Perry Mill Pond Has a Proud 250 Year History
By MaryBeth Carpenter
Just outside of Zebulon lies the serene and beautiful Perry Mill Pond and dam, which has graced this area for nearly 250 years. Locals gather there for fishing, picnicking, and to take photos for engagements, senior pictures, prom, and family reunions. Over a dozen weddings have been held there as well.
The site and pond at 5425 Pearces Road, Franklin County, Zebulon is owned by the family of Frank Perry, and has been in his family since 1934 when his grandfather Clifton L. Perry purchased it.
The original mill was created on this site in 1778 by Joseph Norris. who acquired land from the state on Little Crooked Creek. Norris built a dam, pond and grist mill, and the water was renamed Norris Creek. After his death, the property passed to Joseph Norris’ son, John. In 1810 John Norris sold the mill and pond to William Harrison, who owned Cedar Creek Plantation nearby. For the next 50 years the site was known as Harrison’s Mill and Pond.
In 1860, Dr. Edward Alston Crudup bought the property. Ten years later, Branson’s Business Directory listed a grist mill, flour mill, and saw mill at the pond site. It was then known as Crudup’s Mill and Pond. In the early 1900s the pond went through a string of short-term owners. In June of 1913, the original rock dam and mill house were destroyed in a flood.
Zebulon Oil and Ice Company purchased the property in 1934. They had planned to re-build the dam and pond and to erect an ice plant there to replace the milling business. These plans did not come to fruition.
Clifton L. Perry then bought the property in 1937. His family and ancestors lived and farmed near the head of the pond for over 100 years before the purchase. He built a concrete reinforced dam at the site to create the power for a mill again. In 1938 he erected a larger grist mil house, which accommodated two turbine water wheels to turn 6 sets of millstones. Over the next few years he built three millers’ houses, a store, and a commissary with a four room apartment for the shop operator’s family. He also then erected a log cabin with a furnace and pit for barbecue, picnics and recreation.
After World War II was over, he modernized the mill operation with a shuck and sheller machine for corn, a feed mll, and a hammer mill to grind and mix livestock feeds. He installed a diesel engine for supplemental power and to take over power during droughts when the water levels were low. In 1945 he gave land for a church across the street, and Tabernacle Baptist Church was soon established.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, apple orchards and cider mills were active in the area and the mill was run by Ben Laster Perry, C.L.’s son.
In 1965, the mill ceased operations. The Perry family undertook landscaping along the dam, mill and road in preparations for the nation’s Bicentennial.
Hurricane Jerry unleashed eight inches of rain in August 1995 and the ensuing floods destroyed the mill house. So later that year the dam was rebuilt and a replica grist mill. But in September
1996, high winds a week after Hurricane Fran destroyed the mill building. This was replaced later that year by a replica grist mill and water wheel. But in September 1999, Hurricane Fran again unleashed flooding that destroyed the mill.
In 2000, a replica mill was rebuilt and was located in its present site.
Perry’s Mill Pond is over one mile long, with two islands. It is listed in the NC Department of Archives and History as a historic landmark & popular site. This site is also listed with The Old Mills of the USA. This mill has been identified on Fuller’s Map of May 1869, Stout’s Franklin Co Historical Map, and the U.S. Geological Survey Topographical Map, Bunn West NC. It is one of a very few mills listed on the Official NC Road Map. Until recently it was open to the public for fishing year round, and stocked with Bass, Bream, Catfish and Crappie.
MaryBeth Carpenter is Executive Director of Preservation Zebulon.
