Paper making from straw and rags has been carried on in this town for many years. Albert S. Hill and Edward Barton erected a paper mill in 1852, about a mile above Northville, on East Aspetuck River, where they made straw-board paper for hat and dry goods boxes. This business was continued until within a short time. The site had been used for a saw-mill more than seventy years before the paper mill was erected.
Just below this mill, on the river, was a grist mill, which was purchased in 1862 by William W. Wells and his brother Edwin S. They ground flour and feed there many years, and also constructed a saw-mill. This property has been used as a mill site for more than one hundred and twenty-five years.
Justus Miles came from Milford in 1742 and purchased the farm in Park Lane where the old house known as “Miles’
Tavern” still stands, and where, from an ancient sycamore, still hangs the old iron crane which bore the tavern sign a hundred years or more ago. He built the works known as the “Miles’ Grist Mill” in 1748 “by the north end of Henry Garlick’s home lot” on East Aspetuck River. Manufacturing of some kind has been carried on there ever since, paper having been made there for the last fifty years. A company organized as the “New Milford Paper Company” recently purchased the property, and is preparing to do a large business in making cardboard and paper.
The Merryall Plough Foundry was established soon after 1800 by Elijah Hall. He made castings for ploughs and invented the “Hall Plough,” which was very popular among farmers for many years. Mr. Hall was the first man in the State to use bituminous coal for forge work.