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Fraley's Ferry and
Mill
Memoirs
of Tut Taylor
"There
was a mill not to far up the river from Fraley's Ferry where we lived.
We moved into Milledgeville sometime around 1930. There was a dam to be
built and all the folks in the basin had to move out. Ironically the dam
wasn't finished. As a teenager my friends and I often went back up to Fraley's
Ferry and played in the river near the ruins of the old mill. At that time
there were some stone pillars at the edge of the river and parts of the
raceway that diverted the stream to power the wheel. The water rushed through
at a tremdous speed. We didn't play there...too dangerous even for adventures
boys.
My folks operated the ferry. They told of
many experiences with it. I'll give you one.....The work crews cutting
down the
trees and clearing out the basin stayed
near my grandmothers home. They were quarted in some hastily thrown up
buildings and my and grandmother and others were involved in feeding the
crew. When they went into town they would come down and ride across on
the ferry. ( It was called a "flat" in those days. One very hot day after
getting on the ferry one of the workers jumped off the ferry into the river
and never came up.They searched for the body by floating bales of hay down
the river. It was
thought that the hay woud stop over the
body. They never found him. I don't know how the idea of the hay came about.
No one ever told me. Anyway....life was good then but tough. I'm glad I
had a part of it."
Tut Taylor
Map is 1912 map, surveyed in 1909 by the
Department of the Interior
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