Lost Mill Towns of Exeter, Rhode Island (Part III)

[This post originally appeared in the May 2021 edition of The Hinterlander, the monthly newsletter of the Western Rhode Island Civic Historical Society]

This is the next in a series of articles for The Hinterlander written in connection with the “Lost Mill Towns” project, to identify the so-called “mill towns” that once dotted the western Rhode Island countryside. Last month the focus was on Exeter’s mill towns west of the New London Turnpike. This month’s article will be fairly brief and focus on a single mill area in the southeast corner of Exeter, the Yawgoo or Dorset Mill in Slocum near Exeter’s border with North and South Kingstown.

If one drives over Bridge Ridge Road, you will pass over both Amtrak rail line and Yorker Mill Pond, which would suggest that at one time there was a Yorker Mill. At present there is a substantial two-story stone mill building – which is substantial for Exeter – on Dorset Mill Road, along a stream that forms from the mill pond. 

Despite this being perhaps the best preserved stone mill building in Exeter, the 1976 Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission report on the town’s historical and cultural resources provides very little in regards to information about this mill seat: 

Yawgoo Mill Dorset Mills. 

Manufacturing started here in 1846; the mill burned in 1861 and was rebuilt with  20th-century additions. It is located along Yorker Mill Pond. 1870 - Woolen Mill, E. & H. Babcock. (page 14)

According to James Stevens’ 1831 map of Exeter, this site was likely the location labeled Gardner’s Mills based on its proximity to Liberty Road to the north. There was another mill on the Stevens map due south of this called Champlin Mills that appears to be right on the border with North Kingstown. The RIHPHC report makes no mention of this mill, and it is on my list of places to try to locate on foot.  On the 1870 Beers map of Exeter, there is no mention of the Champlin Mills and all the names in its previous location are either labeled Hazard or Sherman. The Gardner Mill in 1870 is the one listed in the RIHPHC report as being a woolen mill operated by E. & H. Babcock. On Everts & Richards 1895 Atlas of Southern Rhode Island, this is now called Yawgoo Mill, and has no other information about the site. 

It is questionable as to whether this the same building that presently exists on Dorset Mill Road, as the current building on Google Maps and the Everts & Richards location for Yawgoo Mill do not really match up. Once the Exeter town hall opens back up from pandemic restrictions, this is another site that I will attempt to divine a more precise history, if there are any town records concerning the mills at this location.

At the current time the Dorset Mill is still functioning as a commercial site, albeit it is no longer manufacturing textiles. According to a 2015 Providence Journal article, “The mill owners…set up a communal shop in the space with four woodworkers” and the building is both a showroom and workplace for the woodworkers. 

Next month, this set of articles on the “Lost Mill Towns of Exeter” will conclude with a review of the manufacturers adjacent to and nearby the New London Turnpike, an inventory of sawmills in eastern Exeter. 

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Bibliography

Atlas of Southern Rhode Island 1895. Everts & Richards, Philadelphia, 1895.

Atlas of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. D. G. Beers & Co., Philadelphia,

1870.

Exeter, Preliminary Survey Report. Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage

Commission, Providence, 1976.

Gray, Channing. “Exeter Furniture Maker Turns Choicest Boards into Eclectic Wonders.” Providence Journal, 16 May 2015.

Stevens, James, “A topographical map of the state of Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations,”

1831.