Friday, August 23, 2013

ON THE ORIGINS OF THE GREENBANK AND MARSHALLTON MILLS



Over the summer I had received a few emails from a Mill Creek Hundred resident, who I had met previously, by the name of Walt Chiquoine. He had been busy researching the land that contains the Greenbank Mill and the now closed Ametek site. The Ametek site had its beginnings as a grist mill that was believed to have been built by Solomon Hersey in and around 1768. He had been spending countless hours documenting this 294 acre parcel, here in the Lower Red Clay Valley, owned by Thomas Gillet in 1682. Walt also told me he was going to have some interesting data by the end of summer relating to the dates of these two mills. Walt’s specialty is researching, studying and deciphering old land grants, deeds and wills. Anything that may lead him in his search for the answer he follows. From that year (1682) until 1801 the property was divided ….left in wills….and sold at sheriffs’ sales. Walt has documented it all. Through his exploration into these documents new dates have been placed on the erection of the Greenbank and Hersey ( Marshallton ) Mills. I am sure there will be some who dispute his findings but if you read his introduction here and his 21 page report titled “ON THE ORIGINS OF THE GREENBANK AND MARSHALLTON MILLS” you will see his documentation.
Walt also posted a 3 part write-up on his discoveries over on the Mill Creek Hundred History Blog which you can be directed to by clicking on .......part1, part 2, part 3

I want to thank Walt for the opportunity to post his paper and for the detailed content he has written.

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