Stories from Bender’s Mill

Not far from the mouth of the West Branch of the Codorus Creek there was a mill. It had various names over the years, Stoner, Klinedinst, Menges, Wiest’s Dam, and Bender’s. This was one of the earliest mills in the county dating back to around 1772. The Bender family owned and operated the mill during the latter part of the 19^th century. This is the time frame for our story.

The pond behind the mill dam served as a source of ice during these days before refrigeration. Reuben Neuman operated a large icehouse near the mill. Ice was harvested from the pond during the winter months and stored in the icehouse to be sold during the summer months to supply people with ice for their ice boxes.

There was a bridge over the creek next to the mill. The early bridge was constructed of wood but in 1884, the township built a new bridge made partly of steel and partly of wood to handle traffic between New Salem and West York.  One evening in August of 1888, as a wagon load of ice was traversing the bridge, the structure gave way and the horses, wagon, and driver were plunged into the creek below. A man who walked ahead of the team and two men following in the rear, narrowly escaped going down with the team. The driver was injured but not fatally. The horses were wedged fast between the timbers and debris of the wrecked bridge and were extricated with great difficulty. One horse had to be killed, having had his back broken, and another had a broken leg.

The bridge was subsequently replaced with one made entirely of iron but with a wooden floor. The new bridge opened for traffic in February of 1889. Then disaster struck in June when a storm caused the Codorus to flood its banks. The flood waters reached the mill causing the whole gable end and a portion of the west wall to collapse. Six hundred bushels of grain were washed away in the torrent. Two weeks later the creek was full of dead catfish. When the fish were opened, they were found to be full of wheat.

Two years later, Mr. Neuman was once again transporting ice across the new bridge when the floor of that bridge gave way. Fortunately, this time the wagon was stopped by the iron stays under the floor and the load was prevented from falling into the stream.

Today, the mill site is in the flood plain behind the Indian Rock Dam. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built the dam in 1942 to prevent floods like the one in 1889 and another one that occurred in 1933. The dam is named after an outcrop of rocks a few hundred yards downstream that once served as a meeting place for Native Americans.