Archaeological Investigations at Waln's Mill, Walnford, Crosswicks Creek, Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD CROSSWICKS CREEK PARK, UPPER FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY

Friends of the Monmouth County Park System, Inc.

Monmouth County Park System Board of Recreation Commissioners Richard W. Hunter, Ph. D. New Jersey Historic Preservation Bond Program Hunter Research, Inc. New Jersey Historic Trust Project #90.079 February 2020

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD CROSSWICKS CREEK PARK UPPER FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP MONMOUTH COUNTY, NEW JERSEY

Prepared for:

Monmouth County Park System Board of Recreation Commissioners

New Jersey Historic Preservation Bond Program New Jersey Historic Trust Project #90.079

Prepared by:

Richard W. Hunter, Ph.D.

FEBRUARY 2020

MANAGEMENT SUMMARY

This report primarily describes a program of archaeological investigation carried out in 1995 and 1998 in connection with the Monmouth County Park System’s restoration of Waln’s Mill in Crosswicks Creek Park, Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey. In a more general sense, the document goes on to consider and synthesize the results of several episodes of archaeological activity that took place between 1981 and 1998 in advance of, during and shortly after the mill’s restoration. The restoration of the mill and related archaeological investigations were funded by the Monmouth County Park System with grant assistance from the New Jersey Historic Trust. Completion of this report was funded by the Friends of the Monmouth County Park System, Inc.

Initial exploratory archaeological studies were conducted in the early 1980s by archaeologist Budd Wilson. These were followed by intermittent archaeological monitoring by Wilson and Monmouth County Park System staff in 1984-85 as the mill building and its headrace were stabilized. In 1995, Hunter Research carried out further archaeological investigations inside the mill in support of restoration of the mill basement and also undertook limited testing and monitoring in connection with further rehabilitation of the headrace, milldam, raceway island and millpond. In 1998, additional limited archaeological testing was conducted at the western end of Walnford Road near the bridge crossing as part of the search for the original mill site and in advance of road realignment.

Archaeological excavations inside the mill basement and immediately around mill building exterior produced ample evidence of the gristmill erected by Nicholas Waln in 1822, the mill rebuilt by Sarah Waln Hendrickson in 1872-1873, and the alterations made by Richard Waln Meirs circa 1911. This evidence mostly took the form of structural remains, chiefly foundations, flooring, machine bases and hydropower features, along with associated cultural deposits. No clear traces were seen of the two major fires that occurred – the first in 1821 that prompted Nicholas Waln’s replacement of the original mill of the mid-1730s and the second in 1872 which led to the construction of the mill that we see today.

Archaeological monitoring and limited testing around the exterior of the mill produced tantalizing evidence of both an earlier headrace and an earlier milldam. The remains of a timber flume found just east of the southern end of the mill are most likely part of the headrace for the 1822 gristmill, although there is a possibility they could relate to the original mid-1730s mill construction. The timber-framed remains of the earlier dam are thought more likely to be associated with the original mid-1730s mill than either of the 19th-century mills.

Despite the extensive archaeological work reported here, uncertainty still remains concerning the location of the original mills erected by Samuel Rogers in the mid-1730s. Although the current mill may yet be proven as occupying the original mill site, the absence of any incontrovertible evidence for an 18th-century mill at this location raises the possibility that the original Rogers mills, a double-wheeled gristmill and fulling mill, were erected elsewhere. A location further downstream, on the same side of the creek, just upstream of the historic bridge crossing, is offered as one possible site for the original mills.

This report also summarizes the history of milling at Walnford and places the village and its mills within the broader context of water-powered industry in the Crosswicks Creek drainage and the Middle Delaware Valley.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

page Management Summary...... i Table of Contents...... iii List of Figures...... v List of Photographs...... vii List of Tables...... ix Acknowledgments...... xi

1. INTRODUCTION A. Project Background and Scope-of-Work...... 1-1 B. Previous Research...... 1-

2. GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING...... 2-1

3. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND A. Before the Walns, c.1730-1772...... 3-1 B. Two Centuries of Waln Family Ownership, 1772-1973...... 3-5 C. From Private to Public Ownership, 1973-present...... 3-30

4. ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD INVESTIGATIONS A. Investigations Outside the Mill...... 4-1 1. Archaeological Investigations of 1981 and 1983...... 4-1 2. Archaeological Investigations of 1995...... 4-3 B. Investigations Inside the Mill...... 4-22 1. The Architecture of the Mill Basement...... 4-22 2. Archaeological Investigations of 1981 and 1983...... 4-46 3. Archaeological Investigations of 1995...... 4-47

5. A SEQUENCE OF MILL DEVELOPMENT A. The Original Gristmill, circa 1735-1821...... 5-1 B. Nicholas Waln’s Gristmill, 1822-1872...... 5-7 C. The Re-built Gristmill of 1873 and Twentieth-Century Alterations...... 5-9 D. The Fulling Mill, circa 1735-1800...... 5-12 E. The Sawmill, circa 1770-1880...... 5-13

6. THE MILLS AT WALNFORD IN CONTEXT...... 6-1

7. CONCLUSIONS...... 7-1

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONTINUED)

page

REFERENCES...... R-1

APPENDICES A. Artifact Catalog...... A-1 B. Resumes...... B-1 C. New Jersey Historic Preservation Office Bibliographic Abstract...... C-1 D. Project Administrative Data...... D-1

iv TABLELIST OF FIGURESCONTENTS

page 1.1. Location of Walnford...... 1-2 1.2. Detailed Location of Waln’s Mill Project Site...... 1-3 1.3. Aerial View of Waln’s Mill Project Site...... 1-4 1.4. Waln’s Mill Site, Site Plan...... opposite 1-4

2.1. Physiographic Location of Project Site...... 2-2

3.1. Peter Sonmans’ 1,500-Acre Patent...... 3-3 3.2. Gironcourt, Plan General des Operations de l’Armeé Britanique …., 1780...... 3-7 3.3a. Hills, A Map of Monmouth County Reduced from the Original Survey, 1781...... 3-8 3.3b. Hills, A Map of Part of the Provence of Jersey, 1781...... 3-9 3.4. Gordon, A Map of the State of New Jersey with Part of the Adjoining States, 1833...... 3-11 3.5. Lightfoot, Map of Monmouth County, 1851...... 3-12 3.6. Beers and Beers, Map of Monmouth County, New Jersey, 1861...... 3-13 3.7. Beers, Upper Freehold Township, Atlas of Monmouth County, 1873...... 3-14 3.8. Wolverton, Upper Freehold Township, Atlas of Monmouth County, 1889...... 3-15 3.9. Estate of Richard Waln Meirs, Walnford, Upper Freehold Township, circa 1920...... 3-23 3.10. Aerial Photograph, 1930...... 3-24

4.1. Waln’s Mill, Overall Site Plan Showing Locations of Archaeological Excavations...... opposite 4-2 4.2. Waln’s Mill, Detailed Site Plan of South End of Mill, Headrace, Race Island and Milldam (DeSilets 1984-89)...... opposite 4-2 4.3. Waln’s Mill, Cross-Section of Milldams (DeSilets 1984-89) ...... 4-3 4.4. Plan and Profile of Bulkhead...... opposite 4-12 4.5. Profile of Trench Across Walnford Road at Mill...... 4-20 4.6. Backhoe Trench 1 Across Walnford Road Near Bridge, West Profile...... 4-21 4.7. Waln’s Mill, North Exterior Elevation...... 4-24 4.8. Waln’s Mill, East Exterior Elevation...... 4-28 4.9. Waln’s Mill, South Exterior Elevation...... 4-34 4.10. Waln’s Mill, Cross-Section of South End of Mill and Turbine Pit...... 4-38 4.11. Waln’s Mill, West Exterior Elevation...... 4-41 4.12. Waln’s Mill, Basement Plan...... opposite 4-48 4.13. Excavation Unit 1, South Profile and Excavation Units 3 and 4, North Profiles...... 4-49 4.14. Trench B and Excavation Unit 5, East Profile...... opposite 4-50 4.15. Waln’s Mill, West Wall Interior Elevation...... opposite 4-50 4.16. Excavation Units 6, 7, 8, 11 and 12A, Plan View...... opposite 4-50 4.17. Excavation Units 8, 11 and 12A, West Profile and Excavation Unit 6, East Profile...... opposite 4-50

v LIST OF FIGURES (CONTINUED)

page 4.18. Trench B, Plan View...... 4-52 4.19. Excavation Unit 10, Plan View and West Profile...... 4-53 4.20. Excavation Unit 9, North Profile...... 4-57 4.21. Trench C, East and South Profiles...... 4-60

5.1. Site Plan Showing Principal Mill-Related Features at Walnford...... opposite 5-2 5.2. Van Ruisdael, “Two Water Mills with an Open Sluice,” 1653...... 5-4 5.3. Evans, Basement Plan for a Gristmill with Two Run of Stones, 1795...... 5-9 5.4. Evans, Cross-section through Gristmill with Two Run of Stones, 1795...... 5-10

6.1. Locations of Water-Powered Mill Sites in the Crosswicks Creek Drainage...... opposite 6-6

vi LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS

page 1.1. Waln’s Mill in 2019 Looking West...... 1-5 1.2. Waln’s Mill in 2019 Looking South...... 1-6 1.3. Waln’s Mill in 2019 Looking East...... 1-7 1.4. Waln’s Mill in 2019 Looking North...... 1-8

3.1. Waln’s Mill Looking Southwest, circa 1890...... 3-18 3.2. Waln’s Mill Looking East, circa 1890...... 3-20 3.3. Waln’s Mill Looking Southeast, circa 1910...... 3-21 3.4. Postcard View of the Milldam in 1921...... 3-22 3.5. Waln’s Mill in the 1930s...... 3-25 3.6. Waln’s Mill, Headrace, Race Island and Milldam in the 1930s...... 3-26 3.7. Houses on Walnford Road in 1965...... 3-27 3.8. View looking northwest across Walnford Road from the mill in April 1965...... 3-28 3.9. View looking northeast along Walnford Road, circa 1965...... 3-29

4.1. Waln’s Mill Looking North Northeast in 1982...... 4-5 4.2. Waln’s Mill Looking East Northeast in 1984...... 4-6 4.3. Headrace and Southeast Corner of Waln’s Mill in 1984...... 4-7 4.4. Restored Southern End of Waln’s Mill in 1984...... 4-8 4.5. Race Island and Southeast Corner of Waln’s Mill in 1984...... 4-9 4.6. Restoration of Headrace and Race Island in Progress in 1995...... 4-10 4.7. Upright Timbers from Earlier Coffer Dam in 1995...... 4-11 4.8. Bulkhead Remains in 1995...... 4-13 4.9. Bulkhead Remains in 1995...... 4-14 4.10. Timber Headrace Remains in 1984...... 4-15 4.11. Timber Headrace Remains in 1984...... 4-16 4.12. Timber-framed Dam Remains in 1984...... 4-18 4.13. Timber-framed Dam Remains in 1984...... 4-19 4.14. Waln’s Mill in 2019 Looking Southwest...... 4-25 4.15. Western End of North Foundation of Waln’s Mill in 2019...... 4-26 4.16. Date stone, “N W 1822”...... 4-27 4.17. Demolition of Southeast Corner of Waln’s Mill in 1984...... 4-29 4.18. Rebuilding of Southeast Corner of Waln’s Mill in 1984...... 4-30 4.19. Southern End of Waln’s Mill in 2019...... 4-31 4.20. Southern End of Waln’s Mill after Reconstruction in 1984...... 4-32 4.21. Concrete Headrace and Intake for Turbine Pit in 1984...... 4-35 4.22. Risdon Turbine in 1984...... 4-36 4.23. Risdon Turbine in 2019...... 4-37 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONTINUED)

page 4.24. Timber Remains of Headrace in 1984...... 4-39 4.25. Timber Remains of Headrace in 1984...... 4-40 4.26. West Foundation of Waln’s Mill in 2019...... 4-42 4.27. West Foundation of Waln’s Mill in 1984...... 4-43 4.28. Southern End of Waln’s Mill in 1984...... 4-44 4.29. Timber Remains at Southwest Corner of Waln’s Mill in 1984...... 4-45 4.30. North-South Stone Footing in Excavation Units 1 and 4...... 4-50 4.31. East-West Stone Footing in Excavation Units 5 and 6...... 4-54 4.32. Context 14 Resting on the Footing for the Mill’s West Foundation...... 4-55 4.33. Brick Pad in Excavations 12 and 12A...... 4-58 4.34. Trench B...... 4-59 4.35. Trench C...... 4-61

viii LIST OF TABLES

page 3.1. Sequence of Mill Ownership...... 3-2 3.2. Summary of Industrial Census Data, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880...... 3-17

6.1. Summary of Water-Powered Mill Sites in the Crosswicks Creek Drainage...... opposite 6-6

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Archaeological work at Waln’s Mill was funded by the Monmouth County Park System, the Friends of the Monmouth County Park System, Inc. and a grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust. Our deepest thanks are offered to Gail Hunton, Chief, Acquisition and Design Department, who in her various capacities as a staff member at the Monmouth County Park System has guided this long and involved Waln’s Mill restoration project for close to three decades. Every step of the way, Gail has provided essential information, source materials and advice without which the archaeological investigations and most especially, the completion of this report, would not have been possible. The assistance of other Monmouth County park staff, most notably Howard Wikoff and Phyllis Mount, and of the staffs of the New Jersey Historic Trust and the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office is also gratefully acknowledged.

Overall direction for these investigations from 1995 onward was provided by Ian Burrow and Richard Hunter. Background research was undertaken by Ian Burrow, George Cress and Richard Hunter and focused primarily on gaining an understanding of the earlier archaeological studies undertaken by Budd Wilson in the early 1980s. Archaeological fieldwork between 1995 and 1998 was supervised by George Cress and performed by Ernest Bower, Susanne Eidson, Taylor Huttner, Eytan Krasilovsky, Matt Lazur, Michael Lenert, Vincent Maresca, Heidi McPherson, Michael Smith and Michael Weissberger. Laboratory analysis of artifacts was largely carried out by James Dews and Pegeen McLaughlin, and brought to final completion by Joshua Butchko. Drafting and report preparation assistance were provided by Ernest Bower, Frank Dunsmore, Susanne Eidson, Barba Kutzner, Vincent Maresca, Heidi McPherson, Catherine Smyrski, Michael Tomkins and Michael Weissberger. Final report graphics were prepared by Evan Mydlowski with help from Michael Brown. Report coordination and assembly were undertaken by Patricia Madrigal. This report was authored by Richard Hunter with much helpful editorial assistance from Patrick Harshbarger.

Richard W. Hunter, Ph.D., RPA Principal

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

A. PROJECT BACKGROUND AND rebuilding episode in 1872-1873, is rectangular in SCOPE-OF-WORK plan with its north-south axis extending perpendicular to Crosswicks Creek. It is four bays long (with its tur- The following technical report describes a program of bine pit in the southernmost bay adjacent to the creek), archaeological investigation carried out in 1995 and three bays wide and two-and-a-half stories high with 1998 by Hunter Research, Inc. under contract to the a full basement. The mill contains an interior hoist, Board of Recreation Commissioners of the Monmouth believed to be original to the 1872-1873 reconstruc- County Park System in connection with the latter tion, which facilitated movement of grain within the agency’s restoration of the gristmill known as “Waln’s building. The basement and mill foundations retain Mill” in the village of Walnford in Crosswicks Creek substantial evidence of an earlier gristmill built in Park, Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, 1822, which replaced the original mill erected in the New Jersey (Figures 1.1-1.3). This restoration proj- mid-1730s, whose location is uncertain. ect, completed in 1997, was funded by the County of Monmouth and the New Jersey Historic Preservation The northern gable-end facade of the mill, which Bond Program (New Jersey Historic Trust Project looks out on to Walnford Road, has central doorways #90.079) and involved the rehabilitation of the mill on the two main floors and at the attic level from building, restoration of the mill’s internal workings which sacks of grain and flour and other items could and the construction of public display areas within be transferred between the building and the street. the building. Remedial work on the raceway, dam The rest of what remains today of the small village and “race island” was also undertaken. The mill was of Walnford is mostly ranged along the north side of restored to match its appearance during the early Walnford Road (formerly known as Walnford-Davis 20th century when the facility was last in operation. Station Road), where the fine mansion of Richard Owing to present-day hydrological conditions along Waln, erected in 1773-1774, takes pride of place. The Crosswicks Creek, a fully functional hydropower current milldam straddles Crosswicks Creek immedi- system was not reconstructed as part of the restora- ately southeast of the mill building with the millpond tion project, although the mill’s main shaft, gearing, extending upstream for approximately 500 feet. On grinding stones and other machinery within the mill the opposite (southern) side of the creek, there are building are able to operate using electrical power. traces of a tailrace associated with a sawmill that was paired with the gristmill in the late 18th and early 19th Waln’s Mill, as it exists today, is a simple frame build- centuries. ing set atop a stone foundation on the right (north) bank of Crosswicks Creek (Figure 1.4; Photographs In the fall of 1995, exploratory archaeological excava- 1.1-1.4), although as this report demonstrates, the tions were conducted immediately east and southeast mill’s outward simplicity belies a complex history of the mill building in conjunction with the dewater- and sequence of building development, much of ing of the millpond and the repair of the headrace which defies easy interpretation. The mill structure, and adjoining portions of the millpond perimeter, whose present-day form dates primarily from a major milldam and raceway island. Concurrently, around

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Delaware River N

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Delaware River ! Atlantic Ocean ±

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Figure 1.1. Location of Walnford

Page 1-2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD

C C

W M

020 00 ,000 ,00 2,000

Coyright 20 NationaFeet Geograhic Society, icubed

Figure 1.2. Detailed Location of Waln’s Mill Project Site. Source: 7.5’ USGS Allentown, N.J. Quadrangle (1966, Photorevised 1981).

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W H

Wanford Rd Wanford Rd

Crosswicks Creek

W M M

Hi Rd ±

00 00 200 00 00

Feet

Figure 1.3. Aerial View of Waln’s Mill Project Site

Page 1-4 45 50 Cow Barn Well 55 House Wagon Carriage House House 45 Hen Corn 60 House Crib 40 40 Tool Caretaker's 60 Cottage House 40 55 Waln 55 House Ice House 50 Walnford Rd Walnford Rd See Figure 4.1 45 40 Wagon Smoke Shed House 50

45 45 40 45 Crosswicks Creek Waln's 40 40 Mill 40 Headrace

Bridge Dam

45 40

40 Bridge 40 45

40 45 45 45 50 Hill Rd 45 ± 55

025 50 100 150 200

60 Feet

Figure 1.4. Waln’s Mill Site, Site Plan

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD

Photograph 1.1. View of Waln’s Mill looking northeast from the Walnford Road bridge over Cross- wick Creek; the Waln House is beyond the mill (Photographer: Richard W. Hunter, December 2019) [Neg. # 19002/D1:029].

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Photograph 1.2. View of Waln’s Mill looking northwest across the millpond with the race island in the foreground (Photographer: Richard W. Hunter, December 2019) [Neg. # 19002/D1:020].

Page 1-6 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD

Photograph 1.3. View of Waln’s Mill looking southwest across Walnford Road at the front of the building; compare this view with the historic photograph taken circa 1890 (see below, Photograph 3.1) (Photographer: Richard W. Hunter, December 2019) [Neg. # 19002/D1:025].

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Photograph 1.4. View of Waln’s Mill looking east along Walnford Road with the Waln House in the distance at left; compare this view with the historic photograph taken circa 1890 (see below, Photo- graph 3.2) (Photographer: Richard W. Hunter, December 2019) [Neg. # 19002/D1:030].

Page 1-8 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD the millpond perimeter, raceway island, milldam and This document does not attempt to present a defini- headrace, and also in the area to the east and southeast tive history of Waln’s Mill or a detailed account of the of the mill building, archaeological monitoring was types of milling carried out at the site. The emphasis undertaken in support of streambank stabilization, is placed instead on archaeological observation and on bulkhead construction and repointing. The excavation integrating archaeologically-derived information with of a utility trench across Walnford Road to the north historical, architectural and landscape data. The pri- of the mill was also monitored, as was repointing mary aim of the report is to unravel the physical devel- work carried out around the base of the foundations opment of the mill site as a whole, with particular of the mill building. In 1998, two days of exploratory reference to the gristmill building and its hydropower backhoe trenching in search of the original 18th-cen- system. Throughout the work, an ongoing dialogue tury mill site were completed roughly 125 to 150 feet was maintained with staff of the Monmouth County downstream of the mill, just upstream of the Walnford Park System, the project engineers (Watson & Henry Road creek crossing, Associates) and the contractor (Hall Construction Company, Inc.), which contributed greatly to maxi- Inside the mill, extensive archaeological excavation mizing the recovery of archaeological information was undertaken in the basement in the fall of 1995 from the site and eliciting the most effective interpre- to clarify questions raised by earlier archaeological tations of archaeological data. studies and to assess the effects of the proposed construction of a visitors’ walkway on the archaeology of the mill. This work was also performed with a view B. PREVIOUS RESEARCH to possible exposure and display of archaeological features within the basement. Over the past half century, considerable research has been conducted into the history, architecture and To place the current archaeological investigations in archaeology of the village of Walnford. An initial the fullest possible context, some carefully targeted impetus for this work was the nomination of Walnford background research was performed, primarily involv- to the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic ing the review of other historical and archaeological Places as the Walnford Historic District, a designa- studies carried out at Waln’s Mill in the 1980s and tion which was formalized in 1975-1976 (Groff et early 1990s. Key materials examined were the report al. 1975). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, local prepared by James McCabe (1987) resulting from his historian James S. Brown conducted research into historical research into the village of Walnford and a the village which he compiled into an unpublished pair of reports produced by Budd Wilson (1981, 1983) manuscript now held by the Monmouth County Park describing the results of two earlier phases of archaeo- System (Brown 1981). A more formal and systematic logical work at the mill site. The extensive collection program of archival study was completed by James of photographs taken during an earlier restoration McCabe in the mid-1980s in an effort to supply a program in the early 1980s was also studied in some suitable historical context for the restoration and detail in an effort to understand the evolution of the interpretation of the principal buildings in the village mill’s hydropower system. (McCabe 1987). The first section of McCabe’s report provided a historical overview of the village, while Following completion of in-field investigations and the second section gave descriptions and evaluations related research, historical and archaeological data of individual buildings and structures. Portions of were analyzed and the following report was prepared. the report deal directly with the history of the various

Page 1-9 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. mills established at Walnford and have been invalu- (rear) of the house, exposing remains of a Victorian able in interpreting the archaeology and architecture garden. The field school also excavated the location of the gristmill. McCabe’s research also informed the of the west wing of the house where a store was once historic structure report that guided the restoration of located. An 18th-century stratum was located beneath the Waln House (Watson & Henry Associates 1991), the fill upon which the wing was built (Yamin 1992). the preservation plan developed for the restoration of the mill building and its milling equipment (Watson In 1993, a second season of the field school was & Henry Associates 1993) and the cultural land- completed in which extensive testing was carried scape report that analyzed the village of Walnford in out along the north side of Walnford Road opposite its natural and socio-economic setting (Andropogon the gristmill. To the west of the existing frame shed Associates, Ltd. 1993). across from the mill, these investigations located the remains of a two-family brick dwelling known to Turning next to archaeology at Walnford, two cam- have been in existence by 1735 and the brick founda- paigns of archaeological investigation were carried tions of a second tenant house slightly further to the out by Budd Wilson for the Monmouth County Park west at the corner of Walns Mill Road and Walnford System in 1981 and 1983 in conjunction with the Road. These latter foundations were noted as cut- initial evaluation and stabilization of the mill and its ting through earlier remains of a probable blacksmith immediate environs (Wilson 1981, 1983). The first shop. Concentrations of building materials observed phase of archaeological work was undertaken as one to the north of the two-family brick dwelling were ten- component in a three-part study which also included tatively identified as being evidence of, respectively, the compilation of James Brown’s historical manu- a stable and two other possible shop structures. As script (Brown 1981) and an evaluation of the struc- noted by the excavator, the wealth of archaeological ture and machinery of the mill (Howell 1981). The resources along the north side of Walnford Road are purpose of both archaeological investigations was to important in that they “provide a context for the mill assist historical interpretation of the mill by supple- .... [and] suggest a reality that included tenants as well menting above-ground architectural data with subsur- as landowners, workers as well as managers” (Yamin face architectural and hydro-engineering information. 1993). Subsequently, in 1995, additional archaeological work was performed in front of the kitchen wing In the early 1990s, another major program of archaeo- of the Waln House, exposing an 18th-century ground logical study at Walnford focused on the Waln House surface, while a trench was also excavated in front of and the sites of buildings that formerly stood along the main porch where fill or “make-up” deposits were the north side of Walnford-Davis Station Road. In observed which are thought to have been laid down 1992, Rutgers University conducted the first season at the time of the original construction of the house of a field archaeology training school at Walnford (Yamin 1996:personal communication). and excavated portions of the yard area to the north

Page 1-10 Chapter 2

GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING

The village of Walnford is located approximately three nial streams. They are subject to frequent flooding miles southeast of Allentown close to the western usually after heavy rains or in the early spring, and border of Monmouth County. The majority of the vil- the basement of the gristmill is frequently inundated lage, including Waln’s Mill, lies on the north bank of with water after a heavy rain. The floodplain soils Crosswicks Creek, a tributary of the Delaware River are not conducive to farming because of the flooding that rises in the low hills that divide New Jersey’s and high water table (Jablonski and Baumley 1989:35 Inner and Outer Coastal Plain. The creek flows gen- [Sheet 59]), but the better-drained sandy loams on the erally west to join the Delaware near Bordentown. surrounding uplands are well capable of supporting The surrounding terrain consists mostly of flat or agricultural activity. gently sloping farmland, but the village of Walnford lies hidden from view in the base of the Crosswicks Historically, Waln’s Mill occupied a site on the right Creek valley on a low but well-defined tongue of land bank of Crosswicks Creek that was quite well-suited bounded by the main channel of the creek and a small to the generation of water power. The site lay at the tributary just downstream. The elevation of the vil- downstream end of a fairly narrow, constricted sec- lage site averages around 55 to 60 feet above sea level, tion of the valley immediately upstream from a point with the mill being located on the stream bank at a where it opens out and the stream begins to meander slightly lower elevation of around 53 feet. more circuitously. The local topography thus supplied a slight natural fall which presented a suitable location Walnford is located in the Inner Lowland portion of where water power could be developed. However, New Jersey’s Coastal Plain physiographic province over the past century, with expanding development, (Figure 2.1). The coastal plain consists of a gently clearance of woodland and continuing crop agricul- southeastward-dipping Precambrian basement uncon- ture, the Crosswicks Creek valley has become ever formably overlain by unconsolidated clays, marls, more susceptible to run-off, flooding and sediment silts and sands of Late Cretaceous and Tertiary age. build-up, and Walnford’s viability as a mill seat has Interglacial fluvial deposits of Quaternary age also all but come to an end. It is also important to note cover large areas (Wolfe 1977:207-208). Soils in this that, after the mill closed in 1917, the millpond, dam section of the Crosswicks Creek floodplain, classified and raceway ceased to be maintained, which further as Humaquepts, frequently flooded [HV], are nearly increased sedimentation at the mill site. level and somewhat poorly drained, and in this respect are typical of floodplains of intermittent and peren-

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Figure 2.1. Physiographic Location of Project Site

Page 2-2 Chapter 3

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The history of the community of Walnford, and more Jersey, reflects the movement of Europeans into the specifically the history of the gristmill that helped area not only from the Shrewsbury/Middletown sec- to sustain this settlement, extends over more than a tion of northern Monmouth County in East Jersey, quarter of a millennium. A number of publications, but also from the Lower Delaware Valley in West reports and unpublished manuscripts, some of them Jersey and Pennsylvania. Indeed, in practical terms, extremely detailed, have described the history of the upper section of Crosswicks Creek was more eas- Walnford and the Waln gristmill, so it is superfluous ily accessible from the Delaware Valley than from here to give an exhaustive historical account of either northern Monmouth County and, beginning in the the village or its industrial enterprises. Rather, the final quarter of the 17th century, the first settlers – purpose of this chapter is to provide a brief historical dominated by Quakers of English extraction – moved overview of Waln’s Mill and its associated hydro- up the valley between Philadelphia and the falls of power facilities, sufficient to inform an analysis of the Delaware (present-day Trenton) and on to the rich archaeological findings resulting from the Monmouth Inner Coastal Plain soils bordering major Delaware County Park System restoration project. River tributaries like Crosswicks Creek. In this fashion, the village of Crosswicks in West Jersey was For the most comprehensive and accessible history of settled in the 1690s, while across the Province Line in Walnford and Waln’s Mill, the reader is referred to the East Jersey, Imlaystown was settled around 1700 and historical section of the report: “Walnford: 250 Years Allentown around 1705. of a Central New Jersey Milling Village and Country Estate” by James McCabe (1987). The historical sum- Most of the late 17th- and early 18th-century settle- mary that follows draws heavily on that report and the ment in the upper Crosswicks Creek drainage took earlier archival studies carried out by James Brown the form of dispersed farmsteads loosely strung (1981). The very thorough research by McCabe and across the landscape, linked by navigable drainages Brown has greatly simplified our own endeavors. and an embryonic road network. As time wore on, Bibliographic references are not included in the fol- and settlement and agriculture both became more lowing narrative, but can be found in McCabe’s report rooted in the landscape, road-river intersections – of 1987. where the topography allowed – emerged as logical places for water power development. Sawmills and gristmills were established to process lumber and A. BEFORE THE WALNS, c. 1730-1772 crops, and frequently provided the initial stimulus for village growth, as happened locally in the case of Walnford is located in the upper section of the Imlaystown, Allentown and Walnford. Similarly, road Crosswicks Creek drainage, which straddles the intersections evolved into settlement nuclei as com- boundary between the provinces of East and West munity facilities (churches and schools), commercial Jersey surveyed in 1687 by George Keith. The early premises (stores and taverns) and transportation ser- settlement of the Walnford vicinity, although it tech- vices (blacksmith and wheelwright shops) gravitated nically took place within Freehold Township in East to these “natural” hubs in the cultural landscape. This

