By WALTER AULT

UPPER FREDERICK — Many years ago there were countless mills along the Schuylkill River and its tributary streams like Skippack, Perkiomen and Swamp creeks. Nearly all of them are gone now, with little or no evidence of their existence. However, Sunrise Mill, located on Nieffer Road in Upper Frederick Township, is still there. It is an intriguing piece of history situated beside Swamp Creek, with two distinctions.

Photo: Montgomery County Department of Parks and Heritage Services

First, Sunrise Mill had the rare aspect of being both a grist mill and a saw mill simultaneously, explained present mill caretaker Clayton Blank. Secondly, Blank added, a very famous and widely admired and respected American lived at the mill for many years, a true renaissance man named Chevalier Jackson.

Much research of the mill has been done by the county — which took over ownership of the site in 1971 — because of its historical significance, yet some details are still sketchy. In any case, it is recorded in a county report that the mill had its beginning in 1767, when Michael Krause and Yost Britting built a wooden structure, which was rebuilt (in stone) in 1819.

The mill changed hands many times over the years, owned by families with surnames including Funk, Diefenbaker, Shoemaker, Hartranft and Reed. The Reed family owned the mill the longest, for 48 years from 1862 to 1910, the county report says, adding that the mill was still called Reed’s Mill when Dr. Jackson bought the property in 1918.

The county has done much restoration work, Blank said, gradually restoring the property to its late 18th century appearance. But there is still much work to be done to the two-story structure, Blank said. For instance, no-one can go inside the mill because the old wooden floor is unsafe.

“The county saw the importance of this place right away. It was a very unusual mill,” Blank said, “with both wood and grain being processed here. People came from miles around to use this mill.

“And it is truly a beautiful spot,” Blank continued. “People come here now to view the mill, walk along the creek and take in the scenery or fish in the creek.”

In addition, visitors can see some relics of the old mill, such as an old grinding stone formerly used in the grist mill and rusted turbines used for the saw mill, all laying alongside a barn a short distance from the mill. Inside the barn there are fan belts, conveyer belts and an old scale formerly used to weigh grain.

The mill, since it was rebuilt in 1819, isn’t the oldest building on the site. The barn, built in 1795, has that distinction. There is also a nearby house (1828) where former mill owners and operators lived, and where Blank now resides.

A development that ultimately added significantly to the mill’s fame and lore, the report states, was the arrival of Pittsburgh native Jackson, an incredibly talented, intelligent and passionate individual who as a trailblazing and innovative doctor saved many lives; and in other endeavors touched many more.

Besides being a world renowned physician, Jackson was a highly respected impressionist painter; an inventor of numerous medical instruments; a teacher who taught in many area colleges and in Europe and Latin America; and a writer of highly specialized textbooks on surgery. He was also a naturalist: One of the first things Dr. Jackson did when he arrived at Sunrise Mill was to minimize use of the saw mill, because too many trees in the area were being cut down.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Dr. Jackson was, a Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine article says, one of the top doctors in the entire world in his field, which was treating people who swallowed foreign objects. He also created a myriad of instruments that were widely used in such treatment.

At the time of his death in 1958, the magazine article says, “it was estimated that Dr. Jackson had personally saved 5,000 lives, and that those taught by him had saved half a million more.”