Even though this site wasnt actually in Green Hill, Alabama, it was important to early settlers who lived in upper Green Hill, as well as lower Lawrence County, Tennessee. These are the present day remains of the milldam of the Heffington Grist Mill on Wolf Creek, just a short distance across the state line in Lawrence County. This would have been one of the earliest grist mills in the area and I am sure that many Green Hill folks, including the Cauhorns of Green Hill, the Hannahs of Green Hill, and possibly the Gists of Green Hill, took their corn to this mill to have it ground. This mill was built and owned by Henry Heffington (father-in-law of Levi Gist) Dellmer Heffington showed me this site many years ago. In his book Heffington 1754-1998, he documented that Henry Heffington petitioned the Lawrence County, TN Court in the spring term of 1824 for a permit to build a mill. David Crockett was one of the commissioners. The court granted the permit in the April 6, 1824 court term. and the mill was built shortly thereafter. Henry operated the mill here. He sold his farm and mill in the 1850s and moved to Kaufman County, Texas. However, the mill staid in operation, serving lower Lawrence County, TN, and the Green Hill, AL, area until the 1920s. A flood in the 1920s washed the mill dam out. Dellmers book dates this flood to about 1925. Several years ago, in an interview I did with Tom Gist, of Green Hill, he recalled this mill and he also stated that the Wolf Creek flood was in the 1920s. Today we found the remains of the dam, which consist of a rock wall about 6 feet tall. The remains of the dam are visible on each side of Wolf Creek. I drew a yellow box on the creek picture to represent the approximate size to scale of the dam, based on the height of the remaining wall ends. Thinking about the construction date of this dam, approximately 1824, makes it one of the oldest, if not THE OLDEST man made structure in this area. This was an important early place of commerce for several Green HIll ancestors. Remembers how important a grist mill was to our ancestors.....it didnt matter how much corn you raised if you didnt have a mill to grind it to corn meal you would still be hungry! Corn meal for cornbread was an all important staple to the early settlers.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 03:13:51 +0000
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