Page 3-1 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. dispersed pattern of settlement in the Coastal Plain this right, Rogers had to build and maintain a bridge interior contrasted markedly with the more formal- across the creek. Between the time he acquired this ized settlement pattern displayed by the older planted property in 1734 and the first time he advertised one and planned settlements of both East and West Jersey, half of it for sale in 1744, Rogers built a two-story, such as Middletown and Shrewsbury, and Burlington two-family brick house with a barn, stable and coo- and Farnsworth’s Landing (present-day Bordentown). per’s shop, “two new well built Grist-Mills, with two Pair of Stones” (apparently meaning a mill with two Turning more specifically to the development of water wheels [see below]), a fulling mill, press house water power at Walnford, the first clear indication of and dye house, and a storehouse for wheat. Fulling is a mill along this section of Crosswicks Creek occurs an essential process in the finishing of locally woven in the 1730s. In 1734, a 323-acre tract of land that wool fabric frequently undertaken with the assistance had passed through the hands of various absentee of waterpower and making use of the same water- landholders and speculators was purchased by Samuel wheel as the grist millstones. Rogers, an Allentown merchant, from Abraham and Mary Van Horne of New York (Table 3.1; Figure 3.1). Although no conveyance has been located, sometime The population of the newly created Upper Freehold between 1748 (when another sale advertisement was Township was expanding at this time and Rogers evi- printed) and the mid-1750s, Rogers apparently suc- dently felt that another gristmill could be supported by ceeded in selling the mill property, by now a tract such growth. He secured the right to dam Crosswicks of 180 acres, to John Lawrence, one of several Creek and construct a gristmill. In exchange for Lawrences in Upper Freehold Township, but thought

Table 3.1. Waln's Mill Property, Sequence of Ownership Period of Ownership Owner Acquisition Reference

1688‐1703 Peter Sonmans East Jersey Deed C/98 1703‐1705 William Dockwra East Jersey Deed K‐ small 4 1705‐1722 John Van Horne East Jersey Deed Vol. 1 118 1722‐1734 Abraham Van Horne East Jersey Deed K/99 1734‐c.1750 Samuel Rogers West Jersey Deed A‐E/59 c.1750‐c.1758 John Lawrence (surmised from sale advertisements) c.1758‐c.1761 Jonathan Thomas (surmised from sale advertisements) c.1761‐1764 John Vourhees (surmised from sale advertisements) 1764‐1772 Richard Brown East Jersey Deed A‐B/315 1772‐1809 Richard Waln Monmouth County Deed T‐3/362 1809‐1848 Nicholas Waln Richard Waln's Will, June 23, 1808 1848‐1872 Sarah Waln Monmouth County Deed H‐5/451 1872‐1905 Sarah Waln Hendrickson Monmouth County Deed H‐5/451 1905‐1907 John Wilson Monmouth County Deed 764/294 1907‐1917 Richard Waln Miers Monmouth County Deed 894/221 1917‐1958 Anne W.W. Meirs (later Rush) Monmouth County Will 70/413 1958‐1973 William Meirs Monmouth County Will 263/201 1973‐1979 Edward K. Mullen Monmouth County Deeds 3817/11 & 3834/839 1979‐1980 New Jersey Conservation Foundation Monmouth County Deed 4215/697 1980‐1985 Monmouth Conservation Foundation Monmouth County Deed 4231/639 1985‐present Monmouth County Park System Monmouth County Deed 4617/550

Page 3-2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD Figure 3.1. Peter Sonmans’ 1,500-Acre Patent. 1688. Project site circled. Scale: 1 inch = 2110 feet (approximately). Source: Brown 1981. 1,500-Acre Patent. 1688. Project site circled. Scale: 1 inch = 2110 Figure 3.1. Peter Sonmans’

Page 3-3 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. not to be the prominent land surveyor of this name of land from Jacob Stiles of Nottingham Township, who laid out the “Lawrence Line.” Five years later, thereby slightly expanding his holdings. Shortly after Lawrence was himself advertising the property for Vourhees’ death in the fall of 1763, his properties were sale, describing it in much the same terms as Rogers. sold off in a sheriff’s sale to pay off his outstanding Two additional pieces of information about the mill debts. are notable, however: “the grist mill hath two water wheels .... [and] .... The meal is hoisted up by water” The purchaser of the mill property at the sheriff’s sale (presumably making use of a belt-driven block and in 1764 was Richard Brown, a merchant from neigh- tackle system). The advertisement also made men- boring Nottingham Township in Burlington County. tion of the fact that Bordentown, the nearest shipping Although the late 1760s and early 1770s were a time point, was nine miles away by “good road,” evidently of economic uncertainty owing to a minor recession implying that the mill product, presumably flour, meal in 1764 and rising discontent over trade arrange- and fulled cloth, was being transported overland from ments with Britain, Brown still went ahead and made the mill site at least as far as Bordentown by highway. a substantial investment in the property. In the late From Bordentown, such goods could be shipped on 1760s, as indicated in advertisements he was posting, the Delaware to Philadelphia, Burlington and other Brown was actively seeking the services of a fuller to river towns, and then further afield along the eastern operate the fulling mill. Of far greater consequence, seaboard and even to the Caribbean. Although stated Brown added a sawmill in 1770 on the south side of in secondary sources, there is debate about whether the creek and, around the same time, also established goods from Walnford were shipped by boat down a blacksmith shop, four tenant houses (adding to the Crosswicks Creek. It is possible that goods were two already in existence), and several farm and stor- moved by shallow-draft boats along the lower end of age buildings, all most likely on the north side of the creek below Crosswicks village, but shipping of the creek close to the grist and fulling mill complex. waterborne freight may have been less feasible farther These improvements, all referenced in subsequent upstream. sale advertisements, transformed what had previously been a straightforward grist and fulling mill complex A tax assessment list for Upper Freehold Township in with perhaps a pair of accompanying dwellings and a 1758 indicates that a Jonathan Thomas was the owner few small workshops into a true commercial and mill- of a property matching the description of the future ing village. To support these improvements, and most Walnford, and he is presumed to have purchased this especially to fund the erection of the sawmill, Brown from Lawrence sometime between 1755 and 1758. mortgaged his holdings to the Philadelphia merchant Thomas was assessed for two gristmills, a fulling mill, firm of James and Drinker in 1770. Within two years, and 173 acres of land. In this instance, the term “two Brown was evidently finding himself in financial dif- gristmills” may perhaps refer to the two waterwheels, ficulty for on March 26, 1772, he began advertising although typically tax assessments of the period the property for sale in The Pennsylvania Gazette. logged the number of pairs of millstones (i.e., a bed Later in the summer of the same year, with the prop- stone and a runner stone) rather than the number of erty still unsold, he placed himself further in debt to wheels. Thomas died in 1761 and in that same year James and Drinker, but on October 5, 1772, relief was the property was sold at auction to Jonathan Vourhees, at hand when Richard Waln, a friend of Henry Drinker a miller by trade. During his brief period of owner- of James and Drinker, purchased the 180-acre mill ship of the mill property from 1761 to 1763, Vourhees holding for the sum of 1,850 pounds. also purchased a nearby house and a quarter acre

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The sale advertisement that appeared in The in the 1740s and 1750s; this may suggest that the two Pennsylvania Gazette is an especially useful document original waterwheels, after a quarter century of use, in that it gives considerable detail about the 180-acre had been replaced by a single, more efficient wheel mill property and its improvements. The section of and upgraded power system. the advertisement dealing with the mills themselves is quite specific: B. TWO CENTURIES OF WALN FAMILY “..... on the land are erected a merchant and OWNERSHIP, 1772-1973 grist-mill, having two pair of stones, 3 boult- ing cloths, and hoisting jack, which all work by The new owner of the mill property, Richard Waln water; the mill-house is 55 feet by 26 feet, with (1737-1809), came from a well-to-do Quaker mer- a lean-to of 14 feet wide, a good scale, beam chant family in Philadelphia. The owning and running and weights; a wire screen for cleaning wheat, of gristmills were already a well-established part of his and other utensils, necessary to said mills; a family’s livelihood. Robert Waln – Richard Waln’s fulling mill and dye-house, wherein is a large uncle – owned three gristmills on the Assunpink furnace, well fixed, a press-shop, press-screw, Creek, including the very productive Trenton Mills and other implements for carrying on the fulling in the center of this thriving market town. In acquir- business; a saw-mill, built about two years ago, ing Richard Brown’s mill complex and the associated suited to cut ship plank, or other timber, 40 feet dwellings, shops and agricultural land, Richard Waln long, having crow bars, dogs and other utensils, was able to cement his own position of status and influ- requisite thereto. All said mills are situated ence within the Quaker merchant class. The purchase on a large and constant stream of water, called of the mill and farm property allowed him to exercise Crosswick’s-creek, whereby all sorts of lumber, substantial control over the production of a variety flour and other produce may be transported to of processed and manufactured goods (notably, flour, Philadelphia at a moderate expence ....” (The finished cloth and sawn lumber) prior to their being Pennsylvania Gazette, No. 2257, March 26, shipped to market, while at the same time achieving a 1772). considerable measure of self-sufficiency for his own and his workers’ households. Richard Waln acquired Except for the recently-constructed sawmill, the mill the village of Walnford and its mill very much in appurtenances are described in very similar (but more the spirit of colonial entrepreneurial capitalism that expanded) fashion to the earlier sale advertisements was fueling economic growth throughout the Lower put out by Samuel Rogers and John Lawrence. It is Delaware Valley, in the process setting himself up as probably a reasonable assumption that the gristmill the “squire” of a prosperous country estate living in and fulling mill described here in the advertisement a fine, newly constructed Georgian mansion. In this of 1772 were the original structures built by Rogers immediate pre-Revolutionary War context, another between 1734 and 1744. The fact that the advertise- important aspect of Waln’s move into the countryside ment specifically notes “a merchant and grist-mill, of Burlington County was the isolation it gave him – having two pair of stones” may imply that one pair of a pacifist with Loyalist leanings – from Philadelphia stones was used to produce finer-grade merchant flour, and other towns in the area, where political unrest was while the other pair was used to grind a coarser meal. mounting daily. It is notable that no mention is made of the mill having two waterwheels, as appears to have been the case

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Upon completion of his new house in 1774, the Waln at various times during this unsettled period. The family (Richard, his wife Elizabeth and their children), bridge over Crosswicks Creek, downstream from moved their primary residence to what henceforth the mills, was destroyed by an American contingent came to be known as Walnford. Richard Waln, like under Captain William Polhemus in 1776 in an effort Brown before him, also invested large sums of money to prevent the British advance. Two years later, the into improving and expanding the milling operations, British rebuilt this structure as they marched north and like Brown was often short of cash. He purchased to the Battle of Monmouth. Waln himself, when better quality bolting cloth for sifting flour, equipped faced with the prospect of taking the oath of loyalty the fulling mill’s press house with new press plates, to the American cause in 1777, chose to take refuge and installed a new cross-cut saw in the sawmill. The behind British lines in New York, although his wife, need for improved bolting cloth was likely a reflection Elizabeth, and their children remained at Walnford for of the mill’s production of “superfine” baking flour at least some of the time he was away. He returned, for the export market. The sawmill, located across however, in the following year as the theater of war the creek from the gristmill, was thus able to turn out shifted elsewhere. better quality planking and construction lumber, in addition to the rougher ships’ timbers. Indeed, the Three maps drawn later in the Revolutionary period timber framing members for his new house were most help to place Walnford within the broader context of likely fashioned at the sawmill. the war. One prepared in 1780 to show the position of British, Hessian and American troops at various times Waln also hired several skilled craftsmen (e.g., a between the late summer of 1776 and the end of 1779 miller, a fuller, a sawyer, a cooper and a blacksmith) identifies “Wall Mill” as a node in the road network to run the various milling and shop operations at his (Figure 3.2). The village is depicted as three stylized, estate. Either he or his son, Nicholas, also established U-shaped buildings, interestingly two on the south a store in a wing adjoining the house, where local resi- bank of the creek and one on the north. Two other dents and workers could sell and procure provisions maps (very similar, but with some minor differences), and other necessary goods. Waln himself supervised were prepared a year later by British cartographer the purchase of all the commodities and raw materials John Hills, working from the comfort of New York that were processed in the mills by his employees, and City and making use of various previously surveyed then sold the products at market in Philadelphia, New maps in his possession (Figures 3.3a and 3.3b). These York and other smaller towns. Waln used his connec- both identify the mill at Walnford as “Sommer’s,” pre- tions with other merchants in Philadelphia to expand sumably a reference to a tenant miller, and perhaps an his marketing opportunities and he succeeded in ship- indication that the Walns were not continually in resi- ping goods not only throughout the region, but also dence. Hills’ typical tick-like symbol acknowledges overseas. Walnford’s location, although immediately the existence of the mill, while a small rectangular removed from the politics of the urban areas, was still blob nearby is presumably intended to mark the Waln close enough take full advantage of the trade networks house. The more accurate of these two maps (Figure of both Philadelphia and New York. 3.3b) shows the mill and house both on the correct, north side of the creek. Yet, as the Revolution came to a boil in New Jersey in late 1776 and 1777, Walnford was not able to escape During the war and the early federal period, the Walns its effects entirely. Detachments of Hessian, British probably experienced something of a reduction in and American troops all came through the village their standard of living and adjusted economic expec-

Page 3-6 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD - 1780. Scale: 1 inch = 8400 feet (ap - Plan General des Operations de l’Armeé Britanique …. Plan General des Operations de l’Armeé Britanique Figure 3.2. Gironcourt, Georges de. Detail from de. Detail Figure 3.2. Gironcourt, Georges Mill proximately). is identifiedWaln’s Mill.” as “Wall The red U-shaped blocks represent stylized buildings; the half-diagonally shaded rect American troops positioned in the landscape at various times between late summer of of British, Hessian and angles represent detachments 1776 and the end of 1779.

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Figure 3.3a. Hills, John. Detail from A Map of Monmouth County Reduced from the Original Survey. 1781. Scale: 1 inch = 7190 feet (approximately). Waln’s Mill is identified as “Sommer’s.”

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Figure 3.3b. Hills, John. Detail from A Map of Part of the Province of Jersey. 1781. Scale: 1 inch = 7920 feet (approximately). Waln’s Mill is identified as “Sommer’s.”

Page 3-9 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. tations from their estate accordingly. The milling Nicholas Waln died in 1848 without leaving a will. operations at Walnford focused increasingly on the His widow, Sarah Ridgeway Waln, continued to run gristmill. The sawmill does not figure in the Upper Walnford into the 1870s with the help of her daughter, Freehold tax assessments after 1785, but apparently Sarah Waln Hendrickson. It was unusual for women still stayed intermittently in operation. Again based to own or operate a mill, except in the case of Quaker on tax assessment information, it would appear that families where widowed women would often take on the fulling mill ceased business sometime between their husbands’ businesses. Walnford continued to 1797 and 1808. Richard Waln lived primarily at thrive as a community during the early part of this Walnford up until 1799, nine years after the death of period. In addition to the house, the gristmill and the his wife, Elizabeth. From 1799 until his own death sawmill, a store next to the main house continued to in 1809, he made Philadelphia his permanent home, sell produce and food. A post office, a carpenter’s visiting Walnford only in the summer months during shop and the blacksmith shop were also active within this final decade of his life. the community. The village and its mills are depicted on maps of Monmouth County published in 1851 and Nicholas Waln (1763-1848), the only one of Richard 1861 (Figures 3.5 and 3.6) and on the map of Upper Waln’s children to remain in New Jersey, took over as Freehold Township included in the Beers Atlas of manager of the mills and the rest of the Walnford com- Monmouth County published in 1873 (Figure 3.7). plex following his father’s departure for Philadelphia in 1799. During the period when Nicholas Waln Throughout the second half of the 19th century, the operated and owned the mills, it is clear from Waln sawmill and the gristmill were rented out by the Waln family records that the flour and gristmill both contin- family to a succession of sawyers and millers and ued producing flour for sale in Philadelphia and other were for the most part operated as separate businesses. urban markets and engaged in custom milling for local The sawmill appears to have been in only intermittent farmers in the Upper Freehold area. A major setback operation and at a low level of output, since it was not occurred in 1821, however, when the original gristmill reported in the industrial schedules of the decennial was destroyed by fire. Although the cause remains federal census between 1850 and 1880. The industrial unknown, fires in gristmills were not uncommon due schedules used a threshold of $500 worth of busi- to the flammability of flour and grain dust frequently ness for sawmills to be included in the census. The stored within the building. A new and larger gristmill sawmill is identified on the Beers map of 1873 and a was built at great expense and put into operation in structure is shown in its approximate location on the 1822, within nine months of the original conflagra- map of Upper Freehold Township in the Wolverton tion. Another setback occurred in 1846, when a Atlas of Monmouth County, published in 1889 (Figure freshet broke the milldam and required a diversion of 3.8). It is believed to have ceased operation in the the creek to allow repair work to be carried out. The 1870s or 1880s. Among the sawyers thought to have mill was clearly a well-established fixture in the cul- been working at the sawmill are Henry Malsbury in tural landscape during the first half of the 19th century 1850 (perhaps working as an employee of the gristmill as it is clearly marked on the various maps of the state tenant, Charles Honaker), John Brown in 1853 and produced by Thomas Gordon in the late 1820s and Samuel Grooms in 1860 (McCabe 1987:56-59). 1830s (Figure 3.4). Over the course of the second half of the 19th century, the gristmill made the transition from what had previously been a prosperous merchant mill to a more

Page 3-10 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD 1833. Scale: 1 inch = 3090 feet A Map of the State of New Jersey with Part of the Adjoining States. Map of the State New Jersey with Part A Figure 3.4. Gordon, Thomas. Detail from Figure 3.4. Gordon, (approximately). Location of project site circled.

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Figure 3.5. Lightfoot, Jesse. Detail from Map of Monmouth County, New Jersey. 1851. Scale: 1 inch = 2190 feet (approximately). Location of project site circled.

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Figure 3.6. Beers, S.N. and F.W. Beers. Detail from Map of Monmouth County, New Jersey. 1861. Scale: 1 inch = 2140 feet (approximately). Location of project site circled.

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Figure 3.7. Beers, F.W. Detail from Upper Freehold Township. Atlas of Monmouth County, New Jersey. 1873. Scale: 1 inch = 2450 feet (approximately). Location of project site circled.

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Figure 3.8. Wolverton, Chester, and Forsey Breou. “Upper Freehold Township.” Plate 38 in Wolverton’s Atlas of Monmouth County, New Jersey. 1889. Scale: 1 inch = 1940 feet (approximately). Location of project site circled.

Page 3-15 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. locally-oriented custom mill, with the Walns them- the three-foot fall reflects the elevation difference selves purchasing flour from the mill as if they were between the top of the dam (equivalent to the headrace just another client. The flour and gristmill operations water level) and the turbine suspended and submerged and output from 1850 to 1880 are summarized at ten- in the turbine pit. Discrepancies in the power output year intervals in the accompanying Table 3.2. In the may be the result of differences in how stream flow 1850s, it was still one of the largest and most produc- and turbine efficiency were measured. Typographic tive mills in Upper Freehold Township, but by 1870 error is, of course, another possibility, for the pub- it was experiencing a noticeable decline in output lished Vermeule data. (McCabe 1987:55-64). The population of the village of Walnford is thought The gristmill experienced another tragedy on the to have peaked during the first half of the 19th century evening of June 29, 1872, when the building was dev- and then declined from mid-century onwards. In the astated by yet another fire. This fire was no accident, 1830s and 1840s, according to census records, roughly but was deliberately set by John Heenan, a disaffected a dozen Waln family members and retainers inhabited employee of Sarah Hendrickson and her mother. The the main house, while a range of skilled and unskilled mill was again rebuilt and was back in operation by workers resided elsewhere in the village with their February of the following year. The industrial sched- families in tenant dwellings. In the 1850, 1860 ules of the federal census for 1880 provide useful and 1870 censuses, the Waln household, headed by insight on the mechanical workings of this new mill, Nicholas Waln’s widow, Sarah, numbered only seven which now made use of a four-foot-diameter Risdon individuals, but few other families are easily identifi- turbine in place of the traditional waterwheel (Table able as being in the village. In the 1850 census, the 3.2). According to the census data, the turbine rotated households of Charles Stonicker (Honacker), the mill- at a speed of 40 rpm derived from an eight-foot fall of er, and Henry Malsbury, a sawyer, each numbering six water and was capable of generating 16 horsepower people in total, likely lived close to the mills. In the to run three sets of millstones. In 1880, the gristmill 1860 census, Esick H. Levit, identified as the miller at Walnford was one of only four in Upper Freehold in the industrial schedules, records his occupation as Township powered by a turbine. “laborer” in the population schedules. The Beers and Beers map of 1861 shows Levit (“E. H. Lovett”) as a In a statewide survey of water-powers conducted by resident of the village (Figure 3.6). As per the 1870 the New Jersey Geological Survey in the early 1890s, census, the miller George Darnell headed a household Walnford is listed as having only one operational mill, of six, including mill hand William Kirby, and there the gristmill, owned by “Miss S. Hendrickson,” which were three or four other families nearby headed by utilized a fall of just three feet to generate 32 net (46 laborers, all probably living in tenant homes owned by gross) horsepower (Vermeule 1894: Appendix I:34- the Walns. County directories around the turn of the 35). The reason for the differences in fall and power century list Walnford as a village with a population of generation between the early 1890s survey and the 50 persons, which may be a rough, and probably high, 1880 industrial schedules is unclear, but may be the estimate. result of inconsistency in data gathering. Twentieth- century field and photographic evidence suggest that The gristmill remained in the hands of Sarah an eight-foot fall as measured from the top of the Hendrickson after her mother’s death in 1872 until dam to the floor of the tailrace is believable (e.g., see 1905 and continued in operation until around 1917. below, Figure 4.9; Photograph 3.4). It is possible that Old photographs from this period show the mill

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Table 3.2. Waln's Flour and Gristmill, Summary of Industrial Census Data, 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 Census Name of Value of Raw Mill Type Capital Invested Raw Materials Motive Power Year Miller Materials Charles 20,000 bushels wheat, rye 1850 Flour Mill $15,000 $14,000 water Stonicker & corn Esick H. 13,867 bushels wheat, rye 1860 (Flour Mill) $12,000 $13,000 water Levit & corn

7,000 bushels wheat, rye, $8,000 1 waterwheel (20 George Flour and corn & oats (market); (market) 1870 $11,000 H.P.); 2 sets of Darnell Gristmill 2,700 bushels wheat, rye, $2,865 millstones; 1 machine corn & oats (custom) (custom)

1 four‐foot diameter 1,250 bushels wheat; Risdon turbine (40 Jeremiah Flour and 6,000 bushels other grain; 1880 $15,000 $4,400 rpm, 16 H.P.); eight‐ Cloward Gristmill daily milling capacity of foot fall; 3 sets of 140 bushels millstones

Census Average # Average Cost Annual Product Value of Product Notes Year Male Hands of Labor 250 tons flour; 350 tons before deducting labor cost and rent ‐ 1850 3 $75 monthly $15,400 feed 10% profit before deducting labor cost and rent ‐ 1860 1 $30 monthly 13,867 bushels grain $15,967 20% profit; data noted as "nothing acuret"

12,000 lbs wheat flour, 2,200 lbs rye flour, 148,000 lbs corn feed, 18,000 lbs oat before deducting labor cost and rent ‐ $400 feed (market); 120 barrels $8,800 (market) $3,660 1870 1 10% profit (market); 27% profit annually wheat flour, 60 barrels rye (custom) (custom) flour, 1,530 bushels corn feed, 8 tons oat feed (custom)

mill running at a loss after deducting $1.50 daily 250 barrels wheat flour, 125 labor cost and annual rent of $600; (skilled barrels rye flour, 250 lbs of 1 $150 in annual wages; 10‐hour work 1880 mechanic); buckwheat flour, 5,000 lbs $5,000 2 (max.) day; mill in full‐time operation 6 $0.75 daily corn meal, 1,000 lbs feed months of the year, 3/4 time for 3 (laborer) (all custom milling) months and half‐time for 3 months

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Photograph 3.1. Historic view, circa 1890, looking southwest across Walnford Road showing the northern gable end of the mill with a wagon out front, a chute for receiving incoming grain at ground level, open exterior doors on three floors and a one-story shed opening on to the roadway immediately to the west of the mill building; the figure in the second-floor doorway is believed to be John Hutchin- son, the miller at the time. Source: Monmouth County Park System.

Page 3-18 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD building with the same basic form that the structure The deed was drawn up by an attorney, John Meirs, displays today. Two views are from around 1890: a grandnephew of Sarah Hendrickson. At the same one showing the northern gable end with a wagon time, he drew up John Wilson’s will, which stated out front, a chute for receiving incoming ear corn at that, at the time of Wilson’s death, the $2,000 debt ground level, open exterior doors on three floors and owed to Ellen Richardson would be paid and the rest a one-story, shed opening on to the roadway immedi- of the estate would be turned over to John Meirs. The ately to the west of the building (Photograph 3.1); and deed was challenged by members of another branch of the second showing the west side of the mill with the the Waln family, namely Richard C. Waln, who lived one-story shed more clearly visible as a low, asym- just to the north of Walnford, and Morris Waln, an metrically gabled, freestanding frame structure atop attorney from Philadelphia, who claimed that Sarah a stone foundation (probably an equipment or wagon Hendrickson did not have all her mental faculties shed), along with the northern end of the dam with a when the deed was drawn up. The dispute over who wooden waste gate set a few feet from the south end would inherit Walnford indicates that the property was of the main mill building (Photograph 3.2). The shed still considered a valuable country estate through into was removed sometime prior to 1911, when Richard the early years of the 20th century. Waln Meirs began making alterations to the mill, and was re-erected on the north side of Walnford Road. A John Wilson was unable afford the legal counsel nec- third photograph from around 1910 shows the much essary to defend the deed, so John Meirs agreed to same view of the western side of the mill, taken from represent him in exchange for the transfer of the deed the nearby road, but without the gabled shed present to Meirs’ brother, Richard Waln Meirs. Wilson was (Photograph 3.3). still allowed to continue in residence at Walnford, or be financially compensated if he was forced to leave. In 1905, Sarah Hendrickson, now aged 92, transferred This guaranteed the property would remain in the the deed for the mill property to John Wilson, aged Meirs branch of the Waln family. Meirs and Wilson 65, a long time black employee of Hendrickson, who successfully defended this transfer of the deed and on first appears as a member of the household in the 1880 November 9, 1907, Richard Waln Meirs and his wife census. Apparently, the deed was transferred to pay Anne W.W. Meirs purchased the property from John off some $8,000 owed to Wilson for back pay. The Wilson for the price of one dollar. conditions of the transfer were rather unusual and appear to have been designed in part to help provide Richard Waln Meirs was born into a prosperous for Sarah Hendrickson in her final years. The deed farming family in Upper Freehold Township. Prior gave Hendrickson life rights to the property. She to taking possession of Walnford, he and his wife, was also entitled to the profits of the mill, the farm, Anne, were very involved in the business and social and the various tenant houses on the property. John affairs of Philadelphia. The acquisition of Walnford Wilson was to continue running Walnford while car- reflected the Meirs’ interest in history and their own ing for Hendrickson. He also became responsible for Philadelphia heritage. It also coincided with the making up any losses in the areas of taxes and insur- colonial revival movement taking place at this time. ance from his own funds and for paying off Sarah One of the original roles of Walnford was reprised Hendrickson’s debt to her servant, Ellen Richardson. with the Meirs’ purchase of the property: the property Finally, as part of the arrangement, Wilson had to once again became a country estate for a member of provide Hendrickson with a proper funeral when the Philadelphia’s merchant and social elite. As was the time arrived.

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Photograph 3.2. Historic view, circa 1890, looking east showing the west side of the mill with a one- story, asymmetrically gabled, freestanding frame structure (probably an equipment or wagon shed) atop a stone foundation; this shed, 32 by 23 feet in plan, was removed sometime prior to 1911 and re-erected on the north side of Walnford Road; the northern end of the dam is visible at right with a wooden waste gate set a few feet from the south end of the main mill building; Walnford Road and the Waln House are at left. Source: Monmouth County Park System.

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Photograph 3.3. Historic view, circa 1910, looking east southeast across Walnford Road showing the west side of the mill with the gabled shed addition removed; note the basement window at the far left has been reduced in size compared to that in the view shown in Photograph 3.2. Source: Monmouth County Park System.

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Photograph 3.4. A postcard view of the milldam in 1921. Note that the height of dam is at least six and perhaps as many as eight feet, which cor- responds with the fall at the mill as documented in the industrial schedules of the federal census of 1880. Source: Monmouth County Park System.

Page 3-22 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD 1920. Insurance Map. Circa Township. Upper Freehold Walnford, Meirs, Waln Figure 3.9. Estate of Richard

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H Wanford Rd Wanford Rd

Crosswicks Creek

Hi Rd

Hi Rd ±

07 0 00 0 00

Feet

Figure 3.10. Aerial Photograph. 1930. Source: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection 2015. Location of project site circled.

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Photograph 3.5. View looking northeast from the bridge over Crosswicks Creek toward Waln’s Mill in the 1930s; the Waln House is to the right of and beyond the mill; at left is an 18th-century brick house, a double dwelling, likely occupied by the miller and/or workers, which burned down in 1969; between the brick house and the mill is the wagon/equipment shed that previously stood adjacent and immediately west of the mill (cf. Photograph 3.2). Source: Monmouth County Park System (New Jersey State Archives, New Jersey Writers’ Project).

