More About the Old Mill [Cement]

The relating of one interesting event in Shepherdstown’s history calls out another. The recent article in the Register concerning the old mill east of town brought to the remembrance of Mr. Beltzhoover that some years ago in examining the records in Hagerstown he found an agreement made in 1825 by which the owners of the Blackford farm, on the Maryland side of the river, gave permission to George Reynolds and Henry Boteler to put an abutment of their proposed dam across the river upon their land, provided the latter would never allow any ferry to be established adjoining lands along the river which they might own or control. The Blackfords then owned the ferry at Shepherdstown and they wisely wanted no opposition. Edward T. Moler reminds us, also, that his father the late Lee Henry Moler, and the late Dr. Isaac Taylor managed the flour mill a year or two before the Civil War.

Michael Wright and his brother, Larry Wright, helped manage the cement mill for a number of years and are perhaps more familiar with its history than any other persons now living. Michael Wright gives us some interesting information concerning the property. He says that the dam and mill were built in 1826. The mill, which was later knwon as “the big mill,” had a wide reputation for flour making, grain being hauled from as far as Winchester by farmers and others. The original dam was built of logs on the riffle that here extends across the river, making a firm foundation on the solid ledge of rocks. Engineers reported that 1,500 horse power could be developed. Long before this period– some time in the seventeen hundreds– a man by the name of Morgan, who lived in what is now known as the Thomas Wysong house, near by, undertook to build a mill. He had the idea that the ledge of rock would dam the water sufficiently to turn it into the race way which he built of logs. He never got as far as building a mill, however. Remains of his log race wall may still be seen.

The manufacture of cement began about 1832. An engineer by the name of McFarland, who was surveying the route for the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal, discovered the veins of cement rock, and it was upon his recommendation that the cement industry was developed. Great quantities of the cement were used in the construction of the locks and aqueducts and culverts on the canal. The work of building the canal began at Georgetown in 1826, and by 1832 hundreds of Irish laborers were working in the Shepherdstown neighborhood. One of the big jobs on the waterway was blasting away the great cliff just above Shepherdstown. This was of course before the days of steam drills, and the holes for the blasts were all drilled by hand. It was in 1832 or 1833 that an epidemic of cholera broke out among the workmen, and scores of them died. All this part of the country was panic-stricken by the frightful epidemic, and a number of persons here and in Martinsburg contracted the disease. Some of the canal workmen were buried along the right of way of the canal as soon as they died. Many others, especially the Irish Catholics, were buried in the old chapel graveyard at the northwest edge of town, as that was consecrated ground.

Larry Wright came here in 1867 and Michael in 1869. They were devoted to the interests of their employers and were singularly faithful in their service to the late Major Blunt as long as he mill was in operation. Cement making was their second nature, and at one time they produced it at a cost as low as fifteen cents a barrel. It sold in Washington for $2.50, though it dropped as low as 75 cents a barrel later on. Among the important public works in Washington in which the Shepherdstown cement was used were the Georgetown adqueduct, the great boundary sewer and the State, War and Navy Department building. Larry Wright has lived on the place for more than fifty years, but as the farm that he occupies has been sold to Bolling Galt, he will probably move next spring. The mill shut down in 1895 because of litigation. In 1900 it was started up again. Besides selling cement to the trade, a stock was accumulated for the purpose of rebuilding the dam. Mr. Blunt had made his plans and had arranged to finance the construction of a solid dam of stone and cement, which would have lasted indefinitely. The work was to have been done in 1901– but alas for human calculations! Mr. Blunt died and that was the last of the famous industry and the death knell of the old mill. The old dam gradually went to pieces, until now there is scarcely a vestige of it left, the head race filled up with mud and debris, the forebay got choked up, and with no one to keep it in order the whole establishment went into decay.

The old mill has been the scene of some well-remembered tragedies and accidents. In 1871 Ned Lucas, one of the workmen in the quarries, slipped and fell over the quarry cliff, a distance of about 75 feet. It seemed a miracle that he survived, but though many bones were broken, he was not killed. When he fell, young Mike Wright was told to speed to town in a hurry for Dr. Reynolds. He mounted a mule and rode off, but he concluded that the mule was too slow, so he jumped off and ran to town, reaching the physician’s home in a few moments. Dr. Reynolds got on his horse and rode quickly to the quarry, but Mike, running, was there ahead of him. Mr. Lucas was carried to town in a litter and in due time got over his hurts.

In October, 1881, John Lamb was blown up by an explosion. A number of holes had been drilled in the cliff and loaded, but for some reason the blasts had failed to go off. Mr. Lamb undertook to remove the charge from one of the holes so as to reload it. He had gotten out the clay tamping, when his drill struck the cap and set off the charge as he was leaning over it. He received the full force of the charge in his face and body and was dreadfully mangled. Both eyes were blown out so that only the sockets remained, and he was mutilated terribly. His injuries were such that it was not thought that he could recover, but he lived until a few years ago. He never again saw the light of day, but his patience and cheerfulness became proverbial in this community. He was a wild and reckless young man before the accident, but afterward he became a truly pious Christian man. In more than twenty years he never missed attendance one Sunday at the Lutheran Sunday School.

A distressing affair occurred at the dam on July 31, 1881. Ross Sports, the fourteen-year-old son and only child of Remington Spotts, was fishing from the dam, which was then in bad repair. As he attempted to cross a hole from which the sheeting had been broken and through which the water was pouring the swift current drew him into the gap under the sheeting and pressed him against the front of the dam. There was no possible chance for him to get out, though strenuous efforts were made to save him. His agonized father, who was working at the kilns a couple of hundred feet away, saw the occurrence, and had to be forcibly restrained from rushing into the river in the vain attempt to rescue the boy. It was half a day before the body could be recovered. Larry Wright risked his life to get him out. With ropes about him held by other men he let himself down into the whirlpool until he finally managed to find the body and get it to the surface. Poor Ross had a death grip on a large spike near the bottom of the dam, and it was difficult to release his hold. The drowning created a great sensation.