Cloud's Mill Race (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

Cloud's Mill Race:
This historic site is a section of the mill race that provided water power to Cloud's Mill which stood directly across Paxton street.

At the intersection of Beauregard and Morgan Streets, water diverted from the Holmes Run ran through the earthen trough to Cloud's Mill.

Built between 1813 and 1816, Cloud's Mill, also called Triadelphia, was owned by a succession of millers including James Cloud who operated the mill from 1835 to 1863.

During the Civil War, the mill was operated by Union troops. The mill continued operating into the late Nineteenth Century.

Marker Erected 1987 by Costain Washington Inc.; the Holmes Run Committee, and the Alexandria Archaeological Commission (The City of Alexandria).


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Here follows an excerpt from the online blog, "Jaybird's Jottings" written by Jay Roberts:

Cloud’s Mill (Triadelphia):
About a mile and a half upstream from the Cameron Mills site, near the Beatley Library on Duke Street, Cameron Run gets fed by Backlick Run and Holmes Run. Further up the latter, not far from the Landmark Mall on North Paxton Street, you will find a remnant of millrace, a small historical marker and an old stone mill.

Jean Biero researched the history of the mill. Going by several names including “Triadelphia,” the mill, built around 1813, is historically known as “Cloud’s Mill.” Quaker Phineas Jenney was an early owner. James Cloud owned it from 1835 to 1863. Biero notes he may have ran the mill prior to that. The flour was poured into barrels and sent along Little River Turnpike to the waterfront.

The story of Cloud’s Run Mill doesn’t end with its grinding and flour production. During the first year of the Civil War, the Balloon Corps launched aerial reconnaissance missions from the mill. Tim Dunnee’s research found the fascinating story of John La Mountain, an aeronaut and ballooning pioneer who established his headquarters at the mill. He competed with Thaddeus Lowe for the Chief Aeronaut job. A sketch map Dunne found (Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division) shows the mill located near the Little River turnpike tollgate. Dunnee also found a photograph of Cloud’s Mill, circa 1865 (U.S. Army Military Institute). La Mountain made the first recorded flight from Alexandria and a handful of others.

In the 1980s, when Alexandria Archaeology contacted the developer, he agreed to help save the remnant of the race. The condominiums there were named Mill Race. Cloude’s Mill Drive and Cloude’s Mill Way (apparently misspelled) also pay tribute, as does the marker and the mill stone.


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Here follows a newspaper article about Cloud's Mill written in the "Out of the Attic" column published in the Alexandria Times and written by the Office of Historic Alexandria:

In 1813, Abijah Janney, David Lupton and Peter Saunders bought tracts of land on the south side of Holmes Run near what is now Paxton Street. Perhaps because all three men were Quakers, they named the mill they erected on the property Triadelphia Mill. Merchant Mills had replaced smaller mills in Northern Virginia as wheat succeeded tobacco as the prime crop in the region.

While tobacco’s depletion of soil nutrients played a role in its decline, so did the post-Revolutionary War desire of Americans to be self-sufficient and grow their own food. The growth of Merchant Mills in Northern Virginia created a demand for improved roads. One of those new roads was Little River Turnpike.

In 1816, Mordecai Miller purchased two-thirds of Triadelphia Mill from Lupton and new partner John McPherson. Phineas Janney, brother of Abijah and at one time the President of the Bank of the Potomac, maintained his share. An earlier deed lists James Cloud as a “Sworn Chain Carrier,” but in 1835, Cloud
bought Janney’s share.

The “Sworn Chain Carrier” designation indicates that Cloud operated the mill well before he owned it, but he
needed to track down all of the other shareholders of the mill after Miller’s death. After consolidating ownership, Cloud operated the mill from 1835-1863. Eventually, the mill became known as Cloud’s Mill, even though maps continued to use the name “Triadelphia” as late as 1879.

In 1863, Cloud sold the mill to Edward H. Delahay. The Civil War’s disruption of flour sales hit Delahay and the next owner, Cornelius Jacobs hard, as Delahay filed for bankruptcy in 1868 and Jacobs was foreclosed in 1873. The mill was also the site of skirmishes between the Union Army and Confederate raiders.

