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The North Branch of Little Beaver Creek has played an important role in the history of the area which it and its many small tributaries drain. Its origin is the swamplands close to the Ohio State line. In the early days of the settlement of Western Pennsylvania it played an especially important role in furnishing power for the many mills located on its banks.

A grist mill was built in 1798 by John Sprott on his place on Little Beaver Creek. This was the first mill in Little Beaver Township, Lawrence County. It was a structure of round logs and contained one run of stone. He procured a number of pine boards from Brady's Run, quite a distance away, and with them made a bolting chest. Mr. Sprott was unable to keep up his dam, and the mill was run but a comparatively short time. While it was running the principle grain ground in it was corn. People came all the way from Rochester, Beaver County, to have grinding done. After its abandonment no other mill was erected at the site.

In 1801-02 a man named "Onion" Williams built a grist mill on the Little Beaver Creek, near the old village of Enon Valley. It was a log mill, had two runs of stone, and was the second mill in the township. Nothing remains to show where it might have stood.

Sometime later a Mr. Woodruff built a grist mill some distance east of Enon Valley, and Jacob Shoup built one about a mile east of that town, both on the Little Beaver. No trace is left of either of them.

About 1869 in Enon Valley (New Town) on a small branch of the Little Beaver, two men, Miller and Whitmire, built a steam grist mill. This mill was close to the site of the present Enon Valley Fire Department building. It had stone burrs and ground mainly wheat. Laura Simpson Madden (91) told me how the millers delivered the flour in barrels to the local homes. Also that a bag of wheat sat inside the mill door and children going to school were permitted to take a handful to chew like chewing gum. Minnie Wilson Robertson (87) told me of riding in a small wagon, out to the Excelsior school with "Jerry, the miller boy" each morning when he went to get the days supply of coal from a nearby mine. The mill building was destroyed by Geo. Andrews after he purchased the property.

A grist and sawmill was built at an early date between the new and old road leading to New Galilee from Darlington. The mill site was close to the barn on the present Glen Kibler property. It is marked on Bausman's map as the McMinn mill and on the Caldwell map as the Patterson mill.

The Caughey saw and gristmill was located near Darlington. According to Zoe Caughey Laird, her greatgreat-grandfather, Samuel Caughey, came from Hookstown, Beaver County to Darlington in 1810 and bought a forty acre farm on what is now the Wallace Run Road. In 1812 he built the mills. Later his son James carried on the industry with the help of his son Samuel G. Sometime during this period a brick yard was built and the chimney that so many of us remember was a part of it. All were in operation until 1870. The industries were located in a sugar camp.

About 2 miles below Darlington on Little Beaver Creek the Bartram Cast Mill and Trip Hammer Forge was built in 1815 on the Fergus Johnson farm, later known as the Matthew Elder property, Mr. Elder having married a daughter of Mr. Johnson. Here was manufactured such farm equipment as scythes and sickles, also the swords and bayonets used by the early militia troops. Floodwaters destroyed the dam and fire the works. According to L F. Mansfield in 1916 no trace of the log dam or forge mill was left near the Elder Cable footbridge that quite a few of us remember.

The next mill known to have made use of Little Beaver waters was a grain and saw mill built by George Foulks (Fulks) in 1797 and located on the south bank in what is now South Beaver Township. Foulks had been captured by Indians and lived with them for 18 years prior to 1794. Soon after building the mill he was married to a Miss Ullery by an Indian Chief. Later this mill came into the possession of Jesse Martin, grandfather of Mrs. Laird before mentioned. Mr. Martin became discouraged because of high waters flooding him out. During one of the floods Mr. Martin had to take one of the mill hand's wife and new baby to his own home. The father and another mill hand, Noah Pierce, refused to leave the tenant house. When the waters subsided they had to be rescued from "Noah's Ark" where it was lodged against a tree. Another time a mother hog and her litter were carried away. Weeks later the hog returned, very thin and without her family. Mr. Martin in turn sold the mill to Ruben Watt, who operated it until it was taken over by a son Thomas. Another son James helped Thomas in the mill. The Watt brothers and their sisters Margaret and Belle became well known throughout the community. The grinding of buckwheat was a specialty of this mill with its huge stone burrs. An oddity of this mill was that its water wheel lay on its side rather than standing up vertically. This mill was operated continuously by the Watts until 1915-16 when it was destroyed by fire.

In 1812 Matthew Elder came from Ireland to Wilmington, DE, to work as a weaver in a woolen mill. He migrated westward to New Lisbon, Ohio, and there on September 15, 1815 he was married to Mary Frederick. At that time he was operating a woolen mill and continued to do so until the mill was destroyed by fire in 1820. The next year (1821) Mr. Elder built a factory on Little Beaver Creek, in what is now Darlington Township, two miles below Cannelton and a half mile below Watt's Mill. While the factory was being built, Mr. Elder ran a set of cards in the mill half a mile above the factory. At that time the area was part of Little Beaver Township and Mr. Elder went to Enon to vote and the nearest post office was Greersburg (now Darlington) 5 miles away. On completion of the mill Mr. Elder did an extensive business and bought nearly all the wool grown in Beaver, Lawrence and Washington Counties, PA and Columbiana County, OH. Between the years 1830 and 1840 he owned, remodeled and enlarged the grist and oil mills and bought wheat and flaxseed, this to the great advantage of the farmers at that time. Between the years 1841 and 1843 he had dug a tail-race three quarters of a mile long, walling the same with stone on both sides. It was to gain a fall so that he could remodel and put in an overshot wheel. The cost of this was $10,000 or over. In 1844 Mr. Elder built a large brick store and dwelling. In 1845 he opened the store, which had the most extensive line of general merchandise of any store in the country. In 1851 Mr. Elder again suffered from the fire fiend, the mill being completely destroyed. The mill was rebuilt at once and Mr. Elder continued to operate it until his death, which occurred in 1863. Mr. Elder's son, Thomas F. had assisted with the operation of the woolen mill for some time prior to the father's death and was connected with its operation until its sale to a stock company after the father's death. The mill was operated as the Little Beaver Valley Woolen Mill Co. for some time before being destroyed by fire. The brick store and dwelling is still standing. It and traces of the old race and mill may still be seen near the Metropolitan Brick, Inc.

References Used: Warners History of Beaver County, 1888; CaIdwell 's Illustrated Centennial Atlas of Beaver County, PA 1876; Bausman's History of Beaver County; Everts History of Lawrence County 1770-1877; Ohio and Pennsylvania Reminiscences 1880-1916 by I F Mansfield.