Two Unusual Tennessee Mills

Sergeant York's Mill. U.S. Highway 127, Pall Mall, Tennessee.

 Sergeant Alvin York was the greatest hero of World War One, wiping out a German machine gun nest and capturing 132 enemy soldiers with a small band of men. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his exploits and had many opportunities to profit from his celebrity. 

But he chose to live a simple life. After the war, he returned to his home at Pall Mall, Tennessee, a community about 45 miles north of Crossville on U.S. Highway 127. In 1919, the Nashville Rotary Club began raising money, and in 1922, bought a 400-acre farm and built a two-story house for York and his wife. In 1925, York opened a general store across the road from his home, and in 1943, he bought the mill on the Wolf River just downstream from his house and operated it until his death in 1964.

After his passing, York's widow sold the mill and farm to the state of Tennessee, which eventually made it the Sgt. Alvin C. York State Historic Park.

The mill was built in 1880, and, thanks to excellent maintenance by the Tennessee state parks department, is a pristine example of a turbine mill of its era. It's well worth a visit if you're at all interested in old mills.

The Ebenezer Mill. Ebenezer Road, Knoxville, TN. 

The Ebenezer Mill is one of two mills that are actually within the Knoxville city limits. Fronting on Ebenezer Road, the mill is only about a mile from my home. The other one is on private property and I haven't yet been able to photograph it.

The Ebenezer Mill was built around 1870 on the site of an earlier mill called the Heiskell Mill, which dated from around 1835. The millstones were powered by a turbine, rather than a wheel, and originally ground corn and wheat. The mill was later modified to serve as a saw mill. Water power came from Sinking Creek, now known as Ten-Mile Creek. The mill dam washed out around 1930, signalling the end of the mill's useful life. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

The equipment: The Sergeant York Mill was photographed with a Canon EOS 20D digital camera and a Canon USM  24-85mm EF lens. For the Ebenezer Mill, I used a Fuji X-T3 with the Fujicron XF 16-80mm lens.

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Photography and text copyright 2011-2025 David B.Jenkins.

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Tags:   photography   digital photography    Canon EOS 20D cameras   Canon USM 24-85mm lens    Fuji X-T3 camera     Fujinon XF 16-80mm lens     old mills     Sergeant York Mill      Ebenezer Mill     Knoxville     Tennessee     U.S. Highway 127