Island Mills

Island Mills (HMCGY)

Location: Harpers Ferry, WV 25425 Jefferson County
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Country: United States of America
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N 39° 19.312', W 77° 44.198'

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Inscription
Sounds of turning mill wheels and workers filling bags with freshly ground flour once filled the air here.

The foundation of Island Mills, one of the earliest (1824) industries on the island, lies before you. Each fall the railroad brought wheat here from the Potomac and Shenandoah valleys to be ground into flour, packed into barrels, and shipped east to Baltimore.

Fire destroyed the original mill in 1839. Construction of a larger 3 1/2-story stone building followed the next year on the same site. Over the next 5 years ownership changed several times until Abraham Herr acquired the mill in 1844. Then known as Herr's Mill, it dwarfed the surrounding factories in Virginia and could produce $233,400 in flour annually, thirteen times the amount produced by the average flour mill in the United States in 1860.

By the outbreak of the Civil War, Herr owned all of Virginius Island. As a Northern supporter, he donated a large quantity of grain to Union soldiers stationed in the area in October 1861. A few days later, Confederates seized Harpers Ferry and torched Herr's flour mill. The flames completely gutted the building, but Herr escaped to the North.
Details
HM NumberHMCGY
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Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Sunday, September 14th, 2014 at 12:02pm PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)18S E 264089 N 4356067
Decimal Degrees39.32186667, -77.73663333
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 39° 19.312', W 77° 44.198'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds39° 19' 18.72" N, 77° 44' 11.88" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)304
Closest Postal AddressAt or near 432 Old Shenandoah Trl, Harpers Ferry WV 25425, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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Nearby Markersshow on map
Jonathan Child House
0.03 miles
Island Access
0.04 miles
River Wall
0.06 miles
House Ruins
0.07 miles
Head Gates and Inner Basin
0.08 miles
Railroads
0.08 miles
Jefferson Rock
0.1 miles
Jefferson Rock
0.1 miles
Shenandoah Canal
0.12 miles
Water Tunnels
0.13 miles
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