Nathan Cooper Gristmill

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Nathan Cooper Gristmill
Nathan Cooper Gristmill, Chester Township, NJ - looking west.jpg
Nathan Cooper Gristmil in 2019
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Location66 NJ Route 24
Chester Township, New Jersey
Coordinates 40°46′44″N74°43′16″W / 40.77889°N 74.72111°W / 40.77889; -74.72111 (Nathan Cooper Gristmill)
Area1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built1826 (1826)
NRHP reference No. 76001174 [1]
NJRHP No.2101 [2]
Significant dates
Added to NRHPNovember 21, 1976
Designated NJRHPNovember 25, 1975

The Nathan Cooper Gristmill is a historic gristmill on the Black River located at 66 NJ Route 24 in Chester Township, Morris County, New Jersey. [3] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 21, 1976 for its significance in industry. [4]

Contents

Since 1973, the Morris County Park Commission has owned and operated the mill and its 14 surrounding acres as a historic site. [3]

History

18th century

Circa the 1760s, county judge Isaiah Younglove [5] constructed a no-longer-extant mill on the Black River. [6] Younglove's mill began flour milling production on the site. Images of America: Chester claims Younglove's mill burned down in an unspecified year, [5] while the Morris County Park Commission describes his endeavor as having shut down in 1788. [3] The mill then went through several owners before 1825. The last owner prior to the Coopers was Elias Howell. [7]

19th century heyday

In 1825, retired general Nathan Cooper (1751–1834) purchased the 4.5 acres of land for $750. [3] [8] This included "a milldam, sawmill, an old gristmill, and [a wooden] water wheel." [9] This was an addition to his wealth, as he too had the ownership of over 1600 acres of land [10] including multiple mines under Cooper, Hewitt, & Co. [11]

The following year, Cooper rebuilt the mill, constructing a four-story random fieldstone gristmill to replace the 1760s structure. [3] [9] [12] The new building employed the use of "four sets of millstones connected by elevators to grain cleaners and flour sifters." These incorporated the designs of American inventor Oliver Evans. [13] The mill could grind up to 10 tons per day of wheat, corn, and other grains. [3] Also in 1826, Nathan Cooper gave the property to his adult nephew, Nathan A. Cooper, who had become a NJ cavalry general 2 years before. [9]

In 1827 and 1829, Nathan Cooper "raised the height of the dam as it stood." [8]

Nathan A. Cooper commissioned a house to be constructed nearby for his son, Abram W. Cooper (1848–1933) as a wedding present. [14] [9]

In the 1870s, the Coopers installed modern turbines to replace the original wooden waterwheels. [3]

Upon Nathan A. Cooper's 1879 death, Abram W. Cooper (one of his nine children) inherited ownership of the mill. [9] Abram W. Cooper was described contemporaneously as a man whose "life had been quiet and uneventful, but upright and honorable...devoted to his business interests and the requirements of citizenship." [15]

Later, Nathan A. Cooper (1802–1879) inherited this mill when his uncle Nathan died. [16]

In the 1880s, Milltown experienced bustling economic success, and the Cooper mill "played a key role in the community and the region's industrial development." The mill shared Main Street with "a blacksmith shop, a general store, a tavern...and the Mountain Spring Distillery, a cider mill." The Coopers used their growing wealth to build family mansions in nearby Chester. [17]

The mill continued to grind grain into flour until 1913. [9]

20th century

On January 31, 1913, the Milltown general store across the street burned down in a fire. The same year, the mill ceased to operate. [9] In an unknown year, the Old Mill Tavern pub was built atop the site of the Milltown general store. [5]

Museum conversion

In 1973, the Morris County Park Commission acquired the mill. [3] After the acquisition, the mill was restored [12] and Abram Cooper's home was converted into a Visitors' Center. [9] The site opened to the public in October 1978. [3] Visitors of the mill museum take home "stone-ground flour and cornmeal produced at the Gristmill." [3]

After its acquisition in 1973, the Morris County Park Commission converted the Abram Cooper home into a Visitors' Center. [9] The mill has since been kept in operating condition, being preserved as it was in the 1880s "with some updates" including the addition of electricity and a new water wheel. [6] Its current wheel is an "all-steel-Fitz Company waterwheel" [3] from 1927. [6]

During Hurricane Irene in 2011, multiple local rivers flooded including the Black River. However, the mill was left undamaged due to its strategic elevated placement to avoid flooding, a feature of most historic mills. [6]

In 2010, it was New Jersey's only restored water-powered mill. [18] This claim was falsified by the 2020 restoration of the Red Mill in Clinton, New Jersey. [19]

The Friends of Fosterfields and Cooper Gristmill, a non-profit organization, contributes money and expertise to run the mill. [20] It is open April through October and offers several educational programs and summer camps. [6]

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "National Register Information System – (#76001174)". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
  2. ↑ "New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places - Morris County" (PDF). New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection - Historic Preservation Office. December 28, 2020. p. 3.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Cooper Gristmill". Morris County Park Commission.
  4. ↑ Kostrub, Nanci (November 21, 1976). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Nathan Cooper Gristmill". National Park Service. With accompanying photo from 1976
  5. 1 2 3 Case, Joan S. (1998). Chester. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN   978-0-7385-5468-6.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Collections (2014-03-18). Collections Vol 10 N1. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 69. ISBN   978-1-4422-6788-6.
  7. ↑ National Register of Historic Places form - Cooper Gristmill, 1974.
  8. 1 2 Zabriskie, C. (1866). "Cooper v. Carlisle, 17 N.J. Eq. 525". cite.case.law. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Weber, Gioia. "Milltown Area". Chester Historical Society.
  10. ↑ A History of Morris County, New Jersey: Embracing Upwards of Two Centuries, 1710-1913 ... Lewis Historical Publishing Company. 1914. p. 178.
  11. ↑ NJDEP - NJGS - Annual Report of the State Geologist for the year 1880
  12. 1 2 Rosenfeld, Lucy D.; Harrison, Marina (2006). History Walks in New Jersey: Exploring the Heritage of the Garden State. Rutgers University Press. ISBN   978-0-8135-3969-0.
  13. ↑ Goodspeed, Diane (2005). Family-Friendly Biking in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. Rutgers University Press. ISBN   978-0-8135-3574-6.
  14. ↑ "Fall Foliage Tours in New Jersey". www.njskylands.com. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  15. ↑ "Abram W. Cooper". Biographical and Genealogical History of Morris County, N.J. Lewis Publishing Company. 1899.
  16. ↑ Greenidge, Frances (1974). "Nathan A. Cooper". Chester, New Jersey: A Scrapbook of History. Chester, New Jersey: Chester Historical Society. pp. 52–3.
  17. ↑ "Milltown - A 19th Century Village Historical Marker". www.hmdb.org. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  18. ↑ Cantele, Andi Marie; Kaplan, Mitch (2010-03-01). Explorer's Guide New Jersey (Second ed.). The Countryman Press. ISBN   978-1-58157-904-8.
  19. ↑ NJ.com, Caroline Fassett | NJ Advance Media for (2020-09-09). "After a 3-year break, the big wheel at the Red Mill will keep on turning". nj. Retrieved 2023-10-08.
  20. ↑ "Friends of Fosterfields and Cooper Gristmill".
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