Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
Last Saturday, Terry Robbins – a descendant of the Gum and Ruckman families of Mill Point – gave a talk about some of the lesser known historical facts about the town of Mill Point. The event was hosted by Hillsboro Library Friends
Robbins has archived thousands of documents and photographs from his family’s past and found a lot of interesting information he did not realize was directly and indirectly connected to his ancestors.
Of course, when you are talking about a place known as Mill Point, you have to talk about mills. As Robbins began, everyone knows about the McNeel Mill, but he explained there were, in fact, a total of six mills in the town – five along Stamping Creek and one on Steven Hole Run.
Two of these mills were built by Valentine Cackley, the first a sawmill and the second, a grist mill, above where the McNeel Mill is located. Cackley sold one of his mills several times, first to a McClintic in 1854, then Isaac McNeel in 1865.
“That’s how the McNeel family came into ownership of the mill,” Robbins said. “That mill that we’re referring to was damaged in 1935 in a flood and it was abandoned a year later. The McNeels bought the Cackley Mill upstream from the current one and then McNeel built a new mill, a grist mill in 1868. That’s the one that’s there now.”
The McNeel Mill that is still standing was also damaged in the 1935 flood, but not to the extent as the other one.
“I’ve read about how some of the processing changed as a result of that flood,” Robbins said. “The water flow was changed. The flow of Stamping Creek was altered by that flood, and they had to build new water shoots.”
Robbins added that the McNeel Mill is now in operation as a museum in memory of Lanty McNeel.
The McNeel family built another mill toward the Greenbrier River that included a tilt hammer. The mill also included a wool carding and tannery operation.
The largest mill in operation was the Warn Lumber Company sawmill which had a large lumber yard and railroad.
“They built a railroad all the way to Cranberry,” Robbins said. “There was a single-track railroad that ran all the way up there.”
Another mill, operated by John Hartman Ruckman, was built at the mouth of Stamping Creek. Although he didn’t have photos of this mill, Robbins did have a photograph of a log float that went to the mill.
“We do have a photograph of when they were floating the logs,” Robbins said. “Reportedly, his mill was the first one to float logs down the Greenbrier. It sounds convenient, but on the other hand, maybe it’s true that he was the first one.”
The lone mill to be located on Steven Hole Run was the Smith Mill, built in 1856. It had a vertical saw, and a tannery was also operated there. In his research, Robbins found that the sawmill was dismantled in 1860, and a grist mill was built in its place using the lumber of the sawmill.
One of the workers at Ruckman Mill, James Gibbs, became noted for his patent of the revolving looper, a single thread chain stitch for a sewing machine. In 1865, while working at the mill, he carved a wooden model of the revolving looper.
Gibbs took the prototype to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he met James Wilcox, who provided funding for him to manufacture a sewing machine with the revolving looper.
“That patent was issued in 1857,” Robbins said. “I do have a copy of that patent, which is pretty fascinating. Then, they began fabrication in New York in 1857. In 1858, they started fabricating in London and other European countries.”
The Wilcox and Gibbs sewing machine was built from 1858 to 1970 with minimal changes to the design through the years. Two of those machines are in Pocahontas County – one at the Pocahontas County Historical Museum in Marlinton and the other at Pearl S. Buck Birthplace in Hillsboro.
As a pillar of the community John Hartman Ruckman not only employed locals at his mills, but he also provided space for school and church to take place.
Ruckman built a log schoolhouse on his property and the first school session was in 1832. The school was also used for church services.
The log schoolhouse served the community for 30 years until the Civil War Battle of Mill Point on November 5, 1863, just a day before the Battle of Droop Mountain.
“There’s still Civil War relics that are being uncovered on that property,” Robbins said. “After the confederate troops retreated to Droop Mountain, federal troops burned the Ruckman log [schoolhouse] before they moved on to Droop Mountain. The reason was that the Ruckman family was widely known as primarily supporting the confederacy. The federal troops believed the confederates had or would use the school to store weapons and ammunition, so they burned that school.”
There were six Ruckmans who served in the confederate army. Three were killed in action in Virginia, one was killed in action in Tennessee, and one died a prisoner of war. Only one survived.
After the war, in 1869, John Wade Ruckman donated one acre of land to the newly established Pocahontas County Board of Education where a new school, named Ruckman #1, was built.
This school served the community until 1943. Cornelius Stulting, who was the first teacher, only taught at the school for one year. He was an uncle of Pearl S. Buck. Another noted teacher was Anna Wallace, who taught from 1899 to 1904.
After the school closed, the students were bused to Hillsboro.
With the school issue fixed, attention then focused on a place for church services.
In 1878, Mary Ruckman and her husband, Jacob Cackley, donated property to the Methodist Episcopal South Church which then established Marvin Chapel, which still stands today.
The South distinction in the name is important because there was a faction of the ME Church that split off and formed its own church due to a difference in beliefs.
“Methodist Episcopal Church, primarily, historically, had been a fairly liberal church,” Robbins explained. “They accepted women in church matters, and they opposed slavery. In 1845, a pro-slavery faction of the Methodist Episcopal Church split and created the Methodist Episcopal Church South, which went by the initials, MEC, S.”
Since the Ruckmans were confederates, except one brother who was an abolitionist and moved to Ohio, the Marvin Church was founded with the MEC, S denomination.
There were two entrances – the left for women, right for men. The women sat in pews on the left, with men on the right and between them was a divider.
By the 1900s, they no longer emphasized the separation and in 1910, Marvin Chapel was remodeled, adding a single entry and bell tower.
Robbins also spoke about prehistoric Indian mounds – there are two on his property in an undisclosed location, the Steven Sewell Cave, the Bridger Boys who were the last two European settlers killed by Indians, the lime kiln which is still located near the Gum and Auldridge homes and several Ruckman and Gum family descendants who are living notable lives.
This is one in a series of programs offered at the Hillsboro Library thanks to the efforts of the Hillsboro Library Friends.
