People and communities
Eayrestown: a mill rebuilt, then lost again
Documented history · Sources compared
A local historical account follows successive mills on one working site.
The same foundation carried another business
Lumberton Historical Society’s account, credited to local historian Dorothy Best, dates the first gristmill to 1714 and its destruction by fire to 1777. George Stricker rebuilt on the earlier foundation. The account places that mill at Landing and Eayrestown Roads and reproduces a photograph of the building. Rebuilding makes the site’s history different from that of a structure continuously surviving since the colonial period.
The mill belonged to a settlement
The society places milling among Eayrestown’s other activities, which included a sawmill, tavern, cotton factory and general store. It attributes the replacement gristmill’s destruction in 1910 to lightning. That explanation comes from the later local history; a contemporary fire report has not been located for this entry. Lumberton Historical Society, The History of a Grist Mill.
Sources and research limits
The society’s published account was read. Its construction and fire dates are attributed historical findings; the underlying deeds and contemporary fire reports were not independently inspected.