Rigdon's Mill
On Mill Creek just north of this marker stood one of the oldest and long lasting water mills in Bulloch County. It was built about 1840 by Daniel Rigdon and his Irish son-in-law, William Gould, using picks, shovels, and barrows. A 100 acre lake was created by the dam. About 1880 the mill came into possession of William H. Roberts and became known as "Robert's Mill." Roberts served is postmaster under a presidential commission. The post office was known as Gem, Georgia. The mill soon passed to Robert's son-in-law James Boyd who was killed in an accident at the mill in 1912. The mill ginned cotton, sawed timber, ground corn into grist and served as a community store.
In 1920 Charles Bland bought the mill and converted it into a recreation facility which he called "Lake View." Here were held big band dances and water sports such as fishing, boating and swimming. In 1925 Bland sold the mill to a Statesboro consortium for use as a country club. In 1928 the dam broke and was never repaired. The land soon reverted to private ownership.
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The Rigdon Cemetery
(Continued from other side)
The cemetery at this marker is the "Rigdon Cemetery." The earliest
burial is of Daniel Rigdon (1788-1847) who built the mill and owned 3,039 acres of land in north Bulloch County. His wife, Mary "Polly" Touchstone (1788-1853) rests here is well. William Gould (1818-1906), son-in-law of Rigdon and an itinerant Irish dirt worker and Confederate soldier (9th Ga. Regt.) lies herein. Gould enlisted only months after the attack on Fort Sumter and served the entire war, surrendering at Appomattox Courthouse. Most of the graves are those of owners and operators of the mill including the Roberts, Boyd, and Bland families as well as a large number of their descendants. Also resting here is Sarah Ann "Sally" Hendrix Rigdon (1829-1906), daughter-in-law of Daniel Rigdon, who, with her children, Elizabeth, Ann, Daniel, David and Mitchell, faced down a force of Gen. Sherman's foraging "bummers" in December 1864 by hiding their livestock on an island in the lake.
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