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Photograph 3.6. View looking east northeast showing Waln’s Mill, its headrace, the race island and milldam in the 1930s; note the bank of sediment that built up in the creek downstream of the race island. Source: Monmouth County Park System (New Jersey State Archives, New Jersey Writers’ Project).

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Photograph 3.7. View looking northeast from the northern end of the Walnford Road crossing of Crosswicks Creek in April 1965; from left to right are: a frame barn/stable, probably of 19th-century date, to the rear of the two houses; an 18th-century frame house, probably a miller’s or worker’s dwelling; and an 18th-century brick house, a double dwelling, likely occupied by the miller and/or workers; both houses burned down in 1969, victims of arson. Source: Monmouth County Park Sys- tem (photograph taken by Charles Kier).

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Photograph 3.8. View looking northwest across Walnford Road from the mill in April 1965 (note the mill’s porch gable projecting into the photograph at left); from right to left are: the wagon/equipment shed that previously stood adjacent and immediately west of the mill (cf. Photograph 3.2); a brick chimney of uncertain function in an outbuilding, shop or wing to the rear of the frame house at left (cf. Photograph 3.7); an 18th-century brick house, a double dwelling, likely occupied by the miller and/ or workers; and an 18th-century frame house, probably a miller’s or worker’s dwelling; both houses burned down in 1969, victims of arson. Source: Monmouth County Park System (photograph taken by Charles Kier).

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Photograph 3.9. View looking northeast along Walnford Road from the northern end of the crossing of Crosswicks Creek, circa 1965 (date based on tree sizes cf. Photographs 3.7 ad 3.8); from left to right are: an 18th-century frame house, probably a miller’s or worker’s dwelling; an 18th-century brick house, a double dwelling, likely occupied by the miller and/or workers; the wagon/equipment shed that previously stood adjacent and immediately west of the mill (cf. Photograph 3.2); the Waln House; and Waln’s Mill; the two houses at left burned down in 1969, victims of arson. Source: Mon- mouth County Park System (photographer unknown).

Page 3-29 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. practice in the past, the Meirs were not permanent spot for outdoor entertaining. Photographs taken in residents, instead they would visit Walnford in the the 1930s show the mill, milldam, headrace and race summer and on weekends. island in reasonable repair, although there is clear evidence of silt build-up in the creek bed immediately The Meirs extensively renovated the property, restor- downstream (Photographs 3.5 and 3.6). Upon Anne ing the house, outbuildings and grounds, and making Meirs’ death in 1958, the remaining 41 acres, which alterations to the mill. The goal of this work was to included the house, the mill, and many of the other re-cast the appearance of Walnford from a mill com- buildings that made up the core of the 19th-century plex and farm to a country estate with a newly restored village, passed to her son, William Meirs. William house in the Colonial Revival style and a mill that Meirs, like his parents, used the Walnford property as served as a secondary feature. Anne Meirs planted a country estate, visiting in the summer months and gardens and shrubs in front of the house on the land on weekends. During his period of ownership, Meirs across the street sloping down to the millpond, while razed some of the marginal buildings and did some her husband used concrete to stabilize the founda- minor restoration work. An arson fire in 1969 burned tions of the mill and mill raceway. However, during down the brick double house (reputedly the miller’s this period, milling was far less profitable than dairy residence for much of its history) and an adjacent farming, which was the dominant activity in sustain- frame dwelling that were located directly across from ing the freshly renovated estate. An insurance map the mill (Figure 3.9; Photographs 3.7-3.9). Aside from 1920 (Figure 3.9) nicely reflects this shift in from the smokehouse, still extant and reputed to date emphasis, showing the cow barn and related barnyard from the 18th century, these two homes were the buildings as prominent features. As dairying grew last remaining standing buildings from the pre-Waln in importance and the size of the herd increased, the period at Walnford (McCabe 1987:178-180). barn was expanded during the Meirs’ tenure. A corn cob crusher was installed in the basement of the mill specifically to grind cattle feed, the grinding of flour C. FROM PRIVATE TO PUBLIC having been in decline since at least the mid-1890s, OWNERSHIP, 1973-PRESENT eclipsed by the larger-scale commercial grain processing facilities in nearby towns and in the Midwest. In 1973, William Meirs sold the property to Edward Even so, although primarily a corn mill in the early and Joanne Mullen, bringing to a close Walnford’s years of the 20th century, flour was still occasionally two-century-long tenure by the Waln family. Meirs ground in the mill until as late as 1912. The mill was was actually in the process of negotiating a deal with constantly losing money throughout the early 20th the Monmouth County Park System at the same time, century, and the localized grinding of feed for cattle but this failed to come to fruition. The Mullens were represented the last gasp of water-powered milling at the first owners in nearly 70 years to be full-time Walnford. The mill finally closed for good following residents at Walnford. They were instrumental in Richard Waln Meirs’ death in 1917. getting the property listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Four years later, the Mullens Anne Meirs assumed full ownership of the Walnford donated the property to the New Jersey Conservation property after her husband’s death and over the course Foundation. The property was then transferred to the of the next 40 years she sold off most of the surround- Monmouth Conservation Foundation in 1980 who ing farmland (Figure 3.10). She also planted the race held it for the Monmouth County Park System until island with decorative plantings, using this pleasant 1985. Concurrent with its take-over by the park sys-

Page 3-30 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD tem, the County commenced planning for Walnford’s Walnford has continued to be maintained and open to conversion and restoration into one of the region’s pre- the public in this role to the present. The restored mill mier interpreted historic sites, an accomplishment that is a major focus of the interpreted village, second in was completed and formally celebrated with a public importance only to the house. opening on “Walnford Day” in October 2002. Historic

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Chapter 4

ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD INVESTIGATIONS

The archaeological fieldwork conducted at Waln’s the two reports prepared by Budd Wilson in 1981 and Mill in the mid- and late 1990s involved exploratory 1983. Also valuable as reference material for the mid- excavations and monitoring of construction work both and late 1990s archaeological work were the series of outside and inside the mill building. In the initial drawings prepared between 1982 and 1989 by resto- phase of work in mid-September of 1995, exploratory ration architect, Robert DeSilets, and a collection of investigations were conducted outside and upstream photographs of the restoration activity taken in 1984- from the mill building, chiefly along the right bank 1985 by Howard Wikoff, the park superintendent at of Crosswicks Creek, to assess the potential archaeo- the time. All three of these information sources serve logical impact of the imminent restoration of the mill as essential background to this chapter. Selected raceway and race island and the rehabilitation of the drawings from the DeSilets series are reproduced, stream bank. It was anticipated that this work might as are key views photographed by Wikoff. Budd shed light on the evolution of the mill’s hydropower Wilson’s excavations are also briefly summarized as system and specifically on the configuration and a prelude to the description and interpretation of the junction of the headrace, millpond and mill. A sec- Hunter Research investigations conducted outside and ond, more protracted investigation, involving formal inside the mill in 1995. archaeological excavation, was undertaken in late September, October and December of 1995 inside the basement of the mill building, where similar impact A. INVESTIGATIONS OUTSIDE THE MILL assessments were sought with regard to plans for the (Figures 4.1-4.11; Photographs 4.1-4.13) restoration of the mill interior. This work aimed to address questions about the age and evolution of the 1. Archaeological Investigations of 1981 building, its mode of construction and its internal and 1983 spatial configuration. Finally, in late September of 1998, a series of four backhoe trenches was exca- Most of Budd Wilson’s archaeological investigations vated in search of the original 18th-century mill site in 1981 took place inside the mill basement, but as part on the north bank of Crosswicks Creek, just east of of this work two exploratory tests were also excavated the Walnford Road crossing and its intersection with by hand outside and to the west of the mill building the former Walnford-Davis Station Road. A common (Figure 4.1). One of these tests (Test K) sought to goal for all the archaeological work was the aim to investigate “a location near a known change in the supply new, historically accurate information about [mill] structure” (apparently the seam in the masonry the site that could be incorporated into the restoration partway along the west wall which was considered and interpretation of the mill and its surroundings. suggestive of two different episodes of construction), while the other test (Test L) was dug to investigate Throughout these investigations, it was necessary to the site of the building seen in historic photographs correlate the findings with the archaeological informa- of around 1890 (see above, Photographs 3.1 and 3.2). tion gathered by the Monmouth County Park System This latter building, the superstructure of which was in the early 1980s, the bulk of which is summarized in moved across Walnford Road around the turn of the

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20th century (and remains standing today), most likely sluice-like feature consisted of side walls composed of served as a wagon or equipment shed, but it was also vertical timbers and horizontal planking with a plank thought possible that its stone foundations might floor. A more recent water pipe (Feature 16) was also have been associated with some earlier mill-related noted in this trench (Wilson 1983:4, 6, 10). building, possibly even the fulling mill referenced in 18th-century documents. Being dug by hand, these Finally, in 1983, a small test [Test O] was also exca- tests did not reach any great depth and they were vated by hand at the northeast corner of the front unsuccessful in revealing features or stratigraphy of step on the north side of the mill and established that interest (Wilson 1981:7-8). the historic grade existed at approximately 17 inches below the present ground level, with undisturbed sub- Wilson’s investigations outside the mill in 1983 were soil being encountered at a depth of 33 inches below a rather more expansive and also made use of mechani- layer of mixed sands (Wilson 1983:4, 11). cal excavation equipment, which enabled greater depths of excavation to be attained. Conducted in conjunction with and immediately in advance of mill 2. Archaeological Investigations of 1995 stabilization and related landscaping work, several and 1998 exploratory trenches and test units were excavated on the west, east and north sides of the mill building The archaeological investigations conducted outside (Figure 4.1). the mill building in 1995 were carried out toward the end of the mill restoration program after portions of A series of trenches and tests (collectively referred the mill foundations and much of the hydropower to as Test M) was again opened west of the mill to system had been rebuilt. During the course of the further examine the site of the structure that formerly mid-1980s restoration work, many valuable observa- stood in this location. Unfortunately, this area was tions were made, and measurements taken, of various found to be very disturbed and no clear evidence features of the headrace and milldam, indicating that of building foundations (Feature 11) was located, perhaps as many as four main phases of construc- although a post-1870 drain (Feature 12) and a concen- tion were reflected below ground, potentially corre- tration of mortared stone (Feature 13) were observed sponding to the documented mill building/rebuilding (Wilson 1983:3, 5, 6, 8, 9). episodes of the mid-1730s, 1822, 1872-1873 and circa 1911 (Figures 4.2 and 4.3). Furthermore, it is A second trench (Test N) was excavated 12 feet east important to appreciate that, by 1995, the majority of of and parallel to the east foundation wall of the mill. the area immediately surrounding the mill building This north-south trench, 50 feet in length and two had already been extensively altered yet again in the feet wide (but expanded to five feet in width at its mid-1980s when the southern end of the mill founda- southern end), was excavated with the help of a back- tion, much of the so-called “race island” and virtually hoe. It located the remains of a 10 x 12-foot lean-to the entire headrace intake had all been substantially structure (Feature 14) which supposedly predated the reconstructed. As a result, the amount of archaeo- mill foundation, although the basis for this deduc- logical data that could be gleaned in 1995 was fairly tion was not made clear in the report. Towards the minimal and was mostly considered to lie along the southern end of the trench, what were interpreted as right bank of the creek upstream from the mill or at timber remnants of the forebay (headrace) for the mill a considerable depth below the water table, beyond erected in 1822 were encountered (Feature 15). This the reach of the recently completed restoration work.

Page 4-2 55 Waln House

Smoke House 50

Brick 50 Wagon Walnford Rd House Shed

Tenant (See Figure 4.5) House 45 45 Test O 40 Test M

Trench 3 Test M Test N Remains of Bulkhead Test M Test L (See Figure 4.4) Submerged Waln's Mill Upright Timbers (See Figure 4.12) Submerged Trench 1 Horizontal Plank (See Figure 4.6) Isolated Vertical Timbers

Test K Trench 2 Vertical Planks Original Location of Headrace (Remains of Cofferdam) Wagon Shed Race Island Crosswicks Creek Trench 4 40

Bridge

Legend

Dam Wilson Excavations 1981, 1983 Approximate Wilson Excavations 1981, 1983 (Projected Location) Alignment of Rutgers Field School Excavations 1993 Earlier Dam Hunter Research Monitoring 1995 Hunter Research Backhoe Trenches 1998 Concrete Features

0 15 30 60 Feet ±

Figure 4.1. Waln’s Mill, Overall Site Plan Showing Locations of Archaeological Excavations.

MILL BUILDING

REMAINS OF 1873 WASTE GATE HEADRACE

RACE ISLAND

± CROSSWICKS CREEK

0 10

Feet

Figure 4.2. Waln’s Mill, Detailed Site Plan of South End of Mill, Headrace, Race Island and Milldam (DeSilets 1984-89).

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD

Feet 0 (MAY DATE FROM 1821-1822) DATE (MAY Figure 4.3. Waln’s Mill Site, Cross-Section of Milldams (DeSilets 1984-89). Mill Site, Cross-Section of Milldams Waln’s Figure 4.3.

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Unfortunately, it was not possible to re-examine safely recorded, the various features of archaeologi- any of the features or deposits documented by Budd cal interest were measured and drawn, mapped and Wilson in the early 1980s. photographed.

To provide a sense of how heavily altered the area surrounding the southern end of the mill was, selected Exploratory Excavations Upstream from the Mill photographs taken in the mid-1980s are interspersed throughout this chapter with those taken in 1995. Two areas within the dewatered zone, both upstream Photographs 4.1 and 4.2, for example, show the mill from the mill building, were initially identified as early in the early 1980s with the river in flood just requiring more detailed examination. The first of before commencement of restoration work in 1984. these areas, dealt with quite rapidly, involved the The view in Photograph 4.3 shows the headrace remains of a series of upright timbers which were around the same time, again just prior to restoration. observed protruding from the mud and extending in Photograph 4.4 shows the southern end of the mill a line heading northeast from the northeastern corner and the headrace area later the same year in the midst of the race island (Figure 4.1; Photograph 4.7). Upon of restoration with the mill foundation rebuilt and the closer inspection and removal of surrounding mud, headrace under construction. Photograph 4.5 shows these timbers were discernible as a line of six 2 x the southeast corner of the mill early in the following 6-inch, circular-sawn, upright posts, some of which year with the mid-1980s restoration program largely had wire nails projecting from their surfaces. Based complete and the as-yet unrestored eastern side of the on their alignment and fairly recent origin, these race island in the foreground. timbers were interpreted as the remains of an earlier coffer dam, most likely installed to facilitate the mill In 1995, archaeological survey, exploratory excava- building and hydrosystem modifications undertaken tion and monitoring were undertaken within a dewa- by Richard Waln Meirs circa 1911. These remains tered zone created by a coffer dam that encircled the were not considered significant early features of the southern end of the gristmill and also included within site and did not relate to the rebuilding of the mill in its compass the northern end of the mill dam, the race 1873. island, the northwestern corner of the millpond, and the headrace and tailrace areas immediately outside The second area examined – a section of river bank the mill building (Figure 4.1; Photograph 4.6). Once (and millpond perimeter) located approximately 35 this area was satisfactorily dewatered, a detailed feet northeast of the northeast corner of the raceway examination was carried out, involving visual inspec- island – received far more attention. Again, the focus tion, systematic probing (using a four-foot-long steel of interest was a series of exposed upright timbers pro- rod) and selective clearing of mud and soil from truding from the mud, but in this instance they were locations where features of interest were either par- aligned parallel to the river bank and appeared more tially exposed or suspected as lying buried beneath heavily eroded and of greater antiquity. Following the surface. Removal of mud and soil was mostly some preliminary, largely abortive manual excavation accomplished with shovels and trowels, but in some with shovels and trowels, it was decided to make use instances this was also achieved using the backhoe of a backhoe to excavate a trench along either side of supplied by the restoration contractor. Once exposed the line of timbers in an effort to remove some of the to the extent where they could be satisfactorily and surrounding stiff clay and sandy marl. This course of action exposed additional upright timbers as well

Page 4-4 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD

Photograph 4.1. View of the southern end of Waln’s Mill looking north northeast in 1982 with the river level moderately high; the angled concrete headrace wall can be seen guiding water into the turbine pit which lies behind the wall beneath the three-section window in the basement; note the open waste gate in the headrace wall (Photographer unknown, Collection of Monmouth County Park System).

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Photograph 4.2. View of Waln’s Mill looking upstream and east northeast in the late winter/early spring of 1984 with the river in flood; this view was taken just prior to the mid-1980s restoration; the headrace intake and race island are barely visible to the right of the mill; on the west wall of the mill foundation, note the vertical seam in the masonry to the left of the window; the tailrace outlet from the mill is entirely submerged (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-1-10/1]).

Page 4-6 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD

Photograph 4.3. View of the southeast corner of Waln’s Mill and the headrace intake looking southwest, taken in early 1984 just prior to restoration; note the concrete facing applied on the mill foundation, the headrace wall at right and the race island at left, all probably the result of alterations made by Richard Waln Meirs circa 1911 (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-1-10/4]).

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Photograph 4.4. View looking west northwest from the race island in mid-1984 showing the southern end of Waln’s Mill freshly rebuilt in stone on a poured concrete footing and ongoing restoration work in the headrace area; compare with Photographs 4.2 and 4.12-4.15 and note the removal of all early 20th-century concrete facing from the mill foundation and headrace wall; the new concrete wall defining the northern edge of the race island and the south side of the headrace intake are just visible at left (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-4-17/17]).

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Photograph 4.5. View looking northwest from the southern end of the milldam showing the southeast corner of Waln’s Mill in early 1985 following completion of the restoration of the southern end of the mill foundation and the headrace intake; the dilapidated masonry wall in the foreground defines the south side of the race island; the new concrete wall on the south side of the headrace is just visible at left center (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [85-2- 12/2A]).

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Photograph 4.6. View looking south southwest showing restoration of the race island and headrace in progress in September of 1995; note the coffer dam encircling the work area and southern end of the mill (Photographer unknown, Collection of Monmouth County Park System).

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Photograph 4.7. View looking southwest showing upright timbers in the foreground located near the northeast corner of the race island wall; these timbers are thought to be remnants of an early 20th- century coffer dam (Photographer: Michael B. Weissberger, August 1995) [Neg. # 95029/2:7].

Page 4-11 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. as a number of horizontal planks roughly arranged perimeter. A bulkhead was probably necessary at this along the face of the river bank. Upon further manual location to prevent erosion of the river bank and to excavation, the remains of a partially dislodged timber ensure an even flow of water into the mill’s headrace bulkhead structure were revealed. The basic com- and penstock. It probably also facilitated the docking ponents of the bulkhead consisted of a line of four of small boats using the mill pond and the section of upright posts, four inches square in section, roughly the river upstream from the mill. aligned west northwest-east southeast along the face of the river bank (Figure 4.1; Photographs 4.8 and No physical relationship was established between 4.9). The three easternmost upright timbers were the bulkhead remains and the more deeply buried spaced four feet apart, while the fourth and western- timbers that were observed closer to the mill in the most timber was located another eight feet to the west mid-1980s and interpreted as the remnants of the (implying that an additional post had once been situ- flume feeding water to the mill built in 1822 (Figure ated in between on a four-foot spacing). A horizontal 4.2; Photographs 4.10 and 4.11). The bulkhead is split log was fastened with spikes to the top of the considered most likely to date from the rebuilding of two easternmost uprights. The western end of this log the mill in 1872-1873, when the hydropower system plank was heavily decayed. Other decayed planks and was apparently reconfigured to include the race island a second split log were also identified deeper down in and the current dam. It would have remained in place the trench in a somewhat haphazard formation giving and in use through the program of modification imple- the impression of having been dislodged from the face mented by Richard Waln Meirs circa 1911, and has of the bulkhead. probably been responsible for maintaining the contour of the riverbank in this area ever since. A backhoe was used to excavate another trench further to the west between the exposed section of bulkhead and the recently-installed concrete headrace wall to Construction Monitoring establish whether the bulkhead still survived further downstream closer to the mill. Unfortunately, the During the course of the exploratory excavations area between the section of exposed bulkhead and the undertaken in 1995, both inside and outside the headrace had been extensively disturbed (largely as a mill, various other restoration-related activities were result of the restoration activity carried out a decade being carried out by the contractor elsewhere on earlier) and no further evidence of timber remains the site. When these activities entailed deep ground was observed. Upon completion of the excavation, disturbance and a potential existed for recovery of scale drawings of the bulkhead remains were made archaeological information, archaeologists conducted and key elevations were taken on the timbers and periodic monitoring work involving observation of planks (Figure 4.4). Minor adjustments were made trenching, occasional probing and clearing of mud, to the restoration plans for the headrace and millpond and cleaning down of soil profiles and other exposed perimeter as a result of the information retrieved from features to allow for recording of stratigraphy and these excavations. other archaeological data through measurements, drawings and photography. In summary, the timber remains were interpreted as part of a bulkhead constructed along the right bank of Monitoring was conducted in a number of loca- Crosswicks Creek, which, in this instance, would have tions around the exterior of the mill within the area coincided with the northwest corner of the millpond enclosed by a coffer dam beginning with the contrac-

Page 4-12 Plan View East Pro le

RIVER BANK split log laid horizontally (decayed) N S RIVER plank displaced plank BANK portion of cut log upright post at angle vertical plank 5.3’ long cut on face rough on back displaced plank rough on lower side

upright plank set in at an angle upright post with spike upright post 0.10’ thick upright post upright post set cut horizontal plank in at an angle upright post cut log set back 1” heavily decayed from pro le edge upright post horizontal plank clay upright post set in at slight angle 5Y 3/1

decayed board CROSSWICKS CREEK upright plank cut ± only one side sandy marl split logs 5GY 4/1

horizontal post post angled upright beneath logs beneath log

CROSSWICKS CREEK

Brick

Iron

Stone

Wood

Limit of Excavation

Pro le Indicator 0 2

Feet

Figure 4.4. Plan and Profile of Bulkhead on Edge of Millpond near the Headrace Intake (Hunter Research, Inc. 1995).

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD

Photograph 4.8. View looking north showing upright timbers with fastened planks near the bank of the drained millpond; these timbers are most likely the remains of an earlier bulkhead; scale in feet (Photographer: Michael B. Weissberger, August 1995) [Neg. # 95029/2:23].

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Photograph 4.9. View looking northeast showing planks fastened to upright posts near the bank of the drained millpond; these timbers are most likely the remains of an earlier bulkhead; scale in feet (Photographer: Michael B. Weissberger, August 1995) [Neg. # 95029/2:16].

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Photograph 4.10. View of the timber remains exposed in 1984 during reconstruction of the north side of the headrace intake; these remains lie immediately east of the south end of the mill’s east foundation wall and probably represent part of the base of the flume for the gristmill erected by Nicholas Waln in 1822; the direction of view is uncertain, but is probably facing to the northeast (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-3-33/28]).

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Photograph 4.11. View looking northwest showing the timber remains exposed in 1984 during reconstruction of the north side of the headrace intake; these remains lie immediately east of the south end of the mill’s east foundation wall; note that in the foreground vertical timber sheathing is passing behind the freshly poured concrete of the reconstructed headrace wall and seals off the large mortised horizontal timber, apparently representing a later building episode; at upper left the horizontal timber heads towards the east foundation wall of the mill, but its line is again broken by later timber construction; the large horizontal timbers most likely represent part of the base of the flume for the gristmill erected by Nicholas Waln in 1822, in which case the mill foundation at upper left would have been blocked off when the mill was rebuilt in 1873 (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Mon- mouth County Park System [85-3-34/38A]).

Page 4-16 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD tor’s excavations on the east (upstream) side of the of the high water table, the test hole rapidly became mill dam where it keyed in to the race island wall inundated and observation was impossible. The test (Figure 4.1). A test excavation was dug here to a was dug to a depth of eight feet below the top of the depth of seven feet below the top of the dam using a island wall and, despite the difficult conditions, it was trackhoe to allow the project engineer to inspect the clear that no evidence of the timber dam structure was condition of the masonry in the upstream face of the present. Either the earlier dam remains were removed dam and in the revetment around the perimeter of the in this location or they lie preserved at a depth greater island. Archaeological observation was constrained than that achieved in the test excavation. by the high water table and it was necessary to use a pump to control the influx of water. Aside from the On the west side of the raceway island, excavations masonry offsets underpinning the dam and island, for a new bulkhead were also monitored (Figure 4.1). which were found to be in reasonable condition, no Trenching was observed to an elevation of 31 feet other features of archaeological interest were noted. above sea level, but aside from pieces of 20th-century lumber probably used in earlier concrete headrace Monitoring next focused on a two to 2.5-foot-deep construction, no other features of archaeological inter- trench excavated around the perimeter of the race est were noted. This area was heavily modified dur- island to facilitate the repair and repointing of the ing the restoration activities of the mid-1980s and its masonry (Figure 4.1). Along the eastern wall of the archaeological potential is now negligible. island, near its northeast corner, a plank measuring 8.5 feet in length by 1.0 foot wide by 0.2 foot thick, was Monitoring also addressed a narrow trench excavated uncovered. This plank was connected to a series of 2 around the perimeter of the mill building to improve x 6-inch posts and was partially covered by collapsed the site drainage. A single sherd of pearlware was masonry; it did not seem to be in its original position. recovered from soils removed from this trench near An upright split log plank was also identified near the northern end of the west wall of the mill. The the northeast corner of the island wall, while a timber masonry foundations of this section of the mill showed measuring 6 x 4 feet in cross-section with a tenon joint evidence of having been previously been repointed. was uncovered along the west wall. This latter timber was found resting against a portion of the island wall Finally, a drainage trench excavated across the line of that had been constructed of poured concrete; it was Walnford Road, just to the northeast of the mill, was probably dislodged from its original location during monitored (Figures 4.1 and 4.5). After mechanical the pouring of the concrete. None of these timbers removal of the asphalt road surface, the contractors were considered to relate to any early aspects of the excavated this trench to an average depth of five feet. mill and its hydropower system. The asphalt was observed to overlie a thin layer of fill, beneath which was a thick layer of clean silt and During the excavation around the island, at the request subsoil. No cultural remains were recovered. The of the archaeologists, the contractor also excavated a stratigraphy observed in this trench broadly resembled deeper test pit with the trackhoe in the approximate that documented by Budd Wilson in his Test O in 1983 location where remnants of an earlier timber dam (Wilson 1983:11). had been noted in the earlier mill restoration work carried out in the mid-1980s (Figures 4.2 and 4.3; Photographs 4.12 and 4.13). Unfortunately, because

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Photograph 4.12. View looking southeast showing the remains of the timber-framed dam exposed in 1984 beneath the western end of the raceway island; this dam is thought to date from the earliest phase of mill development at Walnford and may have been in use from the mid-1730s until 1821 (Photo- graph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-3-33/40]).

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Photograph 4.13. View looking southwest showing the remains of the timber-framed dam exposed in 1984 beneath the western end of the raceway island; this dam is thought to date from the earliest phase of mill development at Walnford and may have been in use from the mid-1730s until 1821 (Photo- graph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-3-33/42]).

Page 4-19 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. S 3 Feet Asphalt Subsoil Limit of Excavation 0 1 3 East Pro le 2 Asphalt [road surface, [road 1995] Asphalt bed] [road Sand w/ gravel 5/4) Silt [ ll] (10YR 5/6) 4/2, 10YR 5/2, 10YR silt [subsoil] (10YR Mottled clayey 1 2 3 4 Context List Context DescriptionContext (Munsell) [Interpretation] 4 N Figure 4.5. Profile of Trench Across Walnford Road at Mill (Hunter Research, Inc. 1995). Across Trench Figure 4.5. Profile of

Page 4-20 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD N 3 1 2 EU 1 2 ash 4 4 va tion pre-1900 surface Feet Shell Subsoil Limit of Exca Asphalt Brick Compacted clay Oil and gravel 0 pre-1900 surface early 20th-century surface road 1 6 7 3 West Pro le West 44.13 ft ASL 5 pre-1900 surface projected contour contour projected 1930s road surface1930s road 1998 road surface1998 road Mottled medium sand w/ gravel [ ll deposit] (10YR 4/6, 10YR 5/1) 4/6, 10YR [ ll deposit] (10YR Mottled medium sand w/ gravel 4/3) (10YR horizon] sandy loam [A Fine 4/6) (10YR sandy loam [B horizon] Fine surface] [early road 2.5/1) 3/3, 7.5YR (10YR Mottled medium sand w/ gravel cap early 20th-centuryCompact silty [clay clay surface] road (3/5B) 4/3) w/ mill] (10YR associated drainage/swale soil from Medium sand [redeposited [ ll/ood episode] (3/5BG) and brick and shell fragments w/ pea gravel Sandy clay 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Context List Context Description (Munsell) Context [Interpretation] S Figure 4.6. Backhoe Trench 1 Across Walnford Road Near Bridge, West Profile (Hunter Research, Inc. 1998). West Road Near Bridge, Walnford Across 1 Trench Figure 4.6. Backhoe

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Exploratory Excavations Downstream from the Mill B. INVESTIGATIONS INSIDE THE MILL (Figures 4.7-4.21; Photographs 4.14-4.35) In late September of 1998, in an effort to test the hypothesis that the original 18th-century mill was 1. The Architecture of the Mill Basement located downstream of the existing mill, closer to the crossing of Crosswicks Creek, a series of four back- A thorough inspection of the upstanding portions of hoe trenches was excavated over a two-day period on the mill basement was undertaken as an integral part the north bank of the creek at the western end of the of the archaeological investigations, since architec- former Walnford-Davis Station Road (Figure 4.1). tural features frequently provide important clues to The results of this trenching were inconclusive, inso- understanding what is being found below ground. far as identifying the original mill site was concerned, Even though the mill basement as it presently exists but useful information was gathered about the road represents a much-altered section of the overall alignment and historic grades. mill structure (with substantial portions having been restored and re-pointed in 1984 and in the mid-1990s), Trench 1 was excavated north-south across the line of there was still architectural information visible that the former Walnford-Davis Station Road (today this had a direct bearing on interpretation of the archaeo- is the portion of Walnford Road that runs east-west logical record. along the north bank of the creek between the mill and the Waln House). The soil profile observed in this To provide context for the archaeological work, the trench showed that the historic stream bank and road architecture of the mill basement is briefly outlined lay further to the north of the present-day road and here, drawing attention to certain key features of the that an episode of filling around the turn of the 20th building and offering some limited interpretation as century took place in order to realign the road along its to their age and context. This outline of the base- modern course (Figure 4.6). At least two earlier road ment architecture is presented within the framework surfaces were recognized beneath the asphalt surface of four main episodes in the mill’s history: the con- in existence in 1998 – one possibly dating from the struction of Nicholas Waln’s gristmill in 1822; the 1930s; the other from around 1900. At the north end rebuilding of this mill in 1872-1873 following a fire of the trench, the historic ground surface was seen at in the preceding year; the program of alterations and a depth of around two feet below grade and took the repairs carried out by Richard Waln Meirs circa 1911; form of a buried A horizon sealed by a thin layer of and the more recent restoration work undertaken by ash. Monmouth County Park System in the mid-1980s. The architecture of the mill’s upper stories (the first The other three trenches were all excavated on the and second floors and the attic) is not addressed here. south side of the former Walnford-Davis Station These upper stories all date to the rebuilding of the Road, two of them (Trenches 2 and 3) running roughly mill in 1872-1873 and have been described in detail north-south and the third (Trench 4) running east- elsewhere (e.g., McCabe 1987:148-156). There do west (Figure 4.1). All three trenches encountered a not appear to be features within the upstanding archi- thick layer of topsoil and fill, extending to a depth of tecture of the mill basement that pre-date the construc- between three and three-and-a-half feet and sealing tion of Nicholas Waln’s gristmill in 1822. natural wetland soils. No structural remains or mill- related features were noted.

