Historic Delaware

Delaware landmarks: Turn of the wheel near Seaford
Preservation, new production possible
By DAN SHORTRIDGE • The News Journal • July 28, 2010

Comments (2) Recommend (1) Print this page E-mail this article Share
Del.icio.us Facebook Digg Reddit Newsvine
Buzz up!Twitter FarkIt Type Size A A A Specks of flour still dust the inside of the rollers at the old grain mill, but the chief product of the 130-year-old building these days seems to be cobwebs.




The Hearn and Rawlins Mill, sitting on the bank of Hearns Pond outside Seaford, once was a bustling enterprise central to the agricultural economy of southern Delaware in the 1800s and much of the 1900s.

The mill served as a community gathering place, where farmers dropped off their wheat and corn and housewives purchased their baking needs. Local scrapple and dumpling makers swore by the signature White Dove flour.

"My mother always used White Dove flour," recalls local historian Earl Tull, 83, who grew up on a Seaford farm. "And my dad would sell his wheat there."

Today, memories are what mostly remain of the mill's heyday. While it bears the distinction of being the last operating commercial grist mill in Delaware, its rollers have been silent for nearly a year and the building is up for sale.

Inside the mill, empty two-pound paper bags for White Dove's buckwheat pancake flour sit in a rack near the rollers. Recipes for pancakes and waffles, muffins and molasses nut bread are printed on the back.

Esther Berner was 14 when her family moved to the Hearns Pond area in 1938, when her father took a job at the DuPont nylon plant in Seaford. Now 86, she recalls the days of the busy mill with fondness.

"White Dove -- it was the best," she said. "At least we thought it was the best. They had the buckwheat flour -- nobody else in town did."

For the last nine months, real estate agent Fred Sponseller has been trying to peddle the mill to state and local preservation organizations. The asking price is $325,000.

"Everything here is ancient," Sponseller says, showing off the rollers, conveyor system and grindstones.

The mill, operated for decades by members of the Rawlins family, ran for about 10 years under the auspices of the United Nation of Islam, a Kansas City-based group not affiliated with the Nation of Islam.

The group turned out products mainly for its own use, with just a few local commercial customers, Sponseller said. The mill was used to process wheat from the group's farm in Mardela Springs, Md. The organization's focus switched to corn and soybeans a few years ago and the mill was no longer used as much, Sponseller said.

A chalkboard on the wall in the main milling room lists the products and their prices: 50 pounds of flour, $15.60. 100 pounds of yellow shelled corn, $8. Buckwheat and cracked corn were among the other offerings.

The mill standing today was built around 1880, reconstructed after an 1879 fire. The rollers and belts that turn them date to 1930, when they mostly replaced the grindstones of the 1800s. Hearn and Rawlins Mill still boasts its original millstone, which was used for making cornmeal as recently as 1990, according to records compiled by Sponseller.

Once powered by a large iron overshot waterwheel, the mill now runs on electricity, though the wheel's shaft still protrudes from the side of the building.

Sponseller admits it needs a little TLC. He's been pitching its potential as a restored historic center, much like Abbott's Mill outside Milford and Greenbank Mill in New Castle County. But he's not gotten any interest.

"Nobody's got the money these days," he shrugs. "If this were 2002, it'd be different."

Because the mill lies on the Western Sussex Byway, there is the potential for some federal transportation enhancement funding, said Dan Parsons, Sussex County's historic preservation planner. He will be discussing that possibility with the Delaware Department of Transportation next week.

One possibility would be to develop a water trail between the Cannon-Maston House, also outside Seaford, and the mill, which could be developed as a combination interpretive center and working gristmill, Parsons said.

Local history advocates are worried about what might happen to the mill, whose exterior is sheathed in tin but its interior constructed of solid posts and beams hewn from trees back when Rutherford B. Hayes was president.

Janice Griffith, 71, whose late husband, Rawlins (Ronnie) Griffith, once owned the mill, lives near Hearns Pond.

She said the family took care of the complex for years, and like others, would like to see it preserved.

"If they had the money, they would," she said.

Tull, a member of the Seaford Historical Society, says his group doesn't have the money, either.

But "I would hate to see it demolished," Tull said. "If nothing else, it could just be preserved until such time as it could be restored."

Mills such as Seaford's were once a common sight across Delaware, notes Jason Beale, manager of Abbott's Mill, operated by the Delaware Nature Society as a historical and environmental education center. It was difficult work, with millers having to serve as their own construction workers, carpenters, stonemasons and mechanical engineers, he said.

It was also dangerous work, because of the tremendous amount of dust produced by the grinding process. The Hearn and Rawlins Mill burned down once, Abbott's Mill twice. Signs placed everywhere inside the Seaford mill still attest to that danger today: "Grain Dust is like Explosives. No Smoking."

For some, the mill represents a simpler time.

"They used to have baptisms down at the mill," Berner remembers. "We'd go down in a boat and watch the baptisms. You could jump overboard and swim. It was clear and pretty. No more."

There's another option on the horizon -- though, as for the preservationists, money is an object.

Erroll Mattox, a Hearns Pond resident, has been in discussions with a group of small farmers from Kent County and Maryland's Eastern Shore about buying the site and ramping it up for commercial production again, operating it as a farmers' cooperative.

With no other full-time mill in the region -- the Wye Mill in Maryland operates only part time, Mattox said -- Hearn and Rawlins could draw other grain farmers.

But they have little funding and are exploring partnerships with existing organizations.

"Not only would it have an economic impact on the farmers, but it would put people back to work who were there before," said Mattox, who works part time with small farmers through the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Despite the challenges, Sponseller hopes a buyer will step forward to save the mill.

"This place needs someone to take care of it a little," he says, fondness evident in his voice as he leads visitors across the creaking floorboards. "This is something that'd be a labor of love, not economics."

ON THE WEB

For a video about the mill's history and sales information on the land parcels, which also include warehouses and grain silos, visit www.fredsporch.com.

Contact Dan Shortridge at 463-3338 or dshortridge@delawareonline.com.

This was a great article by Dan Shortrige about the Hearn & Rawlings Mill.
For more information about the mill and a video, please visit my website: www.fredsporch.com.

Uncle Fred
This was a great article about the H