The Mills of White Clay Creek Landing -- Part 2: The Independence Mill

The 1865 Independence Mill
(with a later addition) 

In the last post we looked at the story of the Colonial Era mill which was located directly north of the Hale-Byrnes House, on White Clay Creek just south of Stanton. Originally built by Daniel Byrnes in about 1770, it was rebuilt by William T. Smith just after 1800 and operated until it was destroyed in a fire. I'm not sure of the date on that, but it was sometime between 1844 and 1861 (probably closer to 1844). The mill, the house, and more than 150 acres were owned by prominent lawyer Andrew C. Gray at the time of the mill's destruction, but he soon sold it all to the Farmer's Bank of Delaware.

The mill seat lay dormant for a time, until Jesse Sharpe came along and purchased the property on July 2, 1861. Sharpe was not a random entrant into the story, but was a prominent and wealthy Wilmingtonian and a director of the Farmer's Bank (among other positions with other companies). It's very possible that the financially wise Sharpe saw the potential of the site and specifically its potential need in the near future. This was only a few months after the outbreak of the Civil War, and though most people assumed the war would be quick, Sharpe may have foreseen the need for mill sites and the ramping up of industrial production for the protection of the Union.

If that was the case (and that's only my theory), it probably took longer than he expected to see a return on his investment. It wasn't until June 1864 that Sharpe sold some of the land he had bought, in three separate tracts. They were basically (1) the land bounded by the Hale-Byrnes House on the south, White Clay Creek, the mill race, and the railroad tracks on the north; (2) the mill race itself; and (3) what is (humorously, to me) called "the Dam Ground". These were sold to William Dean, owner of the Dean Woolen Mills farther up White Clay Creek at Newark (off of Paper Mill Road). Dean, who had government contracts for war materials, was looking for an additional site to increase production.