The first mills immediately around Dayton were built by Cooper who at one time owned most of the downtown district. He set up the first mills within the limits of Dayton proper at the head of Mill Street. The street received its name in 1795 because of the ease with which mills could be located there.
About 1798 Cooper moved to a 322-acre farm located south of Dayton where he built a grist mill. It was known as Rubicon Farm. Through subsequent events it became bound up in the history of Dayton. It was bought by Col. Robert Patterson and later became the site of the NCR plant, as well as Old River Recreational Park and the adjacent lands.
Patterson was not only an able soldier and a doughty woodsman, but something of a statesman as well. He founded in Kentucky what is today the city of Lexington, heart of the famed bluegrass country. One of the early governors referred to him as “one of the earliest, bravest, and best of the pioneers and heroes who made the Great West.”
Once in Dayton, Colonel Patterson impressed his personality upon the town. He owned a grist mill, a fulling mill, a saw mill, and a double carding machine. All these were located on the Rubicon Farm. They were at their best around 1809. In October 1815, while in full operation, all the mills were destroyed by fire. Always resourceful, Patterson recovered quickly from the blow. He built a grist mill known as “The Stone Mill” which became a Dayton landmark. It was located on the Brown Street road where the Rubicon crossed it. Stonemill Road takes its name from this fact.
Rubicon Farm was destined to be linked with the drama of American industry. Colonel Patterson had ten children, the youngest of whom was Jefferson. He succeeded to ownership of part of the estate and the mills. Here on December 13, 1844, his son, John H. Patterson, founder of The National Cash Register Company and a notable figure in industrial development, was born and spent his boyhood, serving a hardy apprenticeship in work.
As the years sped on, Dayton and vicinity became an important milling center. By the winter of 1822-23 there were fifty grist mills along the Miami River. Montgomery County, alone, had eleven grist mills.
While some of the old grist mills still perform their time-honored task to the music of purling mill streams, the vast majority have vanished, or stand as crumbling landmarks of another generation. Yet in their day they were indispensable to life and labor. The memory of them will always be as green as the moss that clung to the dripping paddles of the great water wheels.
When the mill was not in operation, the water was deflected from the water wheel, as shown in this view of a mill near Bristol, Tenn.