Timber Farms

Dayett Mills, the local town

Dayett Mills

By Vanessa Spence

The Dayett Mills building that we see today was built in 1837.  It is the third building that stood at that same site.  While researching this I never realized what a major historical significance this corner held.

The mill business was built by the first generation of the Cooch family to settle in the new colonies. Col. Thomas Cooch came from England and settled into the house off Old Baltimore Pike in 1746, along with his wife and two children. He served in the militia and was a judge of common pleas.

The Cooch property originally included the corner where Dayett Mills now sits and across the highway to Iron Hill.  During these early years Old Baltimore Pike was a toll road and the only easy passage from Glasgow to New Castle and the Cooch's collected the toll.  They built the mill at the high point of a low lying area that covered the land from Iron Hill to New Castle it was called Purgatory Swap.  The land was impenetrable until well into the 19^th century.  Old Baltimore Pike provided the shortest distance between Glasgow and New Castle and to the ports as well.

Many independent things occurred setting the stage for this mill and its operation to last over 150 years.  First, the water supply was steady because the Christiana River started on higher ground providing a steady ample flow to Christiana Creek.  Second, Iron Hill was an attraction to draw settlers due to its iron ore.  The Welsh Tract was created with a land grant from William Penn to attract Welsh to settle the area and it became known as Penncader Hundred.  Settlers needed flour.  Third, Road ways began to improve access to the two biggest ports of the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River Now, and along the Christiana River sprang up iron work furnaces, sawmills, corn and grain mills.  

In 1770, Thomas Cooch purchased, from John England, the sole water rights to the Christiana Creek and the reservoir created in purgatory swap by a dam built over Mud Run by John England.

After the battle of Cooch's Bridge the mill was burned.  Evidence of operation reappears in history in 1788. The same year Thomas Cooch died.  His Grandson, William Cooch inherits two thirds of the estate.  The decision took four years in Orphans court since Thomas Cooch was married twice.

 William Cooch moved the mill into more modern technology for the time making the mill the areas main economic artery.  His son's later took over and modernized again. In 1876 the Newark and Delaware City Railroad arrived.  There was a post office bearing the "Cooch's Bridge" postmark.  The area became the cultural and economic crossover for the farmer and the city folk to connect. In more modern times technology by companies like pilsbury, pressured many small mills to compete.  Cooch too felt the economic drain on his daily operations and in 1889 William Cooch III and his brother Wilkens Cooch sold the mill to John Dayett. Mr. Dayett retooled the mill and it once again became profitable. Becoming the only mill for a nine mile radius.  While Mrs. Dayett ran the post office, Cooch's Bridge population grew to over 200 in 1914 mostly due to the railroad.  The Dayett's lived in the house that still stands today.  In 1894, he added the mansard roof and bay windows and it was surrounded by 75 acres of cleared land. In 1916 a fire gutted the mill, it was rebuilt only to be gutted by fire again in 1933.  This time only the walls were left.  In 1948 Dayett Mills passed ownership that steadily transformed the mill operation from flour production to animal feeds.  Chicken feed first in 1920.  It was key in Delaware's chicken farming business.The mill worked closely with the University of Delaware's department of Agriculture to produce specialty feeds.  When pelletization of animal feeds came to be and the FDA certified diet requirements for animal feeds; it forced the mill operations to finally cease operations in 1980's.