The deed books sometimes have references to mills. I've gone through the deed books for Montgomery Co. in some detail for my families, and have found some references to mills in those deeds. For example: Deed Book 12 [1825-1826] p. 54 -- references a mill yard on Grasslick Creek. It's not clear who owns the mill, or whether John Long, the buyer of the land, is buying the 2 acres where the mill is located. DB 14 [1828-1830] p. 282 -- In 1829, Joseph Long sold to Lewis Moore of Bath Co. 2 tracts on both sides of Hingston Creek. The tract on the north side of the creek bordered on the great road and included a saw mill on the 1 1/2 acre tract. Joseph Long bought his land on Hinkston Creek in pieces from Thomas Jamison over time starting in 1803. The saw mill may have been built many years previously to 1829. I think that Joseph Long did have the mill for awhile because he continued to buy large tracts of land, and being a mill wright would have provided enough of an income to enable him to do that. Also, all the Longs and their relatives moved to Missouri between 1829 and 1835, and a nephew built and owned a mill there. It might be useful to see who your ancestors' neighbors were in the censuses and tax lists. Sometimes you can also figure out what creek they lived on, which might be useful. In some places early on, I think there were mills on every creek. I don't know if Mont Co was that way. Pat Boyd Ward - Long, Wade, Boyd, Hensley, Rayburn

Thank you, I hadn't thought of that. Reading your message got me to thinking. Josiah did not own any land so he was probably a tenant on somebody else's. On the 1810 census he's listed next to John Holland (Hollon). John's brother, George, married Josiah's daughter, Elizabeth in 1818. It may be that he was a tenant on the Holland land. The part of Montgomery Co. where the Hollons and Josiah lived eventually ended up being part of Wolfe Co. Josiah married the widow Elizabeth O'Hair for a short time and lived on the O'Hair land near Hazel Green. They then divorced and Josiah went to live at Laurel Hill. As far as we know that's where he lived the rest of his life. He apparently died before 1830 because he's not on the census. In 1820 he's on the Floyd Co. census, which is where the O'Hair land was. I don't know if he lived at Laurel Hill in 1810 or not. Marsha ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don and Pat Ward" > The deed books sometimes have references to mills. I've gone through the > deed books for Montgomery Co. in some detail for my families, and have > found > some references to mills in those deeds. > It might be useful to see who your ancestors' neighbors were in the > censuses > and tax lists. Sometimes you can also figure out what creek they lived on, > which might be useful. > > In some places early on, I think there were mills on every creek. I don't > know if Mont Co was that way.

Dear Prospective Cousins, A couple years ago I was able to purchase a copy of the 1879 Beers & Lanagan map of Montomery county. The map was quite large, with insets of Mt. Sterling, Jeffersonville, Camargo, etc. To try and keep the map print large enough to be seen, I litterally cut it up and scanned it, left to right and north to south. I called these ranges & made a list of the property owners names associated with each range. I also noted where mills , blacksmiths, churches & the like were located. These can be found on my webshots.com page at http://community.webshots.com/user/pshobson The Mt. Sterling map is posted in a separate album from the Montgomery county map. You do not have to join webshots to be able to view the maps the albums, but they might make you sign up as a guest. There's a primitive range map reference in the first picture in the Mont. County map. Each picture can be enlarged by clicking on tthe magnifying glass to the right of the picture. The mills I found were: Thomas Mill Range 26 C.F.Strouse Mill Range 27 Mill 01 S. Mill 25 Lee Mill 28 Flour Mill 17 Evans Mill 24 Baker Mills 29 Steam Mill -- Jeffersonville Howards Mills -- 19 Pat Hobson