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The northern end of the mill basement, which faces in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was very directly on to Walnford Road, is both the most likely related to the reconfiguration of the hydropower finely constructed and the least altered portion of the system in 1872-1873. Prior to this date, an undershot structure (Figure 4.7; Photograph 4.14). Unlike the or breast wheel is believed to have been located in the rough-hewn, random-laid masonry employed for the southernmost bay of the mill, fed by a flume entering other three sides of the building, the stonework in the the wheel pit through an opening in the southern end northern façade exterior has been carefully dressed, of the east basement wall, probably via the timber leaving no doubt that this was always intended as structure of which remains were found outside the the front of the mill. In the late 19th and early 20th building (see above, Photographs 4.10 and 4.11). As centuries, exterior stairs rising alongside the north part of the rebuilding of 1872-1873, the new mill was basement wall led up to the main entry into the mill, equipped with a turbine accessed from the south wall which was achieved via a cantilevered porch at first- of the mill (see below), presumably requiring that the floor level in the center bay of the building (see above, earlier headrace access into the wheel pit from the Photographs 3.1 and 3.3). Interestingly, the presence east be blocked off. This reorganization of the wheel of the porch hood precluded the use of an external pit evidently had major structural repercussions in the hoist for moving bags between ground level and the southern end of the mill, leading to the application of upper floors. Instead, the building contains an internal a concrete facing circa 1911 and then ultimately to the hoist, believed to be an original feature of the mill’s reconstructive work of 1984. reconstruction in 1872-1873. The north basement wall has a single, apparently original window open- The southern end of the mill basement is by far the ing slightly offset to the west in the right (west) bay most extensively re-worked portion of the building of the façade with a date stone inscribed “N W 1822” (Photograph 4.19) and for this reason was considered (Nicholas Waln) immediately to its left (Photographs unlikely to hold much new information relevant to the 4.15 and 4.16). Based on the window opening, the archaeological work being conducted in 1995. The date stone and the consistency of the masonry, it is recent (and historic) changes to the southern end of the presumed that the north basement wall in its entirety is mill are best understood with reference to the DeSilets part of the gristmill erected by Nicholas Waln in 1822. drawings prepared in the 1980s and photographs taken in 1984 when this part of the mill was under restora- Moving clockwise around the outside of the build- tion. In addition to the southeast corner of the mill ing, the east basement wall contains four openings foundation being rebuilt in 1984, a substantial portion – two doors flanked by two windows (Figure 4.8; of the remainder of the southern basement wall was Photograph 4.14). All four openings may be original also reconstructed as part of this restoration program, to the gristmill built in 1822, although all show signs while the opening in the south wall giving access into of subsequent remodeling, which most likely occurred the turbine pit was recreated as a stone masonry arch either when the mill was rebuilt in 1872-1873 or when in place of the early 20th-century concrete turbine pit it was renovated circa 1911. The southern end of the intake installed by Richard Waln Meirs (Photograph east basement wall was completely rebuilt in 1984, 4.20). with a new stone foundation being constructed in place of the old stone masonry which had been faced Immediately prior to the mid-1980s restoration, the with concrete circa 1911 (Photographs 4.17 and 4.18). southern end of the mill basement was mostly com- The instability of this southeastern corner of the mill prised of concrete-faced stone masonry, although

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Feet

Figure 4.7. North Exterior Elevation of Mill (DeSilets 1984-89).

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Photograph 4.14. View looking southwest showing the north and east foundation walls of the mill (Photographer: Richard W. Hunter, December 2019) [Neg. # 19002/D1:011].

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Photograph 4.15. View looking southwest showing the west end of the north foundation wall with finely dressed stone and the date stone (the lighter colored block) (Photographer: Richard W. Hunter, December 2019) [Neg. # 19002/D1:009].

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Photograph 4.16. Date stone in the north foundation wall inscribed “N W 1822” (Photographer: Richard W. Hunter, December 2019) [Neg. # 19002/D1:010].

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Feet 0 Figure 4.8. East Exterior Elevation of Mill (DeSilets 1984-89).

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Photograph 4.17. View looking northwest showing the demolition of the southeast corner of the mill foundation in progress in 1984; note the concrete facing on the exterior of the east wall, believed to have been applied as part of the modifications made by Richard Waln Meirs circa 1911 (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-2-42/22]).

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Photograph 4.18. View looking north northwest showing the rebuilding of the southeast corner of the mill foundation in progress in 1984; note that all of the concrete facing applied circa 1911 has been removed and the foundation is beginning to be rebuilt as exposed random-laid stone masonry; the blocked headrace arch of the 1822 gristmill is outlined (Photograph by How- ard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-3-47/3]).

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Photograph 4.19. View looking north northeast showing the largely rebuilt southern mill foundation with the arched access into the turbine pit (Photographer: Richard W. Hunter, December 2019) [Neg. # 19002/D1:013].

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Photograph 4.20. View looking northwest showing the southern end of the mill after reconstruction and restoration in 1985; the masonry arch was created to resemble the original turbine pit intake of 1873, replacing the concrete intake installed circa 1911 by Richard Waln Meirs (compare with Photo- graph 4.19); note the headrace restoration was still incomplete at the time this photograph was taken (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [85-2-12/6A]).

Page 4-32 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD the western end of the foundation was still character- crete chamber raised some two feet above the floor of ized by exposed random-laid stonework (Figure 4.9; the former wheel pit for the pre-1873 undershot wheel Photograph 4.21). Roughly midway along the founda- or breast wheel. It is not uncommon, because of their tion, an angled concrete headrace fed water through a superior engineering and efficiency, to find turbines rectangular opening into the turbine pit. This opening operating from a reduced fall and at a higher elevation was topped by a three-section window giving light within an earlier wheel pit (a similar set-up is evident, into the turbine area. Within the turbine pit, the for example, at the gristmill in Prallsville, Hunterdon Risdon turbine originally installed in 1873 was still in County). Turbines during the late 19th century drew place, but was removed at the outset of the restoration their power chiefly from a strong, rapid and continu- work in 1984 (Photographs 4.22 and 4.23) (note: the ous flow of water and were not so dependent as their Monmouth County Park System archive retains a copy waterwheel predecessors on a sizeable fall. Finally, of the check for the turbine purchase). The concrete based on the floor elevation of the original wheel pit turbine pit, the concrete-faced stone masonry of the within the southern end of the mill, and assuming that south basement wall and the concrete elements of the the first-floor level of the original gristmill erected in headrace, all still visible in 1984, represent modifica- 1822 was approximately the same as that of the rebuilt tions made by Richard Waln Meirs circa 1911 (Figure mill in 1872-1873, one may estimate that the wheel in 4.10). It is thought that the reconstruction of the mill the mill of 1822, probably a breast or undershot wheel, in 1873 involved placing the new turbine within the was around 16 feet in diameter (Figures 4.9 and 4.10). original stone-built wheel pit and reconfiguring the headrace so that water entered the pit through an Immediately outside the south basement wall of the arched opening midway along the south wall, while mill, the headrace was reconstructed in the mid-1980s the headrace itself extended along the full length of in concrete and timber to approximate the headrace the south wall exterior with a wooden sluice at the configuration established in the rebuilding of 1872- far western end (see above, Photographs 3.2 and 3.3). 1873. This reconstruction was based to a large The Meirs modifications of circa 1911 involved re- degree on the headrace shown in late 19th-century setting the turbine within a smaller concrete chamber photographs (see above, Photographs 3.2 and 3.3) with a concrete exhaust that required the blocking and on timber headrace remains exposed in 1984 of most of the stone-arched tailrace opening. Thus, (Photographs 4.24 and 4.25). despite Meirs’ modifications, the mill’s hydropower configuration remained essentially the same from The west wall of the mill basement, although altered 1873 through into the 1980s. on at least two occasions at its southern end since the rebuilding of 1872-1873 (i.e., circa 1911 and again in It is worth noting here that the turbine operated fully 1984), proved to be of particular interest in the archae- submerged within an overall water depth of eight feet ological studies because a prominent vertical seam in (Figure 4.10), which conforms with the fall quoted in the masonry, slightly to the south of center along the the industrial census data of 1880 (see above Chapter wall face, is visible both outside and inside the build- 3). The conflicting fall figure of three feet given in ing and can be correlated with subsurface remains the statewide inventory of water powers conducted in within the building. This seam – quite straight on the 1891 probably refers to the smaller vertical distance exterior face, but more ragged on the inside of the that water was required to pass from the base of the building – is suggestive of two separate building epi- headrace into the turbine (Vermeule 1894:Appendix sodes (Figure 4.11; Photographs 3.3, 4.26 and 4.27). I:34). It is notable also that the turbine occupied a con- Because the northern end of the west wall founda-

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0 10

Feet

Figure 4.9. South Exterior Elevation of Mill (DeSilets 1984-89).

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Photograph 4.21. View looking northwest in early 1984, prior to restoration, showing the concrete headrace and intake for the turbine pit at the southern end of the mill; as seen in this view, the southern end of the mill and its hydrosystem chiefly reflect the alterations made by Richard Waln Meirs circa 1911 (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [unnumbered roll, frame 30A]).

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Photograph 4.22. View looking northwest showing the Risdon turbine recently removed from the turbine pit in 1984; the opening for the intake from the headrace into the turbine pit (with the window opening above) is visible at lower left (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-2-41/31]).

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Photograph 4.23. View of the Risdon turbine from Waln’s Mill, installed in 1873 and removed in 1984, cleaned and conserved in its present home in the relocated shed on the north side of Waln- ford Road across from the mill (Photographer: Richard W. Hunter, December 2019) [Neg. # 19002/ D1:006].

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Feet 0 Figure 4.10. Cross-Section of South End of Mill and Turbine Pit (DeSilets 1984-89). Turbine Figure 4.10. Cross-Section of South End Mill and

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Photograph 4.24. View looking northwest showing timber remains of the headrace exposed outside the southwest corner of the mill in 1984; these timbers were installed in 1872-1873 and define the downstream end of the headrace adjacent to the south wall of the mill basement (compare with Pho- tographs 3.2 and 3.3); they were rendered obsolete when the headrace was reconstructed in concrete circa 1911 (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-2- 46/5A]).

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Photograph 4.25. View looking north showing the timber remains of the headrace exposed outside the southwest corner of the mill in 1984; these timbers were installed in 1872-1873 and define the downstream end of the headrace adjacent to the south wall of the mill basement (compare with Pho- tographs 3.2 and 3.3); they were rendered obsolete when the headrace was reconstructed in concrete circa 1911; note the downstream end of the concrete headrace can be seen at right abutting the earlier timbers; the opening at right is the re-created masonry arch in the mill’s southern basement wall which now gives access to the turbine pit (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-2-46/5A]).

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Feet 0 Figure 4.11. West Exterior Elevation of Mill (DeSilets 1984-89). West Figure 4.11.

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Photograph 4.26. View looking east showing the mill’s west foundation wall; note the seam in the masonry in the center of the view and the largely reconstructed southern end of the wall at right (Pho- tographer: Richard W. Hunter, December 2019) [Neg. # 19002/D1:030].

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Photograph 4.27. View looking south southeast showing the mill’s west foundation wall during flooding in early 1984 prior to restoration; note the vertical seam in the foundation just to the left of the window at center right (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-1-10/3]).

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Photograph 4.28. View looking east and upstream along the southern end of the mill in early 1984 prior to restoration; the concrete headrace constructed circa 1911 lies alongside the mill’s southern wall (note the waste gate behind the upright plank); the raceway island is at upper right; the blocked tailrace arch of the 1822 gristmill is outlined at left; the corner of the concrete turbine exhaust is just visible framed within the blocked arch (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-2-43/29]).

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Photograph 4.29. View looking north northeast towards the northwest corner of the mill later in 1984 as timber remains of the headrace constructed in 1872-1873 began to be exposed along the outside of the south basement wall (see Photographs 4.22 and 4.23 for more advanced exposure of these remains); note the stone masonry arch at upper left which was reconstructed in 1984 to resemble the tailrace and turbine pit outflow (Photograph by Howard Wikoff, Collection of Monmouth County Park System [84-unnumbered]).

Page 4-45 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. tion appears to be of “one build” with the north wall fractures directly above the concrete tailrace exhaust foundation, which contains the date stone of 1822, (Figure 4.11; Photograph 4.28). These cracks, as with the seam in the masonry is considered to represent a the historically unstable southeast corner of the mill break between Nicholas Waln’s mill of 1822 (to the foundation, were probably the result of the hydropow- north) and a subsequent phase of construction at some er system being reconfigured in 1873 to accommodate time after 1822, most likely relating to the rebuilding a turbine accessed from the south side of the building of the mill in 1873. This seam may also define the in place of the undershot wheel accessed from the southern end of continuous masonry construction in southern end of its east side. Some of the pointing and the original west basement wall of the mill of 1822, underlying cracks may also be the result of the stone the upper stories possibly being supported between masonry tailrace arch being blocked off and replaced this point and the southern basement wall by large by the rectangular-section concrete turbine exhaust upright timbers set on stone footings or pillars. A installed circa 1911. As part of the stabilization and semi-open basement level of this sort is visible at the reconstruction of the southern end of the mill in 1984, nearby gristmill at Imlaystown and was presumably the concrete exhaust was in turn replaced by a new useful in giving better access and light to the wheel pit stone masonry arch (Photograph 4.29). and subfloor mill machinery.

The upper section of the west basement wall contains 2. Archaeological Investigations of 1981 two window openings and a door opening which and 1983 have been re-pointed in recent years, but otherwise show only minor changes since the late 19th century Budd Wilson undertook an extensive series of archae- (Figure 4.11; Photographs 3.2, 3.3 and 4.27). The ological excavation throughout the mill basement in door opening with its rough-dressed stone jambs is 1981 and then returned in 1983 to briefly re-examine very likely original to the mill built in 1822. The a problematic foundation that had been encountered window opening to the north may also date from this projecting from the interior face of the north wall. same phase of construction, although prior to the turn The work carried out in 1981 entailed extensive of the century (possibly as part of the rebuilding of clearing of surface debris to expose partially visible 1873), the window setting was redefined in brick. The features within the basement and was then followed window opening to the south was also redefined in by multiple shallow, manual excavations in locations brick sometime prior to the turn of the century, again where useful subsurface information was anticipated. possibly at the time of the 1873 rebuilding, although In all, ten test excavations were completed inside if this was the case, then the masonry to the south of the building and ten interior basement features were the vertical seam in the west wall foundation would identified. Some of these features were identified as more logically fall within the date range of 1822 to architectural and engineering elements of the existing 1873. Both window openings appear to have been mill; others were tentatively seen as remnants of ear- reduced in size from what were presumably originally lier phases of the mill building. The interior features 6/6 to 3/3 frames before the circa 1911 alterations (cf. observed in the 1981 explorations can be summarized Photographs 3.2 and 3.3). as follows (see below, Figure 4.12):

Immediately prior to the mid-1980s restoration, the Feature 1 – a brick floor that extended over most heavily pointed southern end of the west basement of the northern third of the basement (observed in wall showed clear signs of vertical and diagonal stress Test G);

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Feature 2 – a wide brick foundation in the west cen- Feature 9 – a recessed “shelf” area visible above the tral portion of the basement that was partly set over ground surface on the interior face of the mill’s west an east-west stone foundation (Feature 3) and which wall (strictly speaking, an architectural rather than may represent a pad for a machine base (Test B); an archaeological feature) (Test A);

Feature 3 – an east-west stone foundation that Feature 10 – (also designated as Features 11 and 12) extends across the full width of the mill roughly - the existing mill foundation/wall which shows evi- midway along the long axis of the building (Tests dence of multiple phases of construction and repair. A, B and C); Inside the mill building, adjacent to the north wall, Feature 4 – a small section of brick flooring in the further excavation (Test P) was conducted in 1983 in east central part of the basement, set at a slightly the area around the north-south foundation, Feature 8, lower elevation than the brick flooring to the north that projected into the mill interior. This foundation, (Feature 1) and apparently “extending partly under for reasons which are not entirely unclear, was con- the [main east] stone foundation wall [of the mill]” sidered to predate the existing mill foundations, which (Test C); in this part of the building are fairly certain to have been erected in 1822. On this basis, the foundation Feature 5 – an east-west stone foundation wall was thought to be part of a pre-1822 mill structure, that appeared to extend across the full width of the possibly the mill described in 1772 as measuring 56 x building towards the southern end of the mill and 22 feet in plan. It was also stated that this foundation probably defined the northern edge of the mill’s “was once an exterior wall and that the interior of the wheel pit prior to the installation of the turbine in mill [i.e., the hypothesized 1772 mill] was to the east 1873 (Test D); of the wall.”

Feature 6 – a section of wooden flume in the southeast corner of the basement that was identified 3. Archaeological Investigations of 1995 through probing (but not observed through excavation) and which probably represents part of the mill In the fall of 1995, another phase of exploratory hydropower system that predated the installation of archaeological excavation was undertaken inside the the turbine in the late 1870s (Test E); mill basement. This work primarily aimed to examine and recover archaeological data from areas that might Feature 7 – a cluster of mortared brick in the center be affected by the proposed restoration of the basement of the building adjacent to the hypothesized north interior, the plans for which included installation of a wall of the wheel pit (Feature 5), possibly a footing raised walkway and repointing of the interior surface for a vertical framing member in the mill interior of the walls. The opportunity was taken to relocate (Test F); the test pits excavated by Budd Wilson in 1981 and 1983 and to re-examine and, if necessary, re-interpret Feature 8 – a north-south foundation that extended features found during these earlier investigations. As southward into the interior of the mill from the north it turned out, precise relocation of Wilson’s tests was wall. This footing was tentatively interpreted as difficult to achieve, since rubble from earlier restora- part of a pre-1822 mill structure (Test G); tion work was spread across substantial portions of the basement floor and periodic flooding of the basement

Page 4-47 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. had deposited silt and eroded the outlines of most of of the stratigraphy observed in the various excava- the earlier test pits. Ultimately, the archaeological tions is provided in Appendix A. As is typical on investigations focused instead on the somewhat easier most mill sites, few artifacts were retrieved from the task of locating the various masonry features identi- excavations. A complete list of the artifacts is given fied by Wilson, rather than the tests themselves. in Appendix B.

At the outset, considerable effort was expended by Excavations first focused on relocating the north- Hunter Research personnel and Monmouth County south stone foundation found by Wilson in the north- Park System staff in removing the rubble and silt west quadrant of the basement (Feature 8 in Tests G that obscured much of the basement floor. This was [1981] and P [1983]). This foundation was of particu- accomplished manually using shovels and wheelbar- lar interest, since Wilson had suggested it might be rows, with soil and smaller debris being redeposited part of an earlier mill building pre-dating the structure outside the mill building and rubble being placed in erected in 1822. Excavation Units 1-4 and 11 were locations inside the mill that would not obstruct the designed to re-examine Feature 8 and the immediately excavations. Most of the rubble originated from the surrounding soils (Figures 4.12 and 4.13; Photograph mid-1980s reconstruction of the southern end of the 4.30). Upon removal of the overlying fill of silty sand mill and turbine pit, while the silts had accumulated with brick and limonite rubble [Contexts 2 and 4], the through periodic flooding in the basement over the top of the foundation was exposed with little difficulty preceding decade. A narrow trench was also visible in Excavation Units 1 and 4. Although remnants of running around the perimeter of the foundation, appar- the brick flooring reported by Wilson were found bed- ently the result of repointing during the 1980s. ded in a thin layer of leveling sand [7] to the west of the foundation in Excavation Units 2 and 3, no trace of Once the basement had been effectively cleared of this floor surface was found immediately adjacent to excess materials and was available for archaeological the foundation itself (it was presumably removed by excavation, a simple grid was laid out using a five- Wilson at the time of his excavations). foot-square module oriented on the same axis as the mill building. A series of excavation units was then The north-south foundation identified by Wilson as laid out with a view to gaining extended profiles Feature 8 was constructed of mortared fieldstone and across the principal known and suspected interior set within a shallow trench filled with silty sand [10] features of the building (Figure 4.12). In all, an area cut into the mottled clayey silt subsoil [3]. The foun- of approximately 250 square feet of the mill interior dation survived to a depth of a foot to 18 inches and was examined archaeologically, amounting to some was observed extending for a distance of at least ten 15% of the total area of the mill interior and closer feet south from the mill’s north basement wall. No to 20% of the actual area available for excavation evidence of the foundation was found in Excavation (excluding the extensively-modified southern end of Unit 11, so it does not appear to extend south beyond the building). the northernmost bay of the mill (Figure 4.12). The northern end of the foundation was securely bonded Archaeological excavations were accomplished using into the masonry of the mill’s north basement wall, flat-blade and round-blade shovels, trowels and vari- suggesting that the two segments of foundation were ous tools for removing rubble. Soils were selectively built contemporaneously. A shovel test excavated screened through ¼-inch hardware mesh and removed against the exterior of the mill’s north wall (outside from the mill building by wheelbarrow. A summary the building), directly opposite where the north-south

Page 4-48 STAIRS STAIRS

unexcavated ± ll layer 3 14 3 EU 10 26 EU 9 18 EU D See Figure 4.20 brick oor (removed) See Figure 4.19 FILLED-IN WHEEL PIT Context List Context Description [Interpretation] (Munsell) 1 Brick oor [1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] site of 2 Mottled sandy clay w/ brick and mortar fragments [ ll] 1 TRENCH C water (10YR 3/3, 10YR 5/3, 10YR 5/6) pump 3 Mottled clayey silt [subsoil] (10YR 5/2, 10YR 4/2, 10YR 5/6) 5 Stone foundation [interior footing, 1821-22 mill] 7 Sand [leveling sand] (10YR 2/1) 10 Silty sand [ ll, possible builders’ trench] STAIRS corn cob 13 Mortar cap grinder 14 Stone foundation [interior footing, 1821-22 mill] base 15 Sandy silt w/ rubble [ ll] (10YR 3/3) brick oor 18 Very sandy silt [ ll] (10YR 3/3) (removed) 19 Brick pad [possible grain elevator base, 1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] 22 Brick pad [possible grain elevator base, 1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] 1 1 25 Stone foundation [footing for brick pad] TURBINE 26 Stone foundation [north side of wheel pit, 1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] PIT EU 1 brick curb EU 8 EU A 13

brick oor 25 3 1 25 13 14 3 3 overburden EU 7 22 3 3 3 3 5 1 22 10 19 10 5 EU 4 EU 11 25 5 5 5 5 Brick 10 10 3 10 3 3 2 22 See Figures 4.17 Brick rubble EU 12 support See Figure 4.13 post 14 Concrete 3 15 EU 6 13 EU 3 14 Mortar Stone EU 2 brick curb FILLED-IN Subsoil See Figures 4.14 Limit of Excavation 22 22 WHEEL PIT 3 1 13 Pro le Indicator 25 3 3 brick oor 3 EU 5 (removed) 14 Support Post TRENCH B See Figure 4.15 3

west wall footing 0 5

Feet

Figure 4.12. Mill Interior, Basement Plan (Hunter Research, Inc. 1995).

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD E 1 3 2 4 Feet Stone Subsoil Limit of Excavation EU 1 South 12 0 10 4 5 2 EU 4 North 3 South and North Pro les Excavation Units 1, 3 and 4 Excavation 2 3 EU 3 North 7 Mottled sandy clay w/ brick and mortar fragments [ ll] (10YR 3/3, 10YR 5/3, 10YR 5/6) 5/3, 10YR w/ brickMottled and mortar 3/3, 10YR sandy clay [ ll] (10YR fragments 5/6) 4/2, 10YR 5/2, 10YR silt [subsoil] (10YR Mottled clayey 4/3) and small pebbles [ ll] (7.5YR Silty limonite sand w/ decaying 1821-22 mill] footing, [interior foundation Stone 2/1) sand] (10YR Sand [leveling trench] possible builders’ Silty sand [ ll, trench] 10 [possible builders’ context lled by Cut, 2 3 4 5 7 10 12 Context List Context DescriptionContext (Munsell) [Interpretation] W Figure 4.13. Excavation Unit 1, South Profile and Units 3 4, North Profiles (Hunter Research, Inc. 1995).

Page 4-49 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC.

Photograph 4.30. Waln’s Mill Basement, Excavation Units 1 and 4: view looking north showing the north-south mortared stone foundation [Context 5] extending from the lower right corner to the upper center of the view beneath the menu board; this foundation is thought to have supported an interior partition wall; the north basement foundation wall of the mill is in the background of the view (Pho- tographer: Michael Weissberger, October 1995) [HRI Neg. # 95029/8:25].

Page 4-50 Trench B and Excavation Unit 5 East Pro le

Trench B EU 5 N S

1 2 22 16 7 3 17 25 14 15

3 3

Context List Brick Context Description [Interpretation] (Munsell) Mortar 1 Brick oor [1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] Stone 2 Mottled sandy clay w/ brick and mortar fragments [ ll] (10YR 3/3, 10YR 5/3, 10YR 5/6) 3 Mottled clayey silt [subsoil] (10YR 5/2, 10YR 4/2, 10YR 5/6) Subsoil 7 Sand [leveling sand] (10YR 2/1) 14 Stone foundation [interior footing, 1821-22 mill] Limit of Excavation 15 Sandy silt w/ rubble [ ll] (10YR 3/3) 16 Silty sand w/ limonite (10YR 3/3) 0 2 17 Sandy silt [ ll] (10YR 3/4) 22 Brick pad [possible grain elevator base, 1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] 25 Stone foundation [footing for brick pad] Feet

Figure 4.14. Trench B and Excavation Unit 5, East Profile (Hunter Research, Inc. 1995).

Waln’s Mill West Elevation

S N 1872-73 mill construction 1822 mill construction (with circa 1911 alterations)

window seam in wall 24 (recessed area) door window

Mill Mill North Wall South Wall (in cross section) (in cross section)

Rubble from Rubble from 1986 repointing 14 1986 repointing footing for west wall (in cross section) (in cross section)

Blocked arch EU 5 of tailrace

Brick Context List Iron Context Description [Interpretation] (Munsell) Stone 14 Stone foundation [interior footing, 1821-22 mill] 24 Recessed area in wall [uncertain function] Wood 0 5

Feet

Figure 4.15. Mill Interior, West Wall Elevation (Hunter Research, Inc. 1995).

Excavation Units 6, 7, 8, 11 and 12/A Plan View

EU 8 EU A EU 7

25 13 14 3 overburden 3 3 13 22 25 EU 11 19 3 1 22

25 3

22 2 support post See Figure 4.17 EU 12 support post 14

14 15 13 14

EU 6

Brick Context List Concrete Context Description [Interpretation] (Munsell) 1 Brick oor [1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] Mortar 2 Mottled sandy clay w/ brick and mortar fragments [ ll] (10YR 3/3, 10YR 5/3, 10YR 5/6) Stone 3 Mottled clayey silt [subsoil] (10YR 5/2, 10YR 4/2, 10YR 5/6) Subsoil 7 Sand [leveling sand] (10YR 2/1) 13 Mortar cap Limit of Excavation 14 Stone foundation [interior footing, 1821-22 mill] 15 Sandy silt w/ rubble [ ll] (10YR 3/3) Pro le Indicator 19 Brick pad [possible grain elevator base, 1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] 22 Brick pad [possible grain elevator base, 1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] 0 2 25 Stone foundation [footing for brick pad]

Feet

Figure 4.16. Excavation Units 6, 7, 8, 11 and 12A, Plan View (Hunter Research, Inc. 1995).

