Part #10 This post includes the surnames of MacLAMROC, PATRICK, ALCORN, WRIGHT, TALLEY, BAKER, HOWERTON, HOPKINS, GRIFFIN, SHREVE Mill Sites in Simpsonville Township Rockingham Co. NC IRON WORKS Mill (site) is located on Troublesome Creek, NC State Road 2423, approximately 1.5 miles north of Monroeton. In operation as early as 1770. ************************************************************ Bill GRIFFIN operated the Iron Works sawmill by water power for a few years beginning about 1920. The race was divided so both the sawmill and mill could operate independently; however there was insufficient water to operate both at the same time. Either J.R. SHREVE or Zilmon GRIFFIN attempted to increase the volume of water by raising the dam eighteen inches with dirt and rock. As the timber upstream was cut the lake continued to silt with mud. The problem became so bad that during the 1920's a turbine was installed. Iron Works was frequently used by churches as a place for baptisms. Probably the largest ever held there was in October 1927 when after a revival, over forty people from a Reidsville church were baptized. The "baptizing hole" was not in the lake, but in the creek behind the mill. By World War 11 there was often insufficient water to operate the turbine, and during the war a large motor was installed to operate the mill. Shortly after the war ended the milling operations at the Iron Works ceased. Some of the millers from the 1920's into the 1940's included Mr ALCORN, Mr WRIGHT, Frank TALLEY, Reuben BAKER and his father-in-law Mr HOWERTON and "Shorty" HOPKINS In September 1954 after two drought condition summers the GRIFFIN heirs allowed the City of Reidsville to break the dam to obtain drinking water. The GRIFFIN heirs sold the Iron Works property at auction in October 1968. In December 1968 the third Iron Works Mill on the site burned to the ground. The house built by James PATRICK in 1833/4 burned on 29 October 1976. The Iron Works property was purchased by Colonel James G. W. MacLAMROC of Guilford County in 1968. Sources: Rockingham Deeds Book 149 page 112 ....Book 173 page 12,... Book 183 pages 36, 179, 224, 293, and Book 200 page 194 "Flames From Old Mill Light Page In History" Greensboro Daily News Dec. 16, 1968 "Troublesome Iron Works Has A History of Woes" Winston Salem Journal And Sentinel The Reidsville Review: March 13, 1959, October 6, 1954, Nov 2, 1976, December 16, 1968 This ends the Iron Works Mill History in Simpsonville Township, Rockingham County.....