The original mill is credited to have been built c. 1800 by Capt. John Koontz on land perhaps owned by either President Abraham Lincoln's father, Thomas Lincoln, or more probably by his grandfather, Abraham Lincoln. President Lincoln's maternal grandfather, John Hank, was also a resident of Rockingham County about the time the mill would have been built.

The first mill was operated by Jacob Nicholas Lincoln from the 1850's until he was attacked in a mysterious event the night of February 20, 1880. His brother Abraham Lincoln took grain to the mill the next day and found Jacob severely struck about the head and barely alive. He died the next day. George W. Wood was implicated, tied, convicted and sentenced, along with two other men of killing Lincoln with a rock after a card game at the mill had gone sour. A large amount of money known to have been on Lincoln's person was also missing, some notes being found near the scene.

The old mill was was run by Charles H. Nicholas, Lincoln's son-in-law after Lincoln's death. The old mill was large, 3-4 stories tall, with a cooperage nearby. Three wheels were used, one for wheat flour, one for grinding corn for meal and limestone for plaster, and one waterwheel for powering the saw mill. The mill, also known as Lincoln Mill and Nicholas Roller Mill, produced Cream Rose Flour. It burned sometime about the year 1887 and the new, present mill was built in 1888.

The photo shows where the wheel pit was behind the stone wall under the now porch when this second (1888) mill was operating. The porch was nonexistant, the raceway/sluice coming from the left to empty onto the top of the wheel (Wheels). The front of the mill, the right gable end above, held three vertical doors up the face with some type of sack hoist in place near the gable peak. The mill was owned by S.S. Shaver in and around 1910.

After the mill closed, it was used as housing for turkeys. The mill, bereft of all equipment, is today in 2006, being renovated by its Winchester owner, Jim Deskins for a home to spend his retirement years.GPS: 38D 32.52'N, 78D 45.44'W ele 1,079'/329 meters Broadway Quadrangle