Parkersburg News, March 3, 1974
On Hughes River at Freeport
Pribble Mill Is Landmark
In the life of the early settlers one of the prime necessities was a grist mill. But until one was built and in operation, pioneer women would have to crush grain in a mortar and pestil as best they could to make bread.
Among the earliest mills constructed in this area was Pribble Mill, one of our old landmarks. It was located by the Hughes River at Freeport, about three miles from where it empties into the Little Kanawha River.
The mill was originally built in the 1830s at about the same time that the Staunton Pike was being constructed. Back then, the pike passed through Freeport and ran along the river bank. And there was not room enough for the road at the site of the mill; therefore, the rock cliffs at that point had to be blasted out before the pike could be finished.
Some of this rock was used in the building of the mill wall, and many say that it can still be seen there.
Pribble Mill was torn down in 1937 by the late Rev. J. L. West of Parkersburg who was interested in getting the fine-seasoned lumber in it. With the wood, he constructed a house, garage, and some other outbuildings about eight miles west of Freeport on a farm then known as the Dr. Hatfield place.
Firmly Built
Although they didn't construct it, the Pribble Mill was named for the Pribbles, early settlers in the Freeport area who operated it for several years.
The mill was a huge structure standing five stories high. It was weather boarded with wide planks of yellow poplar and topped with hand-made oak shingles.
At the time that the Freeport mill was in operation, farmers from Elizabeth and beyond would drive the 15 or miles in oxen, or horse-drawn wagons to bring their buckwheat to be ground. Although there were closer mills (at Morristown, Palestine, Elizabeth), they had no facilities for grinding buckwheat, which was then an important grain to the settlers.
The usual route to Pribble's Mill from the Elizabeth area was up Parrish Fork of Standing Stone, and across the Hughes River at its fork and the mouth of Flint Run, according to an old record. And also, there was then no bridge either at the mill or at the mouth of Island Run.
As far back as any record can be found, the first owners of what was later known as Pribble Mill were Hale and Demming, Jesse Roach, Hiram Pribble, H. E. Pribble, Pribble and Darnell, and J. F. Darnell.
The J. L. West farm is now owned by R. D. Buttermore of Parkersburg and located at Leachtown on Rt. 47.