Hagood Mill

Hagood Mill is an operational water-powered gristmill built (or rebuilt) in 1845 by James Hagood near Pickens, South Carolina.[2][3] It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.[1]

Hagood Mill
Location138 Hagood Mill Road
Nearest cityPickens, South Carolina
Coordinates34°55′37″N 82°43′20″W
Area8 acres (3.2 ha)
Built1826, 1845
Built byHagood, Benjamin
Hagood, James E.
NRHP reference No.72001217[1]
Added to NRHPDecember 11, 1972

History

Hagood Mill is located on Hagood Branch, earlier known as Jennings Creek, a tributary of the Twelve Mile River. Although mills had existed on the site as early as the 1790s,[4] the current mill was built in 1845 by James Hagood; and it remained in the Hagood family and continued to operate until 1966 when federal regulations requiring the testing of corn before grinding effectively ended the operations of commercial grist mills in Pickens County. During the historic period the mill and the neighboring (non-extant) store were a gathering place for county residents.[2][5]

The mill and surrounding property were donated to the Pickens Country Museum in 1973. The water wheel and mechanical components of the mill were rebuilt in the mid-1970s using much of the surviving fabric, and they were restored again by local historian and miller Alan Warner in the 1990s.[6]

The 1845 mill is an unpainted, two-story building constructed of hand hewn logs and covered with clapboard siding.[3] Its original dam site is 1,650 feet above it, where water from the creek was diverted to an earthen headrace (essentially a ditch). Today, water is pumped underground from the creek to the headrace, the last 80 feet of which is wooden. The overshot wooden water wheel, which produces 22 horsepower, is 20 ft (6.1 m) in diameter and 4 feet wide. The ring gear is 18 feet in diameter, and the two granite millstones weigh approximately 1,600 pounds each.[7][6]

Hagood Mill Historic Site & Folklife Center

The mill is the centerpiece of the Hagood Mill Historic Site & Folklife Center, which also includes two historic cabins, a blacksmith shop, a moonshine still, and a cotton gin. The site also includes the Hagood Creek Petroglyph Site, which preserves significant Native American rock carvings,[8] and the 64-foot (20 m) steel Prater's Creek Bridge, built by the Greenville Steel and Foundry Company in 1930 and brought to the site in 2007.[9]

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Badders, Hurley E.; Nancy R. Ruhr (September 5, 1975). "Hagood Mill" (pdf). National Register of Historic Places - Nomination and Inventory. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
  3. "Hagood Mill, Pickens County (U.S. Hwy. 178, Pickens vicinity)". National Register Properties in South Carolina. South Carolina Department of Archives and History. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
  4. Bailey Anderson built a mill on the site before 1793, when William Jennings purchased it. William Jennings died about 1803 and his widow, Dicey Jennings and her son, John Robert Jennings, operated the mill. Dicey Jennings remarried Joshua Smith, and in the 1820s, Joshua Smith and John Jennings contested ownership. By 1825 the property belonged to Benjamin Hagood and the mill pond was pictured as close to the mill rather than 1/4 mile away. Jerry W. Hughes, "Hagood Mill and Its Related History," Pickens County Historical Commission (March 1999).
  5. "Pickens County Gristmills," park signage. Alan Warner identified over sixty gristmill sites in Pickens County.
  6. "Hagood Mill News". Hagood Mill Historic Site & Folklife Center. Pickens County Museum Commission. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2012.
  7. "Pickens County Gristmills," park signage.
  8. Pickens County website
  9. "Pickens County Gristmills," park signage.
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