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Page 8 · column 1 of 4 · from the scan, no model involved
(The following was taken from research done by Natalie Marsh for the Rappahannock County Historical Society.)
An old ledger book tells the story of long ago transactions at Fletcher’s Mill, the most important of the'county’s mills. Local lore has it that the road from Page to Rappahannock was built so that folks could reach the mill on the Thornton River between the villages of Sperryville and Woodville. According to the court house records in Orange, the mill was used by George Washington as a survey point.
The yellowed pages of the old ledger list names, still familiar today Pullen, Estes, Thornhill and other farmers who brought bushels of wheat and corn to be ground. Occasionally, a charge is listed—50 cents, a few dollars. But judging from the entries written in flowing black script, the miller took most of his fees out in trade, exchanging his labor for gallons of meal and pounds of flour.
The mill, originally known as Pass Mill and later as Temperance, was built before 1740, at least a quarter of a century before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, probably with slave labor. But it is hard to imagine the block and tackle and the power it took to raise the beams that measure a foot wide by 16 inches deep by 60 feet long, raised to stand four stories high.
The heart of the mill was the big paddle wheel turned by the force of water running along the mill race and through the “fobray,” a wooden trough that controlled the amount of water flowing to the wheel. This mill wheel generated the power to run all the processing machines and the power to carry grain in chutes to and from storage bins throughout the five levels of the mill.
Controlled By “Feel”
The miller could usually “feel” from the sound and vibration when the wheel had developed enough speed and power; however, a speed indicator gave a reading of the actual velocity at which the wheel was turning. Complex sets of wheels, gears, belts and clutches throughout the mill brought water-generated power
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