Tunis Brook Mill Lot

The Hanover Conservancy acquired the 1.5 acre parcel in 1994 following a town tax sale. Close to the Town of Hanover’s Goodwin Forest, Town Forest, and also its McKinley Tract and Marshall Brook Wetlands (which the Conservancy helped acquire in 1993 and 1977, respectively), the Tunis Brook Mill lot is another piece of the conservation puzzle in this wild corner of town. A dramatic glacial erratic (a huge boulder deposited by the glacier) rests just a few yards south of the property line.

Researching the history of this remarkable spot, we discovered that the sawmill was apparently built by Amos Kinney on land owned by Jonathan Freeman. The mill was functioning as late as 1861, but town records indicate that taxes were no longer collected on the property after that date. We have a hunch that the mill was washed out by a “freshet” on April 19, 1862. Clearing of forests for pasturage and cultivation, which occurred in the Tunis Brook watershed by the mid-1800s, altered drainage and stream flow, causing more “flashy” flows.

What was this mill’s role in the settlement and prosperity of the Tunis district of town? We think Amos Kinney himself built a house nearby (today’s 81 Goose Pond Road) between 1840 and 1850. Beams bear the marks of an up-and-down sawmill…perhaps this one?

And why the name Tunis? We suspect a link to the Tunis Sheep, an ancient and sturdy breed with connections to George Washington and origins in North Africa. The breed became a mainstay in New England, after the Spanish Merino, in the years following the Civil War. Was this breed raised in this part of Hanover?   More on Tunis Sheep

The mill itself was gone by 1903, but its moss-covered, drylaid fieldstone foundation remains along the brook. Why was it abandoned? Did the clearing of the surrounding hills for farming and sheep pasturage result in unpredictable stream flow, disrupting mill operations, as happened for so many mills on upland brooks in those years? More on historic mills.