Thrall Mill

1869 Gray Map.

In Dick Symonds, Jr's "Water Powered Mills Sites in Vernon, Connecticut" he includes Mill 16, Millon Belding Property. Of the three potential sites he cites the site near Bolton Road as the most likely. He mentions the good fall, foundation remnants, some race features below the dam, access to a main road and remnants of a geared dam.

Jane Seymour and I toured the sites with Dick. A mill was possible but there was no record in town histories or on maps of a mill at this location. More digging needed to be done to confirm the existence of a mill here.

The Thrall Family

The Thrall Farm was certainly one of the first in Vernon. Located in the fertile Tankerhoosen Valley floor it was only a quarter mile from the John's Mill on Railroad Brook, considered to be the first in Vernon, perhaps as old as 1716.

The Farm would remain in the Thrall family well into the 20th Century. At one time there were four Thrall homes on the property.

The Thrall's were not one of the 50 proprietors who divided Bolton in 1723, but they arrived soon thereafter.

The Thrall family were early settlers in Windsor as William Thrall gave service in the 1637 Pequot Wars. His great grandson Moses was born in Windsor in 1703 but moved to North Bolton where he established a large and successful farm on the Tankerhoosen River in the early 1700's.

Alred O. Thrall was a prominent farmer and businessman who lived on the farm around 1900 and who's biograpy is in Cole.

Pieces To The Puzzle

In 1935 Connecticut celebrated its TriCentennial and Vernon published a 127th anniversary book. Included is a list of Historic Spots and old buildings marked for celebration. The first listing is for Thrall Farm: "Alfred O. Thrall farm in Vernon, now property of Frederick N. Belding, originally had four houses on it. The first one built in 1703. The house standing on the prperty now was also built in the 1700's but has been remodeled."

I question a house there that early. If there was one it had to be a squatter as the land was divided in the 1720's. Moses wasn't born until 1703.

A second entry in the 1935 book says: "The site of the first Oil Mill of 1740 is on the former Alfred O. Thrall property." This is the only document citing either the oil mill or a mill on Thrall property. Unfortunately the reference isn't cited.

In Rev. Ebenezer Kellogg's survey response on Vernon in 1800 he does list one of our mills as an Oil Mill. This was likely Linseed Oil from Flax Seeds.

The 1811 map shows the Oil Mill at Valley Falls on Railroad Brook or Box Brook as it was called at the time. Did Thrall own this property at one time? Or was the mill located improperly on the map. No mill is shown at the Thrall Farm location.

In a January 30,1809 Bolton Record,there is a reference to a transfer of a "one-eighth interest in an oil mill in the Second Society, 6th Division of Valley Falls, abutting Obadiah Strong". This "oil" mill was used for flax-oil extraction until 1847 and apparently later used for "wool-carding and spinning." (Tolland County Journal of June 13,1867).

Sources

"Cascades and Courage" by George S. Brooks, 1955, 529 pages. This is the classic local history book. The entire text can be found and searched online.

Scott Lent's Vernon Depot, Dobsonville and Mills website.

(1883). The Historical Statistical and Industrial Review of the State of Connecticut, Part I. W. S. Webb & Co. Detail review of businesses including mills. The link is just to the Vernon and Rockville section. Page 264 has a description of the Phoenix mill.

FindLakes.com - Information on CT lakes.

Ackerly Pond.	New bridge overlooking park.	Historic Plaque.