Potts Mill / Elysian Mills / Putz Mill
Fulton Co. | Pennsylvania | USA
Watersource: Big Cove Creek.
Potts Mill / Elysian Mills / Putz Mill
From McConnellsburg, go south on US 522 about 5 miles to the village of Big Cove Tannery. Turn left onto Pa. 928/Big Cove Tannery Rd. and go about 2.5 miles to Laurel Ridge Rd/Twp 338 on the right. Turn right and the mill will be the first building on the right. It looks like a barn.
John Potts Sr, the mill builder's father, was an early entrepreneur in the Shuylkill coal area. He was the first to establish the cumbustability of anthracite coal.
John Jr. established the Manheim Iron Works, a flouring mill, forge and furnace near Cressona, operating them until about 1837. In 1836, John had shown that anthracite coal could be used successfully in furnaces to smelt iron ore at a profit.
A brother, Abraham Potts, in 1826, successfully built a railroad to the Schuylkill from Black Valley, actually beating the Summit Hill to Mauch Chunk/Lehigh River railroad by a year. The latter is usually reputed to be the first ever built in Pa. and even the United States.
He also built the first anthracite propelled steam locomotive to be used in the Schuylkill area.
John Potts last blast at the Hanover Ironworks, now Elysian Mills, occurred in 1847. The forge had been torn away the previous year, being replaced with a flouring mill, Elysian Mill, later known as Potts Mill.
The furnace stack was the last remaining remnant of the Hanover Ironworks. Potts spent the last years at Elysian Mills, milling and farming, leaving this world on November 26, 1856.