The mill changed hands until its destruction in 1935. One of its owners for a brief period was the Alexandria Water Company. By then, the area relied on states in the midwestern United States for flour.


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Here follows an excerpt about the mill from the Atlas Obscura website:

Cloud’s Mill Race offers a rare glimpse into the once-booming mill industry that thrived in Alexandria, Virginia during the 19th century. Between 1813 and 1816, Cloud’s Mill, also known as Triadelphia, was erected just across Paxton Street from the marker.

It was owned by a succession of millers including James Cloud, who operated it from 1835 to 1863. The mill was operational for more than a century. Despite owning the mill for less than a third of that time, Cloud’s was the name that stuck. The mill race was located during a survey of Holmes Run in the 1970s that led to the discovery of the segment where the marker stands today.

This segment might have been lost to history if not for an appeal by the Office of Historic Alexandria to a developer building townhouses in the area. The developer was utterly fascinated and embraced the opportunity to preserve this slice of local history.

In addition to moving the footprint for the development, he named the project Mill Streams and included a reference to the mill in one of the community’s street names—Cloude’s Mill Drive. The marker itself features a millstone-like one that once ground wheat and corn at Cloud’s Mill during its heyday in the 1800s.


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Here follows the publication, "A HISTORY OF CLOUD’S MILL IN ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA" as written by Jean A. Beiro and edited by John G. Motheral as a part of the Alexandria Archaeology Publications for the Office of Historic Alexandria back in 1986.

Cloud’s Mill Race is an important, surviving landmark of historic Alexandria. It is the type of historic site which is often overlooked, rarely preserved. It is neither grandly constructed nor prominent in a landscape characterized today by high rise apartments, townhouses and fast food restaurants. Amazingly, the segments of the mill race have survived and been registered as archaeological sites in Virginia (44AX25 and 44AX27).

Alexandria Archaeology first became aware of the mill race during surveys conducted in the late 1970s along Holmes Run west of Van Dorn Street. We later encountered a segment of the race farther to the east and closer to the location of the original mill. When a resident of a nearby high rise called and alerted us to the proposed development, we examined a strip of land which had a dirty, rat-infested ditch. By looking at historic maps and aerial photos from the early 20th century, we could determine that the ditch was another remnant of the mill race. The developer of the property was fascinated by the discovery and rapidly adjusted the townhouse footprints to preserve the mill race. Additionally, he named the project the Mill Stream and dedicated the streets to commemorate Cloud’s Mill. Subsequently, the mill race was cleaned and a plaque erected. Today the mill race is a small bit of history which enriches this neighborhood as well as the verdant Holmes Run greenway.

Jean Beiro’s extensive research on the mill led us to a greater understanding of this place and its value to the economy of the larger hinterland.

In the early 19th century, the War of 1812 and political instability in Europe led the new United States to reconsider its dependence on European markets for exports and imports, which in turn gave impetus to the burgeoning industrial revolution here.

One of the impacts of this on Northern Virginia, in particular Fairfax County, was a shift by planters and farmers from the production of tobacco to that of grains, especially wheat and corn. This in turn led to an increase in milling as a local industry. When plantations were still largely self-sufficient, the milling was often done on the premises, or by “neighborhood mills" which served several surrounding plantations.

Then, in the last half of the 18th century, “merchant milling” grew as an industry, gradually replacing the plantation and neighborhood mills, and drawing on grains produced by farmers over a wider territory. In the Northern Virginia area, this development was slow because the area initially lacked improved roads until a system of turnpikes was constructed, notably for Alexandria’s mills the Little River Turnpike (now Route 236).

Mills were often not profitable here. The millers got little cash for their work, generally being paid in some other commodity. However, the industry did grow, and by the early 19th century the principal exports from the port of Alexandria were milled corn and flour, most of which came as raw materials from the fifteen Northern Virginia counties, and some from Maryland and West Virginia.