Excavation Units 6, 8, 11 and 12/A East and West Proles

EU 6 East EU A West EU 12 West EU 8 West EU 11 West S N

wooden post ( oor support)

1 2 concrete 1 2 2 footing 22 1 2 2

2 19 23 23 15 14 13 25 25 25 23 25 25 25 15 3 3 3

Context List Context Description [Interpretation] (Munsell) 1 Brick oor [1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] Brick 2 Mottled sandy clay w/ brick and mortar fragments [ll] (10YR 3/3, 10YR 5/3, 10YR 5/6) Concrete 3 Mottled clayey silt [subsoil] (10YR 5/2, 10YR 4/2, 10YR 5/6) 7 Sand [leveling sand] (10YR 2/1) Mortar 0 2 13 Mortar cap Stone 14 Stone foundation [interior footing, 1821-22 mill] 15 Sandy silt w/ rubble [ll] (10YR 3/3) Subsoil Feet 19 Brick pad [possible grain elevator base, 1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] Wood 22 Brick pad [possible grain elevator base, 1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] 23 Sandy silt w/ rubble [ll] (10YR 3/3) Limit of Excavation 25 Stone foundation [footing for brick pad]

Figure 4.17. Excavation Units 8, 11 and 12A, West Profile and Excavation Unit 6, East Profile (Hunter Research, Inc. 1995).

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD foundation is bonded into the mill’s north wall, found ship of the masonry to the main west and east walls no trace of the foundation continuing northwards of the mill basement (Figures 4.12 and 4.14-4.19; outside the footprint of the mill of 1822, thus support- Photograph 4.31). Excavation Unit 5 at the western ing the contention that the interior foundation and the end of this foundation served the additional purpose mill’s north wall were of “one build.” of allowing examination of the vertical seam mid-way along the west basement wall (see above). The conclusion is inescapable that Feature 8, the interior north-south foundation, is not part of an earlier In the northeast corner of Excavation Unit 5, on the pre-1822 mill; rather it would seem to have been an north side of the foundation, a fill layer of sandy clay integral part of the internal structure of the mill of with fragments of brick and mortar [2] was removed 1822, respecting its overall orientation being physi- to reveal a mortared surface [13], which may represent cally bonded into the building’s masonry shell. This the remains of a floor surface formerly covered with foundation presumably once supported an interior brick (Figure 4.14). The mortar surface overlay a frame partition, which likely defined an interior space silty sand fill deposit with small fragments of eroded within the northwest corner of the basement of the limonite [16], which extended throughout the unit on original mill of 1822. In this context, the two original the north side of the east-west foundation. Beneath window openings (at the western end of the north this deposit was a second fill layer of sandy silt [17], basement wall and at the northern end of the west which lay directly on the mottled clayey silt subsoil wall) and the doorway a little further south along the [3]. On the opposite, southern side of the foundation, west wall may have given light and access to a base- a much thicker fill layer of sandy silt with brick and ment space that was in use between 1822 and 1872. concrete rubble [15] was present. Removal of this The function of such a room is uncertain, although it deposit was hampered by the high water table, but could have been used for storage or as a work room. the clayey silt subsoil was eventually recognized at The fate of this space in the rebuilding of the mill in a slightly greater depth than on the north side of the 1873 is unclear – the room may have been dismantled foundation. A broadly similar stratigraphy was noted and the space opened up to the rest of the basement. in Excavation Units 6, 7 and 10, with shallower fill The fact that no trace of an east-west “return” wall deposits being observed on the north side of the foun- for this hypothesized room was observed in Trench dation and deeper, more rubbly fill on the south side. B (Figure 4.12) is problematic, although such a foun- Portions of the mortar floor surface were also noted dation could perhaps have been removed during the in Excavation Units 6 and 7 on the north side of the 1872-1873 rebuilding episode, leaving no archaeo- foundation (Figure 4.16), but not in Excavation Unit logical trace. 10 (Figure 4.19). In Excavation Unit 6, the concrete footing for one of the large wooden posts supporting Following examination of the north-south wall in the first floor of the mill was noted sitting directly on the northwest corner of the basement, archaeologi- top of the northern edge of the foundation. The con- cal investigation next focused on Wilson’s Feature crete footing most likely dates from the period of the 3 (Tests A, B and C), an east-west stone mortared Meirs modifications circa 1911. foundation that extended across the width of the mill at roughly the mid-point of its long axis. A series of The dominant feature in this group of excavation units excavation units (EU #s 5-7 and 10) was placed across was the foundation itself [14], which comprised a the line of this foundation, including one each at its random-laid, mortared stone wall, roughly 16 inches western and eastern ends to examine the relation- wide and 30 inches deep, composed mostly of local

Page 4-51 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. 2 3 22 Feet Brick Mortar Stone Subsoil Limit of Excavation 25 0 22 Trench B Trench Plan View Plan 3 3

Mottled clayey silt [subsoil] (10YR 5/2, 10YR 4/2, 10YR 5/6) 4/2, 10YR 5/2, 10YR silt [subsoil] (10YR Mottled clayey 1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] base, elevator Brick pad [possible grain brick pad] for [footing foundation Stone ± 3 22 25 Context List Context DescriptionContext (Munsell) [Interpretation] Figure 4.18. Trench B, Plan View (Hunter Research, Inc. 1995). View B, Plan Trench Figure 4.18.

Page 4-52 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD 2 Feet N 0 3 20 14 15 18 Mortar Stone Subsoil Limit of Excavation Indicator Pro le 3 20 S Excavation Unit 10 Excavation Plan View View Plan and West Pro le 3 3 14

± 5/6) 4/2, 10YR 5/2, 10YR silt [subsoil] (10YR Mottled clayey 1821-22 mill] footing, [interior foundation Stone 3/3) Sandy silt w/ rubble [ ll] (10YR 3/3) sandy silt [ ll] (10YR Very 4/2) [ ll] (10YR Sandy silt w/ small brick fragments 3 14 15 18 20 Context List Context DescriptionContext (Munsell) [Interpretation] Figure 4.19. Excavation Unit 10, Plan View and West Profile (Hunter Research, Inc. 1995). West and View Figure 4.19. Excavation Unit 10, Plan

Page 4-53 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC.

Photograph 4.31. Waln’s Mill Basement, Excavation Units 5 and 6: view looking west showing the east-west mortared stone foundation [14] extending from the lower center to upper center of the view; the west basement foundation wall is in the background of the view; scale in feet (Photographer: Mi- chael Weissberger, October 1995) [HRI Neg. # 95029/8:10].

Page 4-54 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD

Photograph 4.32. Waln’s Mill Basement, Excavation Unit 5: view looking north showing the east- west mortared stone foundation [14] resting on the footing for the mill’s west foundation wall; scale in feet (Photographer: Michael Weissberger, October 1995) [HRI Neg. # 95029/11:10].

Page 4-55 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. limonite (Photographs 4.31 and 4.32). The founda- became inundated with water, so a four-inch-diameter tion was encountered in all four excavation units and bucket auger was used to confirm the presence of clearly extended across the full width of the mill. The subsoil in the southern part of the unit. Excavation presence in Excavation Unit 6 of the concrete footing, Unit D, adjoining to the south, found the foundation sitting partially, but not centrally, over the foundation reported by Wilson beneath a layer of recent fill [18]. implies that the latter is from an earlier phase of con- This mortared foundation [26], 24 inches wide, was struction, most likely related to the mill of 1822. At constructed of random-laid blocks of limonite. Its top its western end, the upper portion of the foundation is elevation was around 40 feet above sea level, similar set on top of a projecting offset for the west basement to that of the companion east-west foundation to the wall, and its northern edge lines up approximately north. The depth and westerly extent of the founda- with the vertical seam that is visible on the exterior of tion were not established, although a substantial part this same wall. The lower courses of the foundation of this wall was likely removed when the wheel pit were not bonded into the west foundation wall (unfor- was reconfigured for turbine installation in 1873. This tunately, because of the high water table, it was not foundation is interpreted as the remains of the north possible to view the opposite eastern end of the foun- wall of the wheel pit of the mill of 1822. It may also, dation to establish whether or not it was bonded into in conjunction with the east-west cross wall identi- the basement’s east foundation wall). In summary, it fied in the middle of the building, have supported the is thought that the east-west foundation observed in hurst frames underpinning the millstones on the floor Excavation Units 5-7 and 10 is contemporary with the above. Subsoil was not reached in Excavation Unit mill of 1822 and is the footing for an interior cross D, but is believed to lie at a considerable depth, prob- wall at the mid-point of the building. It is speculated ably below the elevation of the present-day turbine that this wall, in conjunction with either the north wall pit floor. of the wheel pit (see below) or an as-yet undetected foundation between this cross wall and the wheel pit, Another cluster of excavation units (EU #s 8, 11, 12 supported the hurst frames which would have under- and A and Trench B) was opened in the north central pinned the millstones on the first floor. The existence portion of the basement where a substantial brick and of this foundation and the considerable depth of the stone feature [22, 25] was gradually revealed between vertical seam in the west basement wall would seem a line of brick curbing (visible along the southern to support the suggestion that the two southernmost edge of Excavation Unit 11) and the east-west cross- bays of the mill of 1822 were not supported on con- wall foundation [14] (noted in Excavation Units 5-7) tinuous masonry on the downstream side of the mill. (Figures 4.12, 4.14 and 4.16-4.18; Photographs 4.32- 4.34). This feature corresponded to the brick and In the southeast corner of the mill basement, two stone pad identified by Wilson in 1981 as Feature excavation units (EU # 9 and EU D) were opened 2. Re-examination of this feature confirmed most of to re-examine Wilson’s Feature 5, another east-west Wilson’s observations, also allowing for some elabo- foundation (Figures 4.12 and 4.20). Excavation ration. The surviving masonry was comprised of up Unit 9, located adjacent to and north of this founda- to four courses of brickwork, generally three bricks tion, encountered large quantities of fill and building wide, laid over stone foundations. In plan, the feature rubble [20] overlying the subsoil. A cluster of loosely consisted of three parallel east-west footings, roughly stacked, unmortared brick [21], four courses high six feet between the two outer edges, and extending by two courses wide and resting on the subsoil, was for approximately 16 feet. These footings were linked regarded as part of the rubble fill. The unit quickly by at least two shorter north-south cross-walls. The

Page 4-56 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD

Excavation Unit 9 North Pro le

W E

Context List Subsoil Context Description [Interpretation] (Munsell) 3 Mottled clayey silt [subsoil] (10YR 5/2, 10YR 4/2, 10YR 5/6) Limit of Excavation 18 Very sandy silt [ ll] (10YR 3/3) 20 Sandy silt w/ small brick fragments [ ll] (10YR 4/2) 0 1

Feet

Figure 4.20. Excavation Unit 9, North Profile (Hunter Research, Inc. 1995).

Page 4-57 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC.

Photograph 4.33. Waln’s Mill Basement, Excavation Unit A: view looking south showing the mortared brick pad [22] identified by Wilson in 1981; bricks were removed in the foreground to expose a stone underpinning; scale in feet (Photographer: Michael Weissberger, December 1995) [HRI Neg. # 95029/13:13].

Page 4-58 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD

Photograph 4.34. Waln’s Mill Basement, Trench B: view looking north showing the mortared brick pad [22] identified by Wilson in 1981; note the stone underpinning for the brick pad is visible in the foreground; scale in feet (Photographer: Michael Weissberger, December 1995) [HRI Neg. # 95029/15:4].

Page 4-59 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. W 2 3 1 29 27 Feet Subsoil Limit of Excavation Brick S/E 0 Trench C Trench East and South Pro les 3 29 27 Brick oor [1872-73 mill and 1821-22 mill] 5/6) 4/2, 10YR 5/2, 10YR silt [subsoil] (10YR Mottled clayey Silty 3/3) loam w/ brick rubble [ ll] (10YR Silty 3/3) loam [ ll] (10YR 1 3 27 29 Context List Context DescriptionContext (Munsell) [Interpretation] N Figure 4.21. Trench C, East and South Profiles (Hunter Research, Inc. 1995). Trench Figure 4.21.

Page 4-60 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD

Photograph 4.35. Waln’s Mill Basement, Trench C: view looking south; note the row of bricks in the south profile of the trench; scale in feet (Photographer: Michael Weissberger, December 1995) [HRI Neg. # 95029/13:3].

Page 4-61 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. spaces contained within the pad and on either side Wilson (Figures 4.12 and 4.21; Photograph 4.35). No of the footings were all packed with a sandy clay fill evidence of foundations of any kind was observed in and building rubble overlying the clayey silt sub- this trench and all trace of brick flooring had been soil. Traces of a mortar floor [13] were noted within removed. Bricks are presumed to have been taken up Excavation Unit A between the pad and the cross- during subsequent restoration work in the mill base- wall, continuing south into Excavation Units 6 and 7 ment. A straightforward spoil profile was recorded in (see above). this trench consisting of a silty loam with brick and mortar rubble [27] overlying a thin layer of clayey silt Trench B, measuring 2.5 feet east-west by 12 feet [29], which in turn overlay subsoil. A layer of brick, north-south, was excavated to locate the western one course thick, was found in the southern wall of extent of the brick and stone pad (Figures 4.12, 4.14 the trench at the interface between Contexts 27 and 29 and 4.18; Photograph 4.34) and to search for an east- (Photograph 4.35). This may be part of the brick floor west return to the north-south wall (Wilson’s Feature referred to by Wilson in 1981 as Feature 4 in Test C. 8) identified in the northwest corner of the basement. Upon removal of the silt and rubble overburden, In the late summer of 1996, during the repointing brick flooring [1] was exposed in the northernmost of the mill basement interior, occasional monitoring portion of the trench to the north of and abutting the was undertaken to record additional archaeological brick curb. The bricks were laid in a thin leveling information. This activity produced little new data. deposit of sand [7] which was placed directly on top Most of the ground immediately adjacent to the inte- of the clayey silt subsoil [3]. In the southern portion rior faces of the basement walls had been previously of the trench, the brick and stone pad [22, 25] was disturbed, while the two programs of archaeological again identified and continued on to the west beyond investigations – by Wilson in the early 1980s and the limit of the excavation. Its western extent was by Hunter Research in 1995 – had already recov- not fully delimited; the feature may have originally ered most of the key information about the building extended as far as the west basement wall, but unfor- interior. However, monitoring proved to be of some tunately the ground along the inside face of the latter value in identifying further areas of brick flooring in wall had been disturbed by an earlier episode of point- the northeastern part of the basement. Of particular ing. The width and positioning of the pad correspond interest in this regard was a north-south line of bricks with a shelf-like recess in the interior face of the west set longitudinally on edge, two courses wide, which basement wall, noted as Feature 9 by Wilson (Figure survived in the northern end of the basement (Figure 4.15). The elevation of the top of the brick pad is at 4.12). This feature divided the northern end of the approximately 41 feet above sea level. Although the basement exactly in two and may represent the footing full extent and precise dimensions of the pad were not for an internal partition in the mill of 1872-1873. The established, these remains appear to represent a sup- line of this brickwork, projected to the south, perhaps porting foundation for a substantial piece or pieces of also defined the eastern edge of the mill machinery milling machinery, perhaps grain elevators or bolting footings. A considerable expanse of intact brick floor- chests. ing was also noted extending east towards Trench c from this setting of bricks, although no evidence was Another trench, Trench C, measuring 2.5 by ten feet, found for the two levels noted by Wilson (rather, the was excavated in the northeast quadrant of the mill floor appears to relate to a single building episode). basement to establish whether the mill machinery Bricks laid along the inner face of the north basement footings [22, 25] further to the west extended into wall appear to have been re-laid, possibly since the this portion of the basement and to re-examine the archaeological investigations in the early 1980s. distinction in brick flooring noted in this vicinity by Page 4-62 Chapter 5

A SEQUENCE OF MILL DEVELOPMENT

This chapter presents a sequence of mill development by such processes and events would have required the for the village of Walnford – a sometimes speculative removal of earlier infrastructure, thus complicating synthesis of a much-altered mill seat organized around efforts to interpret the evolution of the site. the presently available documentary, architectural, archaeological and engineering information. The A. THE ORIGINAL GRISTMILL, circa focus of this synthesis is primarily spatial and con- 1735-1821 centrates mostly on issues such as where the various mills were located, how they and their accompanying The original gristmill at Walnford was erected by hydropower systems were positioned in the landscape, Samuel Rogers sometime between January, 1734, how they related to one another and how they physi- when Rogers acquired the 323-acre tract that sub- cally changed over time. sequently became the mill property, and February, 1736. The existence of the gristmill by this latter date Despite the fact that Walnford today boasts one of is confirmed by a bond posted by Rogers through the most intensively studied, best-preserved and most which he agreed to build a bridge over Crosswicks sensitively restored late 19th-century gristmills in the Creek “below his Mill where the Road is this day laid region, there remain a number of critical unanswered out.” The bridge was built soon after this date and its questions about the original and successive configura- upkeep remained a responsibility of the mill owner for tions of the site. In the case of the 18th-century mills, much of the 18th century. there is uncertainty over where precisely the mills were located, what the mill buildings looked like and The exact location of the first bridge over Crosswicks how their hydropower systems were configured. Like Creek remains somewhat uncertain, although, based many mill seats, Walnford has evolved over time and on the alignment of roads in the immediate area, this been subject over the years to the vagaries of weather structure was likely positioned very close to or slight- and fluctuating stream action. Floods have periodi- ly upstream of the present-day crossing of Walnford cally taken their toll on the mill buildings, dams and Road over Crosswicks Creek (Figure 5.1). This first raceways, while clearing of vegetation and intensify- bridge was destroyed by the Continental Army in late ing agricultural land use have led to increased siltation December of 1776 to obstruct Hessian movements along the Crosswicks Creek valley, directly affecting following the First Battle of Trenton. It was replaced the flow and fall of water that are essential to the by another structure hastily erected by British and mills’ successful operation and spurring changes in Hessian forces in June of 1778 as they withdrew their layout and hydro-engineering. Furthermore, from Philadelphia to New York and shortly before Waln’s Mill experienced two devastating fires, one the Battle of Monmouth. According to oral tradition, in 1821 and another a half century and a year later, as quoted in a late 19th-century account, British and both of which led to large-scale rebuilding. The Hessian troops: reconstructive actions forced upon the mills’ owners

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“threw over a bridge a little distance up the stream, location of their 19th-century successors. One won- just above the head of the dam. Said an old lady ders if, in fact, this bridge was laid down in part on top of the Waln family, detailing to her household of or adjacent to the milldam. No clear archaeological what her own eyes had seen: ‘I never saw the evidence of this bridge was observed in the 1980s or like. The soldiers cut down big trees, trimmed 1990s. them, and then brought each tree on porters (i.e., short sticks, passed under). There was a long row The current Waln’s Mill dam, although not of 18th- of soldiers on each side of a tree; they carried it century date, is an example of a tumbling dam, along as if the tree weighed nothing. And some whereby the larger portion of the stream flow remains went back for another. There were so many men, in continuous motion over a low obstruction (or weir) that as fast as one tree was brought another came set roughly perpendicular across the full width of the close behind it, and so the bridge went up, and the river. Water for the mill is drawn off as desired via a troops crossed over’ …” (Ellis 1885:618). head race located on one or other stream bank. A wing dam employs a slightly different principle, being laid This temporary span may have continued in use for at an angle, pointing upstream, across part or all of several years for it was not until 1811 that a new the creek channel so as to divert a portion of the flow bridge was built on an alignment essentially conform- into a mill’s headrace. These two styles of dam con- ing to the present-day crossing of the road over the struction, typically used on larger rivers with a sub- creek (Monmouth County Road Return B 482). stantial continuous flow, differ from the cross-valley dam, where an embankment was constructed across a The locations of the bridges over Crosswicks Creek floodplain, creating a battery pond within which the have an important bearing on the issue of mill sit- volume of water was more closely controlled. Under ing. It is noteworthy that the creek crossing during this arrangement, water could be siphoned off to a mill the colonial period was situated below the mill and via a head race under a broader range of weather and was apparently achieved by a separate engineering stream conditions, while excess millpond water could structure, independent of the mill and its hydropower be released downstream through a sluice gate. system. Traffic crossing the creek was therefore not using the milldam as a roadway (a common occur- In the case of the original gristmill at Walnford, it rence at many mill sites [as for example at nearby seems most likely that a tumbling dam, as opposed to Imlaystown and Allentown]), which in turn suggests a wing dam or cross-valley dam, was used to generate that the milldam was probably either of the “tum- the necessary water power. This deduction is based bling” or “wing” variety, rather than of “cross-valley” in part on the documentary record concerning the type (the kind of dam on which one would normally bridges noted above, but it also draws support from construct a causeway). the timber dam remains found in the creek bed immediately southeast of the existing mill below the race- The temporary bridge erected by the British and way island in the early 1980s. Although not observed Hessians in 1778 appears to have been positioned directly in the 1995 archaeological investigations, upstream of the mill “just above the head of the dam,” photographs taken in the early 1980s and construc- which would seem to place the structure close to or tion details observed at that time show this earlier just upstream of the present mill building, evidently dam to have been constructed of large timbers in a within sight of the occupants of the Waln House, style not inconsistent with 18th-century dam building assuming the 18th-century dam and mill were near the techniques. With its mortise-and-tenon joints and tri-

Page 5-2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD angular cross-section apparently being observed over below, however, the simpler explanation is to see the a distance of some 15 to 20 feet along a line roughly sluiceway remains as part of the flume leading to the perpendicular to the creek, this structure would appear wheel pit in the southern end of the mill of 1822. to lend itself to interpretation as a tumbling dam. It probably originally extended across the full width of Turning next to the original gristmill building, the the creek for a distance of between 150 and 200 feet. documentary record provides no evidence that the While there is a possibility that this dam dates from site of the mill changed between the time of its initial the mill rebuilding episode implemented by Nicholas construction around 1735 and its destruction by fire Waln in the early 1820s, it is more reasonable to see in 1821. Documents – notably, sale advertisements, it as part of the original 18th-century hydropower sys- deeds, tax assessments and the Waln family papers tem. An aspect of this dam favoring an 18th-century – give useful detail about the gristmill in the 18th cen- date is its orientation. The line of the early dam and tury, some of it confusing, but still enough to assemble the footprint of the mill of 1822 are set at an angle to a partial picture of the building. Advertisements for one another with the dam angled downstream from the sale of the mill property in 1744 and 1748 (placed the mill’s southern end; one might expect – if these by Samuel Rogers), 1755 (by John Lawrence) and two mill elements (mill and dam) were built contem- 1772 (by Richard Brown), and the deed in the latter poraneously – that their relationship would be perpen- year through which the mill property is conveyed by dicular. If an opportunity presents itself in the future, Brown to Richard Waln, all reference a gristmill with recovery of wood samples suitable for tree ring dating two sets of millstones, one for flour, the other probably from the earlier dam could be helpful in establishing for meal. While the tax rolls of 1758 show Jonathan the age of this structure. Thomas owning two gristmills in Upper Freehold, typically gristmills were inventoried according to The projected original tumbling dam would have been the number of sets of millstones they contained (i.e., accompanied by some form of headrace construc- Thomas in reality probably owned a single mill with tion at its northern end on the right bank of the creek two pairs of stones). These documents also show that, which would have fed water to the mill. Remains of in addition to turning the millstones, water power was such a feature, again not directly observed in the most being applied to a fulling mill (see below), to bolting recent investigations, were noted and photographed cloths and, by the early 1770s, to a hoisting jack. in the early 1980s (see above, Photographs 4.10 and 4.11). Planks and posts from the base of a timber Of particular interest among these 18th-century docu- “sluiceway” or flume were seen running east-west for ments are the references in 1744 to “two new well a distance of roughly ten to 15 feet. Unfortunately, built Grist-Mills” and in 1755 to the gristmill having no relationship was noted between this feature and “two water wheels,” implying that – in spite of the the early dam remains, and it is also unclear whether conventional reading of the tax assessments noted it fed into the mill of 1822 or some other, presumably above – the mill operated and was probably origi- earlier, structure either on the site of the present mill nally designed with a two-wheel hydropower system. building or further downstream. There is some ques- Double-wheeled mills are an interesting variant on tion also as to the precise alignment of this sluiceway the more traditional single-wheeled facilities and they in relation to footprint of the mill of 1822, as it is have a pedigree in the Old World that extends back at shown slightly skew to the building in drawings made least into the mid-17th century. Jacob Van Ruisdael at the time. This might suggest both it and the early (circa 1628-1692), the Dutch landscape painter, who dam related to a pre-1822 mill structure. As discussed frequently used watermills as a subject for his work,

Page 5-3 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. Figure 5.2. Van Ruisdael, Jacob. “Two Water Mills with an Open Sluice.” 1653. The hydropower system in the original gristmill at Walnford, Walnford, at gristmill original hydropower system in the The 1653. Mills with an Open Sluice.” Water Jacob. “Two Ruisdael, Van Figure 5.2. Walnford, At Netherlands. the in Singraven at example Dutch mid-17th-century this resembled have may waterwheels, undershot two had which each waterwheel may have powered a set of millstones, or one millstones and the other fulling mill. Note in right The J. Paul Getty Source: separate mill building with another waterwheel at the opposite end of milldam. there is an entirely foreground that Museum, http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/699/jacob-van-ruisdael-two-watermills-and-an-open-sluice-dutch-1653/

Page 5-4 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD depicts a two-wheeled mill that provides an instruc- for fine flour. In any event, from the 1770s onward, tive comparison for Walnford’s original mill (Figure neither Richard Brown nor the Walns make any refer- 5.2). ence to the gristmill making use of two wheels.

This double waterwheel arrangement migrated to the There is one final, later item of documentation that New World and was occasionally employed in the defies certain interpretation, which may have some mid-Atlantic region in the 17th and 18th centuries. relevance to the issue of the gristmill having more than Other examples can be documented locally during one waterwheel. This occurs in a letter that Richard the colonial period at Grover’s Mill in Plainsboro (on Waln wrote to his son, Nicholas, in 1807 in which he Big Bear Brook) and in the village of North Branch asks: “I wish thou would attend to stopping the leak (on the North Branch of the Raritan River), but mills between the mills -- the best way will be to put on with paired wheels are by no means common. Some hot tar powdered charcoal mixed as thick as morter larger gristmills appear to have been constructed in & laid to the high Mill so as to cover the composition this manner, often using two undershot wheels, pre- and if this board has a little put on where it joins the sumably to give greater flexibility and security in the mill I think it would certainly be right [?tight]” (Waln power supply or to drive additional sets of grindstones Family Papers, Box 13, Letter, November 6, 1807). or other types of mill machinery. In the case of the While two waterwheels are not specifically mentioned original Walnford mill, one wheel may have been here, it is possible that two different, but proximate linked to each of the two sets of millstones, or perhaps mills are being referred to. In this instance, Richard one wheel powered both sets of millstones while the Waln could perhaps be speaking of the gristmill and other powered the fulling mill. This particular puz- the fulling mill, although it is possible that he was zle, assuming physical evidence still survives below meaning two gristmills. Then there is the term “the ground, may now only be addressable through careful high Mill,” the explanation of which is problematic, archaeological inquiry. but which could perhaps refer to one mill lying above or upstream of the other, the leakage problem under By the 1770s, there is no further mention of the grist- this scenario perhaps being the result of tail waters mill having two waterwheels, which may suggest a from the higher mill seeping into the lower mill. reorganization of the hydropower system sometime between the mid-1750s and the early 1770s. One of An entirely different interpretation of this documen- the two wheels may simply have been taken out of tary tidbit could alternatively view the leak, rather service, but perhaps more likely, after 25 years or so of than being of water, to be of meal or flour leaking out use (roughly the average life expectancy for wooden in the process of being conveyed between two sets waterwheels during this period), a single, new, more of millstones. The “high mill” under this scenario efficient wheel was installed in place of the original would be the “higher” set of millstones in the mill pair of wheels. A reasonable hypothesis, for example, used to grind the first break. Often, the grain would might see two low efficiency undershot wheels being be ground coarse and then ground fine, with the meal replaced by a single, more efficient breast wheel. passing from the first set of millstones to make a finer Such a new arrangement may well have been coinci- flour in the second set. In this instance, the two sets dent with the mill being upgraded into a predominant- of millstones would be arranged vertically in relation ly merchant mill with at least one pair of new stones to one another. In later roller milling technology, there

Page 5-5 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. is a term “high mill” that is used to refer to coarse being an integral part of the mill of 1822. Other than rollers installed higher up in the mill building (Brown the 55-foot dimension, there is no good reason, in 1914: 31). fact, to posit either the east or west basement wall of the present mill as being part of the original gristmill, One other critical piece of information about the since the masonry at the northern end of both walls gristmill in the 18th-century documentary record is clearly of a single “build” with the north base- remains to be discussed. The sale advertisement ment wall, which itself contains a date stone of 1822. for the mill property placed by Richard Brown in Finally, it is noteworthy that no archaeological trace the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1772 actually gives has been found of burned destruction deposits or heat- the dimensions of the gristmill. The building was reddened masonry indicating that the new mill built in stated as measuring 55 feet by 26 feet and included 1822 was erected on the site of an earlier predecessor a 14-foot-wide lean-to on one of its sides. Typically, that had been destroyed by fire. one would expect that the long axis of the mill would have been placed perpendicular to the creek (like the In summary, the various archaeological tests, excava- present mill) and that the lean-to would have been tions and monitoring activities within and immedi- appended to one of its long sides. The lean-to could ately outside the present mill have found no structural also, of course, have enclosed the waterwheels, an evidence for an earlier mill building in this location. arrangement that may be seen at the Allentown Mill. Despite the fact that much subsurface information Unfortunately, the position of the lean-to in relation to has been lost as a result of the 1872-1873 rebuilding the mill remains uncertain. and the 20th-century restoration activities, there can still be no question that if the original 18th-century More consequential when pondering the gristmill gristmill building occupied the site of the present mill, dimensions, it remains far from clear how these might then some trace of this structure should have been relate to the existing mill building and the unresolved detectable. It was, after all, a sizeable structure with issue of where the original gristmill was located. two waterwheels that was in use for almost a century. Notwithstanding the remains of the earlier timber It is also very likely had a fulling mill located close dam and headrace, the 18th-century gristmill cannot by, which itself should have left some archaeological be linked with any certainty to the site of the present- trace. One is tempted also to reject the present mill as day mill and its immediate predecessor erected by the site of the original gristmill on the grounds that no Nicholas Waln in 1822. Try as one may, the dimen- telltale traces of burning were observed which might sions of these latter two mills (roughly 55 feet north- be linked to the destruction by fire of Nicholas Waln’s south by 38 feet east-west), cannot be satisfactorily gristmill in 1821. However, no trace was observed matched with the 55 by 26-foot structure noted in either of the fire of 1873, which suggests that all the advertisement of 1772. If one allows that either destruction deposits on the site of the present mill the east or west wall of the existing mill represents may have been removed, either by human agency or a re-use of an earlier 55-foot-long foundation, then by floodwaters. some archaeological trace of a foundation should be present roughly 26 feet distant to the east or west. No If one accepts the argument that the original gristmill such archaeological remains of foundations have been did not occupy the same site as the later mills erected found, while the previously hypothesized pre-1822 in 1822 and 1872-1873, then one is faced with finding foundation in the northwest corner of the present mill another location for the mill built by Samuel Rogers in basement has now been conclusively demonstrated as the mid-1730s. Based on the various points discussed

