briefly ran the mills when the family moved back from Wilmington, but then went into the Army during the Civil War and stayed on until retiring from the service in 1897.
• I added a collage of ads from the 1860's and 1870's from when the Canbys were leasing out the mill, including to a Samuel J. Wright.
• Previously I had only known that the grist mill burned down sometime probably in the 1870's. Now, I found direct reports of its demise, which was the result of a fire that began about 11:00 PM on Friday, September 29, 1876. Two articles are now included. Also, there was another article that mentioned that the grist mill was of stone construction.

Ok, we're going to take a short intermission to let you catch your breath. Now you see why I had to do this this way. We're not done yet, just through the milling part of its history. Still no idea when the saw mill stopped operating, but apparently it was a while before the grist mill burned down. We now return to our story, already in progress...

• I dug up a lot more details about the post-Canby era, starting with more on the Smalleys, who owned the property next. When focusing on the mills and the Rotheram House, it's easy to forget that it also anchored an almost 200 acre farm. The Smalleys leased the farm but also ran a general store and had several warehouses, probably due to the proximity to two railroad lines. I add a 1929 sale ad from when Walter Smalley was retiring.
• Found and added information about the Giffords, who owned the property next and who ended up selling off most of it, including the Rotheram House in 1935. They remained until the 1960's on what was left of the farm, which was on the west side of Harmony Road, where Ruthar Drive is now.
• The Rotheram House was purchased in 1935 by William and Besse Davis, who sold to Robert J. Hunn in 1961. The Hunns did restorative work on the house during their tenure.
• Finally, I added the update that the house was recently purchased by very good owners who are doing a lot of fantastic work on a house that, frankly, a few years ago I wasn't sure was going to survive much longer.

I'm very excited to have found all these new details about the Rotheram Mills story. As I said, there are definitely still some more discoveries to be made, but I think we now have a much better understanding of most of the story. If anything new comes to light in the future, I will certainly be sure to pass it along!