By Rebeccah Waff Cope
Driving on Johnson Pond Road these days, past so many residential developments, it is hard to get a sense of the past and what life was like for local folks in days gone by. The sounds of squeaky wagon wheels and the clip-clomping of horse or mule shoes, and the calls of neighbors greeting one another as they drove past each other’s homes, have long been replaced with the rush of fast-moving cars and the tall box frames of delivery trucks.
Passing by the pond for which the road is named, there is little to draw your eye there other than the natural beauty of the scene and the stunning magnificence of the “southern mansion” you behold as you drive past the James Beale-Johnson house (built in 1906), located on a high hill overlooking the pond and the bridge that crosses over it.
Little would you know that this was once a thriving community gathering place, where important contributions were made to business, political and general life in southern Wake County in the early part of the 20th century, as well as during earlier times. There are important ties here to downtown Holly Springs and some of the enterprising businessmen who helped to found and foster the town.
Historical maps and other archived documents can help to illuminate what took place here, as can the physical evidence that remains around the pond on private property. I was fortunate to get to visit this area with a local landowner in February 2021; I was working at Historic Yates Mill County Park at the time and was asked to help research and document an old water mill site. It was fascinating to discover the traces of industry that were left behind. I took lots of pictures and got to work researching the area to learn more.
The 1878 Fendol Bevers map of Wake County (right) has this site labeled as “Alford’s Mill” while it is “Johnson’s Mill” on the 1887 Shaffer Map, and later in 1904, it is called “Atkinson’s Mill.” Mill names change with new owners. Remains of the mill site on Terrible Creek at Johnson Pond are still there, not far from the bridge. There sits a rusty, slumping waterwheel, a few metal driveshafts and bent pulley wheels, used for turning belt-driven machinery, and also several ghost-white, worn-out millstones. Often, because of their great weight, these are the last mill artifacts to be left behind.
The mill on Terrible Creek burned down in the 1950s. The fire was hot enough to turn the millstones into flint-like rock. What was left was in poor condition, having been exposed to the elements and worked over by time. The property in recent days has been used mainly as a fishing spot and, by the graffiti that covered almost every surface in the mill yard, as a local party spot, too. The mill’s concrete pillars looked like tombstones peeking out from the tall grasses that have pioneered their way around, up and through the mill remains.
While exploring the mill site, I met an old fellow named Mr. Broadwell, whose family owned the “old farm over there for generations” (he said, gesturing to the north side of the bridge). He told me that “the old road to Raleigh” ran right past this site and past the Beale-Johnson house up on the hill. Traces of the roadbed still existed in the woods near the mill site. Traveling north, the road veered off towards the east and connected with what is now Highway 401. You can see that old road on the 1878 map, labeled as Atkins Road. Highway 401 is labeled as the “New Road” next to it.
Traces of the community life that once was supported here may also be gleaned by looking into the activities that had been undertaken by early local landowners. Taking the first name of the mill owner that was shown on the 1878 map – Alford – I set about trying to discover who he was and what he did near Johnson Pond. I came across the name of George Benton Alford (1845 – 1924), “Bent,” who was an early settler in the Holly Springs area and turned out to be the owner of the mill site I was researching!
I had to be careful with my research. On the 1887 map, I found a second “Alford’s Mill” – but on a different waterway, at the confluence of Middle Creek with Brazwell Creek. This second site (with a bigger pond) was labeled with the same name in 1904. The earlier 1878 map may have had it labeled as “Mill,” or it may have been “Clement’s Mill.” It’s hard to tell if it’s the right location. So why are there two mills labeled as “Alford’s” on different creeks? I double checked the mill location on both historic and modern maps, and traced the shapes and pathways of the creeks, to be sure I had the right spot.
Through the research I did for Historic Yates Mill County Park, I discovered that during its almost 200-year operation, the old water-powered “Yates Mill” on Steephill Creek (named for Phares Yates) had several other names (Pearson-Boylan-Briggs-Penny-Yates), and that there had been a “Little Yates Mill” elsewhere on Walnut Creek to the northwest, later called “Castleberry’s Mill.” This is where the City of Raleigh’s Lake Johnson is now, but the site had been owned by Phares Yates and his brother Alvis, and used for milling purposes! The Yates family owned multiple mill sites at various points in history.
