Abstracts from the "Georgia Historic Resources Survey -1988-1989" by Julie Turner
for the Jasper County Historical Foundation
The Smiths or Roaches Mill Area of Jasper County
Date of Construction: Estimated between 1830 - 1840
Original rock house in state of ruins. Site consists of this and additional foundations, chimneys and mill race.
"The Seven Islands area which is the site of Roach's Mill, was also the site of Indian settlements and trading posts before white settlement. It is also the site where the Seven Island Stage Road entered Jasper County. William Roach (Dennis and Roach of Greensboro, GA.) built a grist mill on the site in the 1830's. He built the house in the late 1830's. Roach later added a cotton gin, sawmill, sock factory, and woolen cloth mill to the complex, and a village grew up around the mills. In 1859 Roach sold the house, store and the gin house to Woody Dozier. At the same time, he sold the mills to Col. Charles Smith. The community was then known as Smith's Mill.
The stone dwelling built by David K. Roach about 1855 is unique in Middle Georgia. The material it is composed of (irregular uncut fieldstone) and its setting, on the Ocmulgee River, form a combination found nowhere else in Middle Georgia.
Adjacent to the house are the extensive remains of the mill complex of which Roach had a major interest. The firm of Dennis, Roach and Company, began purchasing the water power rights along the Ocmulgee in this area in 1839. By 1860 the firm owned more than a thousand acres of land along the river and several mills, which received their power from a mile long mill race. The mills seem to have escaped with little damage during Sherman's march to the sea and the mill community continued to function until the early 1900's.
Some measurements of the stone dwelling:
Walls: 24 1/2 inches thick
Width of Central wall: 10 feet
Main floor windows: 6 feet x 3 feet
Body of House: 43 feet square.
A porch extended around the structure on four sides supported by stuccoed brick piers approximately six feet tall. Twenty of these piers supported the porch. These piers (square) and the upper portion of the chimneys, were apparently the only brick used in the construction of the house. The house has a full basement with 2 fireplaces on the right side of the building. Two doorways opened into the basement on the right side, one in the front just to the side of the central hall. The basement floor consists of a mortar-like substance.
This structure and adjacent archeological sites pertaining to the mill complex are highly recommended for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places as an historic district.
The mills and the community declined after World War II and the introduction of railroad transportation into the county.
Transcribed by Suzanne Forte May 2005