Very nice pictures John. It's amazing how they also did the restore of the MILL as well.
here is a picture I took of the stone that says mr dees 1972
when i took my mom back to gully mill , it was very run down then and i took a ton of photos
Smiley Burnett was kind of famous side kick of Gene Autry
he used to write songs and sell them to Gene Autry .
He had dinner there at the gully mill with my grandparents and grandmother grandfather and mom , he said he loved my grandmothers cooking fried chicken and iced tea , and i can tell you i ate a lot of my grandmothers cooking growing up and he was correct!!
here is the photo of my mom holding her cat in fron of the gully mill truck , it says founded 1812 on the truck , it took a lot of time to upload these and find all these pics scattered on my old computer , i have them all backed up and the originals , its been my pleasur , i loved my grandparents and parents a lot , it was a simpler time back then , i loved all my moms stories aboout the mill and my grandfather hunting with his bird dogs , she used to tell me the names of the dogs
cant remember , i hope and prey and i believe i will see them all again .
my grandparents owned and operated the mill before your grandparents , I attached a pdf file that shows the history of the owners , they owned it before Mr Dees , I was lucky enough to bring my mother back there to see the mill before they renovated it , I took tons of pictures in its very run down situation , I have very many pictures of that , me standing in front of wheel just like my grandfather many years before,
I dont see the big water wheel in the new restored pictures.
all the photos I uploaded I have the origanals very big and glossy origanals ,from my family , my mom is gone now god bless her and my younger brother passed , I am all alone now
58 years old but I like my history and I still have all the familys history
oh well enough said
I have one more picture of my mom standing in front of the gully mill truck as a baby girl , if you look at one of the pictures i posted lower left you can see her tricycle.
Norman loyd lucas was my grand father he supplied fort bragg and local area with corn meal, my mom once hid in his truck and went on deliverys with him and he didnt know it , my grandmother was a good cook and a famous actor had dinner there , he loved her fried chicken and iced tea his name was smiley burnett
I will post more pics I have a lot
contact me
Norman Loyd Lucas my grandfather on my moms side my mom and grandmother and grandfather owned and lived there 1928-1943
View attachment #1 (PDF document, version 1.4, 1178194 bytes)
Would love to know when you grandparents owned the mill. My grandparents owned it as well. Most likely before yours. My grandfathers name was on the building.
Frank L Dees
I have some very nice old historic photos of the gully mill circa 1935 ... showing the old mill and my grandfather Norman Lloyd Lucas who owned and operated the mill for about 20 years .
i have some good pics of the old mill from way back
very happy to see the gully mill restored , took my mom to fayetteville north carolina for a family reunion a few years back , before it was rebuilt , it was very run down when we visited it , my mom lived there for many years at the gully mill he father and mother , my grandfather and grandmother owned it for approx. 20 years , my grandfathers name was norman lloyd lucas