Prallsville Mills Complex in Stockton, NJ

By the time that the Delaware and Raritan Canal was completed in 1834, the mills complex at Prallsville had already gone through a few changes in ownership, and one major cycle of expansion and decline. The confluence of the Wickecheoke Creek and the Delaware River was a prime location for a gristmill – water drawn from the creek powered the mill, and finished products were shipped down the Delaware to markets such as Trenton and Philadelphia. A natural extension of this idea was to place a few mills at the site, each one receiving a different type of raw material and producing a different type of product.

It was in the 1790’s that the milling complex began to develop into the village of Prallsville, thanks to the leadership and entrepreneurship of John Prall, Jr. He is said to have built three industrial structures at this site; namely a stone gristmill that replaced an older wood-framed mill, a stone oil mill and a saw mill.

The construction of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, combined with a transfer of the Prall estate to new ownership sparked the next period of intense economic activity. Plans for the new canal required the construction of a feeder canal parallel to the Delaware River, and rights to draw on feeder canal water were granted to mill complex ownership, in compensation for their forfeiture of any rights to water from the Delaware River itself. It was as if your electric utility decided to send you double the current for the same charge.

Industry at Prallsville received another boost in 1852, when the Belvidere Delaware Railroad completed a line along the eastern shore of the Delaware River, providing another connection to markets in Trenton and Philadelphia. It seems that this development was responsible for the reopening of the saw mill, as it created additional access to markets and generated new demand for timber, since the railroad needed timber to feed its wood-burning engines.

The satellite photo on the right shows the Wickecheoke Creek entering the Delaware River from the north. The Prallsville Mills Complex is on the creek’s east bank. Before the creek enters the Delaware it passes under a railroad bridge, crosses the feeder canal, then there’s a dam and a spillway before the creek joins the river. The dam allows diversion of creek water into the feeder canal, which runs parallel to the river’s east bank. The road winding its way past Prallsville Mills is Route 29.

When I was there I bought a pamphlet for $5 called “History of the Prallsville Mills”, published by the Delaware River Mill Society. The Delaware River Mill Society has a long-term lease from the State of New Jersey which gives them the responsibility to “restore, preserve, operate, maintain and interpret” the Prallsville Mills site. Much of the information in this article is from that pamphlet. Guided tours of the site are given by the Society Monday through Thursday, from 1PM to 4PM.

This is the third gristmill to be constructed on this site. The second was destroyed in a fire that was started by a spark from a passing freight train, which ignited the (then) wooden railroad bridge. Construction of this mill was completed in 1877, and parts of its stone walls are from the previous mill.

This shows the area behind the gristmill – the photo was taken at the exact location of the marker in the satellite photo (see above). From the nearby opening you can look down and see the headrace, where water flows from the creek to the mill. From the opening behind that one you can look down and see water leaving the mill to enter a buried tailrace, which takes water from the mill out to the Delaware River.

This is the linseed oil mill, a stone building built in 1794. Farmers grew flax for its fiber, and milled the seed for lamp oil, paints and wood preservatives. That’s how it was for a while, anyway, until machine-made cotton fabrics replaced homespun linen. The need for linseed oil itself was replaced (around 1830) by whale oil, which contains much more combustible energy.

This shows water from Wickecheoke Creek flowing past the dam and into the Delaware River. To the upper right you can see part of the feeder canal that brings water down to the western terminus of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, which is located just south of Trenton.

The John Prall Jr. House, built in the 1790’s from sandstone taken from a quarry that was part of the estate. The Prall House is located directly across Route 29 from the linseed oil mill. Typical of wealthier houses from this period, the house boasts two front doors, but you can’t see the one to your right (in the first photo) because it’s blocked by a tree.