Clopper Road is named for Clopper Mill, but the history of the mill dates back long before Frances C. Clopper owned it, and the mill is connected with the first government sponsored road in the county, an inheritance suit, and the Lincoln assassination.
Many of you may have noticed the stone and brick ruins on the west side of Clopper Road at the intersection of Waring Station Road. If these ruins could talk they would have quite a story to tell, so let me enlighten you with the past of this historic landmark which has connections to national as well as local history (photos below).
There was a mill at this site as far back as the Revolutionary War, long before Germantown first appeared on the maps in the 1840s. There is a considerable drop and a nice bend in Seneca Creek here, making it a prime place for a mill or a “mill seat.”…