Oldest Mill Datestone in Lancaster County Stolen

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datestone-stolen-from-maple-grove-mill

 

From the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, July 12, 1978.

Stolen from what has long been known as the Maple Grove Mill, there originally was a wooden mill built on this site by A-1 Hans Bruppacher (1685-1748) and his wife Anna Ernst Bruppacher (1690-1759), for grinding grain and sawing wood.  Destroyed by fire, the original wooden structure was rebuilt by Johannes and Barbara Steiner in 1767. 

It was the datestone from that reconstructed mill that was stolen.  Sometime between the writing of this article and 1985, according to Landis H. Brubaker, the stone was recovered and reinstalled into the wall of the building.

Read more about the mill here.