Three small, rural communities banded together in 1910 to build the Union Mill on the Dan River, to serve the area, with Dee Jessup as the miller. Dee's son, one of 10 children, was left to run the mill after his father passed away in 1937. Porter Garfield Jessup operated a grist mill, grinding corn wheat and rye using roller mills operated by a turbine. The name was changed in 1943 to Jessup's Mill and livestock feed was also ground and mixed.