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CHAPTER XVII.
JOHN GOSSETT ERECTS A GRIST
MILL - SOMETHING ABOUT LEWIS GIBLER -
BRUSHCREEK CURRENCY - THE FIRST SETTLER IN
UNION TOWNSHIP - THOMAS DICK SETTLES IN
MARSHALL, ESTABLISHES A SCHOOL, AND FOUNDS
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF THAT NEIGHBORHOOD
- SINKING SPRINGS AND VICINITY RECEIVES
ADDITIONAL INHABITANTS IN THE PERSONS OF
SIMON SHOEMAKER, JR., AND HIS BROTHERS PETER
AND MARTIN, JOHN HATTER, JOHN FULK, GEORGE
SUTER, JAMES WILLIAMS, JACOB ROADS, DAVID
EVANS, JACOB FISHER ABRAHAM BOYD, PETER
STULTZ, DR. JOHN CAPLINGER, CAPTAIN WILSON,
HENRY COUNTRYMAN AND REV. BENJAMIN VAN PELT.
Pg. 69
In the spring of 1801
John Gossett completed and put in
successful operation a grist mill, the first
built in the present county of Highland.
This mill was located on Whiteoak, two miles
south of New Market, a short distance above
where Sonner’s mill now stands.
The mill house was a pretty good sized
structure of hewn logs and clapboard roof,
sufficiently capacious for all the business
it was capable of doing. One
John Smith,
a Scotchman, familiarly known throughout the
then sparcely populated settlement, as
“Scotch Johny,”
was the mill wright. Smith was
not only a man of considerable scientific
attainments, but is remembered as remarkably
amiable and honorable in all his intercourse
with others. His modesty and
diffidence caused him to seek
retirement—thus hiding his talents from
public view. For his services in
constructing his mill, lie received one
hundred acres of land, on which he settled
quietly down and spent the remainder of his
days in the peaceful and pleasant occupation
of a farmer. Building even a
small tub mill was not, in those days, a
trifling undertaking. Workmen were
difficult to obtain and much of the
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