The Mercers

As early as 1764, Mercer’s father, James, and his uncle, George Mercer, established a tub mill on the Little River at or near the site of the present mill.  While their success gave an early demonstration of the practicability of harnessing the river to a grist mill, Charles Fenton Mercer's decision to erect a mill here in the first decade of the nineteenth century hinged on the progress of the Little River Turnpike Company.  The turnpike was built from Aldie to Alexandria, thirty-four miles away.  The company was chartered in 1802 and by 1807 had completed a new road eastward from Aldie to the Fairfax county line.  The mill’s location was also at the eastern junction of the proposed turnpikes—one along the post road to Middleburg and Ashby’s Gap beyond, and the other along the public road to Snicker's Gap. Mercer could count on other advantages as well:  ample waterpower, good roads, and abundant supplies of grain.

By the terms of an indenture contract signed by Mercer and Cooke in 1807, Cooke agreed to build a large manufacturing wheat and corn mill, store, saw mill, miller's house and dwelling house on ten acres of Mercer land at the ford of the Little River, in return for one-half interest in the property and improvements. Mercer, then a lawyer practicing in Leesburg, had settled in Loudoun County in 1804 and immediately made plans to erect a mill dam on Little River. Cooke assumed responsibility for procuring all laborers, supplies, and contractors and for carrying out the manufacturing and other operations in the buildings, while Mercer agreed to share expenses. Successive surveys of the property by John Sinclair indicate that Cooke worked on the project for nearly two years without interruption. The complex included a granary, store, and miller’s house. The miller's house still stands to the south of the store. Other outbuildings contemporary with the primary mill structures included a distillery of log construction, a sawmill, and shops for a blacksmith, cooper, and wheelwright. Unfortunately, none of these buildings has survived. Another structure, called a country mill, where plaster was ground, is located east of the main mill.

Mercer named the mill in 1809 after Aldie Castle in Scotland, the ancestral seat of the Mercer family. A small village grew up near the mill and in 1810 it was officially named Aldie in honor of the mill and Mercer's adjoining estate. Mercer, Cooke, and Aldie Mill's first millwright, Matthew Adams, served among the town's first trustees.