Nissley's Mill
Lancaster Co. | Pennsylvania | USA
Watersource: Conoy Creek.
Nissley's Mill
Take Pa 441 WNW from Marietta to Bainbridge, turn right on Race St. which becomes Stone Mill Road. Follow about 4 miles to the mill on left after crossing Conoy Creek and before Miller Road junction on the left.
The 1813 3.5 story limestone/sandstone mill, 45'X 50' mill was built by Joseph and Mary Horst on the site of an earlier 1740 grist mill. This mill was built in either 1740 or 1749 by Philip Gloninger. Ten years later in 1759, John Nissley bought the mill and 200 some odd acres from Gloninger.
The mill was a chicken house in 1969, being used as a dwelling in 1987, and converted to a single family dwelling in 1994. The mill was owned by Jon Kimmel in 2004 and was still in the process of being renovated.
Abraham Nissley, a different A. Nissley since this is a century later, owned the mill from the early 1860's thru the late 1870's. Peter Gish was one of the last owners of the mill in the late 1890's. Phares C. Miller was the last operator/owner in the early 20th century. The flour & grist mill sometimes ground corn meal, on a second set of buhrstones also powered by the overshot wheel. Average flour production stood at 25 barrels/day.
Nissley kept the first mill from 1759 through 1782, selling to Abraham Nissly, who then owned the mill from 1783 to 1800. Joseph & Mary Horst aquired the mill sometime between 1800 and 1813, when they built the new mill. They owned and operated the mill through at least 1824; water diverted from the impounded Conoy Creek dropped 5.5' as it traveled the 1300' to the mill, then escaped from the mill through double archway openings in the lower rear to go the 100' back to the creek.
Two doors are located in the middle of the mill, at the rear, between the windows of the second and third floors, but the sack hoist present on that end in 1987 had disappeared by 2004.