Hinton and Summers County may be laid back, sleepy, remote, rugged, and rural; yet wondrous relics of a frontier past are among some of the county’s most cherished memorials to mountaineer life. Priceless evidence of lives lived long ago still exists and is exciting for those in pursuit of seeking their roots. Genealogically speaking, many of the deepest roots and family connections trace back to the Little Bluestone River where this region’s first settler, Robert Lilly, built his homestead and created a family linking residents with kin spread out across the country.
A namesake, Robert (“Miller Bob”) Lilly — nearly a hundred years after the first Robert settled here — built a gristmill on the Little Bluestone on Ellison Ridge close to Jumping Branch, and descendants have developed a passion to preserve history, culture, and links to mountain family.
With a common purpose to protect and preserve Summers County’s last remaining gristmill, the Summers County Commissioners have purchased the mill to keep it safe until it can be taken over by a more appropriate entity. This mill, Cooper’s Mill, was added to the National Register of Historic Places nearly 20 years ago.
Outgoing Summers County Commissioner Jack David explained the commission has been looking at the Cooper’s Mill property for some time, with hopes of having the mill become part of the state or national parks systems. “Until all that can be worked out,” Woodrum confides “it was purchased by the county to both preserve it and buy time until a protective entity can embrace it and develop ways for the public to enjoy it.” Woodrum said he felt “the price was right, and the vision is a good one.”
The Summers County Commission’s $25,000 acquisition includes over 10 acres of land surrounding the mill. The mill’s main seller, Jack Wills — long tied to the mill property — is happy to see a dream fulfilled in his family, the desire to share the mill’s history and bring it back to life. Historians in the area are elated. They have worked toward that dream for a very long time.
Ben Vest is a native of the area and a descendant of the original Robert Lilly. As an active member of the Summers Historical Society, he has expressed that while there were a few mills around Summers County “this mill is the last of its kind, all original with all original parts. Mills were like schools in that people needed them within proximity on horseback. People would pack up their grain, haul the grain to the mill, tell the miller ‘here’s my grain, give me the meal or the flour,’ left some grain behind as their toll (payment), and that’s how the farmer and the miller survived.”
In those days, Vest continued, “a visit to the mill was generally within a day’s trip,” and while gathered at the mill they would shuck corn, play music together, dance, craft, and employ the services of a blacksmith. Going to the mill was social as well as essential.
People were dependent upon these services. “Families and the military were so dependent on the mills to grind grain and corn that millers were exempt from military service and therefore exempted from the Civil War.” Gristmills were critical to grinding tons of meal and flour to supply the major ingredients of the staples of the mountaineer diet. As the mill, over time, changed hands, it remained within the family and eventually was renovated in 1930 and remained operational until 1959.
Cooper’s Mill is difficult to get to, and inaccessibility is credited for keeping the mill safe and untouched. By all counts the mill is still capable of “a turn of corn” says Wills. Wills remembers his time with his grandfather around the mill and he has been dedicated to researching, writing, and producing an informative brochure about the mill’s history.
A lot of people have been involved in the effort to save and share the mill, from the parks, walking trail developers, Friends of Cooper Mill, the Land Trust, the Summers County Commission, family, members of the Summers County Historical Society and descendants of those who used to rely on the mill.
Wills has predicted “Coopers Mill is possibly going to be a name and place we will hear of often in the near and distant future. The water still flows to a wheel that puts the operation in motion and the inner workings remain intact.” The shared vision of preserving its remarkable viability holds promise for future tourism — inclusion in the development of hiking trails linking the Jumping Branch area to Pipestem. The mill also lends itself to limitless possibilities of showcasing a working gristmill, the culture and the history it once provided to the community.
Cooper’s Mill used to serve the village of Lilly near Bluestone State Park. The early community was evacuated in the 1940s when work began on the Bluestone Dam, making access to original civilization very difficult. Because of its remote location, time has been kind to the gristmill because, as most familiar with it agree, “it so difficult to get to”.
