Long Creek Mill Ruin
(ca. 1820)
The early 19th-century Long Creek Mill, later known as Whitley's Mill was the last operating grist mill in north Mecklenburg County.
8508 and 8604 Beatties Ford Rd, Charlotte, NC 28216
The property adjacent to north Mecklenburg County’s Long Creek, near the intersection of Beatties Ford Road and Huntersville-Mt. Holly Road, first hosted a mill operation before the Revolutionary War. That first mill was built by Revolutionary War veteran Captain John Long, after whom Long Creek was named. The extant mill ruin – consisting of a stone foundation, stone walls that channeled water leaving the mill, and a remarkably intact millrace about 1,000 feet in length – was the second mill constructed on the property. Long’s original mill was located about 150 yards upstream from the current mill ruin. Over its history, the property has been known as the Long Creek Mills, Long Creek Mill Farm, and Whitley’s Mill.
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Long’s mill would have been a significant operation in colonial Mecklenburg County. Located on the Great Road (now known as Beatties Ford Road) about nine miles north of Charlotte, the mill would have served the area’s settlers as they transformed the backwoods frontier into agricultural land. Long’s mill was likely the only commercial institutions in the area. Long’s mill and the circa 1760 log Hopewell Church building (non-extant), located on the Great Road 1.5 miles north of the mill, may have been the only non-farm buildings in the community. While wheat and corn could be ground by hand or by mills powered by hand or animal, a water-powered mill operated by an experienced miller was much faster and more efficient. The proliferation of grist mills throughout Mecklenburg’s backcountry demonstrates that mills, even with a one-tenth payment going to the miller, were essential for successful farming. The numerous mills along the county’s many creeks also attracted Lord Charles Cornwallis during the Revolutionary War as potential food sources for his troops. Indeed, Long’s Mill was targeted by British troops advancing out of Charlotte up Beatties Ford Road in October 1780, when they were set upon by patriots at McIntyre’s Farm in the skirmish known as the “Battle of McIntyre’s Farm” or the “Battle of the Hornets' Nest.”
Colonel John “Jacky” H. Davidson acquired Long’s mill and farm in the late 1810s. In about 1820, he replaced the original mill with the Long Creek Mill, which soon became a center of the local community. Taxes were collected at the mill. Voting took place there, as did local militia drills. Davidson moved to Maringo County, Alabama, in 1835, selling the Long Creek property to Major John H. Caldwell in 1839. A successful farmer and businessman, Caldwell manufactured brick for the Davidson College campus buildings and for Charlotte’s federal mint building. He also profited by leasing out his enslaved labor as workers for the North Carolina Railroad. By 1860, he had sold the Long Creek Mill to Robert Davidson Whitley. It is unknown whether Whitley made any changes to the mill other than the Whitley’s Mill name change. At some point in the nineteenth century, he constructed a store across Long Creek from the mill that also served as the local post office. Whitley also farming over 300 acres of nearby land and was also instrumental in establishing St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.
Water-powered milling was in its ascendancy when Whitley bought the mill in 1860. Some 14,000 mills operated across the U.S. at that time, most (Like Whitley’s Mill) as isolated country mills capable of producing up to 50 barrels of flour a day. Circumstances had changed when Whitley’s son Joseph took over the mill in 1900, as larger mills dominated both domestic and foreign markets. Ultimately, Whitley's Mill was the last operating grist mill in north Mecklenburg County.