GOSLEE MILL POND II

GOSLEE MILL POND

ROBINSONVILLE - RABBITS FERRY ROAD

The court at Lewes, on 4^th of March, 1695, granted Jonathan Bailey, part

of the branch called Bundick's to set a water mill. The conditions Baley was to follow

were:; “mill was to be built within fifteen months, he was to attend and minde the same

and grinde grain well and in due course, as brought thither withour respect of persons,

at the eight part tolle for wheat and sixth part tolle for Indian corn ".

Records show there was a grist mill in operation in 1887 which had been maintained

for more than a century and a half and now operated by Benjamin Burton located at the head

of Love Creek. Bundicks branch is the head of Love Creek and the time period is a fair match,

so, the Burton mill possibly was the Bailey mill.

Records show Benjamin Burton had two mills, the upper mill, (Bundicks branch),

and the lower mill being at Angola. For several year the upper mill, on Bundicks branch,

owned by Burton, but operated by a man name of Goslee , therefore Goslee Mill. This

mill had at times been called Goslings Mill.

James H. Hurley, Georgetown, purchased this mill from Burton heirs, operated it

from 1904 until almost 1920. Hurley was married to Maude Coverdale in 1905, born and

raised on a near by farm, and she learned to operate the mill. The mill in 1934 was torn down,

as it was run down, falling apart and unsightly..

At that time Hurley built a small grocery store at the mill site which was active until

1968. Hurley died in 1929, Maude ran the store until it closed in 1968, she being 88 years old.

Maude had remarried in 1932 to a Georgetown man, Stephen Warrington, who died in 1950.

Maude died at age 90 , 8 February 1978.

Farmer Clarence Walls, owner of the next door farm, remembered how the mill

operated and planned to build a replica as he is part owner of the pond.

Goslee Mill Pond is located on Robinsonville Road at the head of Love Creek where

a 300 foot wide dirt dam was built by men and ox cart hauling dirt from the 'dirt hole' near

by which is still there to be seen. The dam is intact but the spillway broke out and water

no longer controlled.

In early 1900''s Gypsies came to camp a month or so in the fall on their way south

and the area was known for awhile as “Gypsy Landing “. They came in horse drawn wagons ,

maybe a dozen, with extra horses to trade, a jolly and happy band of people, colorfully dressed,

dancing at night by camp fires, telling fortunes and trading, hand made quilts for one thing.

They disappeared in 1915.

The general area is now known as Rabbits Ferry . There were two school houses

there, one white and one for the colored, both with the name Rabbits Ferry. The white school,

a one room school house, #89, built one mile west of Bundicks branch on Beaver Dam road,

at junction with Kendele, once Bundicks , Road. It was painter red and called Rabbits Ferry

Little Red School.

Abstract: July 4, 2018, by Harrison H., Lewes, from web.mail.comcast.net/zimbra, dated

August 21. 2012.

The article appears to have been written by a child of James and Maude Hurley for

The Delaware Beach Life Magazine, August 2012.