Miller Bob sold the mill in 1885 to Josiah Cooper who renamed it Cooper’s Mill. The mill was sold to Josiah Cooper’s son, Thomas Moody Cooper in 1893. Thomas Moody Cooper operated the mill until just before he died in 1945.
Around 1930, Thomas Moody Cooper replaced the logs of the main section of the mill with chestnut siding and replaced the wooden wheel with a 16×3 foot metal Fitz overshot wheel. His son operated the mill sporadically until 1950. Over time, his heirs sold the mill and surrounding 10 acres to descendants of Thomas Moody Cooper. Among the descendants are current owners Dr. and Mrs. Jack C Wills.
“As [Great] Grandpa Tom Cooper died in 1945, I don’t have a lot of memories, but I might mention one or two,” Wills recalls. “I remember him doing a turn of corn on two or three occasions as folks were coming in for the reunion, I recall the water in the flume, the turning of the water wheel, the sound of the running stone as it ground the corn on the bedstone and I remember thinking it odd that when he made bread, he worked up biscuit dough but then baked it as one would bake a sheet cake without cutting it into biscuits. He always had several cats, and he kept a longboard extended from the windowsill to the ground in back so that the cats could come and go at will.
Grandpa Tom was also a good fiddle player, and while he and a customer were waiting for the corn to grind, he would entertain them with fiddle tunes like, ‘Soldier’s Joy’ and ‘Under the Double Eagle.’ He had a King Heater in the bottom of the mill, along with a basket of ‘pearmain’ apples, and in late fall and winter, he would invite customers to go down to get warm and help themselves. He had a toll box, of course, and — despite the reputation of some millers over the years, he leveled it to make sure he was not taking more product than he was entitled to. A favorite variety of the corn of the time was called “Bloody Butcher,” which one can still obtain from certain sources, and corn shucking was sometimes held in the upstairs room of the mill.”
These memories are the threads of the woven tapestries of life’s great personal history.
Outgoing commissioner and new State Senator Jack David Woodrum reiterated “We have now acquired the mill to protect it. Coopers Mill is important to see it protected. The mill ties into the trail project we have going.”
Coopers Mill would be a good trailhead or destination point, Woodrum said “the county has an interest in the mill: This is not the first time we have purchased property to protect it and see it incorporated into the park system. John Henry Park is another example of purchasing property to preserve it. We are not pressed for time. We can be respectful of the present demands on our parks and maintenance at the present time. There are other folks who have an interest in Cooper’s Mill, and we have the time to see it cared for while it’s all figured out.”
Attorney Anna Ziegler is handling all the legal paperwork to have the mill and surrounding 10 acres transferred to the county.
The historical society is happy. Ben Vest explained there is great potential for using it as an economic development tool to draw tourism and a recreational opportunity for residents. Its value is its historical value, and “I think it is important to note the County Commission is visionary enough to pursue this unique opportunity on behalf of the people of Summers County. The sky is the limit with things that could happen. It takes imagination, time, interest, and energy to develop a first-class regional recreational objective as a destination. People like to travel just to see things like covered bridges and learn their stories.”
David Cole has worked with the county, developing trails, and after seeing Cooper’s Mill had this to share: “it is something special, historic, still operational, in good shape and beautiful and something to be proud of. There is no reason why this gristmill cannot be as popular as the mill at Babcock State Park. There’s hope of opening it up to hiking, now that it is in the public domain and raise funds for perpetual care, it can be developed while protecting the watershed. I applaud the county with its vision. Walking and biking trails are popular developments. It is all coming together and in a bipartisan way. Our new County Commissioner Mike Gore’s vision is for this kind of thing and he will hit the ground running. And Charlie Saunders has asked to stay on top of it. His whole family has been in favor of it.”
Cole expressed expectations Myra Cohen and the Hinton Area Foundation, The Friends of Cooper’s Mill, and other groups and agencies will be getting involved in the mill and its future.
