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“Captain” William Norman operated a mill at Rock Mills, along with a store he had there before the Pawleys bought it and changed its name to “Old Cash and Tote ’Em”. This was the last of several known mills at the river crossing. The foundations of the oldest mill right at the bridge are still visible.
Charles Cannon, who lived a mile from Rock Mills all his life until he moved to Washington a few years ago, remembers life in the Rock Mills community.
“The whole landscape at Rock Mills has completely changed,” he said. “Before the flood, there were large trees lining the river and, of course, the steep meadows were in pasture and cultivation.”
High water was always a problem, though, even before the river juncture was completely flooded out in 1979. “Bridges were often under water and often folks were stranded,” Cannon said.
Cannon’s family farm about a mile upstream was usually left undamaged except for washed-out fences. One family closer to the flood plain, the Comptons, found an inventive solution to the high water problem. According to Cannon, they made stilts, walked out on them, protecting their shoes and clothes and leaving their stilts at the edge of the high water for their return trip.
Up above the river fork there was a distillery, on land owned by the Cannon family well over a century ago. This was a bonded distillery, producing both
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