A Grist-Mill and its Brook: a Symbol of an Earlier Farming Society

While riding through Linville Edom on Jesse Bennett Way[1] (intersection of Rt. 721, Linville Edom
Road), you come across an old stone structure with a steel mill wheel abutting an old doubled arched concrete bridge. 

Historical entries show the feed mill history actually dates back to c. 1826. It was operated by a John T. Beery, who purchased the mill in 1864 from Isaac Wenger. Originally wood and burned by raiders from the Grand Army of the Republic (Union Army)[2], it was rebuilt with stone sometime between 1867 and 1869. It was later owned and operated by I.L. Burruss. Again suffering a burning in 1960 it was rebuilt and continued to survive the local agricultural community for a number of years thereafter.[3]

The steel wheel on the back of the mill (south side) was fed with an elevated wooden flume coming off a millrace from Linville Creek near where Buttermilk Creek enters Linville Creek from the south.

The double arched concrete bridge in front of the mill (north end) was built as the first non-fording access to the mill in Edom across the West Fork of Linville Creek in either 1914 or 1919.

---

[1] Fun fact: Jesse Bennett was born in Pennsylvania on July 10, 1769. He studied medicine in Philadelphia under Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In the early 1790’s, Bennett settled in Rockingham County, Virginia. In 1794, he successfully performed a Caesarean section on his wife, the first operation of its kind in U.S. history. The emergency procedure, although primitive by today’s standards, saved the lives of both his wife and infant daughter. Source: http://wvpublic.org/post/july-10-1769-physician-jesse-bennet-born-pennsylvania. 
See 01/15/2020 Article by the Daily News Record https://www.dnronline.com/news/local/edom-north-american-birthplace-of-the-c-section/article_8fee0e2c-664a-5422-ab95-bf39b4fa5503.html

[2] “The year 1864 wasn't a good one for Virginia gristmills. That was when General Philip Sheridan and 45,000 Union soldiers gained certain notoriety by storming through the Shenandoah Valley and destroying more than 70 mills.” [Ellen Ficklen, “Milling Around,” The Washington Post, July 26, 1991]

[3] http://millpictures.com/mills.php?millid=786