THK SYCAMORE MILL. IO3 



property back in its days of activity which ouj^ht not to be 

 omitted. Reminiscences, incidents and traditions there are 

 by the hundreds, a few of which have been gathered together 

 from time to time and are herewith presented. 



Edgar T. Miller, of Media, a son of the late Levis Miller, 

 and a great-great-grandson of Henry Miller,* one of the foun- 

 ders of the mill, passed many of his younger years at the old 

 Miller homestead on Ridley Creek, just below Sycamore Mills, 

 this being the property now owned by Shirley Borden. The 

 Miller tract was the southern portion of the original five hun- 

 dred acre grant to James Swaffer. Although in 1843 Mr. 

 Miller was a very little boy, he still carries a vivid recollection 

 of the great flood of that year. He remembers the morning 

 after the flood his father took him up to see the damage done 

 at the mill, and he still recollects the impression made upon 

 him by the woe-begone expression of the then operator of the 

 mill. Amor Bishop. The mill, while not washed away, was 

 ver_v badly damaged, and the miller felt he was ruined. For- 

 tunately, however, in view of what an important factor the 

 mill was to the farming interests of the vicinity, a number of 

 neighbors put together after the flood to help Mr. Bishop get 

 it in operation again as soon as possible. 



Another of Mr. Miller's recollections centres around two 

 frame houses belonging to Jesse Reece, at that time located on 

 the west side of the creek, opposite the mill property. These 

 were washed away in the flood and landed in the Miller 

 meadow, from whence they were carted back piecemeal by 

 the owner. 



In speaking of the saw mill on the property, Mr. Miller 

 says that back in the "forties" it was the custom to cut 

 down the black oak trees of the neighborhood and bring them 

 to the mill to be sawed up into boards. The boards naturally 



■■•"Who came from Devonshire. England, and settled in T'pper Provi- 

 dence in 3714, on lands sontheasterly of and adjoininjj' the mill properly. 



