BERTIE County    Burden Mill Pond

(By Mrs. Cecil Phelps (Sarah Cowan Phelps) in the creative writing contest
sponsored by the Windsor Woman's Club)

Burden Mill was named for the Burdens who settled in Bertie County during
the early settlement.

(My father, being a Burden descendant, told me that his grandfather Burden
said the family name was once spelled Burdell or Burton (shell).  Thus the
adopted name Burden rose after their migration from England.)

Burden Mill is located 1 1/2 miles northwest of Snakebite in Snakebite
Township. It once contained the largest mill pond in the county with a mill
house which once boasted of the best water-ground cornmeal in the county.

During the 1800's and early part of the 1900's it stood in a pictureque
setting of gian cypress trees laden with thick gray moss hanging in graceful
yardlong tapers. Beneath these giant trees moved the water sprinkled with
green bonnet leaves and creamy white blossoms peeping here and there among
the leaves which were scattered over the large pond.

The banks were covered with moss of vaious colors which grew among the
bright green grass of spring and summer.  The bridge, below the weather
beaten mill house joining the mainland to the dam, was overhung with moss
from the stretching cypress branches.

Visitors came from far and near, sometimes on gala picnicc, to fish, for
baptizings or to have corn ground into meal at the mill.

Burden Mill was the ice center for the community. Skating was enjoyed when
the pond was frozen. The ice was also stored and kept for summer use. A
desirable place was selected on a nearby hill for the storage of the ice.  a
pit was dug to store the ice from the mill pond. The pit was 10-12 ft deep
and several feet around. The hill afforded the clay foundation for the pit
and the bottom was covered with two feet of sawdust to preserve the ice.

>From the pond huge cakes of ice were chopped and saved. These cakes of ice
were piled one on top of the other into the pit. When a pit was filled with
ice, it was then packed with sawdust around the sides and covered with a
heavy coat of sawdust.

A shed with a door was built over the ice to keep it from melting before
summer. The cakes of ice would freeze into one huge block after it was
stored. Ice was kept the year 'round this way in the early days before the
modern ice houses.

Neighbors helped during the ice storing. Some of the ice was given away to
those who aided and part of it was sold from the pits.

Burden Mill Pond was one of the best fishing places in the county. Fishermen
came from far and near during the fishing season. In winter fishing was
still good, unless the pond was deeply frozen.
........(missing portion)
drowned. A few lost their lives fishing. Van Bazemore, who could not swim,
let his boat hit a cypress knee and was dumped into the pond. He was lucky
to be rescued by two children, Louise Cowan and Sarah Lee, his daughter.

Baptizings drew big crowds on Sundays after church revivals at the mill.
There were five baptizings held at Burden Mill one Sunday. Both white and
colored people were baptized. Most all of the older families in that area
who joined the Baptist Church will remember when they were baptized at
Burden Mill.

People from all parts of the county enjoyed the picnics and fish fries.
There were sometime dances at night. James Roderwick Cowan and Ella Cowan,
cousins, were said to have been the best dancers in the county. Both square
and "round" dancing were enjoyed in a dignified way. Many pretty ladies were
wooed and proposed to at Burden Mill.

Election day in 1924 the biggest rain ever recalled fell in that region. The
onrush of water broke the dam. Damage was great and costly The mill dam was
never repaired. The old home on the hilltop has burned, the stately cypress
cut and the masses of moss demolished. Since then Mother Nature has seede it
with young pines.

Since the death of William Cowan and Junius Bridgers, the owners of the mill
let it be sold.

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