Mills
The mill at the crossing of the Hutchinson River by the Mill Road from Cooper's Corner, New Rochelle, to Eastchester, began as an enterprise of Colonel Caleb Heathcote, Lord of Scarsdale Manor. In 1696 an agreement for the erection of mills on the Hutchinson River was entered into between Heathcote and the inhabitants of the Town of Eastchester. An earlier mill, which was both a saw and grist-mill, was on the Eastchester side of the river and south of the road. The present Mill Road was not established on its present route through New Rochelle until 1764. It is unknown when exactly the second mill was built and for how long it was operated by Heathcote, as there are no records available until his death which occurred suddenly on March 1, 1721. It later came under the ownership of Gilead Hunt, who operated the mill for many years, including the Revolutionary War period, and until the year 1785, when he disposed of it to Ebenezer S. Burling. The latter sold it to Ramson Burtis in 1793. Hunt was a son of Moses Hunt of East Chester and, for a time, he was also the proprietor of the 'lower mill' on the Hutchinson River near Union Corners. The next owner of the upper mill was Andrew Smith, after whom it passed to James W. Tompkins, and, later, to Seaman Burtis, remaining in the Burtis family for many years. Gun carriages were manufactured at Burtis Mill during the Civil War for use in the Union Army. == References ==