Newlin’s Mill Millstone
Newlin's Mill was located on the west side of Brookeville in the vicinity of Brookeville Road and Market Street (Route 97) and was operated from the early 19th century to the early 20th century. This versatile mill sawed lumber, pressed oil from castor and flax seeds, hulled clover seed, and ground lime-stone for plaster. Physicians of the day pronounced its castor oil of "superior quality to that which is generally imported."
This millstone, according to a manuscript by Edith (Brooke) Green, the Genealogy of the Basil Brooke's Family, ended up in the front yard at "Falling Green"—now the site of the Olney's Boy's and Girl's Club Community Park, having been brought there from Brookeville in April, 1889, transported on a "Lizard" made to drag it and "hooked up to four horses and two oxen."
Following the millstone's discovery in 2001 and the subsequent research and consultation which established its origin—a process that involved the efforts of Kathy Lyon of Montgomery Preservation, Inc., Debbie Heibein, Director of the Sandy Spring Museum, and local historian Sylvia Nash, Olney's Boy's and Girl's Club Chairman Dan Dionisio made the generous determination that the millstone should go back "home" to Brookeville. Mr. Dionisio arranged for Olney's Boy's and Girl's Club's general contractor, Accubid Excavation, Inc., to move the stone, estimated to weigh more than two tons. It was placed at this site for public display on May 5, 2001.
Marker can be reached from High Street (Maryland Route 97) south of Market Street (Maryland Route 97).
Courtesy hmdb.org