During the War of 1812 and the Jefferson Embargo Act which preceded it, such exports from Alexandria declined, but they picked up again significantly after the war. During the period of June, 1816 to June, 1817, Alexandria flour inspectors reported inspections of 209,000 barrels. The peak was reached in 1840.

By then, however, the centers of wheat production and milling moved westward, and by the time of the Civil War, milling in Northern Virginia was in decline, and by the 1880s was almost dead.

One of Alexandria’s mills was what was commonly referred to as Cloud’s Mill, although as this study points out, James Cloud actually owned it for less than a third of its 100-year existence. What follows is the story of that mill.

Cloud’s Mill, one of several in the City of Alexandria before the Civil War, existed for over a century. It was identified most frequently as Cloud’s Mill, although James Cloud actually owned it less than thirty years. An 1813 deed refers to a Triadelphia Mill, a name which also appears on an 1879 and a 1915 map. However, Cloud’s is the name used on most deeds and maps, especially during the Civil War when the mill also is described as a landmark in letters written by Confederate and Union soldiers. It was located on the north side of Little River Turnpike, somewhere between the present Shops at Foxchase shopping center and North Pickett Street.

Alexandria and Fairfax County deed and plat books trace ownership of the mill lands from 1794 to 1935. On August 12, 1816 Mordecai Miller purchased the mill from David Lupton, John McPherson and Phinias Janney for $6,500. This 1816 deed of trust includes two parcels of land conveyed by Enoch Fawcis to William Bird by deed dated May 12, 1794, and by William Bird to John Mandeville by deed dated June 23, 1795. The 1816 deed of trust also refers to an 1813 deed and the intent of the purchasers Abijah Janney, David Lupton, Junior and Peter Saunders to erect a mill on the land. This would indicate that the mill was built between 1813 and 1816. Reference is made to the Little River Turnpike Company’s Road, a trough hill, a mill dam and a mill race thirty feet wide at the dam. James Cloud may have run the mill many years before he purchased it. A brief history of the mill mentions a deed referring to a survey of the mill trace and naming James Cloud as a “Sworn Chain Carrier.” In 1835 Cloud bought Janney’s one-third interest in the mill and through a series of deeds acquired the rest of the mill property from the other owners. James Cloud sold the mill to Edward H. Delahay in 1863. (Delahay appears on Barnard’s 1865 map immediately south of Cloud’s Mill and north of the Little River Turnpike.) Delahay filed for bankruptcy in 1868 and the new owners were foreclosed on in 1873. A Fairfax County Court Meetings Minutes Book records that on December 21, 1868 Jacob and Charlotte Cornelius gave a deed of trust for “Cloud’s Mill and Land” to Reuben Johnson. (This author of the Minutes seems to have transposed Jacob Cornelius’ names, stating that “Cornelius Jacobs” was the owner foreclosed upon. Also, it is not clear whether Cornelius or Johnson was the owner at the 1873 foreclosure.)

The mill owners’ difficulties can be attributed to the Civil War. A Union officer, George Arrowsmith, describes Cloud’s Mill in a letter as follows: The place where Ellsworth’s Zouaves carried on the flour business...There we had a barricade of barrels filled with sand and piled up in the road, with a mill on our right and a high hill on our left.

Skirmishes around Cloud’s Mill were frequent during the war. An 1861 Confederate scouting report described one:

A fortification at Clouds Mills of flour barrells with sand and stone logs in them...a force of 3 to 400 at Cloud Mills all together 30 to 40 in a house just below clearlands right on the pike and the run 3 to 4 pickets beyond that...They have been scouting about the woods about Clouds Mills…They lie about in the woods all night about 4 or 500 around these...Clouds Mills 3 miles out of Alexandria.

As the Civil War progressed, the woods disappeared. The land was cleared as trees were felled to build forts and provide fire wood.

James F. Carlin was the next owner of Cloud’s Mill. He bought it at the 1873 foreclosure sale and apparently was able to run it successfully, as it did not change hands again until he died. (The name “Jas. F. Carlin” appears on Hopkins’ 1879 map immediately west of Triadelphia Grist Mill.)

The Alexandria Water Company owned the property for a short time in order to secure an easement to their reservoir at Lake Barcroft. This may have been around 1913-15 when the Water Company built the Barcroft Dam.

