An Old Gristmill

 

A gristmill was a mill for grinding grain; especially,

a mill for grinding grists, or portions of grain brought

by different customers.

 

Col. John Stuart was the most famous pioneer of Greenbrier County.  His first travel to Greenbrier was in the company of a hunting party in the year 1767, and in the spring of 1769, at the age of twenty, he returned to purchase land.   Stuart first located near where the town of Frankford now stands and built his first home, which he called “Grunble Thorp,” (thorp meaning house or hamlet).  It was here that he built the first grist mill in the Greenbrier region.  This mill was located at the opening of cave near the Stuart house and was propelled by a subterranean stream of considerable volume flowing through a channel cut out by the Indians.