Aldie,VA |
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Current Mostly Cloudy 81º Sunset 8:14 pm |
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| High: 83 | High: 73 |
| Low: 54 | Low: 48 |
Early Management Of Mill Operations
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| Mercer, the founder and first proprietor of Aldie Mill, seldom took part in the mill's day-to-day operations. In the early years he left the general management of the mill to his friend and partner William Cooke. After Cooke sold his share of the business back to Mercer for $11,250 in 1816, the mill was supervised by a succession of tenants to whom Mercer leased the property. Mercer's first tenant, William Noland, who served with Mercer in the Virginia Legislature and co-authored with James Barbour the act creating the Virginia Literary Fund, came from a family long associated with mills in the Leesburg area. Asa Rogers, who rented the mill in 1822-23, owned nearby Powell's Mill, and the Hixon brothers, to whom he rented Aldie Mill from 1824-1829, owned Dover Mill, also in Loudoun. As landlord, Mercer promised to maintain and improve the mill; the tenant enjoyed the use of the property for a fixed period and negotiated fee. His rental agreement with Noland, for example, provided for Mercer to enlarge the water wheels and sink the works within the mill. | ||||||||
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The cost of necessary repairs due to fire or flood was also his to bear as illustrated by his activity following major hurricane damage to the mill in 1833. While he assumed no responsibility for one tenant's negligence in the destruction of the main floor of the mill house, he rebuilt the mill dam, cleared the tailrace, replaced a broken water wheel, and made other needed repairs. Mercer found his legal training useful in managing the mill property, but seldom found it necessary to defend his rights as landlord in court. The absence of Mercer's early ledger books makes it difficult to gauge the profitability of the mill during his tenure at Aldie; however, it would appear that the mill offered the founder, as well as his tenants, a respectable livelihood. Rents from Noland, for example, provided Mercer with an annual income of $2,000, a sum then exceeding the assessed value of Mercer's Aldie mansion house. When later offering the property for lease to the highest bidder, Mercer did not guarantee prospective tenants success but fairly claimed that the mill offered "an active man, of good credit and some capital, an eligible stand for business." For Mercer, spending much of his time away from home on public duties, Aldie Mill represented less a way of life than a business, and he sold the mill when maintenance became burdensome. |
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