Page four of Fairfax County Plat Book 2 lists a plat showing a “George F. Collins Subdivision of Cloud’s Mill Property, Fairfax Co., Va.” dated November 2, 1935, described as “...land owned by George F. Collins and wife Lucie Collins acquired by them by deed May 16, 1935 recorded Liber V, #11, p. 199 of Fairfax Co. from Wm. A. Lewis and Beulah R. Lewis, his wife.” Deed to this plat is recorded at Liber 2, #11, p. 37.

Not an owner, but a woman who lived at Cloud’s Mill when she was a young girl, recalls her memories of the area. In 1921 when Dorothy Wood Wolf was ten years old, her family moved from Charlottesville, Va. to the Alexandria area. “We lived in the miller’s house at Cloud’s Mill for about a year,” she said during a recent telephone interview. The mill was no longer being used then, but she recalled the red frame medium-sized mill, the mill race and the two story frame house with the front yard extending to Duke Street. That was the frequently muddy road she walked to the Lincolnia School. “It was two lanes wide and I remember when they paved it, it was covered with straw and water for days,” Mrs. Wolf said.

When she attended the Lee-Jackson High School one of her teachers was a Miss Donaldson of the Donaldson’s store family. The old store, familiar to many early residents, is now called the Apple House and it is located at Braddock Road and Quaker Lane.

Mrs. Wolf now lives on North Donaldson Street, and her sister, Mrs. William Boyd, lives on Strathblane Place. Mrs. Boyd, one of six children in the Wood family, remembers little about the Cloud’s Mill miller’s house, as she was only two or three years old when they lived there. From the miller’s house, they moved to Allandale Farm where the Foxchase Shopping Center is now located. Their father, Elza Wood, worked for Arthur H. Allan, the farm’s owner, for many years.


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From Lloyd House records, Alexandria Library, Alexandria, VA:
Alexandria Gazette death notices:
Benjamin Franklin Cloud - Sept. 23, 1836, p. 3
Amelia C. Cloud - June 1, 1854, p. 3
Martha Cloud - June 15, 1867, p. 2

From The Lodge of Washington, A History of the Alexandria Washington Lodge No. 22, A.F. and A.M. of Alexandria, Va. 1723-1876, by F.L. Brockett:

James Cloud is mentioned as: Junior Warden - between 1812 and 1836 (p. 31) and Worshipful Master - between 1820 and 1852 (p. 30).
On Dec. 8, 1831, voted “nay” on a resolution to suspend supper in this Lodge (p. 44).
Attended dinner at “Clagett’s Hotel” to honor LaFayette on his visit to Alexandria (p. 64).
Present at the installation of officers’ ceremony on the Festival of St. John the Evangelist on Dec. 27, 1826 and 1830 when installed as Worshipful Master-elect (p. 82).
Pall-bearer at the burial of Samuel Thompson on Oct. 2, 1826 (p. 129).
Married Sarah A. in 1820, daughter of Amos Alexander (who was Inspector of Flour at Alexandria from 1803 to 1824,) and Nancy Ricketts (p. 194).

James Cloud owned at least two parcels of land in Alexandria, or what is now within the boundaries of Alexandria, in addition to Cloud’s Mill. One was the 3-1/8 acres at Spring Garden Farm described above in the Fairfax County Minute Meetings. The second property was on Prince Street between South Pitt and South St. Asaph Streets. Records of the Mutual Assurance Society at the Lloyd House include two declarations dated June 5 and 24, 1839 describing properties located to the east and west of that owned by James Cloud. Alexandria Land Records Book F, No. 3, p. 12 lists a deed dated Dec. 6, 1843 describing James Cloud’s Prince Street property as having been sold to John C. Graham for $1,750, the same property conveyed to James Cloud from David Ricketts and wife on June 30, 1830. (Information on Graham’s purchase is cited in E. Cox, Historic Alexandria, Street by Street, 1976, p. 129.) Graham is shown as the owner of this property on G.M. Hopkins’ 1877 City Atlas of Alexandria.