Maybe another view of Whiote's Mill?
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(Our author, Lynette B. Caler, takes us on a trip back in time, to one of the county's smaller communities. But it wasn't too small to be immune from disaster.)
In the early settlement of our country, the gist mill played an important part in the location of villages. Because most families had to go to the mill to have their grain ground, a blacksmith soon set up shop so that the farmer could have his horses shod while waiting for the miller. Other tradesmen followed. With the congregation of people, a general store sprang up, then a post office, a church, a schoolhouse, and homes. Many of these villages grew to be the towns and cities of today.
It is recorded that as early as 1780, John White ran a grist mill on the waters of the Raccoon. The village that began to develop was originally called White's Mill, but was later changed to Murdocksville, in honor of John Murdock, an early settler and said to be the first postmaster.
Traces of the millrace, hand-placed stones of the sluice gate, the remains of the washed out dam (now only a jumble of rocks in the creek bed), are poignant reminders that a mill once operated in this particular spot on Raccoon Creek,
This was not the usual little pond needed for the running of the mill wheel. The dam was across the whole creek and thus backed the water over a great many acres to form a very large lake, Raccoon Creek being a good-sized stream.
By 1912, this mill was one of the few still using water for power. On Labor Day weekend 1912, heavy rains caused flooding up the creek from Murdocksville. The heaviest downpour was between 10 P.M. Sunday and 2:00 A.M. Monday. It caused flash flooding that washed away homes and bridges, destroyed railroad beds and buildings.
Because the flooding came in the deep of night, many people were taken unaware. In Washington County a total of eleven people and many animals were drowned. In the village of Cherry Valley, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gillespie and their four children lost their lives. In Avella, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Crowe lost three children. In Burgettstown, Mr. J. Cooke White was washed away and drowned while trying to save some valuable horses.
It could have been a greater tragedy for Murdocksville but for the early warning sent from Burgettstown. The lake or millpond had become a popular vacation spot and fishing area. That holiday weekend, tents dotted the hillsides with end-of-the-summer visitors. Someone from Burgettstown telephoned a warning to the storekeeper at Murdocksville. The vacationers were alerted and had time to move themselves and their belongings to higher ground.
The villagers, including Mr. S.C. Elder, removed horses from a barn below the dam and the bridge. The horses were taken to Mr. Elder's farm high on the cast hill overlooking the village.
When morning came on Labor Day, the extent of the damage was revealed. The dam was washed out (one end still shows the handlaid rocks after seventy six years). The iron bridge that crossed the creek below the dam was carried 300 feet downstream and left lodged against a large sycamore tree. The barn that had stood below the bridge was moved from its foundation as was a small house that stood nearby.
After this disaster the mill was converted to run by steam. It continued in operation until about 1920. The last owner was William Witherow.
The mill was left to fall gradually into total ruin. The last stones of its foundation were hauled out in 1984 to be used as a patio wall at the renovated home of the former owner, Mr. William Witherow, then Emmett Dawson, Sr., now Allen and Glenna Cox.
In the beginning, the village had hopes of importance as there are records to show that the court was petitioned in 1786 for "a road, from Devore's Ferry (now Monongahela and about 50 miles south) to Thomas White's Mill on the Raccoon" and "from Mintos Bottom on the Ohio to Whites".* Over the years, a post office and general store, a blacksmith shop, tailor shop, school, plus three or four private homes made up the settlement.
The main road never did come to Murdocksville so the little settlement did not flourish as expected. All places of business were finally discontinued, due to progress in communication and transportation.
My home is the frame house on the west bank of Raccoon Creek and just across from the site of the mill dam. We are seperated from the neighbors' house, June and Gorman Armstrong, by Race Street. Both of these houses and the one across the road, property of Gene and Sue Fragapane, are well over 100 years old. They are all attractively remodeled and modernized. Armstrongs' house, across our driveway, Race Street, housed the post office and general store until the beginning of this century.
At the back of our property, Race Street meets at right angles with High Street. This leads straight up the hill and levels out for the upper part of "town". Several houses and the old blacksmith shop are located there. For many years the switchboard for the Murdocksville Telephone Company was operated from the home of David Scott, then later owned and operated by J. Donald Bigger. The home is now owned and occupied by Mrs. Doris Cleland.
Two people who remember the mill when it was still in operation, the days of story-swapping around the pot-bellied stove in he general store, and the chaos left by the flood of 1912, are Howard and Norman Elder. They grew up on the Coventry farm on the hill east of Murdocksville, and now reside on High Street "uptown".
Among this cluster of village buildings, only seven new homes and one mobile home have been added, most of these in the last few years.
The school was the last sign of independence. The counties of Allegheny, Beaver, and Washington, with five townships meet here, so this was declared an independent district from early days on. In 1956 the Murdocksville Independence School District was dissolved and the one-room school was closed. Each township took back its share and assumed the responsibility for providing transportation of the children to their respective schools.
Murdocksville, Pennsylvania is now a pleasant little residential community, deep in a snug valley. The geological plate on the modem, three lane, cement bridge reads 877 feet above sea level. The elevation at the top of the winding eastern approach is 1249 feet on the plate on he back outside wall of the Clinton Community Building, formerly the Clinton School Building. The western access is another long, winding hill with some steep and troublesome curves in winter. The southern and northern roads follow the creek and are a little more gradual in their hills and curves.