Sarah Friday's 1810 Granby Drawing
Mill
Martin Friday started the first mill at Granby on Mill Creek, just off State Road. By the time the mill had been passed to his grandson, John Jacob Friday (Sarah Friday’s father), the Mill Creek had been dammed, and there was now a mill pond, which acted as a reservoir to guarantee the mill wheel always had water to drive it. A distillery was built next to the mill, which probably means the mill was designed to grind wheat for the ultimate production of beer, whiskey, or rum.
The fact that John Jacob Friday also owned Friday’s Entertainments, a pub just two doors down, also points to the priority production of alcohol through the mill and distillery. It is also possible the mill was grinding wheat into flour, as a grist mill. The mill, shown in Sarah’s 1810 drawing, was probably built by Granby resident Captain John Hart, who built various mills in Lexington District during this period.
Research is still being done on the Mill but we do know that Martin Friday had a mill here in the early days of Granby. Captain John Hart also built a number of mills in Lexington County and may have been involved in this Mill.
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Below: a photo of an old Lexington County mill (The Popes, Rudolph, and Ethridge mill) which may have been similar to this Granby mill.
Mill site: Status: Destroyed by quarry hole. Archaeology is not possible at this location on the quarry property (Click here to see this location on a map)