The Mills of Shellpot Creek -- Part 2

Map of the upper mills of Shellpot Creek

In the last post we set the stage for the earliest mills built along Brandywine Hundred's Shellpot Creek, the three mills (probably two grist mills and one saw mill) built by the early Swedish settlers under their Dutch Masters governors. The first was likely located near today's Colony Boulevard, while it seems logical the think the second was at the same place that Henry Webster would build his mill in the later 1700's. We learned that after it ceased operating around 1890, Webster's Mill was for over 40 years surrounded by the Shellpot Park amusement park. 

For the next mills, we have to move a bit farther upstream. And again, as with the first two Swedish mills, the site of the third is not known for sure. Since there probably wouldn't have been a need for three grist mills so close together, it's likely that either this one, or possibly even the second one at the later Webster site, was a saw mill. This third Swedish mill was built in 1679 by Olle Oelsen, alias Tossen. (You'll often see an "alias" for the early Swedes, as a result of the naming conventions in use at the time. Instead of keeping their father's last name, children would often get a patronym, or last name, ending in -son or -dottir. Not only did it mean that last names kept changing in families, but it often led to multiple people having the same name. Therefore they'd get a nickname, or alias, to help differentiate them.)

It's not known how long Olle Oelsen, alias Tossen's, mill (be it saw or grist) operated or exactly where it was. It might have been only a short distance above the later Webster Mill site, or it could have a little farther up where the next mill would be built. This one -- a saw mill --  seems to have been built around 1769 by George Robinson. The 1960 C.M. Allmond III News Journal articles from which much of this information came says that Robinson was the son-in-law of Valentine Hollingsworth, one of the first and largest landowners in that part of Brandywine Hundred. However, there are several George Robinsons, and unless I'm mistaken (always a possibility) this George is Hollingsworth's grandson (his father, also George, was the son-in-law).

The third of three 1960 articles about Shellpot Mills by Charles M. Allmond III

It was likely the elder George who built the first two (smaller) sections, and the younger George who built the largest section, of what's more commonly known as the Carr Mansion -- the beautiful fieldstone house at the corner of Marsh Road and Baynard Boulevard. In 1769, George Robinson purchased 47 acres of land along Shellpot Creek, south of his home. It encompassed the area where now I-95 and the railroad tracks run, and down into what's now Bringhurst Woods. On the southern end of this tract he built a saw mill, at a location described in the 1960 article as being "just downstream from the northern-most Carr Road bridge". The mill races and stone ruins of the mill were said to still be visible then. This should place it not far from where a new pedestrian bridge carries the Delaware Greenways path (from Bellevue State Park to Rockwood Park) over Shellpot Creek.

After Robinson's death in 1784, those 47 acres and the saw mill were sold by his widow Elizabeth to their grandson Jesse Weldin in 1793. In that sale, there is mention made only of the saw mill. Although I'm unable to find either of these deeds, Weldin supposedly sold the tract in 1804 to John Vandever, Jr., after which it was purchased at a sheriff's sale by William Glover in 1805. This 1805 deed is reported to be the first to mention the next mill up Shellpot Creek, this one a grist mill. I can say for sure that in 1812, Glover's heirs sold the now 41 acres, the saw mill, a two-story stone dwelling house, and a grist mill to George Davis. So it seems that either Weldin or Vandever erected the dwelling and the grist mill, sometime between 1793 and 1805. 

The mill and house sat just north of the railroad tracks (laid in the 1880's), at the end of today's Timber Lane. After Davis' death, his executor, John Allmond, sold the land, house, and mills at auction in 1839 to William S. Elliott of Baltimore, who the next day sold it back to Allmond (presumably as executor, Allmond could not bid himself). John Allmond operated the saw mill and grist mill for almost 30 years, until the time of his death in 1866. He was likely the last one to operate the saw mill, but the grist mill did continue on. In his will, Allmond bequeathed to his son George a four acre lot which included the grist mill and stone dwelling. 

Upper Shellpot area in 1881. The old saw mill was probably to the right of "Creek", the grist
mill is shown as J. Butler, and the Sharpley saw mill would have been under the large "D"

Another son, John T. Allmond, was given the rest of the property that included the saw mill. George S. Allmond (George's son) eventually bought that part in 1891 (after John T.'s death), then sold it in 1904 to Edward Bringhurst. Part of the property was eventually acquired by the City of Wilmington, and is now part of Bringhurst Woods Park. 

The grist mill, however, these days seemingly far away and on the other side of the railroad tracks and I-95, had been sold out of the Allmond family back in 1868. It would go through a number of different hands, several of them interesting absentee owners (meaning they weren't the ones actually living there and operating the mill). The first one, who actually did run the mill, was John Butler, who purchased the 4+ acres, along with the mill and dwelling house in 1868. From what I can tell, Butler was from the St. George's area, but as per a brief mention in an 1867 newspaper article, may have been leasing a mill at that time in northern Brandywine Hundred, in Beaver Valley.

In March 1868, Butler did buy the mill for $2502, and I wonder if the timing explains why the mill does not appear on the 1868 Beers map (because ownership was in flux when it was being made, and they sort of forgot about it?). I can't find Butler in the 1870 Census, and in 1880 he's back in St. George's, but the 1960 article by Charles M. Allmond III (who I'm fairly certain must have been related to these Allmonds) says that Butler was the best remembered of the millers at this location. Harry Weldin, in his 90's then, recalled as a boy taking grain to Butler to be ground.

