Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/272

 COLUM BIA AND M ONTOUR COUNTIES T his peace was rudely shattered in 17 7 8 by the w arn in g given them by a friendly Indian of the terrible W yom ing m assacre. I'h c fam ­ ily at once loaded wagons and Hed by w ay o f W ashingtonville, where a stockade w as stand­ ing, and thence returned to their form er home in D elaw are. T h ey did not return until 178 5, and then found their home in ashes and fields overgrow n with bushes. T h ey at once built two log houses and a gristm ill, the latter stand­ ing fo r alm ost a hundred years thereafter. From this fam ily o f E v e s it is estimated that more than one thousand persons have de­ scended. T h ey have alw ays been among the foremost in the development of the county and are highly respected for probity and enter­ prise. Soon a ft e r the a rriv a l of the E v es many others cam e to the site o f Greenwood, among them bein g the I-cmon, L u n d y, Link, Battin, Oliver, M ath er, Rohbins, Patterson and McM khael fam ilies. Jac o b L in k, in 179 7, opened the first tavern in this township. Until 17 9 8 the Indian trail from B erw ick to the W est Branch w as the only highw ay of the settlers, but in that year a road w as surveyed across the M ount Pleasant hills to the river. ITiis road and the crccks during flood stage aflorded the means o f transporting the lum­ ber and oth er raw products to the settlements farther dow n the Susquehanna. In 1820 an effort w a s m ade to build an additional road through Grecnwoo<l, but it wa.s not till 1856 that the S ta te laid out and completed the road from Bloom sbu rg to I^ p o rtc, in Sullivan county. M IL L V IL L E

T he gristm ill which gave rise to the name of the tow n o f M illville w as operated a fte r the death o f Jo h n E v e s by his son Thom as. The latter built the first dw elling house in the town. D av id M asters bought the mill site in 1830 and rebuilt the mill. H is son G eorge ran h till 1849. when Arc destroyed it. M asters and Jo h n B etz rebuilt the mill on a larger scale and made a success o f its operation fo r a num­ ber o f ye ars. I,a te r owners w ere M asters & H eacock, in 18 7 2. M cH en ry & H eacock, from 18 7 4 to 1883. and the mill Is now in 1914 in the hands o f Reece & G reen ly, the monbcrs of the firm being J. L. R eece and EIHs G reenly. T h ey have added a brick power house, with a 140-horsepow er enfpne and boiler, and otherw ise increased the m ill’s c a ­ pacity. which ts two hundred barrels o f buck­ wheat flour and fifty barrels o f wheat flour per day. A ll of the machinery is now modern

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in make, and the turbine wheel is seldom used fo r power except during high stages o f water in the crcck. ' T h is is one of the largest buck­ wheat m ills in the U nited States, in 1 9 13 grinding one h alf o f one p er cent o f all the buckwheat flour produced in the Union. A ll of the grain grow n in Colum bia and M on­ tour counties that could be bought, and quan­ tities front other counties, w as hardly su f­ ficient to keep the mill in operation that year. T h e production w as fiftv carloads o f flour, eleven hundred bushels o f grain being required fo r each carload, the price averagin g 75 cents per bushel, and the value of the flour being estimated at over $40,000. T h e first store in the township w as opened at M illville in 1827 by D avid and A nd rew E v es, D avid being ap{>uinted i>ostmaster four years later. Subsequent incumbents of the office were A ndrew E v es, Jam e s, G eorge and W il­ liam M asters, until 1885. A fte r that date U riah P. H en ry w as appointed, Ja n. 2 5, 18 8 6; E llis E v es, .Aug. 12, 18 8 9; D. E- H erring, Sept. 2, 18 9 3; W- C. E v e s, Sept. 22, 18 9 7; Joseph C. E v es. Sept. 24, 19 0 1. T h e present postm aster, I. S. Cole, is one of the few not a member o i the E v e s fam ily. M ail facilities have been greatly increased since the advent of the Susquehanita, Bloom s­ burg & B erw ick road, the first train o f which arrived at M illville on A p ril 6, 1887. There w as fo r some y e ars a daily mail from Blooms­ burg by stage line. A t present an autobus makes two trips a day each w ay, and a freight wagon makes one trip each w ay. T h ere arc a num ber o f flourishing indus­ tries in M illville. In 1 8 1 3 Jo h n W atson st.irtcd a woolen factor)’, the plant com prising a fu ll­ ing mill and tw o carding machines. W ool w as brought to the mil) by the farm ers to be cleaned and carded, the w eaving into “ homespun” be­ ing done in the homes, a fte r which the cloth w as returned to the mill to be dyed and pressed. Chandlcc E v e s succeeded W atson and built a large brick mill on the opposite side of the crcck. Tic did not m ake a great success of the project and the plant stood idle fo r a time, being finally occupied by the Enterprise W orsted M ill. T h e latter corporation w as originated in the Irasement of the M agcc C a r­ pet M ills, at Bloom sburg, by M idgcly & H aley, in 18 9 1. and several years later moved to M ill­ ville. T h e mill w as Later operated hy E d w ard T horpe until his death, when the present co r­ poration w as formed and took it over. T he officers a r e : A. J. Sk e rry, J r .. president, and J. A. F. Sim pson, treasurer. T h e product in form er vears w as woolen blankets fo r the