A Short History of Jones Mill

The first grist mill on Big Durbin Creek was built around 1813 for John Bruce (d. 1818), a veteran of the American Revolution, who also ran a sawmill and woolen mill. The present mill, built before 1860, is made of heart pine, with a granite foundation. It was built for Jesse K. Stone (1825-1899), and the mill was known as Stone’s Mill until his death. In 1899, the mill complex was sold to R.B. Holland, then to the Jones family soon afterward. Walter T. Jones used the mill to ground corn and wheat, ran a cotton gin, and operated a small grocery store there for many years. The grist mill, along with the shoals, rocks, and a nearby covered bridge, was a “favorite gathering place” in the vicinity until the mill shut down in the 1950s.

The Fountain Inn Museum has started a committee and fundraiser with the goal of restoring the building and creating a park and walking trail on the surrounding land. 

The fundraising platform primarily used for this project is GoFundMe. You can show your support by going to this link: gf.me/u/yw8ui4. While this is a large undertaking, many have supported the museum in this effort, and we hope that more will help us achieve our goal of promoting Fountain Inn’s history and culture through this project. 

Partnerships for the project have been announced: ReWa, Lauren’s Electric Cooperative, Fountain Inn Natural Gas, Greenville County Schools, City of Fountain Inn, Greenville County, local corporations (Michelin, BMW, ZF Transmissions, SCDOT, and Landowners neighboring the mill property.

Plans for the first phase of restoration are to hire a consultant to measure and create ‘as built drawings’ of the timber framing and material of the existing Jones Mill. Then, a schedule of work will begin to assess the dismantling of the mill and to label all components that will be reused during reconstruction. The committee is scheduling several meetings between now and December to complete the gift agreement and to record the final land deed and plot for the 30 acres.

For those of you that are not familiar with the area, Jones Mill is located on Jones Mill Road just outside of Fountain Inn. Travel on Quillen Avenue which will become Jones Mill Road, 2 miles to the Rabon Creek Bridge and there you will see a sign on the right, identifying the mill property.■