By Beth Christian Broschart
The Parsons Advocate
LEADMINE – A local group has been working hard to develop a picnic area and revive an area in Leadmine. Members of the Leadmine CERT group has gathered funds and worked to complete the community park which is located at the intersection of the Mountain Road and Horseshoe Run Road in Leadmine. It is at the site where Ford, Burroughs, Edison and Firestone had their picture taken on the water wheel back in 1918.
“It is a reconstruction of that mill,” Mark Warner, who made the water wheel, said. “The water wheel was my project last winter. I have had it in my shop all summer getting ready for the stonework to receive it. The stonework of the original mill is still there, but it needed to be upgraded to handle the mounting of the wheel.”
Warner said the Leadmine CERT group has completed much work on the community park where the water wheel will be placed. He said the water wheel is to commemorate the history of the area.
“In the book, ‘A History of Tucker County,’ by Fansler my wife read in Civil War times, the main industrial area for mills in the whole county was in Leadmine. The mill site was built in the 1840s, before the Civil War.”
Warner said the men in the photo were on a camping trip in the area.
“They left Uniontown the day before and they were on their way to the Smoky Mountains,” Warner said. “There was a caravan of a half dozen cars. They had servants and they had elaborate facilities to be out in the rough – they had folding tables with table cloths on them and professional cooks. They were living quite well for being out on the road. Leadmine was where they stopped on the first night of their journey.”
Thomas Edison, John Burroughs, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone pose on a waterwheel at old Evans Mill near Leadmine. This photo was taken in August 1918. The group refer to themselves as ‘Vagabonds’ as they made a series of trips from 1916 to 1924 where they communed with nature, explored personal interests and acted like boys again.
Warner constructed a new waterwheel which was put in place where the previous waterwheel was on the property. He said the construction took about a month of working eight hours a day.
“This is about half the size of the original wheel,” Warner said. “We are going to run the water wheel on the side stream. The original wheel was run by the Horseshoe Run stream with an elaborate raceway.”
Warner said a walking bridge will go in and connect the Leadmine Church Fellowship Hall to the pavilion and will cross over the stream powering the waterwheel.
“Charles Seaman from Ohio is donating the walking bridge,” Warner said. “He is donating the 35 foot steel beams for the bridge. He wanted to help because he has been coming to the area for hunting, and it’s his way of helping out with the project.”
Warner said those completing most of the work on the waterwheel include Paul Cassidy, Chris Cassidy, Sharon Cassidy, Skeeter Jones, Lance Wesley and Larry Stemple.
“Larry Stemple’s mother Twila Stemple donated the property to the Leadmine Church and the CERT team took on the project,” Warner said.
Warner said when he moved to the area in the early 1970s, he talked with Floyd Stahl.
“Stahl said he sat at the campfire with Ford, Edison and Firestone the night they were there (at Leadmine,)” Warner said. “He remembered Edison being intrigued with the waterwheel and wanting to get it in operation. He said a project he would like to do was getting it working again.”