Oliver H. Perry's Tavern at Concord Pike and Naaman's Road in 1941. It was then
the Fulton House, but was about to be renamed Wachter's Tally-Ho

However, when Butler purchased the mill he took out a mortgage with George Allmond, and in 1884 the property was seized by the sheriff and sold to repay the debt. The next owner was not a miller, but was a well-known person in Brandywine Hundred. His name was Oliver H. Perry, and he owned the hotel and tavern at Naaman's Road and Concord Pike, seen above. It would go through several names, but most today would know it as the Tally-Ho. The original building burned down in 1976. Perry (or Parry, sometimes) owned several properties, and undoubtedly the old Allmond Mill was nothing more than an investment for him, albeit for only a few years. In early 1887, after Oliver H. Perry's death, his real estate was sold off, with the mill property purchased by his daughter Cordelia and her husband, William Hewes.

In 1891, Cordelia Hewes sold the mill to another colorful character, J. Edward Addicks. Addicks certainly was not a miller, but apparently used the mill to grind grain for his dairy herd. (This may mean the herd on an adjacent 90 acre farm which Addicks had purchased from the Hanby family in 1900.) Originally from Philadelphia, Addicks moved to Claymont in 1877 and became involved with the natural gas business. He made a fortune forming, buying, and selling gas companies all over the country, but is probably most well-known in Delaware for his four unsuccessful attempts at buying a US Senate seat. His clashes with Henry A. du Pont led to Delaware having one and then two vacant Senate seats for several years.

J. Edward Addicks, owner of the
Allmond-Butler Mill from 1891-1906

In 1906, Addicks became embroiled in a financial dispute in New Jersey with Charles S. Hinchman, which Addicks lost, leading to many of Addicks' properties in Delaware being sold to Hinchman -- including the Allmond mill property. Hinchman, in turn, sold the mill in 1915 to Vincent A. Walker. Reports say that it was Walker who, during the Depression, finally tore down the old mill for the stone. Although the mill, and much more recently the stone house, are gone, descendants of Vincent Walker still live on part of the mill property today.

While the Allmond-Butler Mill was the last of the Shellpot Mills to be in operation, and the only one to make it into the 20th Century, there was one more mill along the creek. It sat a little ways upstream from the others, in a place where not many today would expect there to have been an operating saw mill. Not much seems to be known about it, but it was erected sometime prior to 1805 by William Sharpley, Sr. In his 1805 will, Sharpley divided ownership of the saw mill between his three sons -- a half share to William, and quarter shares each to Esau and Jacob. He also divided his land. While I don't know the exact boundaries, judging by where his sons ended up, William Sharpley, Sr.'s land stretched from Concord Pike across to Shipley Road, generally what's now the Fairfax area.

The two mentions of the Sharpley Mill in the 1832
McLane Report, both noting wool carding work

The saw mill itself was on the eastern end of the tract (willed to Jacob) and on the western side of Shellpot Creek between it and Shipley Road (just above Wilson Road). Interestingly, in the 1832 McLane Report (essentially a nationwide survey of manufacturing concerns like mills), it's reported that Jacob and Esau Sharpley (William, Jr. died in 1825) had a saw mill and were doing wool carding, although one report said the wool carding was no longer in use. While textile work was fairly common in MCH, I don't think there was much of it in Brandywine Hundred, except on the Brandywine itself.

After William Sharpley, Jr. passed in 1825, he gave his share (presumably still a half) of the mill to his nephews, both named William Sharpley, the sons of Jacob and Esau. Jacob willed his quarter share to his sons in 1834. The last mention I can find of the mill is in Esau's 1862 will, where he gave his "right share and interest in Sharpley's saw mill" to his son, William D. Sharpley. I assume the mill ceased operating not long after.

Although this was the northernmost mill on Shellpot Creek, there were two other non-mill operations on Sharpley land worth mentioning. Apparently one or both of the William Sharpleys had a tannery on their land, as an 1819 sale from William, Jr. to John Allmond (presumably the same John Allmond who acquired the Robinson mill two decades later) for nine acres also mentions a tanhouse. This land was toward the western point of the triangle formed by Foulk and Wilson Roads. And I say "presumably" because his name is spelled three different ways in the page and a half deed -- Aldmon, Almond, and Almon. He's also described as the "son of Karenhappuck Sharpley", a biblical name I hadn't seen before, and William, Jr.'s sister (Esau also used the name for one of his daughters). The tanhouse probably didn't run for more than another 10 years or so.

The final business operation in that area was a little later and less biblical -- a whiskey distillery. In the 1960 Allmond article, an older Sharpley recalled the distillery from years before. Apparently the large copper vat had sat in the woods for years and had only been dragged away sometime in the 1950's. Jacob Sharpley's old house at Shipley and Foulk Roads (which had burned down), was said to have had intentionally slanting floors, designed to keep the whiskey barrels at one end for storage. A late 1970's report said there might have been some remains of ruins of the saw mill in a backyard, but other than that nothing is left of any of the Sharpley endeavors.

So while modern drainage patterns have taken much of the flow from Shellpot Creek today, as we've seen it did have quite an industrious past. Three mills built by the early Swedes in the 17th Century and four more by their English successors in the 18th once utilized the power of Shellpot Creek. Nothing remains today of this part of Brandywine Hundred's past except one related and one sort-of-related house, and maybe some faint remains in the woods (if I ever find any, I'll let you know). But many of these families and certainly the mill configurations would have been very familiar to the residents of Mill Creek Hundred.