Likely George B. Alford owned multiple mill sites, or moved his operations from one site to another at some point. I’d have to go further in researching his ownership of, and activities conducted at, each site, using old deeds, industrial census records, wills, and other documents. Instead, for now, I decided to focus on Alford himself and his many connections to the Town of Holly Springs. He seemed to have been a businessman at heart.
The biographical “Historical Raleigh” sketch published in 1913 states that George B. Alford was “prominent in the history of Wake County from the earliest times” and was “supposed to have been one of the earliest settlers in this part of the State.” He began his business career in Middle Creek Township “as a turpentine operator, then turned his attention to merchandise and farming.” He returned to turpentine later and found he was well suited in the lumber industry. He met with much success and “became a citizen of the highest standing and of commanding position.”
Alford was politically active. He served as postmaster, justice of the peace and as a county commissioner, before serving in the Confederate Army starting in 1864. He went to Petersburg, Dinwiddie Courthouse, Stony Creek and Bellfield, among other locations. He fell ill from typhoid and was sent to the military hospital in Raleigh but later returned to service in Petersburg—but “before he could get to the front Richmond fell, and the War was over.” He was later “honored by his comrades by election to the position of Commander of the Camp of United Confederate Veterans, No. 1278, at Holly Springs.” (Source: https://www.carolana.com/NC/Counties/Historical_Raleigh_with_Sketches_of_Wake_County_Amis_1913.pdf)
Holly Springs was a bustling town, not yet incorporated, long before the Civil War. After the war, it was devastated. According to The Town of Holly Springs history webpage: “Rebuilding began in the late 1800s under the leadership of an energetic entrepreneur named George Benton Alford, who, among other accomplishments, got the General Assembly to grant the little town a charter of incorporation in 1876. General Assembly ratification of the town’s incorporation papers followed on Jan. 26, 1877. The town’s original boundaries made one perfect square mile.”
After the Civil War, Alford bought the Leslie-Alford-Mims house (built by Scottish tailor Archibald Leslie in 1840) on Avent Ferry Road in Holly Springs, which was the centerpiece of the town. Alford was known to have made significant additions to it, adding the “east wing around 1877 and the larger west wing in the early 1900s,” until it became “one of the largest mansions in the county.” The house had 31 rooms, including its own ballroom! (Source: https://www.hollyspringsnc.us/DocumentCenter/View/10377/Town-of-Holly-Springs-History-1887-2002?bidId=)
After the War, prosperity did not return easily, but construction of the Chatham Railroad through Apex encouraged economic prosperity near Holly Springs. The Durham and Southern Railway operated 56.8 miles of railroad from Dunn to Durham. It was originally chartered as the Cape Fear and Northern Railway by—guess who?!—Holly Springs resident George Benton Alford (along with 20 other Holly Springs men) in 1892 and construction began in 1898. Alford was the railroad’s first president.
The Town of Holly Springs “Doorways to the Past” article described Alford as “a man on the move.” He was known to have run “a general mercantile, sawmill, cotton gin, turpentine works and brick kiln. And he drained a local lake to plant rice paddies!” (Supposedly Sunset Lake.) He established the Holly Springs Land and Improvement Company, which encouraged economic development in town, and the Cape Fear News and Advertising Company, which published the Cape Fear Enterprise newspaper. What a busy man!
In one of his weekly editorials lauding the Town and encouraging investors to buy stock his company, Alford wrote, “We can convince any capitalist who will visit our town with a view to locating any manufacturing enterprise in our state that there is no place in the state to surpass Holly Springs as to health and pure spring water.” (Source: https://www.hollyspringsnc.us/380/Doorways-to-the-Past)
Always thinking up new marketing strategies, Alford not only fostered the growth of Holly Springs through education and industrial development, he also capitalized on the area’s scenic beauty and natural resources by attempting to develop the springs into a resort.
The large 1900s addition to the Leslie-Alford-Mims house was designed as guest quarters to accommodate visitors to the springs. However, his dreams of a resort did not materialize.
Considering that downtown has become quite a community destination in the present day, one wonders what Mr. Alford would think about it. I think he’d like all the hustle and bustle of a thriving community. And can we drink the spring water and, if so, I wonder where we can get some? That’s a whole separate town topic to explore!
