- The brick main house and the brick mill at Valley Mill Farm were built by William Helm, a grandson of Meredith Helm, one of the first judges of Frederick County (1744) and county sheriff (1753). In 1770 William Helm acquired a tract of land situated on Abram’s Creek, a branch of Opequon Creek, from the Frederick County Parish Vestry. The land had been granted to the Vestry by Lord Fairfax to serve as a glebe and residence for the Rector but was found “unsuitable” for that purpose.
In 1809 Helm purchased an additional 400 acres “on the low lands of Abram’s Creek and on the north side of the Opequon.” Although Winchester historian Garland Quarles suggests a construction date of circa 1775, it seems more likely that Helm’s brick dwelling dates from the early nineteenth century. Certainly the small but handsome brick house with end chimneys and a symmetrical façade is representative of the Federal style in the lower Shenandoah Valley. The Valley Mill Farm house was one of 23 extant examples of Federal-style houses noted in the Virginia Department of Historic Resources survey of historic resources in rural Frederick County conducted by Maral Kalbian in 1988-1992. The house is also pictured and described in Kalbian’s Frederick County, Virginia: History through Architecture, in which the date is assumed to be early nineteenth century.
Milling was a major industry in wheat-rich Frederick County in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and the Charles Varle map of 1809 shows more than fifty gristmills.5 As a 1992 cultural resource study of the general area suggests, while “high-farming activities concentrated on prime limestone lands [in western Frederick County],. . . the steep stream gradients these lands produced proved ideal for the development of the milling industries.” Thus, while the “unsuitability” of the land for a glebe, or farm, capable of supporting a minister’s family may have been due to its location on shaley land along the creek, this early disadvantage was clearly overshadowed by the site’s eminent suitability for the erection of a water-powered mill, a necessary adjunct to Frederick County’s grain-driven economy in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
Judging from its similar brickwork, the mill appears to have been built at the same time as the house. It is likely that Helm may have used at least some slave labor in the operation of his mill, as Frederick County property tax records indicate that he owned 21 slaves over the age of 12 years in 1828. Helm apparently had abolitionist leanings, however, and he seems to have been a relatively benevolent master. His will stipulated that all of his slaves over the age of 28 were to be emancipated within nine months of his death. He also ordered that younger slaves were to be emancipated as soon as they achieved the age of 28, and that prior to that time they should be hired out and the income from their hire used, along with other money from Helm’s estate, to support those of his slaves who were unable to support themselves. An “appraisement” of his personal property made after his death makes no mention of slaves, and there is no indication that any of his slaves were sold; nor does the will or the accounting made after his death indicate that any slaves were distributed to his heirs (two surviving sisters, a niece, a nephew, and the children of four other siblings) or to settle debts. The estate settlement records of 1834 show that some slaves were indeed hired out, and that some slave children were cared for with funds from Helm’s estate.
The 1831 appraisal of Helm’s landed estate included the “new house lot”, containing just over 531 acres, and exclusive of the interests of the heirs of his deceased sister, Anne Berry; the “old house lot”, containing slightly over 412 acres, also exclusive of Anne Berry’s heirs’ interests; and the “mill lot” containing approximately 75 acres.
Following William Helm’s death, the farm was sold to a succession of owners. An 1831-32 map identifies it as “Harrison’s Mill”, an apparent reference to George Harrison, who bought the property in 1830. In 1862, it was purchased by William N. Eddy. Eddy operated the mill until about 1875. The roof and upper portions of the building had been severely damaged by fire in 1864, apparently during the Battle of Opequon (Third Winchester) on September 19 of that year.
The National Park Service’s Study of Civil War Sites in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia refers to the Opequon battle as “the largest and most desperately contested battle of the Civil War in the Shenandoah Valley” and “a turning point of the war in the Valley, marking the rise of Sheridan and the decline of Confederate power.” The report lists Valley Mill Farm among the sites and features associated with the battlefield.
Whether the fire in Eddy’s barn resulted from torching by Union troops under General Philip Sheridan, from shelling during the battle, or from other causes is not clear. It is known, however, that Eddy borrowed money in late 1865 to repair the mill, declaring in a deed of trust against his house, mill, and 140 acres of land on Abram’s Creek that he wanted the money to rebuild the mill, which had “recently burned”. Around 1875 Eddy gave up active management of the mill and moved to Winchester. His sons-in-law, Cunningham and McKinster, took over the mill operations. The mill continued to be called Valley Mill and is so designated on an 1885 map of the area.
Following the death of William N. Eddy in 1888 and that of his wife some years later, the property including the mill and house descended to Eddy’s daughter and her husband, George J. Cunningham. It was sold in 1909 by Cunningham heirs and made its way through a long string of later owners. At some point, apparently in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, the mill was converted to use as a barn. Little physical evidence of the mill’s wheel, internal machinery, or supply and tail races remains today. However, the 1880 Manufacturing Census of Frederick County indicates that Eddy’s mill had a 400-bushel grain elevator built into it, being the only gristmill functioning with such sophisticated equipment in Winchester at that time.
Following the purchase of Valley Mill Farm by Dr. Mark Andrew McHale in 1958, the barn was adapted to serve as a veterinary office. Also during the McHale ownership, a rear-facing garage was added to the house in the mid-twentieth century; the garage was recently remodeled as living space.16 The property, now consisting of approximately 83 acres, is owned today by Valley Mill Farm, LC, managed by Mary McHale Stafford.
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