A lucky combination of
agriculture and water power made Wilmington and Brandywine Village a
leading flour-milling center between the 1740s and early 1800s.
The fertile land of New Castle County and neighboring states produced
large crops of wheat. Brandywine Village's location at the fall
line of the Brandywine River provided both water power to operate mills
and a navigable stream to transport finished products to markets around
the world. Enterprising Quakers began to build large commercial
flour mills at the fall line of the Brandywine in the early 1740s.
The mills produced several grades of flour. The best was called
Brandywine Superfine.
Although water wheels
powered the mill stones, flour milling required backbreaking
labor. Oliver Evans,
Delaware's greatest eighteenth-century inventor, created a system that
automated the process. The Brandywine millers installed Evans's
new system in the early 1790s, allowing them to produce more flour with
fewer workers.
