For an early colony to survive, a functioning mill was essential. Mills were used both for grinding grain and cutting lumber—materials needed to construct homes and barns and eventually to support York’s lumber-export economy.

In the summer of 1634, Sir Ferdinando Gorges sent components for a sawmill and grist mill to be erected at Agamenticus (York). These mills were built on the tidal inlet later known as Old Mill Creek—an offshoot of the York River just upriver of the modern I-95 bridge, on the side closest to Kittery. This installation may have been the first sawmill and grist mill in America, and possibly the first powered by tidal flow.

The mills operated using an undershot tidal wheel. A wooden dam was constructed across the creek with swinging gates. Incoming tidewaters opened the gates, filling the impoundment behind the dam. As the tide receded, the gates closed, trapping water that could then be released through the millwheel to power the machinery. The earliest mill site is believed to have been where Beech Ridge Road crosses Old Mill Creek. These first mills operated until roughly 1650 before being abandoned due to sinking foundations and continual mechanical issues.

A second set of mills was built farther down Old Mill Creek, closer to the York River, in 1652. These operated until shortly after 1890. Today, remnants of the dam and gate structure remain visible. On Daniel Sewall’s 1794 map of York, ten mills are documented throughout the town.

York in American History: The First Mills and an Overreaching Millwright
By James Kences

“The sawmill cuts about 250 ft. a tide, & we imagine the corn mill will grind 20 bushels per tide...” wrote observers in September 1640—just two decades after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. The distinctive rhythmic sound of mill machinery signaled the beginning of America’s industrial future.

Within only a few decades, northern New England’s rivers and forests had been transformed. “There is scarce a river or creek in those parts that hath not some of those engines erected upon them,” one contemporary wrote, describing Maine’s booming timber industry before the Indian war of the 1670s. Merchant partnerships and Massachusetts involvement accelerated this development.

The Old Mill Creek tide mills—likely among America’s earliest—were built in 1634, at a time when settlement along the Maine coast was sparse and resources for construction were limited. Sir Ferdinando Gorges imagined a profitable, thriving outpost. His cousin, Thomas Gorges, who arrived in 1640, discovered otherwise.

“Your mills as ever I write you would do you no good,” Thomas Gorges reported, citing failing foundations, sinking structures, damaged parts, and harsh winters that halted milling for months. “By the cold your mill did not cut from 17 of October till the beginning of April.”

Gorges left Maine in 1643 after three years of setbacks, though he oversaw land transactions that later shaped Wells and supported the rise of the Littlefield family—future leaders in local milling.

A 1682 regional survey recorded five active mills in Wells, two operated by Littlefields. York had two mills, including one owned by Mary Sayward, widow of millwright Henry Sayward. Arriving in the 1650s, Sayward had worked in millbuilding for three decades. After his mill at Gorges Creek was damaged by fire, he pursued numerous mill projects across the region—ultimately overextending himself.

Sayward died in 1679 burdened by debt. His widow faced aggressive claims from powerful Boston and Salem merchants, including future Salem Witch Trials judges Robert Gibbs, Jonathan Corwin, and Bartholomew Gedney. The collapse resulted from an impossible series of mortgage contracts requiring immense quantities of cut timber—demands interrupted by the Indian war of 1675.

Despite these hardships, the Sayward legacy in milling continued. In 1726, Henry’s grandson Joseph Sayward and eighteen partners founded the New Mill Company at the site of today’s Causeway and pedestrian bridge. Joseph, too, ultimately lost his property to merchant William Pepperell Sr., though his son Jonathan Sayward became one of York’s wealthiest merchants, focusing on shipping rather than milling.