Page 5-6 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD so far and by a simple process of elimination, there over Crosswicks Creek. Unfortunately, no trace of would appear to be one candidate site that is more via- an earlier mill structure was observed, although the ble than any other -- namely a spot roughly 75 to 150 trenching did not extend far from the road into the feet further downstream from the present mill on the core area where the mill is most likely to have stood same side of the creek (Figure 5.1). This would place (Figures 4.1 and 5.1). More comprehensive excava- the original gristmill across the street from the sites of tion is required to establish whether or not mill-related the two earliest dwellings at Walnford -- a brick house remains survive at this location. erected circa 1735, which probably served as the original miller’s residence, and a frame house to the west, Although there is reasonable evidence pointing to erected around 1750, perhaps also a mill worker’s an original gristmill location slightly downstream dwelling (see above, Photographs 3.7-3.9; both hous- from the existing mill on the same side of the creek, es were destroyed by fire in 1969) (McCabe 1987:45- in the absence of archaeological confirmation, other 46, 191). This location also satisfies one other key candidate sites should probably not be ruled out condition imposed by the documentary record: that prematurely. There remains the possibility that the the mill be upstream from the original bridge. Also, if original mill lay very close to or on the site of the the timber-framed dam is correctly interpreted as part present mill, but was entirely removed by later con- of the original 18th-century hydropower system, then struction (although, as noted above, some archaeo- the original mill must by necessity lie downstream logical trace should still have been recognized). One from this archaeological feature. Under this scenario, can reject with reasonable confidence other locations a headrace or flume (perhaps represented by the rem- either across the creek or upstream from the exist- nant timber structure documented just southeast of the ing mill, as these would place the first gristmill at a present mill) would have extended from the northern still greater remove from the miller’s dwellings and end of the earlier dam through the future site of the bridge. Besides, the sawmill clearly dominates the southern end of the existing mill and on westward and left bank of the creek, while it is somewhat unlikely downstream to the postulated original mill location. that the Waln House would have been built close to a pre-existing mill situated upstream from the present One other point possibly in favor of this location mill building. Furthermore, if looking to rebuild the lies in the span of the bridge and causeway carrying gristmill at an entirely new location following the fire Walnford Road over Crosswick Creek. The bridge of 1821, Nicholas Waln would more logically have and causeway have followed approximately this align- selected a site upstream rather than downstream from ment since 1811 and it is notable that, in addition to the original site, since the builders would have been the main bridge span at the southern end of the cause- presented with less obstruction in designing a new way, there is also a second, lesser bridge structure at hydropower system. the northern end of the causeway carrying the road over a poorly-defined side channel of the creek. It is possible that this latter bridge spans the line of a for- B. NICHOLAS WALN’S GRISTMILL, 1822- mer tailrace carrying the outflow from the mill. 1872

To test the hypothesis that the original mill site lay Following the destruction of the original gristmill by downstream from the present mill, limited archaeo- fire in 1821, Nicholas Waln built anew and was grind- logical trenching was conducted in 1998 on the south ing grain again at Walnford within nine months or side of Walnford Road just upstream of the bridge so. If the supposition is correct that the original mill

Page 5-7 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. destroyed by fire in 1821 lay downstream closer to the “hurst frames” that would have each supported a set bridge over Crosswicks Creek, then Nicholas Waln’s of millstones. The industrial schedules of the federal rebuilding program was extensive and ambitious. census of New Jersey for 1870 (i.e., before the fire of Under this scenario, he constructed a new gristmill 1872) report that Waln’s Mill contained two sets of building 100 or more feet upstream on a footprint very millstones. It is therefore conjectured that both sets of similar to the present mill measuring roughly 55 feet millstones in the mill of 1822 were positioned in the north-south by 38 feet east-west. Although no photo- third bay from the north on the first floor, i.e. directly graphs of this structure survive, it was likely similar in above this space, each of which would have required form to the present mill and probably rose two-and-a- a hurst frame in the basement. The north wall of the half stories above a full basement. The finely dressed wheel pit may also have supported the hurst frames. stone block bearing a date of 1822 with Nicholas Excavation within the third bay from the north was Waln’s initials, set just above ground level toward the limited, but showed it as containing a shallow fill western end of the building’s northern foundation, is deposit directly overlying the subsoil. No trace of a testimony to the new mill and is presumed to be in its brick floor or other foundations was noted within this original position. All of the north, and most of the bay and it is thought that this space may have been west and east, foundations of the present mill building reworked and cleared out either in 1873 when the are part of the mill of 1822. Risdon turbine was installed in place of the waterwheel or during the Meirs modifications circa 1911. Several foundations observed in the basement of the From the evidence of the vertical seam in the west existing mill are also believed to be part of the mill wall, the western end of this bay, as originally con- of 1822 and these confirm that the building was four structed, was open to the elements. As noted earlier, bays wide in its north-south dimension. The south- this is also a feature of the Imlaystown mill, where in ernmost bay was taken up by a wheel pit with water addition to expanding access and light into the wheel flowing from east to west, powering what was most pit, hurst frames, main shaft and gearing, it may have likely a breast wheel. Blocked headrace and tailrace helped in the evacuation of flood waters. arches at the southern ends, respectively, of the east and west foundation walls were observed during the The two northernmost bays in the basement of the 1984 restorations and provide proof of the 1822 mill’s gristmill appear to have been wholly covered with a original hydropower setup (see above, Photographs brick floor, which is thought to have been installed 4.18 and 4.28). The timber remains encountered just in 1822. A north-south stone foundation defined a outside the southern end of the mill’s east foundation space in the northwest corner and likely supported may well have represented part of the flume for the an interior partition wall. This space was separately 1822 gristmill (see above, Photographs 4.10 and 4.11). accessed from the outside by a door at the northern end of the west wall and lit by windows in both the The third bay from the north in the 1822 gristmill, west and north walls. To the south, at the western lying adjacent and north of the wheel pit, is defined end of the second bay to the north, a series of brick on its northern side by an east-west stone foundation and stone foundations appear to have supported some that spans the full width of the building at roughly its piece or pieces of mill machinery of uncertain func- mid-point. This wall abutted, but was not bonded into, tion, possibly grain elevators or bolting chests. The the mill’s west foundation (the opposite eastern end of eastern two-thirds of the two northernmost bays in the the wall was not fully observed) and for this reason it mill basement appear to have existed as a large, open, is thought that it may have supported part of a pair of brick-floored space accessed by two doors and lit by

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Figure 5.3. Evans, Oliver. Basement Plan for a Gristmill with Two Run of Stones. Plate VI in Part V of The Young Mill-Wright & Miller’s Guide. 1795.

Page 5-9 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. Part Figure 5.4. Evans, Oliver. Cross-section through Gristmill with Two Run of Stones Showing Main Drive Shaft and Gearing. Plate VIII in Run of Stones Showing Main Drive Shaft and Gearing. Plate Two Cross-section through Gristmill with Figure 5.4. Evans, Oliver. Guide . 1795. & Miller’s Mill-Wright of The Young V

Page 5-10 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD a single window in the eastern wall. This space, and time that it was non-operational causes one to ponder perhaps also the northwest corner of the basement, the extent of the damage from this fire. As was the were likely used for storage and as work areas. case with the earlier fire of 1821, no clear archaeological traces of the fire of 1872 were recognized in The design of Nicholas Waln’s mill of 1822, so far the excavations inside and immediately around the as it can be deduced from architectural and archaeo- outside of the mill and one wonders if the fire may logical evidence, appears to have closely followed the have been confined to the upper stories of the build- model of the vertically integrated and semi-automated ing and perhaps mostly to its southern end, since this gristmill perfected by Oliver Evans in the late 18th is where most of the reconstruction appears to have and early 19th centuries (Evans 1795). This model taken place. was widely adopted by millwrights throughout the eastern United States. Evans’ published drawings for Whatever the extent of the fire damage and subsequent the basement plan and cross-section of a typical grist- reconstruction, the basic form and size of the 1822 and mill provide a close match for what Nicholas Waln 1872-1873 mills are thought to have been very simi- had built at Walnford, particularly with regard to the lar. The mill as rebuilt in 1872-1873 is essentially the layout of the two northernmost bays (Figures 5.3 and structure that stands on the site today. In the re-build 5.4). Evans even used a 55-foot dimension for the of 1873, the wheel pit in the southernmost bay was long axis of his mill, which also happens to be the repurposed to receive a brand new, four-foot-diameter same north-south dimension of Waln’s mill. Risdon turbine manufactured in nearby Mount Holly. The headrace opening at the southern end of the east The construction of Nicholas Waln’s new gristmill in wall was blocked up and the flume largely removed. 1822 was accompanied by the creation of an entirely Instead, the millpond and headrace were reconfigured new hydropower system, which included the milldam, so that water was fed with an eight-foot fall into the headrace and the race island. The race island was turbine pit through a new opening in the center of the likely larger, extended further to the north as far as south wall. The race island would have been reduced the headrace and clasped the southern end of the mill. in size at this time. The expended water, after pass- A freshet breached the dam in 1846, necessitating the ing through the turbine, flowed out of the turbine pit diversion of the creek (presumably to the south) to through the tailrace arch at the southern end of the enable its repair, but the location and alignment of west wall. The walling-up of the western end of the the milldam are believed to have remained essentially third bay from the north end of the mill may well have unchanged since 1822 and this structure likely incor- been undertaken as part of the 1872-1873 re-build. porates much of its original early 19th-century fabric. In the mill interior, in place of the two sets of millstones in the mill of 1822, projected as being on the C. THE RE-BUILT GRISTMILL OF first floor in the third bay, the turbine with its vertical 1873 AND TWENTIETH-CENTURY main shaft drove three sets of millstones arranged on ALTERATIONS the first floor in the southernmost bay. New or re-used hurst frames would have been constructed within the The deliberately-set fire on June 29, 1872 led to southernmost bay to support the new millstone set- another episode of reconstruction of Waln’s mill. The tings. In many other respects, it is assumed that the mill was up and running again by February 17 of machinery and inner workings of the mill as rebuilt the following year, and the relatively short period of in 1872-1873 will have broadly matched those of its

Page 5-11 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. immediate predecessor, although the improved power the entry point into the turbine pit as a rectangular, supply will have allowed for installation of the most concrete-encased opening with a window above and up-to-date milling equipment. partially blocked the stone tailrace arch by incorporat- ing a rectangular concrete exhaust flume and opening Over the course of the final quarter of the 19th cen- (see above, Photographs 4.21 and 4.28). A major tury, the gristmill machinery underwent a number change in the mill basement during this period saw the of important modifications and upgrades that are installation of a corn cob crusher on a concrete foun- essential to our understanding of the mill as it appears dation in the center of the mill in the third bay from and operates today. As documented by millwright the north. These modifications were sufficient for the consultant Jim Kricker, architect Michael Henry and mill to resume operation for a few more years until its Mercer County Park System staff before and during final closure in 1917. the mill restoration, alterations to the machinery and inner workings were made incrementally between the The final episode of change to the gristmill occurred 1880s and the turn of the century to accommodate the between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s when transition to corn milling, such as the installation of a Walnford was extensively restored and made acces- new corn sheller, the disconnecting of the first-floor sible to the general public as an interpreted historic flour bolter, the reconfiguration of some of the chutes, site. Having an operational gristmill was always the redressing of the stones and the installation of an a major goal of the restoration project. However, attrition mill (Watson & Henry Associates 1993). because of changes in stream hydrology (notably, erosion, siltation and a reduction in stream flow and Modification of the mill’s hydropower system in waterpower), it was not feasible to reactivate a tur- 1872-1873 to include a turbine no doubt increased the bine. Instead, the Risdon turbine was removed and milling capacity and efficiency of the gristmill in the replaced by an electro-hydraulic drive system which short term, but it may ultimately have had an effect allows for public viewing of traditional milling opera- on siltation in the millpond and raceway. Upgrading tions. As part of the mill restoration, the masonry in from a waterwheel to a turbine will typically succeed much of the southern end and southeast corner of the in enhancing the output of a gristmill, but streams mill’s foundation was reconstructed. The headrace often cannot sustain the increased flow necessary and race island were largely rebuilt and the milldam to move the heavier metal machinery, leading to a was repaired. Extensive landscaping, wetland and reduction in effective milling time, efforts to modify streambank restoration were also undertaken both the raceway system and a build-up of sediment in the upstream and downstream of the mill. millpond. By the time the Walnford properties came into the hands of Richard Waln Meirs in 1907, many of them were in poor condition and the southern end D. THE FULLING MILL, c. 1735-1800 of the mill was suffering from leaks and in need of repair. A fulling mill was evidently part of the original mill complex established by Samuel Rogers in the mid- Around 1911, Meirs stabilized the mill foundations 1730s. A facility of this type, with an associated press and parts of the raceway by facing the stone masonry house and dye house, is documented in Rogers’ sale walls in concrete, and he reconfigured the headrace advertisement for the mill property published in 1744. along the exterior of the mill’s south wall as an angled Rogers also drew attention to the potential for setting concrete intake with a waste gate. He also re-framed up a tanyard at the site, although no evidence has

Page 5-12 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD been found to suggest that this opportunity was ever to perform their cloth beating and pressing functions. realized. The fulling mill (but not the press house and Fulling could be undertaken in a much smaller space dye house [they presumably still existed, however]) than that required to grind grain, so, frequently, full- was noted again in Rogers’ follow-up advertisement ing might be conducted in a corner of the first floor of 1748, and in John Lawrence’s sale advertisement or basement of a gristmill or in a secondary structure of 1755. Jonathan Thomas was assessed for a full- adjoining a gristmill. At Walnford, one would expect ing mill in the Upper Freehold Township tax rolls for the fulling mill, if operating in its own building, to 1758. have been located just upstream or downstream of the original gristmill, although the situation may have dif- During Richard Brown’s tenure (1764-1772) the full- fered because of the gristmill having two waterwheels. ing mill may have been briefly out of business, for The rebuilding of the fulling mill by Richard Waln Brown was advertising for the services of a fuller in in 1774-75 most likely would have taken place on or 1767. Nevertheless, when he put the mill property up close to the site of its predecessor. for sale in 1772, the cloth working operation figured strongly in the accompanying advertisement, being The documentary evidence would seem to indicate described as “a fulling-mill and dye-house, wherein is a fairly sizeable fulling operation at Walnford which a large furnace, well fixed, a press-shop, press-screw, argues against the fulling mill being located inside the and other implements for carrying on the fulling gristmill and for it being housed in a separate struc- business.” It appears from the documentary record ture, perhaps also containing the dye house and press that Richard Waln rebuilt the fulling mill in 1774-75, shop. Based on the analysis of the original gristmill since he made payments to Joseph Vandyke for this site given above, one plausible location for the fulling purpose – and for repairs to the gristmill – in those mill is downstream from the existing mill on the right years (Waln Family Papers, Box 13, Workbook). Tax bank of the creek, probably within 100 to 175 feet of ratable assessments show the fulling mill continuing the present mill structure. It is appropriate here to in operation under the Walns during the Revolutionary draw attention again to the free-standing shed struc- War and early federal periods, but later assessments ture that formerly stood to the west of the gristmill suggest that the mill ceased to function sometime (Photographs 3.1 and 3.2). This building, approxi- between 1797 and 1808. mately 32 feet east-west by 23 feet north-south, sat atop a substantial stone foundation on the river bank. The location of the fulling mill remains unknown, but It is possible that the shed may have re-used an earlier there is good reason to believe it would have been foundation, and one wonders whether the latter may situated inside or close to the original gristmill. A have once supported a structure within the original number of documentary references refer to the “grist grist and fulling mill complex (probably not one of and fulling mill,” implying that, even if not under the mills, but perhaps a dye house or some other mill- the same roof, they were a paired entity, probably related building). While no evidence for hydropower drawing on a common hydropower system. Fulling features has been found in this vicinity and most of the mills were typically combined with gristmills in mill stone foundation appears to have been removed, this complexes, providing valuable supplementary milling area may still merit careful archaeological observation income that was less seasonally dependent than the if deep ground disturbance were to take place here in grinding of grain. Often, fulling mills would draw the future. power directly from the main drive shaft of a gristmill and convert this to the reciprocating motion necessary

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Other archaeological evidence for fulling at Walnford The location of the sawmill can be pinpointed with may yet be found elsewhere in proximity to the mill. somewhat greater certainty than the original gristmill For example, the dye house with its “well fixed,” and the fulling mill. It was situated on the left bank large furnace and the press house can be expected to of Crosswicks Creek roughly opposite the present have left some archaeological expressoin. Fulling dam, on the southern side of an island that may not mills were also typically accompanied by tenter fields have existed a century or so ago (Figure 5.1). In 1995 where fulled cloth was stretched on poles. Future the limonite foundations of a corner of the sawmill archaeological endeavors may succeed in document- building were still visible projecting roughly three feet ing such telltale features as linear arrangements of above ground level in heavy undergrowth. Further postholes with associated nails or tacks (tenter hooks) concrete and stone masonry (possibly a building cor- which could indicate the location of tenter fields. ner) was also visible in the bed of and at a sharp bend in the branch creek that defines the southern side of the island on which the sawmill site is now situated. E. THE SAWMILL, c. 1770-1880 These remains may represent part of the sawmill building and its hydropower system. The documentary record is key to pinning down the date when Richard Brown constructed the sawmill at The branch creek retains in its course elements what later became Walnford, but is of little assistance of what may be the sawmill hydropower system. in tracing its subsequent history. The sawmill was Downstream from the sawmill foundation remains, fairly certainly built around 1770, probably following it follows a fairly straight and well-defined channel Brown’s seeking a mortgage from the Philadelphia to the main channel of Crosswicks Creek and the merchants, Abel James and Henry Drinker. Brown’s bridge. Although deepened and eroded, this portion sale advertisement for the mill property issued in 1772 of the branch channel probably represents the course also revealingly notes: “a saw-mill, built about two of the sawmill tail race. Upstream from the founda- years ago, suited to cut ship plank, or other timber, 40 tions, the field evidence is less easily interpreted, but feet long, having crow bars, dogs and other utensils, some 60 to 80 feet away the creek sides are filled with requisite thereto.” The sawmill appears briefly in the stone and brick rubble and there are some noticeable tax rolls for Upper Freehold Township prior to 1785 irregularities in the water flow implying an obstruc- and is sporadically mentioned in the Waln family tion of some sort in the creek bed. This could pos- account books in the later 18th and early 19th centu- sibly represent the site of a headrace intake into the ries. A reference in 1827 to a head block (a forward sawmill or may indicate the location of a dam. From log carriage) being made at the “Upper mill” almost this point, heading north, close to the eastern edge of certainly relates to the sawmill (Waln Papers, Box 14 the island, there is a line of vegetation that may echo Workbook). It is curious that the sawmill should be a former cultural feature, while to the south, follow- described as the “Upper mill,” begging the question: ing a slightly different and more easterly north-south what and where were the “lower” mill? The sawmill alignment, there are the far more substantial remains seems to have been in intermittent operation through of an earthen embankment traceable as a topographic into the 1870s, but its output was evidently insuf- anomaly and a line of larger trees for almost 200 feet. ficient to merit its being inventoried in the industrial Although the ground surface in the area to the east of schedules of the decennial federal censuses between the sawmill foundations appears to have been exten- 1850 and 1880. sively disturbed by earthmoving machinery, the vari-

Page 5-14 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD ous relict features in the landscape most likely relate to the sawmill hydropower system and work areas around the sawmill building.

It is unclear from the sale advertisement of 1772 whether the sawmill building itself was 40 feet long, or whether it merely had the capability of sawing logs 40 feet in length. In any event, the sawmill was likely a long and narrow structure at least 40 feet in length and considerably less in width. Unfortunately, it is not possible to establish from the surface field evidence whether the sawmill building was oriented parallel or perpendicular to the creek. Archaeological investigation could probably establish this fact and also throw light on the configuration of the mill’s hydropower system. Of particular interest in the latter context would be information which might clarify how the sawmill hydropower system related not only to the timber framed dam remains to the north in the bed of the main channel of the creek and to the functioning of the original grist and fulling mill site, but also to the later gristmill of Nicholas Waln.

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Chapter 6

THE MILLS AT WALNFORD IN CONTEXT

Water-powered mills were a critical component in a grist and sawmill complex on the Elizabeth River in early European settlement all along the eastern sea- Elizabeth-town in 1666-67, which remained in opera- board of the North American continent throughout tion throughout the colonial period (this site subse- the 17th and 18th centuries. Sawmills accompanied quently also became involved in fulling and paper the initial clearance of land for agriculture and indus- milling). A gristmill was reportedly established on try with lumber being harvested and processed for Mill Brook in Newark by Robert Treat (the commu- building construction and more specialized activities nity’s founder) and Sergeant Harrison in 1666, with like furniture making and shipbuilding. Gristmills a second mill of this type being noted in operation supported the first farming efforts, grinding grain for on neighboring Bound Creek by 1689. Middletown local human and livestock consumption with surplus was serviced by a fulling mill as early as 1667 and product being sold at market. Frequently, gristmills a gristmill by the year following. At the request of and sawmills were paired together in the landscape, the town fathers, a gristmill, thought to be a tide mill, drawing on a common waterpower supply system and was established in Woodbridge by Jonathan Dunham/ operating under a single ownership. As settlement Singletary in 1670-71, while nearby Rahway boasted took hold and expanded, and industry diversified, a gristmill by 1684. Other sawmills were in operation an ever-widening variety of water-powered milling in Woodbridge and Salem around 1682, and Deputy processes emerged in both urban and rural settings Governor Thomas Rudyard of East Jersey noted that as part of the pattern of entrepreneurial endeavor and five or six were being built in the province in 1683 colonial living. Water-powered forges and furnaces (Weiss and Sim 1956; Weiss and Zeigler 1957; Weiss underpinned the growth of metalworking. The fulling and Weiss 1968; Hunter 1999; Hunter Research, Inc. of wool cloth and, later on, the spinning, carding and 2006). weaving of a range of fabrics all took advantage of waterpower technology to expand and increase textile By no means all early water-powered mills in New production. Other more specialized milling processes Jersey were set up within the limits of or close by led to the appearance of oil mills, snuff mills, plaster to established nucleated settlements. George Scot, mills, bark mills, bone mills and countless other types writing in 1685, commented on the many “corn and of water-powered industrial facility. saw mills” in the Raritan Valley, implying that quite a number of water-powered operations were situated The first documented watermills in colonial New away from the already established settlement nodes in Jersey occur early in the English proprietary era what then was a very lightly populated area. Indeed, in the mid-1660s. No evidence has emerged thus many early milling operations in central New Jersey far for mills being built in either West or East New may be noted in what would at the time have been Jersey prior to this time by Dutch, Swedish or Finnish quite remote locations, such as near the mouth of settlers. With the more intensive settlement that Assunpink Creek at the falls of the Delaware (where took place following the English take-over of New a gristmill was constructed by Mahlon Stacy in 1678- Netherland in 1664, watermills appear to have become 79), on Rancocas Creek (where another gristmill was something of a prerequisite for a successful implanted set up by Thomas Olive around 1680), and in the town or village. John Ogden, for example, established Medford area of Burlington County (where a grist

Page 6-1 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. and sawmill complex was established by the Oliphant over a mile east of the Province Line, the bound- family in the mid-1680s). In the case of the Stacy ary surveyed in 1687 by George Keith to divide and gristmill at the falls of the Delaware, the site corre- formalize the provinces of East and West New Jersey sponded with the crossing of a major Indian trail and (Figure 6.1). This area, some eight-and-a-half miles early colonial route over Assunpink Creek, and served as the crow flies from Bordentown on the Delaware as the early impetus for the growth of the settlement River (considerably further if passing along the creek that later became known as Trenton. Thus, mills were by boat) and close to 30 miles from the early-settled just as likely to anchor settlement growth in the hinter- towns of northeastern Monmouth County, was dif- land as they were to consolidate and provide services ficult to reach around the turn of the 18th century. to established pre-existing communities. The relation- There were few well-established roads and still fewer ship of mills to road crossings of rivers, especially navigable creeks. Nevertheless, incoming families those mills set up in the earlier phases of settlement, migrated from two principal directions: English and, is of fundamental importance in the siting of water- to a lesser extent, Dutch settlers moved southwestward powered industry and directly relevant to the mills within Monmouth County, relocating in the Freehold/ at Walnford (Weiss and Sim 1956; Weiss and Zeigler Upper Freehold area from the well-established towns 1957; Hunter 1999; Hunter Research, Inc. 2003). of Middletown and Shrewsbury, while predominantly English Quaker settlers moved eastward, upstream Settlement in central New Jersey intensified and along Crosswicks Creek and its tributary, Doctors expanded over the final two decades of the 17th cen- Creek, into the remoter parts of Chesterfield and tury and the early years of the 18th century, taking Nottingham Townships. Both groups included first place against a backdrop of increasing complexity in and second generation settlers whose families had land ownership and persistent political factionalism. already established plantations (either in northeastern In the simplest terms, land was divided up into pro- Monmouth County or downstream around the mouth gressively smaller units of ownership, mostly passing of Crosswicks Creek and along the Delaware River) out of the hands of the original proprietors and into and whose younger members sought additional land those of incoming settlers. Most property passing to on which to set up their own farms. (Wacker 1975; settlers changed hands through the mechanism of the Louis Berger & Associates, Inc. 1998). quitclaim deed, whereby the seller gave no guarantee of title; other settlers took up land as tenants paying A few embryonic villages took root early on – nota- quitrents to a proprietor or other overlord. In many bly, Crosswicks in the early 1690s, based around instances, the proprietors retained for themselves large its Quaker meeting house; and Imlaystown and blocks of the best land, usually the agriculturally most Allentown, both of which developed around grist- productive terrain or property that good be turned to mills. In the case of Imlaystown, Richard Salter, Sr. good economic advantage (e.g., port or landing loca- erected a gristmill in the late 1690s, while Nathan tions, hubs in the evolving road network, land with Allen, a native of Shrewsbury, established his mill in exploitable mineral wealth). Sites with the potential Allentown in 1706. From these beginnings, settle- for water-powered industrial development represented ment, land clearance and farming spread apace across another important type of sought-after property. what was exceptionally fertile surrounding agricultural land. By 1731, the local population had expanded Walnford, located in Upper Freehold Township in the sufficiently that Upper Freehold Township was set off far southwestern part of Monmouth County, roughly from Freehold Township as its own municipal entity midway along the Crosswicks Creek drainage, is just for which a tax roll compiled in that year listed 128

Page 6-2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD property-owning taxable inhabitants, the vast majority ation facility. As noted above, the mills in Allentown of whom owned tracts ranging between 100 and 400 and Imlaystown [#s 11 and 12 in Figure 6.1 and Table acres in size (Woodward and Hageman 1883:275-290; 6.1] both precede Rogers’ mills by three decades or Ellis 1885:613-617; Snyder 1969; Brown 1981:7; more, and there is a good possibility that the mills at McCabe 1987:12) North Crosswicks [3], described as “early 18th-century,” were also in place a generation before Samuel It was against this background that the first mills Rogers began turning a waterwheel at Walnford. were established in the mid-1730s at what would later Other first-generation mills that may have been avail- become known as Walnford. Samuel Rogers, who able to local farmers in the area in the early 18th cen- was responsible for creating the first mills – a gristmill tury are the “corn-mill” of Joshua Newbold on Black’s and fulling mill, possibly occupying the same build- Creek in Bordentown, apparently built between 1703 ing, or at least adjoining structures – moved there and 1708, and the Trenton Mills, which passed out of from Allentown after purchasing land for the mill seat Stacy family and into Trent family control in 1714 from Abraham Van Horne, a wealthy absentee land- (Woodward and Hageman 1883:454, 803-804; Hunter owner and New York City merchant, who was active Research, Inc. 2003). in many land transfers and development ventures in East Jersey, most especially in the Raritan Valley. The mills at Trenton on the Assunpink Creek pro- Rogers was a local Allentown merchant who likely vide an interesting counterpoint to milling along viewed the prospect of setting up a new gristmill, Crosswicks Creek in the early 18th century. Soon with an emphasis on merchant milling, as an eco- after he acquired the mills on the Assunpink from nomic opportunity and speculative venture that could Mahlon Stacy, Jr., William Trent rebuilt and enlarged benefit from the ongoing expansion of agriculture and the gristmill premises, converting the building into a settlement in the Upper Freehold/Chesterfield area. three-story stone structure equipped with three run of Rogers’ background remains somewhat obscure. He millstones. From this point on, the Trenton Mills can may have moved to Allentown from the Shrewsbury probably be viewed primarily as a “merchant” rather area where a will of 1719 names a Samuel Rogers as than a “custom” mill, with its operation being placed being the brother of Benjamin Rogers. The Rogers in the hands of one or more tenant millers. It may be family name is also prolific in Nottingham Township added that Trent had close family connections with in neighboring West Jersey and he may also have orig- the Caribbean islands, or the West Indies as they were inated from within one of the families that trace their then known, with which the North American colo- ancestry from the Quaker immigrant, John Rogers, nies were becoming ever closer trading partners in who founded a plantation in 1680 on the bluffs over- the exchange of grain and flour for sugar and slaves. looking the mouth of Crosswicks Creek within what This trade expanded rapidly during the second quar- is today the Abbott Farm National Historic Landmark. ter of the 18th century and was a basis investing in More in-depth genealogical and historical research water-powered mills that were capable of supplying can likely resolve the question of Samuel Rogers’ her- demand. By 1770, North American millers and their itage (Brown 1981:7; McCabe 1987:12; Louis Berger merchant associates were annually exporting grain, & Associates, Inc. 1998; Hunter Research, Inc. 2019). flour and bread worth more than £318,000 sterling to the West Indies, with a nearly equal amount to ports When considered within the context of all known in southern Europe. This was by far the most valuable watermills within the Crosswicks Creek drainage, commodity exported from New Jersey and the other Samuel Rogers’ mills may be seen as a second-gener- Middle Colonies and second in value only to tobacco

