THK SYCAMORK MILL. 99 



clearly shown in the views which accompany this narration. 



The question as to the length of time the various mills 

 were in operation is interesting. As has already been men- 

 tioned, the grist mill was in constant operation from the time 

 it was built in 17 18 until it was burned down in 1901, a period 

 of one hundred and eighty-three years. The saw mill was 

 erected somewhere about 1747," and was used until washed 

 away in the flood of 1843. It was rebuilt after that and kept 

 in intermittent use thereafter until the burning of both it 

 and the grist mill in the year named. As regards the rolling 

 and slitting mill, history tells us that it was operated by 

 Malin & Bishop in 1812 ; that it was operated by Amor 

 Bishop, son of Thomas Bishop, the owner, in 1826, producing 

 about a hundred tons of rolled and slit iron in that year ; and 

 that it was assessed as " not occupied " in 1829. It is pro- 

 bable that it did not run after that date. 



Karly in the history of the neighborhood naturally arose 

 the necessity for some safe and sure method of crossing the 

 creek at this important and comparatively busy spot. In 1763 

 a fund was raised by subscription to erect a bridge over 

 Ridley Creek, about one hundred yards below the* mills, on 

 the site of the present bridge, and shortly thereafter the first 

 bridge at this point was erected. At the March Term of Court 

 in 1799, a petition was presented, signed by a number of the 

 inhabitants of the county, setting forth that the bridge over 

 Ridley Creek near Bishop's Mills was in bad condition, and 

 praying that a sum of money be allowed out of the county 

 treasury to repair the same. The grand jury allowed $40 for 

 the repairing of the l)ridge. The subscription bridge stood 

 until 1843, when it most seriously suffered in the noted flood 

 of August 5th, that year, and had to be rebuilt. According 

 to the Report of the Delaware County Institute of Science on 

 the Flood of 1843, published in 1844, the abutments of the 

 bridge were almost entirely washed away, although the frame- 

 work of the span itself still remained in place after the storm, 

 supported by the tottering walls. 



