Steam Power Water Power Grist Mills
(Page 5 of 7)
March/April 1998
Jack C. Norbeck,
The Aultman Company became the Aultman-Taylor Machinery Company
and later was bought out by Allis-Chalmers. Today Allis-Chalmers is
part of AGCO, Duluth, Georgia.
RELATED CONTENT
Union Mills
Union Mills used steam, steam traction engines, and steam
rollers, and in 1797 David and Andrew Shriver purchased a large
tract of land along the Big Pipe Creek. The site was perfect for
the enterprises that the Shriver brothers hoped to start. The Big
Pipe Creek provided an excellent source of water for a mill, the
fertile valley was good farmland and the surrounding rolling hills
contained heavy stands of black oak which could furnish tanbark for
a tannery.
The brothers started a tannery, grist mill, saw mill, cooper
shop and a blacksmith's shop. Now, David and Andrew truly had
the beginning of an early industrial park. The growing enterprises
soon took the name 'Union Mills' because of the partnership
of the two brothers and various businesses. This is the same name
that was taken by the small settlement which grew up around the
homestead.
Perhaps Union Mills' most fascinating piece of history comes
later at the time of the Civil War. The Shriver family was very
much like the rest of the state of Maryland, with divided
loyalties. Here at the homestead, Andrew K. Shriver's family
supported the Union cause, while directly across the road his
brother William Shriver's family supported the Confederate
cause. Each family had sons in the army of their cause.
Then, just before the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, J. E. B.
Stuart's Confederate cavalry swarmed over the orchard hill
around midnight of June 29, surrounding the house and the family.
The hungry soldiers were fed flapjacks in the old kitchen, grabbing
them off the griddle before they were cooked! When morning broke,
the rebel cavalry departed towards Hanover, Pennsylvania, with T.
Herbert Shriver as their guide. The Confederate officers were
entertained by William Shriver for breakfast, and J.E.B. Stuart
charmed his fellow southern sympathizers by singing, 'If You To
Be A Bully Boy, Jine the Cavalry.'
Shortly after the Confederate cavalry left, the Union soldiers
arrived. Syke's Fifth Corps of infantry camped in the
surrounding fields, and division commander General Barnes made the
main house his headquarters. How quickly the tide had turned. Now,
Andrew K. Shriver's family took their turn in entertaining
officers. The daughters sang and danced with the Union soldiers in
a room off the front hall that has been referred to ever since as
the 'dancing hall.' These soldiers also departed for
Gettysburg and left the family feeling behind enemy lines. For the
next several days, the windows shook on the house from the cannon
thunder of the Battle of Gettysburg, while the family awaited the
outcome. In the days that followed they watched wagon trains laden
with wounded men move past, interspersed with small bands of
Confederate prisoners. Some stopped to take water from the pump out
front.
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