Page 6-3 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. among all of the British continental colonies. Rogers’ One suspects that Samuel Rogers’ mills, with its two investment in a merchant mill during the mid-1730s waterwheels, were set up primarily with merchant would have caught the rising tide of the burgeoning milling in mind. Rogers, as a shopkeeper and mer- West Indies trade following an economic stagnation chant in Allentown, would certainly have retained that held back growth during the 1720s (Price 1984: the services of a millwright to construct and maintain 27-34; Hunter Research, Inc. 2003). his mills, perhaps drawing on skilled craftsmen in this line of work from Burlington, Philadelphia or Trent’s gristmill figures prominently in an inventory even New York. During the 15 years or so he owned of New Jersey mills taken in 1717 in conjunction the mills, Rogers chiefly advertised in the New York with an act of Parliament passed in support of “the newspapers (both his own business activities and his Government of his Majesties Province of New Jersey attempts at selling the mills), suggesting that initially in America for three years.” This inventory, evidently at least he may have been more focused on the New a fairly accurate and comprehensive listing of grist- York market. However, a revealing notice in the mills and sawmills in the colony at the time, refer- New York Gazette on April 8, 1734, shortly after he ences a total of approximately 85 mill sites. Trent’s bought the land on which he would erect the mills, gristmill was among a relatively small number of indicates that Rogers was also involved in the carting higher-assessed, larger mills that were in the hands of goods by land from South River (Spotswood) to of proprietors or wealthy landowners. It was one of “Burden’s Landing” on the Delaware (Bordentown) roughly 60 to 65 gristmills colony-wide, a third of and from there was operating a boat to Burlington and which were in West Jersey, and it was far and away Philadelphia. Thus, although much of the East Jersey the mill with the highest tax assessment. At four and Monmouth County economy was oriented toward pounds (equivalent to 80 shillings), Trent’s gristmill the New York market, because of the mills’ position was assessed four times higher than any other grist- on Crosswicks Creek, which flowed into the Delaware mill in West Jersey, while the closest in assessment River, their production, both flour and fulled cloth, value in East Jersey were facilities owned by Thomas may have been more oriented toward the Philadelphia Kearny in Monmouth County and Dr. States in Essex market and from there as exported goods to the West County, each rated at 50 shillings. In contrast, Nathan Indies. While much of the mills’ output was likely Allen’s gristmill in Allentown was assessed at 20 transported over local roads to Bordentown, the creek shillings (the Imlaystown mill may also have been is also thought to have been navigable by shallow- assessed, but the owner’s name at the time remains draft boats as far upstream as the mill site (Brown uncertain). These tax assessment data strongly under- 1981:8). score the importance of Trent’s gristmill – it was clearly the leading gristmill in the colony and must Following Samuel Rogers’ sale of the mill property have been a very substantial operation, drawing grain sometime around 1750, the four subsequent owners from an extensive hinterland that extended deep into – John Lawrence, Jonathan Thomas, John Voorhees Hunterdon and Burlington Counties in West Jersey, and Richard Brown – all seem to have operated more and possibly also Monmouth and Middlesex Counties in the orbit of Philadelphia and Burlington than of in East Jersey (Bush 1986:389-393; Hunter 1999:517- New York. Sale advertisements placed by these 521; Hunter Research, Inc. 2003). owners all appeared in the Philadelphia, as opposed to New York, newspapers. Jonathan Thomas was a Burlington tavern keeper and postmaster before moving to the Crosswicks Creek property. Richard Brown

Page 6-4 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD was a Nottingham Township merchant who borrowed fifth in a sequence of nine gristmills in total (Figure money and took out a mortgage from two promi- 6.1; Table 6.1). Aside from the initial wave of three nent Philadelphia merchants, Abel James and Henry mills operating at the beginning of the 18th century (in Drinker, in order to take on and expand the mill opera- Imlaystown [12], Allentown [11] and Crosswicks [3]), tion, including adding a sawmill in the early 1770s. another grist and sawmill complex [25] was erected by Richard Kirby in Cookstown in 1732. While the By the time Richard Brown was looking to sell the mills at Walnford serviced farmland coming into mill property in the spring of 1772 it had developed production in the middle section of the drainage, the into a small village. Besides the three milling opera- Cookstown mills would have catered to farms in the tions (grist, fulling and saw) and the main brick dwell- drainage’s upper reaches. Four other mills appear on ing house, there were “four other tenements (suitable Revolutionary War era maps and are presumed to have for a miller, cooper, fuller and black-smith and their originated as gristmills in the colonial period. These families), a cooper’s shop, smith’s shop and coal- were the New Egypt mills [6], Hutchinson’s mills house, a large pork-house, smoak-house, barn, wagon- in Yardville [8], the Hornerstown mills [19] and the house, chaise-house; and stables sufficient for 12 Prospertown mills [20]. These nine colonial mills, horses.” The cooper would have produced barrels for all primarily processing grain, are evenly distrib- shipping flour and other agricultural products, while uted across the landscape. In each case, their nearest the blacksmith repaired mill machinery and hardware, neighbor lies between two and five miles away which serviced wagons, shoed horses and sharpened and gives some sense of their effective service areas. All repair implements for nearby farmers growing the except the Imlaystown mills were paired with saw- grain processed in the mill. In essence, the mill, so mills, several of which, like the example at Walnford, like many others of its era, was the nexus of local originated in the colonial period. Allentown and production and the literal and figurative engine of Walnford (and later Hornerstown and Imlaystown) the local economy. Brown’s sale advertisement, pub- offered fulling as an additional milling function, pro- lished in the Pennsylvania Gazette, clearly demon- cessing cloth woven in the home. strates the close linkage of the site and its local economy to Philadelphia and the Delaware River, and the Under the ownership of the Waln family, the village greater colonial economy, although it is notable that and mills at Walnford flourished in the late 18th and Brown directs potential buyers not only to James and early 19th centuries. Richard Waln constructed a fine Drinker in Philadelphia, but also to John and William new mansion in the mid-1770s, probably using lum- Imlay in New York. However, with the purchase of ber sawn at the recently erected sawmill. Although a the mill property later in 1772 by Richard Waln, a pacifist in accord with his Quaker faith, and Loyalist prosperous and well-connected Quaker merchant from leaning in his politics, he and his family weathered Philadelphia, the village and its mill-based popula- the Revolutionary War years and went on to pros- tion became tied ever more closely to the Delaware per once the hostilities ended. Through the Walns’ Valley economy and its connections to West Indies merchant connections, the mills gained access to a and European trading partners (Brown 1981:10-17; much expanded market for the flour they produced, McCabe 1987:13-16). especially in Philadelphia, but also in New York and in other lesser regional centers like New Brunswick, Looking at all of the watermills that were active in the from which the flour could be sold in urban markets Crosswicks Creek drainage during the colonial period, or exported, usually to the West Indies or southern the mills at Walnford appear to have been established Europe. The considerable reach of the Walns’ mer-

Page 6-5 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. cantile connections is seen in Richard Waln’s ordering As the gristmill at Walnford continued its successful “a pair of the best Burr Mill stones” from a London operation through the first half of the 19th century, supplier in 1786. Burr stones were typically assem- even rebounding from a damaging fire in 1821 that bled in southern England from pieces of rock imported led to an upgraded Oliver Evans-style operation being from the Marne valley of northern France, further built in its place, so too did numerous new mill seats illustrating the extent of the mill’s economic reach. become established in the Crosswicks Creek drainage The gristmill operated with two run of stones, one (Figure 6.1; Table 6.1). Some of these were gristmills – likely the set imported from London – producing and sawmills, as at Groveville [1, 2], Extonville [4], “Superfine” flour for sale in the urban market and the on Back Creek in Yardville [7], outside Allentown other grinding coarser “country” product. The bulk of [10] and Imlaystown [13], in Red Valley [14, 15], on the grain, lumber, pork and other farm produce was Lahaway Creek [21-23] and in the uppermost reaches bought and sold by the Walns, but a small proportion of the drainage [26-29]. Another gristmill, Lawrence’s of the milling involved custom work by the millers, mill, was even set up less than a mile from Walnford sawyers and fullers for local farmers and their families on Mirey Run [18], but for the most part, these new (McCabe 1987:21-23). facilities appeared in the remoter sections of the drainage (typically sawmills working areas of previously The level of production of the Walnford mills during uncut forest) or some distance downstream, where the and after the Revolution as compared to other mills in hydro-engineering challenges of the creek may have the Crosswicks Creek drainage is difficult to assess. deterred earlier millwrights. By the mid-19th century, Although account books and letter books in the Waln by which time grain processing in the fertile farmland Papers at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania show of the Crosswicks Creek watershed had just passed its that the Walns’ trading activities were curtailed during peak, there were at least 16 gristmills and close to 20 the war, the Walnford mills soon regained their pre- sawmills active along the drainage. war level of production in the later 1780s and 1790s. One suspects a similar resurgence of other gristmills An important feature of the expansion of water- in the Crosswicks Creek drainage through into the powered industry in the central New Jersey coun- early 19th century as the nation’s agrarian economic tryside during this period was the diversification of base expanded. For gristmills and other types of milling processes, especially in the area of textile watermills in central New Jersey and the Crosswicks manufacturing (Figure 6.1; Table 6.1). Water-powered Creek drainage, this period represents the heyday of fulling mills largely died out in the early years of rural water-powered industry. In the mid-1790s, there the 19th century as technological advances and the were around a thousand watermills in New Jersey industrialization of the textile industry saw the vari- and around 20,000 in the country as a whole, the vast ous processes of cloth production (spinning, carding, majority being rural grist and sawmills. The 1840 fed- weaving, finishing, etc.) consolidated under one fac- eral census reported a total of 66,000 gristmills, saw- tory roof. Traditional spinning and weaving in the mills, fulling mills and tanneries, more than 55,000 home soon became obsolete, a trend accelerated when of these being grist and sawmills. Historian Louis mechanized power looms began to be introduced in Hunter calculated that by 1850 there was one grist and the 1820s. Against this background, the fulling mill sawmill to every 310 inhabitants in the nation (with a at Walnford appears to have shut down early in the slightly higher ratio of 1:280 for the Middle Atlantic 19th century, but at least three textile mills came into region) (Hunter 1979:29-38). operation along the Crosswicks Creek drainage, often also at the expense of an older gristmill. A cotton spin-

Page 6-6 Legend Trenton Province

5 Line ^_ Waln's Mill ROBBINSVILLE HAMILTON Water-Powered Mill Sites Back Creek List of Water-Powered Mill Sites 7 1. Groveville Mills 16. Buzbee Plaster Mill MILLSTONE 2. Unknown 17. Unknown 10 3. Buzby's Mills 18. Lawrence's Mill Yardville 4. Extonville Woolen Factory 19. Hornerstown Mills 8 MERCER COUNTY9 Allentown 15 5. Waln's Mill 20. Prospertown Mills 11 6. New Egypt Mills 21. Unknown Doctor's Creek 7. Hutchinson's Mills 22. Miller 's Mill 1 Groveville 13 8. Hutchinson's Mills 23. Van Hise Mill Doctor's Creek Imlaystown 9. Darnell & Bro. Flour Mill 24. Lovett Mills 2 14 10. Unknown 25. Cookstown Mills 12 11. Allentown Mills 26. Jones's Mill 3 12. Imlaystown Mills 27. Unknown 16 UPPER FREEHOLD 13. Unknown 28. Hocamick Mill 14. Dawes' Mill 29. Hutchinson's Mill Crosswicks 15. Unknown Unmapped: Samuel Stockton Gristmill Bordentown Extonville Walnford 22 4 Mircy Run 17 ^_5 18 21 23 DELAWARE BORDENTOWN Crosswicks Creek 20 Prospertown RIVER MONMOUTH COUNTY

CHESTERFIELD

19 Lahaway Creek

Hornerstown

BURLINGTON COUNTY JACKSON

NEW HANOVER 24 Burlington

6 New Egypt

OCEAN COUNTY

PLUMSTED 25 Cookstown 26

28 Wrightstown North Run 29

± 27

00.375 0.75 1.5 2.25 3

Miles

Figure 6.1. Locations of Water-Powered Mill Sites in the Crosswicks Creek Drainage (see Table 6.1 for details of individual sites).

TABLE 6.1. SUMMARY OF WATER‐POWERED MILL SITES IN THE CROSSWICKS CREEK DRAINAGE Mill ID # Mill Site Name Mill Type Stream Locality Muncipality County Historic Map Representation Owner Mill Type Fall (ft.) Net HP Gross HP Otley & Keily 1849, Lake & Beers 1860, Everts & grist, saw, cotton spinning, Wm. McK. & Edward J. In 1821, woolen, grist and sawmills (Woodward & 1 Groveville Mills Crosswicks Creek Groveville Hamilton Mercer Stewart 1875, Sanborn 1890, Sanborn 1908, Sanborn Cotton 7 40 57 woolen Morris Hageman 1883:803‐804, 806) 1927 2 Unknown saw Crosswicks Creek Groveville Hamilton Mercer Otley & Keily 1849 grist, saw, turning, Otley & Keily 1849, Lake & Beers 1860, Everts & Mill dates from early 18thc; rebuilt 1779 after fire 3 Buzby's Mills Crosswicks Creek North Crosswicks Hamilton Mercer Buzbee Cotton 9 25 35 hydroelectric Stewart 1875, Sanborn 1922 (Woodward & Hageman 1883:803‐804) Buzbee Saw 9 15 22 grist, woolen, cotton, carpet Gordon 1833, Otley & Keily 1849, Parry et al. 1858, pre‐1840; in existence 1865 torn down by 1883 4 Extonville Woolen Factory Crosswicks Creek Extonvillle Hamilton Mercer 5 warp factory Lake & Beers 1860, Everts & Stewart 1875 (Woodward & Hageman 183:803‐804) Gironcourt 1780, Hills 1781, Gordon 1833, Lightfoot 5 Waln's Mill grist, fulling, saw Crosswicks Creek Walnford Upper Freehold Monmouth 1851, Beers & Beers 1861, Beers 1873, Wolverton Miss S. Hendrickson Grist 3 32 46 established mid‐1730s by Samuel Rogers 1889 6 New Egypt Mills grist, saw Crosswicks Creek New Egypt Plumsted Ocean Hills 1781, Beers 1872 Walter Lamb Flouring 6 50 70

Gordon 1833, Otley & Keily 1849, Lake & Beers 1860, mills established c.1801 by Joseph Lawrie (LBA 7 Hutchinson's Mills grist, saw Back Creek Yardville Hamilton Mercer D.S. Hutchinson Flouring 22 36 55 Everts & Stewart 1875 1998:373‐386) (Woodward & Hageman 1883:804)

Otley & Keily 1849, Lake & Beers 1860, Everts & ?18thc gristmill run by Britton (Woodward & Hageman 8 Hutchinson's Mills grist, saw Doctor's Creek Yardville Hamilton Mercer C. Hutchinson Flouring 10 35 50 Stewart 1875 1883:802‐804) C. Hutchinson Saw 10 30 50 Gordon 1833, Lightfoot 1851, Beers 1873, Wolverton 9 Darnell & Bro. Flour Mill woolen, flouring Doctor's Creek Allentown Upper Freehold Monmouth J. Darnell & Bro. Flouring 9 35 50 1889 saw, sash & blind, wagon 10 Unknown Branch of Doctor's Creek Allentown Allentown Borough Monmouth Lightfoot 1851, Everts & Stewart 1875, Sanborn 1910 works Hills 1781, Gordon 1833, Lightfoot 1851, Beers & 11 Allentown Mills grist, saw, fulling Doctor's Creek Allentown Allentown Borough Monmouth A. Cafferty Flouring 10 25 36 established 1706 by Nathan Allen (Ellis 1885:620) Beers 1861, Beers 1873, Sanborn 1910

Hills 1781, Gordon 1833, Lightfoot 1851, Beers & established pre‐1700 by Richard Salter (Ellis 1885:617, 12 Imlaystown Mills grist, fulling, bark Doctor's Creek Imlaystown Upper Freehold Monmouth Reuben Hendrickson Flouring 10 25 36 Beers 1861, Beers 1873 634) 13 Unknown saw Branch of Doctor's Creek Imlaystown Upper Freehold Monmouth Beers & Beers 1861 14 Dawes' Mill saw, grist Doctor's Creek Red Valley Upper Freehold Monmouth Gordon 1833, Lightfoot 1851, Beers & Beers 1861 J. Dawes Grist 10 20 30 15 Unknown saw Doctor's Creek Near Red Valley Upper Freehold Monmouth Lightfoot 1851 16 Buzbee Plaster Mill plaster Branch at Crosswicks Crosswicks Chesterfield Burlington Scott 1876 Buzbee Plaster 9 30 45 millpond on 1876 map 17 Unknown unknown Branch of Crosswicks Creek Extonville Chesterfield Burlington Gordon 1833 Lightfoot 1851, Beers & Beers 1861, Beers 1873, 18 Lawrence's Mill grist Mirey Run Cream Ridge Upper Freehold Monmouth Kirby Grist 10 20 30 Wolverton 1889 grist, saw and fulling mills present in 1834 (Gordon); Gironcourt 1780, Hills 1781, Lightfoot 1851, Beers & 19 Hornerstown Mills grist, saw, fulling Lahaway Creek Hornerstown Upper Freehold Monmouth E. Emson Grist 8 25 36 grist and sawmill were established pre‐1800 by Caleb Beers 1861, Beers 1873, Wolverton 1889 Ivins; in Ivins family until 1852 E. Emson Saw 8 10 15

Hills 1781, Gordon 1833, Lightfoot 1851, Beers & around 1800 fulling mill moved here and converted to 20 Prospertown Mills grist, saw Lahaway Creek Prospertown Upper Freehold Monmouth E. Emson Flouring 9 35 50 Beers 1861, Beers 1873, Wolverton 1889 gristmill by Moses Ivins (Ellis 1885:638)

E. Emson Saw 9 15 20 21 Unknown saw Lahaway Creek Prospertown Upper Freehold Monmouth Beers & Beers 1861, Beers 1873, Wolverton 1889 Lightfoot 1851, Beers & Beers 1861, Beers 1873, 22 Miller's Mill grist Lahaway Creek Prospertown Upper Freehold Monmouth Wolverton 1889 23 Van Hise Mill saw Lahaway Creek Lahaway Plantation Plumsted Ocean Gordon 1833, Beers 1872 A. Van Hise Saw 5 10 15 24 Lovett Mills snuff, oil, flour Stony Ford Brook New Egypt Plumsted Ocean Gordon 1833, Beers 1872 Gordon 1833, Otley & Whiteford 1849, Parry et al. grist and sawmill erected by Richard Kirby in 1732 25 Cookstown Mills grist, saw North Run Cookstown New Hanover Burlington L.D. Woodward Flouring 13 24 35 1858, Scott 1876 (Woodward & Hageman 1883:384‐385) Gordon 1833, Otley & Whiteford 1849, Parry et al. 26 Jones's Mill grist North Run Near Wrightstown New Hanover Burlington Mrs. Annie Davis Grist 12 25 38 1858, Scott 1876

27 Unknown saw South Run Near Pointville New Hanover Burlington Otley & Whiteford 1849, Parry et al. 1858

Gordon 1833, Otley & Whiteford 1849, Parry et al. 28 Hocamick Mill saw Crosswicks Creek Hockamick New Hanover Burlington Levi Parker Saw 10 40 60 1858, Scott 1876 29 Hutchinson's Mill saw Crosswicks Creek Brindletown Plumsted Ocean Gordon 1833 M. Hutchinson Saw 12 30 45 unmapped Samuel Stockton Gristmill grist North Run east of Cookstown New Hanover Burlington Woodward & Hageman 1883:385

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD ning factory and woolen mill superseded the grist and business. By 1880, this transition was well-advanced sawmill at Groveville [1], the gristmill at Extonville and the wheels and turbines of many small rural grist- was converted to a woolen mill [4] and a new woolen mills throughout New Jersey and the Mid-Atlantic mill was erected on Doctor’s Creek [9], just outside region were lying idle. Waln’s mill, for its part, Allentown, downstream of the main Allentown mills. experienced a shift in business from the production Further diversification of water-powered milling may of merchant flour for sale in city markets to custom be seen in the opening of a plaster mill, for grinding milling of local farmers’ grain and ear corn, usually lime for fertilizer, outside Crosswicks [16], a bark for use as animal feed, a transition that is evident in mill, in support of the early 19th-century tannery at the industrial schedules of the decennial federal cen- Imlaystown [12], and a snuff mill that was operating sus between 1850 and 1880 (see above, Table 3.2). A on Stony Ford Brook, outside New Egypt, in the early growing emphasis on dairy farming in the immediate 1830s [24]. Walnford area in the final years of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th century paral- The second half of the 19th century brought major leled the mill’s transition from merchant to custom changes to rural grist and sawmilling in central New mill. Elsewhere in the Crosswicks Creek drainage, Jersey and throughout the United States. Despite a the number of gristmills was dwindling. By the doubling of the nation’s farm population between 1890s, only five gristmills were active, one of them 1840 and 1880, and the opening up of the Midwest as Waln’s mill, although eight flouring mills, most of the nation’s breadbasket, the number of grist and saw- them now equipped with turbines and rollers, were mills declined during this period from around 55,000 still struggling to stay in business in the villages of to 50,000 in 1880. By 1919 a total of 21,135 flour Yardville [7, 8], Allentown [9, 11], Imlaystown [12], and gristmills was reported, fewer of which would New Egypt [6], Prospertown [20] and Cookstown have been using waterpower, although many of those [25]. By 1918, the mills at Allentown were the last would have been supplemented with steam or internal in Monmouth County to still be powered by water combustion engines. By this time, the number of (Gabrielan 2001:28). water-powered grist and sawmills was most definitely on the wane, and as Louis Hunter noted, “thousands In the case of sawmills, by the mid-19th century continued to function, though hardly to flourish” most primary woodland on New Jersey’s Coastal (Hunter 1979:1-50). Plain had been harvested for house construction, for shipbuilding or for fuel and the focus of lumber pro- In the case of gristmills, the creation of a national duction shifted into densely forested, more mountain- railroad system allowed cheap grain from the plains ous areas, both in the Appalachians and in the West. to be easily shipped to eastern markets. This, along Improvements in sawmilling technology, especially with the advent of large steam-powered rolling mills, the introduction of the circular saw, also encouraged led to the centralization of east coast flour mills in centralization and mass production within the industry towns and increasing mass production in the emergent which led to a lesser density of sawmilling locations grain milling industry in the Mid-West. There was in the landscape. Sawmilling died out rapidly in cen- a concomitant decline of the small water-powered tral New Jersey in the second half of the 19th century gristmills spread across the countryside of the eastern and by 1900 there were only a handful of water-pow- seaboard. Increasingly, the city-based merchant mills ered mills and a few portable steam-powered mills in mass-producing flour for sale in urban markets put operation. At Walnford, the sawmill appears to have smaller milling operations in the countryside out of been only intermittently in operation in the mid-19th

Page 6-7 HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. century and its output was so meager that it did not the confirmatory elevation data from the headrace figure in the industrial schedules of the federal census. remains found in 1984 were not gathered. A new dam The most recent map on which it is depicted is in the and raceway system were constructed for this mill, Beers atlas of 1873 (see above, Figure 3.7). By the on a different alignment and apparently at a higher 1890s only seven water-powered sawmills were in elevation (a point that supports the use of a breast operation in the entire Crosswicks Creek drainage, wheel). The new mill displayed many elements of the most of them in the upper reaches where limited quan- typical Oliver Evans vertically integrated gristmill, tities of lumber could still be harvested. perfected in the 1790s and widely adopted throughout the country. The basic dimensions, layout and inter- Finally, there is a long trajectory of development nal workings of this mill all appear to have closely in waterpower technology against which the mills followed the Evans model. One may assume that at Walnford may be compared. In the mid-1730s, the Walns, with their Philadelphia roots, were well colonial millwrights in New Jersey drew upon a well- aware of Evans’s innovations in millwrighting and established body of traditional Old World knowledge grain processing, which were introduced first in the about the construction and operation of watermills. nearby Wilmington, Delaware area and reported and Samuel Rogers retained a millwright to erect a water- published locally. Indeed, it is possible that Walns mill with a distinctive double waterwheel, presum- may even have made Evans-inspired alterations to the ably to provide additional capacity and improve his pre-1822 mill that they owned for a half century prior competitive position in relation to the older mills in to its career-ending fire. nearby Imlaystown and Allentown. Whether he used the two wheels to power two independent sets of mill- The final phase of mill development at Walnford stones, one for flour, the other for meal, or assigned followed yet another damaging fire in 1872 and saw one wheel to gristmilling and the other to fulling, is the mill’s hydropower system adapted yet again. not known, but either way he likely held an advan- The breast wheel of the mid-19th-century mill was tage over his neighbor millers. It is also unknown if replaced with a new Risdon turbine, which neces- the original wheels were of undershot or breast type sitated the reconfiguration of the headrace and wheel (overshot is unlikely given the local topography); yet pit. An extra set of millstones was added; all three these were evidently replaced by a single wheel of being installed in the southernmost bay of the build- greater efficiency sometime between the 1750s and ing directly above the turbine pit. Almost forty years early 1770s that would very likely have been a breast later, with the mill somewhat the worse for wear, and wheel, installed when the original wheels reached the with siltation in the millpond and raceway a serious end of their working life, or were perhaps damaged by issue, the headrace and wheel/turbine pit were remod- floods. If a transition from undershot to breast was eled one more time, making use of concrete for new made during this replacement episode, it was likely construction and facing deteriorated walls. These accompanied both by a rebuilding of the headrace and alterations, along with the addition of corn cob grind- a raising of the milldam to a higher elevation. ing machinery and other labor-saving equipment, added only a few more years to the mill’s effective The new mill, erected by Nicholas Waln in 1822 after life, with the facility finally closing down in 1917. the first mill was destroyed by fire, almost certainly employed a breast wheel, although unfortunately

Page 6-8 Chapter 7

CONCLUSIONS

The archaeological explorations and monitoring con- gristmill, with two run of millstones likely positioned ducted on and around the site of Waln’s Mill in 1981, on the first floor in the third bay from the north, above 1983, 1995 and 1998 have added important detail and adjacent to the wheel pit in the southernmost bay. about the history and evolution of water-powered This mill probably had at least two stories and may industry at Walnford. However, as is so often the case have closely resembled the current building in its with archaeological inquiry, these same studies have overall form. In the rebuilding episode of 1872-1873, also raised numerous and some quite fundamental an extra set of millstones was added and all three sets questions about where the various mills were located, were repositioned in the southernmost bay on the first how they were configured, and how they were rebuilt floor, directly above the turbine. Further modification and altered at various points over time. of the southern end of the mill and its hydropower system took place around 1911, mostly involving limited Excavations have produced ample archaeological rebuilding and refacing of the foundation and turbine evidence of the gristmill erected by Nicholas Waln in pit in concrete. 1822, the mill rebuilt by Sarah Waln Hendrickson in 1872-1973 and the alterations made by Richard Waln It is generally held that the current mill superstruc- Meirs circa 1911. This evidence mostly takes the ture, on account of circular-sawn timbers in its frame, form of structural remains, chiefly foundations, floor- was erected as part of the 1872-1873 rebuilding. The ing, machine bases and hydropower features, along absence of destruction deposits in the archaeological with associated cultural deposits. Few mill-related record, however, suggests that the fire did not result in artifacts were recovered, but perhaps most problem- the total loss of the building (normally some trace of atic is the fact that no clear traces were seen of the such destruction would be observable), and the foun- two major fires that occurred – the first, in 1821, that dations of the 1822 mill appear to have been largely prompted Nicholas Waln’s replacement of the original reused. mill of the mid-1730s and the second, in 1872, which led to the construction of the mill that we see today. Archaeological monitoring and limited testing around the exterior of the mill and on the site of the headrace, The archaeological work inside the current mill milldam and millpond produced tantalizing evidence building has confirmed that the foundations of this of both an earlier headrace and an earlier milldam, structure date mostly from the mill rebuilding episode along with remnants of bulkheading along the edge of 1822 and that the southern end of the mill was of the millpond, upstream of the headrace, and traces extensively modified in 1872-1873, following the of a coffer dam, probably installed in connection with second fire, to allow for the substitution of a Risdon the alterations made around 1911. The traces of the turbine in place of what was likely a breast wheel in earlier headrace and milldam were observed during the 1822 watermill. The design and operation of the construction activity in 1983-84, but unfortunately mill of 1822, four bays long and three bays wide, 55 were not accessible for examination and documenta- by 38 feet in plan, appears to have closely followed tion in 1995. the Oliver Evans model of a vertically integrated

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The remains of a timber flume found just east of the fire. Again, no archaeological evidence was found southern end of the mill are most likely part of the of this destruction in the form of burned deposits or headrace for the 1822 gristmill, although there is a structural debris. possibility they could relate to the original mid-1730s mill construction (in hindsight, more rigorous collec- In view of the lack of evidence for the original mills tion of elevation data, surveying and sampling of these having existed on the site of the present mill, the pos- remains at the time of their discovery would have sibility should be considered that the original mill site assisted here). The timber-framed remains of the ear- lay elsewhere, perhaps downstream from the current lier dam are thought more likely to be associated with mill, on the same side of the creek, closer to the his- the original mid-1730s mill than either of the 19th- toric bridge crossing (see above, Figure 5.1). Such century mills, the assumption being that the current a situation is not necessarily incompatible with the dam, raised in height at least once, dates in essence finding of the timber remains of an earlier milldam from the 1822 mill building episode. The alignment so close to the existing milldam, nor with the flume of the earlier dam, probably a tumbling dam, is notice- remains; it is feasible that a headrace, 200 feet or ably skew to the footprint of the 19th-century mills so in length, could have originated in the vicinity and the projected elevation of the associated mill- of the existing mill and extended downstream to a pond is considerably lower than that of the millpond mill building located closer to the bridge crossing. retained by the later dam, both perhaps points in favor Assuming that some traces of the original mills of the of this dam servicing an earlier mill with an undershot mid-1730s still survive somewhere on the right bank wheel or wheels. If the opportunity arises in the future of the creek at Walnford, then archaeology still repre- for a re-examination of the remains of the timber sents the last, best and probably only hope of figuring flume or the earlier dam, provision should be made out where the first mills were located. A series of for detailed documentation and the retrieval of wood north-south test trenches, excavated along the creek samples for tree ring dating and species identification. bank from roughly 100 feet upstream of the present mill to the bridge crossing, might be successful in The deep-buried timber remains of the earlier headra- resolving once and for all where the original mills ce and milldam bring to the fore the single most were positioned. Such excavations, however, would consequential question raised by the various archaeo- be an expensive and logistically difficult proposition, logical investigations, namely: where was the original requiring a backhoe and dewatering equipment, and mill site as established by Samuel Rogers in the mid- an exceptionally discerning archaeological eye. 1730s? In many respects, the logical spot for the first mills on the site is the site of the present mill. This As a final caveat, it is important to stress that the is still a plausible location, but archaeological work archaeological record at the site of Waln’s Mill is at has worryingly found no evidence of foundations or this juncture extensively compromised. The effect of structural remains of an earlier mill building preced- the various excavations, and also of the mill restora- ing the currently standing building, which sits atop tion and rehabilitation work, not to mention the mill the foundations of Nicholas Waln’s mill of 1822 mill. construction programs of 1822 and 1872-1873, and Waln, when he erected this mill, was replacing the the alterations of circa 1911, has been to remove and first gristmill and fulling mill at Walnford, then close disturb many of the most critical mill-related depos- to 90 years old, which had been recently destroyed by its and structural remains. Little of archaeological interest is likely to survive within the footprint of the present mill building, except at the lowest levels

Page 7-2 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT WALN’S MILL, WALNFORD of the wheel pit and basement walls and beneath the to disentangle from the many late 20th-century intru- restored floors. The area of the headrace immediately sions. A much higher potential for intact mill-related south and east of the mill building has been radically archaeological remains will exist further afield and worked over, although remnants of the flume and with increasing distance from the present mill, notably earlier dam may yet be available for re-examination. on the sites of the milldams, on the sawmill site and Unexcavated archaeological deposits with the poten- downstream along the creek bank from the mill as far tial to yield important information do certainly survive as the bridge crossing. in patches to the east and west of the present mill, but these are likely to be deeply buried and difficult

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Brown, James S. 1981 Walnford. Manuscript on file, Monmouth County Park System, Lincroft, New Jersey.

