Francis Cassatt Clopper bought this mill and 541 acres in 1810, but the earliest mention of a mill on this site dates back to 1777. Clopper's mill was a square, three-story grist mill, with basement and first floor levels made of local fieldstone and a third story of brick. The mill was destroyed by a fire in 1947.
| Name | Date | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Jack Toomey | 5/18/09 | In 1865 George Atzerodt, one of the conspirators involved in the assassination of President Lincoln, stopped here during his escape into Montgomery County. |
| Paul | 5/30/09 | Francis Curran, the driver of the Rockville stagecoach, knew Atzerodt and saw him on the day after Lincoln's assasination, riding in a buggy near Rockville with a man named William R. Gaither. Curran's report was the first hint of Atzerodt's whereabouts after he had left the capital. After a brief ride with Gaither, he spent Saturday night at Clopper's Mill, near Seneca Creek. Then, on Sunday morning, he walked a few miles north of Germantown, where the trail grew cold for a time. --excerpt from American Brutus, a book about John Wilkes Booth and Lincoln's conspirators |
| Andrew Odom | 5/25/11 | Great tales! I'll have to remember this - I Pass by the remains everyday and often point it out to visitors. If you blink, it's barely visible. Sadly, there is a lot of litter on Clopper Road (what's with people today?) and I wonder how long before that road is widened with more lanes? It's very jammed at rush hour. The trees are slowly not being replaced either... |
| john galvin | 2/25/12 | George Atzerodt spent the night there after getting a ride from a black man named Gaither...From DC to G-burg then walked to Cloppers Mill...Next day walked to uncles farm in Germantown.....Richter farm..Went to town later and bragged about his part...and they turned him in |
| Jack Toomey | 4/17/12 | John I am going to have to correct you on that last part. Atzerodt did not go to town. He hid out on his cousin's farm until a neighbor noticed that a stranger was staying at the farm. The neighbor notified the military and a small force came to the farm and arrested him. The farmhouse was on present day Schaffer Road halfway between Clopper Road and the Soccerplex. It was not torn down until the 60's. |
| Maria m | 1/25/14 | OMG so that's what those f-in ruins were. My sis and I always thought it was the blairwitch house |
| Mike | 3/4/15 | I used to walk from Germantown by way of the RR tracks back in the late 60's to the mill ruins with my 12ga shotgun! I tried to get one of the mill stones, but was a little too much to carry. |