I04 THE SYCAMORR MILL. 



were rough and liable to warp, but would answer for many 

 purposes. The bark from the oak trees was sent to various 

 tan yards to be used in the manufacture of leather. One of 

 these tan yards was located on the east side of Crum Creek, 

 on the farm lately owned by William Bartram, deceased. A 

 direct road led from Bishop's Mills by way of the Blue Hill 

 school house over to this point and beyond. This tan yard 

 was locally known at that time as Pratt's tan yard ( from a pre- 

 vious owner of the property) * or later as Bartram 's tan yard. 

 The tan yard at this point was situated to the south of the 

 Bartram homestead, but at that time the public road passed 

 on the north side of the house instead of on the south side, 

 as at present. 



Henry C. Bishop, of Media, son of Jeremiah Bishop, and 

 great-grandson of the Thomas Bishop who first owned the 

 property, spent his boyhood days in the neighborhood of the 

 old mills, and calls to mind many reminiscences of the pro- 

 perty. He says : 



My recollection of Sycamore Mills carries me back over 

 more than three scor^ years, to my boyhood : back to my 

 early school days, when I first attended the old Blue Hill 

 school — an old, one-story building that stood a short distance 

 in front of where the present two-story structure now stands ; 

 and to the memory of Mrs. Rachel Green, my first preceptress, 

 who taught what was called in those days a " pay school " 

 in that old school house. 



The word "Sycamore" had no reference to the old mills 

 until long after I remember them. They were known in my 

 early days as Bishop's Mills, or, more familiarly, as Bishop's 

 Hollow. The name was changed to Sycamore Mills after the 

 property went out of the Bishop name, x^bout the time of 

 the great flood of 1S43 there were at this place man}- houses 

 as well as the mills. But more particularly two houses that 



■•'"Tli()iii;is Pr;itt, .yrMudfatlu'r of William llartrain. 



