Clopper Mill's Place in History

Many of you may have noticed the stone and brick ruins on the west side of Clopper Road at the intersection of Waring Station Road. If these ruins could talk they would have quite a story to tell, so let me enlighten you with the past of this historic landmark which has connections to national as well as local history.

There was a mill at this site as far back as the Revolutionary War, long before Germantown first appeared on the maps in the 1840s. There is a considerable drop and a nice bend in Seneca Creek here, making it a prime place for a mill or a “mill seat.”

At this spot as well, an Indian trail, crossed the creek. This trail, which branched off from the main trail leading north from Georgetown, (now Rt. 355) near the present Gaithersburg, led toward the mouth of the Monocacy River, where there was an Indian trading post. This trail became one of the earliest roads in the newborn State of Maryland in 1792 when an Act of the State Assembly established a road “from the line between Frederick and Montgomery Counties to Thomas Morton’s mills, from thence to the mills of Zachariah MacCubbin [later Clopper’s Mill], and thence to intersect the main road leading to Georgetown and the Federal City.” On today’s map that would be from where the Monocacy River empties into the Potomac River, to just east of Dickerson, to Barnesville, to Boyds, to Germantown, to Gaithersburg – mostly the present MD Rt. 117.

The first mill was built by Nicholas Sybert before 1777, the date that he conveyed the property, including a mill, to Benjamin Spyker, who immediately sold it to William Benson. According to assessment records, Benson had rebuilt the old mill sometime between 1792 and 1795, adding a saw mill to the  grist  mill, greatly increasing its value.

Zachariah MacCubbin had owned the adjoining land since 1774, and in 1783 purchased the mill and 800 acres from Benson. Benson had asked 4,000 pounds for the property, but MacCubbin only had £3,500 agreed to pay the remaining £500 by January 1790 with interest and if he failed to do so he would have to pay £1,000. When MacCubbin had not paid the full amount by March 1790 Benson agreed to buy back some of the land. But then Benson died suddenly and the ensuing suit brought on by Benson’s heirs went on for years, ending in a forced sale of MacCubbin’s property in January 1808. Having lost all of his investment MacCubbin moved out of the county.

Benson’s son and daughter wasted no time in selling the mill and 541 acres of land to Francis Cassatt Clopper, a successful Philadelphia merchant. Mr. Clopper was a very busy entrepreneur. He found good brick-making clay on the property and began a brick-making factory that provided the building materials for his next enterprises. After adding onto the MacCubbin home, Woodlands, he improved the mill by adding  a third story, made of brick, built a woolen mill on the Long Draught Branch, built the St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church for his wife even though he himself was not Catholic, and was one of principal backers of the Metropolitan Branch  Railroad. This railroad was finally built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1873, but Clopper did not get to see its completion. He died in 1868. After his death his estate passed to his son-in-law William Rich Hutton, of engineering fame.

Copper Mill was most active between 1850 and 1880, the arrival of the railroad and steam-powered mills had put an end to the water powered mills by the early 20th century, but it is not know exactly when Clopper Mill ceased operation.

On April 15, 1865 Clopper Mill became part of national history when would-be assassin of the vice-president of the United States, George Atzerodt, spent the night there while fleeing from Washington D.C. after the assassination of President Lincoln. George was part of the gang assembled by John Wilkes Booth to eliminate the heads of the U.S. government. He was supposed to kill Vice-president Johnson at the Willard Hotel at the same time as Booth assassinated the President. But Atzerodt ran out of courage and instead made his way to Germantown, the town where he had grown up after his parents immigrated from Prussia. The miller, Robert Kinder, knew him and so let him stay the night by the fireplace in the mill office. After Atzerodt’s arrest a few days later at the home of his cousin, Hartman Richter, in Germantown, Kinder would also be arrested and spend the next six weeks in the Old Capitol Prison. Atzerodt was hanged with other conspirators on July 7, 1865.

Clopper Mill was most active from 1850 to 1880 and the last millers were Barton Trail and William Jones. It most likely ceased operation in the early 20th century as nearby steam-powered mills had taken over the trade.

The mill, along with the rest of the farm, passed down trough the family until it was purchased by the state in 1955. In spite of repeated requests, the state has done nothing in the past fifty-six years to restore or shore up the ruins.