Page 38 - The Hunt - Summer 2020
P. 38
36 THE HUNT MAGAZINE
summer 2020
(Above) Breck’s Mill now houses a post office,
a gallery and
a studio.
(Left) The ruins
of Twaddell Mill in Chadds Ford, Pa. (Opposite page) Scenes from Hagley, including a milling bowl (lower right)
for gunpowder.
The water then flowed back into the creek for its continued journey to the Delaware Bay.
With his handlebar mustache, hair parted in the middle and modern clothing with a historic flair, Clawson looks the part of an archivist. Pointing
to the map, he explains the public policy of the
day. “Mill owners had water rights to the center of the stream,” he says. “But they also had to get the approval of the people who owned the land opposite. Additionally, there was to be no turbidity to the water as it left the mill.”
As Clawson points out mill sites on the map and relates their histories, it quickly becomes apparent that it would be almost impossible to account for them all. Many changed hands and names multiple times, along with the materials the mills produced. Others cropped up on sites where previous mills had
