Casper Shafer, a German immigrant, settled in Stillwater in 1741 and by 1742, had constructed a wooden grist mill 0.5 miles upstream from the present mill site. He operated this mill until 1764; when, business being so good, he built a new stone grist mill on Main Street at the Paulins Kill. A sawmill was added to this second mill in 1774.

Flour from his enterprise was flatboated downstream on the Paulins Kill to the Delaware River at Columbia, N.J./Portland, Pa., and then on downstream to the export facilities at Philadelphia. He remodeled the mill in 1776 and proceded to enjoy a thriving business until the mill burned in 1840. The current mill was built in 1844 utilizing state-of-the-art equipment and processes.

The 40'X 45', 3.5 story stone/stucco mill was owned and operated by Mr. Jane McCord from 1926 thru 1954, when the mill closed because the miller died. The mill sat idle almost 20 years, until it was purchased in 1972 by Willard Klemm. Then partnering with Gus Roof, they spruced up the mill and dam and started to operate the mill weekends as an educational enterprise. Later the mill was sold to Richard Buxton, but not to be operated again. The State of New Jersey has since expressed an interest in a possible aquisition to restore the strcture to a working mill.