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DeSilets, Robert 1982-87 Plans and Drawings for Waln’s Mill. On file, Monmouth County Park System, Lincroft, New Jersey.

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Groff, Sibyl and the Mullen Family (with revisions by Historic Sites Staff) 1975 Walnford (Waln’s Mill). National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form. On file, New Jersey Historic Preservation Office (NJDEP), Trenton, New Jersey. Electronic document, https:// npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/537eaad5-2af2-472f-b517-d8649716f6c1, accessed September 2019.

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Howell, Charles 1981 Evaluation of Restoration, Walnford Mill, Monmouth County, New Jersey. Report on file, Monmouth County Park System, Lincroft, New Jersey.

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Hunter, Richard W. 1999 Patterns of Mill Siting and Materials Processing: A Historical Geography of Water-Powered Industry in Central New Jersey. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Geography, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

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Hunter Research, Inc. 2003 South Broad Street Bridge Cultural Resources Assessment, City of Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey. Report on file, New Jersey Historic Preservation Office (NJDEP), Trenton, New Jersey.

2006 Historical and Archaeological Investigations, Dunham’s Mill Site, Woodbridge Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey. Report on file, New Jersey Historic Preservation Office (NJDEP), Trenton, New Jersey.

2019 Archaeological Investigation, Monitoring and Documentation, John Rogers House, West Windsor Township, Mercer County, New Jersey. Report on file, New Jersey Historic Preservation Office (NJDEP), Trenton, New Jersey.

Jablonski, C.F., and R.J. Baumley 1989 Soil Survey of Monmouth County, New Jersey. USDA Soil Conservation, Washington, D.C.

Lake, D.J., and S.N. Beers 1860 Map of the Vicinity of Philadelphia and Trenton. C.K. Stone & A. Pomeroy, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Lightfoot, Jesse 1851 Map of Monmouth County, New Jersey. J.B. Shields, Middletownpoint, New Jersey. On file, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Electronic document, https://www.loc.gov, accessed September 2019.

Louis Berger & Associates, Inc. 1998 Historic Sites. Trenton Complex Archaeology: Report 12. The Cultural Resources Group, Louis Berger & Associates, Inc. East Orange, New Jersey. Prepared for the Federal Highway Administration and the New Jersey Department of Transportation, Bureau of Environmental Analysis.

McCabe, James C. 1987 Walnford: 250 Years of a Central New Jersey Milling Village and Country Estate. Report on file, Monmouth County Park System, Lincroft, New Jersey.

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New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection 2018 Aerial Imagery of Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, 1930-2015. Electronic Document, https://njwebmap.state.nj.us, accessed September 2019.

Otley, J.W., and J. Keily 184 Map of Mercer County. Lloyd Vanderveer, Camden, New Jersey.

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Parry, W., G. Sykes and F. Earl 1858 Map of Burlington County. R.K. Kuhn and J.D. Janney, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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Price, Jacob M. 1984 The Transatlantic Economy. In Colonial British North America, Essays in the New History of the Early Modern Era, edited by Jack P. Greene and J.R. Pole. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland.

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Sanborn Map Company 1890 Insurance Maps of the City of Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey. Sanborn Map Company, New York, New York.

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Yamin, Rebecca 1992 Archaeology at Walnford – The First Season. A Joint Project of the Monmouth County Park System and Rutgers University. Report on file, New Jersey Historic Preservation Office (NJDEP), Trenton, New Jersey.

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Page R-6 Appendix A

ARTIFACT CATALOG

Walnford Mill, Artifact Catalog Summary. Unit Type Unit Number Context Category Class Type Description Quantity General Provenience BHT Ceramics Redware Hollowware interior/exterior brown manganese lead glaze, wheel thrown 3 General Provenience BHT Glass Vessel Bottle curved, olive green, wine or spirits bottle 4 base/body fragments, dark olive green, oval base exhibits unusual thin circular pontil mark dome push up, two mend as one, wine or spirits bottle, c. General Provenience BHT Glass Vessel Bottle 1810‐1840 2 base/body fragment, dark olive green, indeterminate base, exhibits unusual General Provenience BHT Glass Vessel Bottle thin circular pontil mark bell push up, wine or spirits bottle 1 body/rim sherd, interior body/rim exhibits underglaze hand painted brown General Provenience WWT Ceramics Pearlware Hollowware annular above yellow ground decoration, possible bowl 1 Excavation Unit 3 2 Ceramics Ironstone Hollowware body/rim sherd, undecorated 1 Excavation Unit 3 2 Ceramics Ironstone Indeterminate footring, base, and body sherd, undecorated 1 Excavation Unit 5 2 Ceramics Ironstone Hollowware body/rim sherds, undecorated, three mend as one 3 Excavation Unit 5 2 Ceramics Ironstone Indeterminate base sherd, undecorated 1 large rod, square bodied, one end missing and the other round and threaded, Excavation Unit 5 15 Building Material Iron Indeterminate corroded 1 flat, one end missing and the opposite exhibiting Y shaped nail puller head, Excavation Unit 5 15 Building Material Iron Nail Puller corroded 1 Excavation Unit 5 15 Building Material Iron Spike cut, machine formed head, corroded 1 Excavation Unit 5 15 Building Material Iron Spike square bodied, head missing, heavily corroded 1 Excavation Unit 5 15 Ceramics Ironstone Hollowware pouring spout and body sherd, undecorated, pitcher 1 Excavation Unit 5 15 Ceramics Ironstone Hollowware exterior exhibits remnant underglaze molded decoration 1 body/rim sherds, interior exhibits white slip trailed wavy linear decoration under clear lead glaze with brown manganese highlights, one sherd exhibits hand drilled repair orifice, exhibits rouletted rim, hump mold manufactured, Excavation Unit 5 15 Ceramics Redware Flatware pie plate 3 Excavation Unit 5 15 Glass Vessel Indeterminate pale aqua, burnt and melted due to exposure to intense heat 1 complete, exhibits inward curving branches, rectangular nail attachment Excavation Unit 5 15 Metal Iron Horse Shoe orifices inside the fullering, exhibits calking, corroded 1 Excavation Unit 5 16 Building Material Iron Nail square bodied, head missing, heavily corroded 1 flat sheet iron fragment exhibits threaded screw with indeterminate head Excavation Unit 5 17 Building Material Iron Indeterminate passing through it, heavily corroded 1 Excavation Unit 5 17 Building Material Iron Nail square bodied, heads missing, heavily corroded 2 Excavation Unit 5 17 Ceramics Creamware Indeterminate undecorated 1 Excavation Unit 5 17 Ceramics Ironstone Hollowware body/rim sherd, undecorated 1 Excavation Unit 5 17 Ceramics Ironstone Hollowware undecorated, burnt due to exposure to intense heat 2 Excavation Unit 5 17 Glass Flat Windowlight pale aqua 1 Excavation Unit 9 18 Building Material Iron Nail wire, corroded 1 Excavation Unit 9 18 Building Material Iron Nail cut, machine formed head, corroded 1 Excavation Unit 9 18 Building Material Iron Spike square bodied, indeterminate type head, heavily corroded 1

Excavation Unit 9 18 Ceramics Ironstone Hollowware interior/exterior exhibits underglaze transfer print light blue floral decoration 1 pelvic fragment, exhibits sawing marks on two sides, exhibits knawing marks Excavation Unit 9 18 Fauna Mammal Large on one part, two mend as one, cow 2 Excavation Unit 9 18 Glass Flat Windowlight pale aqua 1 shoulder/neck/finish fragment, clear, sloped shoulders, tapered neck, Excavation Unit 9 18 Glass Vessel Bottle continuous thread closure, full machine manufacture 1

shoulder/neck/finish fragment, pale aqua, sloped shoulders, cylindrical neck, Excavation Unit 9 18 Glass Vessel Bottle exhibits hand applied patent closure, probably medicine bottle 1 Excavation Unit 9 18 Glass Vessel Bottle base/body fragment, pale aqua, exhibits plain oval base 1 Excavation Unit 9 18 Glass Vessel Bottle body/shoulder/neck fragment, pale aqua, sloped shoulders 1

base/body fragment, clear, round base exhibits circular embossed "FRANZIA Excavation Unit 9 18 Glass Vessel Bottle BROTHERS WINERY" above horizontal "REFILLING PROHIBITED" wine bottle 1

base/body fragments, deep forest green, round base exhibits graphite pontiled dome push up, body exhibits curved embossed "…ON" above Excavation Unit 9 18 Glass Vessel Bottle horizontal "…N", three mend as one, squat soda bottle, c. 1845‐1865 3 Excavation Unit 9 18 Glass Vessel Bottle/Jar curved, clear 3 Excavation Unit 12 23 Fauna Mammal Large tooth fragment, cow 1 Total Artifact Quantity 56

Appendix B

RESUMES

RICHARD W. HUNTER President/Principal Archaeologist, Ph.D., RPA

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Geography, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, 1999. Dissertation Title: Patterns of Mill Siting and Materials Processing: A Historical Geography of Water-Powered Industry in Central New Jersey

M.A., Archaeological Science, University of Bradford, England, 1975

B.A., Archaeology and Geography, University of Birmingham, England, 1973

EXPERIENCE

1986-present President/Principal Archaeologist Hunter Research, Inc., Trenton, NJ

Founder and principal stockholder of firm providing archaeological and historical research, survey, excavation, evaluation, report preparation, historic exhibit development and public outreach services in the Northeastern United States. Specific expertise in historical and industrial archaeology (mills, iron and steel manufacture, pottery manufacture), historical geography, historic landscape analysis, historic interpretive design and public outreach products. Participation in:  Project management, budgeting and scheduling  Proposal preparation and client negotiation  Hiring and supervision of personnel  Supervision of research, fieldwork, analysis and report preparation  Historic exhibit development, popular and academic publications and public presentations

1999-2004 Faculty Member, Certificate in Historic Preservation Office of Continuing Education, Drew University, Madison, NJ

Courses: The Role of Archaeology in Preservation 25 Years of Public Archaeology in New Jersey

1983-1986 Vice-President/Archaeologist Heritage Studies, Inc., Princeton, NJ

Principal in charge of archaeological projects. Responsibilities included:  Survey, excavation, analysis, and reports  Client solicitation, negotiation, and liaison  Project planning, budgeting, and scheduling  Recruitment and supervision of personnel

1981-1983 Principal Archaeologist Cultural Resource Group, Louis Berger & Associates, Inc., East Orange, NJ

Directed historical and industrial archaeological work on major cultural resource surveys and mitigation projects in the Mid-Atlantic region. Primary responsibility for report preparation and editing.

RICHARD W. HUNTER Page 2

1979-1981 Archaeological Consultant, Hopewell, NJ

1978-1981 Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Classics and Archaeology, Douglass College, Rutgers University, NJ

1978-1979 Research Editor Arete Publishing Company, Princeton, NJ

Prepared and edited archaeological, anthropological, and geographical encyclopedia entries (Academic American Encyclopedia, 1980).

1974-1977 Archaeological Field Officer Northampton Development Corporation, Northampton, England

Supervised archaeological salvage projects executed prior to development of the medieval town of Northampton (pop. 230,000).

Experience included:  Monitoring of construction activity  Supervision of large scale urban excavations  Processing of stratigraphic data and artifacts  Preparation of publication materials

1969-1970 Research Assistant Department of Planning and Transportation, Greater London Council

SPECIAL SKILLS AND INTERESTS

 water-powered mill sites  canals and urban water powers  iron and steel manufacture  pottery manufacture  historic cartography  scientific methods in archaeology  historic sites interpretation and public outreach

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

“New York’s Urban Archaeology. The Forts Landscape Reconstruction Project: Central Park’s Revolutionary War Forts.” Archaeological Institute of America, New York Society News, Winter 2015:6-8.

Sartori to Sacred Heart: Early Catholic Trenton. Sacred Heart Church [2014] (with Patrick Harshbarger).

“Historical Archaeology in Trenton: A Thirty-Year Retrospective.” In Historical Archaeology of the Delaware Valley, 1600-1850, edited by Richard Veit and David Orr. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, Tennessee [2013] (with Ian Burrow).

“A Sugar Bowl of William Young & Sons or William Young’s Sons.” Trenton Potteries 13 (1):1-3 [2013].

“Internal Oxidation of Cast Iron Artifacts from an 18th-century Steel Cementation Furnace.” Journal of Archaeological Science XXX, 1-8 [2012] (with Colin Thomas and Robert Gordon).

RICHARD W. HUNTER Page 3

“Steel Away: the Trenton Steel Works and the Struggle for American Manufacturing Independence.” In Footprints of Industry: Papers from the 300th Anniversary Conference at Coalbrookdale, 3-7 June 2009, edited by Paul Belford, Marilyn Palmer and Roger White. BAR British Series 523 [2010] (with Ian Burrow).

“Early Milling and Waterpower.” In Mapping New Jersey: An Evolving Landscape, edited by Maxine N. Lurie and Peter O. Wacker, pp. 170-179. Rutgers University Press [2009].

“On the Eagle’s Wings: Textiles, Trenton, Textiles, and a First Taste of the Industrial Revolution.” New Jersey History 124, Number 1, 57-98 [2009] (with Nadine Sergejeff and Damon Tvaryanas).

“The Historical Geography and Archaeology of the Revolutionary War in New Jersey.” In New Jersey in the American Revolution, edited by Barbara J. Mitnick, pp.165-193. Rutgers University Press [2005] (with Ian C.G. Burrow).

“Lenox Factory Buildings Demolished.” Trenton Potteries 6 (2/3):1-9 [2005].

Fish and Ships: Lamberton, the Port of Trenton. New Jersey Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration [2005] (28-page booklet).

Power to the City: The Trenton Water Power. New Jersey Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration [2005] (24-page booklet).

Rolling Rails by the River: Iron and Steel Fabrication in South Trenton. New Jersey Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration [2005] (24-page booklet).

Quakers, Warriors, and Capitalists: Riverview Cemetery and Trenton’s Dead. New Jersey Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration [2005] (24-page booklet) (with Charles H. Ashton).

“Keeping the Public in Public Archaeology.” In: Historic Preservation Bulletin, pp. 6-9. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Parks and Forestry, Historic Preservation Office [2004].

“A Coxon Waster Dump of the Mid-1860s, Sampled in Trenton, New Jersey.” In: Ceramics in America, edited by Robert Hunter, pp. 241-244. University Press of New England [2003] (with William B. Liebeknecht and Rebecca White).

“The Richards Face – Shades of an Eighteenth-Century American Bellarmine.” In: Ceramics in America, edited by Robert Hunter, pp. 259-261. University Press of New England [2003] (with William B. Liebeknecht).

“The Pottery Decorating Shop of the Mayer Arsenal Pottery Company.” Trenton Potteries 4(2):1- 7 [2003].

“Minutes of the Potters Union (Part 2).” Trenton Potteries 4(1):1-5 [2003].

“Minutes of the Potters Union (Part I).” Trenton Potteries 3(4):1-5 [2002].

“Eighteenth-Century Stoneware Kiln of William Richards Found on the Lamberton Waterfront, Trenton, New Jersey.” In: Ceramics in America, edited by Robert Hunter, pp. 239-243. University Press of New England [2001].

“William Richards’ Stoneware Pottery Discovered!” Trenton Potteries 1(3):1-3 [2000]. Reprinted in Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey 59:71-73 [2004].

“Trenton Re-Makes: Reviving the City by the Falls of the Delaware.” Preservation Perspective XVIII (2): 1, 3-5 [1999]

"Mitigating Effects on an Industrial Pottery." CRM 21(9):25-26 [1998] (with Patricia Madrigal). RICHARD W. HUNTER Page 4

From Teacups to Toilets: A Century of Industrial Pottery in Trenton, Circa 1850 to 1940, Teachers Guide sponsored by the New Jersey Department of Transportation, 1997 (with Patricia Madrigal and Wilson Creative Marketing).

"Pretty Village to Urban Place: 18th Century Trenton and Its Archaeology." New Jersey History, Volume 114, Numbers 3-4, 32-52 [Fall/Winter 1996] (with Ian Burrow).

Hopewell: A Historical Geography. Township of Hopewell [1991] (with Richard L. Porter).

"Contracting Archaeology? Cultural Resource Management in New Jersey, U.S.A." The Field Archaeologist (Journal of the Institute of Field Archaeologists) 12, 194-200 [March 1990] (with Ian Burrow).

"American Steel in the Colonial Period: Trenton's Role in a 'Neglected' Industry." In Canal History and Technology Proceedings IX, 83-118 [1990] (with Richard L. Porter).

"The Demise of Traditional Pottery Manufacture on Sourland Mountain, New Jersey, during the Industrial Revolution." Ch. 13 in Domestic Potters of the Northeastern United States, 1625-1850. Studies in Historical Archaeology, Academic Press [1985].

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Register of Professional Archaeologists (RPA) [formerly Society of Professional Archeologists] (accredited 1979; certification in field research, collections research, theoretical or archival research) Preservation New Jersey (Board Member, 1994 - 2003) New Jersey State Historic Sites Review Board (Member, 1983 -1993) Society for Historical Archaeology Society for Industrial Archaeology Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology Historical Metallurgical Society Council for Northeast Historical Archaeology Professional Archaeologists of New York City Archaeological Society of New Jersey (Life Member; Fellow, 2011)

OTHER AFFILIATIONS

Mercer County Cultural & Heritage Commission (Commissioner, 2011 – present) Trenton Downtown Association (Board Member, 1998 – present; Board Chair, 2007 - 2008) Trenton Museum Society, (Trustee, 2011 – present) Hopewell Township Historic Preservation Commission (Member, 1998 - 2006; Chair 2003 - 2004) Hopewell Valley Historical Society (Trustee, 2014 – present)

HUNTER RESEARCH Richard W. Hunter PRESIDENT Ian C. Burrow IAN C. BURROW VICE PRESIDENT Vice President/Principal Archaeologist, Ph.D., RPA

EDUCATION Ph.D., History and Archaeology, University of Birmingham, England, 1979 B.A., History and Archaeology, University of Exeter, England, 1971

EXPERIENCE 1988-2016 Principal Archaeologist Hunter Research, Inc., Trenton, NJ

Vice President and stockholder of firm providing archaeological and historical research, survey, excavation, evaluation, report preparation and public outreach services in the Northeastern United States. Responsible for:  Project management, budgeting and scheduling  Technical and synthetic writing  Proposal preparation, contract negotiation and management  Hiring and supervision of personnel  Supervision of research, fieldwork, analysis and report preparation  Development of public outreach initiatives  Design and Oversight of internship program  Company safety policy as Company Safety Officer, including oversight of HAZWOPER certification

2012-Present Vice President for Government Affairs, American Cultural Resources Association

2010-2012 President, Register of Professional Archaeologists

2004-2005 President, American Cultural Resources Association

1995-present Consultant Archaeological Reviewer for Township of Evesham, New Jersey, Planning and Zoning boards

2010-present Adjunct Professor Rutgers University Teaching in Cultural Heritage and Preservation Studies (CHAPS)

2006-present Adjunct Professor Drew University, New Jersey Teaching in Historic Preservation Certificate Program, School of Continuing Education

2008-present Adjunct Professor Rider University, New Jersey Teaching World History and developing archaeology program, Department of History, Introduction to Historical Archaeology, Department of Continuing Education

1986-1988 Director Oxford Archaeological Unit, Oxford, England Principal in charge of non-profit organization undertaking archaeological projects.

1975-1986 County Archaeologist for counties of Somerset (1979-86) and Shropshire (1975-79), England

Hunter Research, Inc. Historic Resource Consultants 120 West State Street, Trenton, NJ 08608-1185 609/695-0122 609/695-0147 Fax e-mail address: [email protected] www.hunterresearch.com Member: ACRA American Cultural Resources Association

Ian C. Burrow PAGE 2

1974-1988 Adult Education Tutor Universities of Birmingham and Bristol, England, and Department of External Studies, University of Oxford, England

SPECIAL SKILLS AND INTERESTS  18th -century military sites  archaeology and standing buildings  urban archaeology  archaeological education and public outreach  Cultural Resource and Heritage Management  National Historic Preservation Policy  Master planning for historic sites  National Register of Historic Places Nominations

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

“On the Brink (Dorp): The Archaeology and Landscape of the Fortified New-Netherland Village of Bergen, Jersey City, New Jersey.” Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey forthcoming 2014

“Historical Archaeology in Trenton: A Thirty-Year Retrospective (with Richard W. Hunter). In Historical Archaeology in the Delaware Valley 1600-1850, edited by Richard Veit and David Orr. University of Tennessee Press, 2014:323-374.

Peer reviewer for Antiquity Magazine (UK) 2008-

Review of Martin Carver; “Making Archaeology Happen: Design versus Dogma”. Historical Archaeology 46(4) 2012: 185-187.

“Steel Away: the Trenton Steel Works and the Struggle for American Manufacturing Independence” (with Richard W. Hunter). In Footprints of Industry: Papers from the 300th Anniversary Conference at Coalbrookdale, 3-7 June 2009. British Archaeological Reports, British Series 523 [2010]: 69-88.

Review of Paul Everill: “The Invisible Diggers: a study of British Commercial Archeology”. Antiquity 84 (2010): 256-257.

'"Wilkes and Liberty"-Anglo-American Colonial Politics at the Old Barracks, Trenton, New Jersey.' Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey 63 2008: 76-80.

Ancient Ways: Native Americans in South Trenton, 10,000 B.C. to A.D. 1700. New Jersey Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration [2005] (24-page booklet).

A Tale of Two Houses: The Lambert Douglas House and the Rosey Hill Mansion, 1700-1850. New Jersey Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration [2005] (24-page booklet).

Ian C. Burrow PAGE 3

“Archaeological Data Recovery Investigations at the Derewal Prehistoric Site, Hunterdon County, New Jersey.” Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, No. 54, 12-42, 1999, co-authored with Donald Thieme, William Liebeknecht and Joseph Schuldenrein.

“The Savich Farm Site: An Archaeological Survey for Phase I of the Long-Term Management Plan.” Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, No. 52, 35-50, 1997.

“We’ve Got Thousands of These Here Too! Significance Assessment and Farm Archaeology in New Jersey.” Paper presented at the Middle Atlantic Archaeology Conference, Ocean City, Maryland, March 1996. Published in Bulletin of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey, No. 52, 35-50, 1997.

“Pretty Village to Urban Place: 18th Century Trenton and Its Archaeology.” New Jersey History, Volume 14, Numbers 3-4, 32-52, Fall/Winter 1996, co-authored with Richard W. Hunter.

“Contracting Archaeology? Cultural Resource Management in New Jersey, U.S.A.” The Field Archaeologist (Journal of the Institute of Field Archaeologists) 12, 194-200, March 1990, co-authored with Richard W. Hunter.

PRESENTATIONS Frequent presenter at local, regional and national meetings and conferences. Numerous presentations to local societies and community groups.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS Friends of the New Jersey State Museum (Trustee 2002-2011) Friends of the New Jersey State Museum (Vice President 2009-2011) American Cultural Resources Association (Board member 2003-2008, 2012-2015) New Jersey Council for the Humanities Speakers’ Bureau Member since 1998 Registered Professional Archaeologist since 1999 Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London Institute of Field Archaeologists (UK: Charter Member) Society for Historical Archaeology Society for American Archaeology Archaeological Society of New Jersey: elected Fellow 2011

CERTIFICATIONS Current 40-hour HAZWOPER and 8-hour HAZWOPER Supervisory certification HAZWOPER Confined Space Entry Certification

ELECTED AND INVITED POSITIONS Register of Professional Archaeologists (President, 2010-2012) American Cultural Resources Association (President, 2004-2005) American Cultural Resources Association (Vice President for Government Relations 2012-present) Association of County Archaeological Officers, UK (Chair 1984-1986) White House Preserve America Summit, New Orleans 2007, Panel Member New Jersey Historical Commission Grants Review Panel Member 2002-2005

Appendix C

NEW JERSEY HISTORIC PRESERVATION OFFICE BIBLIOGRAPHIC ABSTRACT

APPENDIX C New Jersey Historic Preservation Office Bibliographic Abstract

HUNTER RESEARCH, INC.

Location: Waln's Mill, Walnford, Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, NJ

Drainage Basin: Crosswicks Creek

U.S.G.S. Quadrangle: Allentown, N.J.

Project: Archaeological Investigations at Waln's Mill, Walnford, Crosswicks Creek, Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey

Level of Survey: Monitoring

Cultural Resources: Waln's Mill

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Appendix D

PROJECT ADMINISTRATIVE DATA

APPENDIX D Project Administrative Data

HUNTER RESEARCH, INC. PROJECT SUMMARY Project Name: Archaeological Investigations at Waln's Mill, Walnford, Crosswicks Creek, Upper Freehold Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey Level of Survey: Monitoring HRI Project Reference: 19002 Date of Report: January 2020 Client: Friends of Monmouth County Park System, Inc. Prime: N/A Review Agency: NJHPO Agency Reference: N/A Artifacts/Records Deposited: Hunter Research, Inc.

PROJECT CHRONOLOGY Date of Contract Award: 1995 Notice to Proceed: 1995 Background Research: June 1995; October 2019 Fieldwork: September 1995 - September 1996 Analysis: February 1996 - September 1997 Report Written: May 2019 - January 2020

PROJECT PERSONNEL Principal Investigator(s): Background Researcher(s): Ian Burrow, George Cress, Richard W. Hunter Field Supervisor(s): George Cress Field Assistant(s): Ernest Bower, Susanne Eidson, Taylor Huttner, Eytan Krasilovsky, Matt Lazur, Michael Lenert, Vincent Maresca, Heidi McPherson, Michael Smith, Michael Weissberger Analyst(s): James Dews, Pegeen McLaughlin Draftperson(s): E. Bower, M. Brown, F. Dunsmore, , B. Kutzner, V. Maresca, E. Mydlowski, C. Smyrski Report Author(s): Richard W. Hunter

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