184 Singing Valleys 



eastern end of the family patent. When the first Verplanck 

 had bought thirteen miles along the river and as far to the 

 east as he could see and had prudently climbed the highest 

 mountain in the tract to take that look the wealth of the 

 land was in the furs it produced. But gradually English farmers 

 began moving into the eastern end of it from Connecticut, 

 closing in upon the river-bank Dutch. William Verplanck was 

 ready for them when they came. His mill was there to grind 

 the corn they raised. 



How lucrative milling could be is shown by the house which 

 a grandson of the first miller built across the road from the mill 

 some forty years later. The low, red brick dwelling still stands 

 and in its original condition, with its fine, carved doorway, 

 paneled walls and floors of native oak in wide, hand-hewn 

 planks. Only once in more than two centuries have house and 

 mill and the thousand acres of farm land been sold. In 1828, 

 Colonel Richard Van Wyck, a relative of the Verplancks, 

 bought them. His descendants still live there and keep the 

 mill. 



In Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, the house of the miller 

 of Millbach has been made a state museum. The farms in the 

 rich valley of Mill Run poured wealth into Jerg Miller's mill 

 and enabled him and his wife Maria to build a fine stone house. 

 Today this is filled with specimens of early Pennsylvania 

 Dutch furniture, pottery and homespuns. 



Another mill which did service in pre-Revolutionary times 

 still stands and grinds near Bernardsville, New Jersey. Mention 

 has already been made of one in Columbia, South Carolina; 

 and Tidewater Virginia has several plantation grist mills which 

 have been grinding corn for more than two centuries. 



As the tide moved westward, the frontiersmen built mills. 

 Brank's mill in Buncombe County, North Carolina, was one 

 of the earliest landmarks in the mountains. One, built by 

 the settler Reems on a creek named for him which empties 

 into the French Broad in western North Carolina, com- 

 bined the uses of a mill, a fort and a store. It was the first 



