Thanks to all who wrote for your interest and help.  Thanks, also, to "Friend", who sent link to early history of gunpowder in America.   http://www.todayinsci.com/Events/Technology/GunpowderMills.htm  Fascinating  reading.


  Knowing that the Rowland family was involved in making gunpowder, I guess I made an assumtion about the "powder mill" that may not necessarily be accurate.  If it was a salting-down place, however, I would think it would be even further from the house than a place for making or storing gun-powder.

  Thomas Rowland, as admin. of his son Robert's estate beginning in 1800, was sued for non-delivery of  gunpowder.  The case  made it's way to  Superior Court at Stanton in 1811,  and District Court in Apr. 1814, where the  plaintiff complained that "... a considerable quantity of gunpowder, perhaps about five hundred weight, which he said belonged to Robert's estate, and had in his lifetime been made and packed perhaps for the plaintiff..."   [ I have found nothing to link Robert's gunpowder with his father's plantation, but possibly it was stored there.   How much room did 500 lbs. of gunpowder require?]

   To see more about the missing gunpowder, go to link and scroll down on right to Missing Gunpowder
    http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~qvarizona/rowlandarchive.html


  From mail I'm getting about gunpowder in VA, I'm beginining to think it's possible the "powder mill"  Thomas Rowland  had was a storage area, where he kept the finished product.  He was what today would be called a "gun nut", experimenting with different methods of loading and shooting rifles.

  One article I read today leads to a new Q:  What was  "...a hand-mill to provide gunpowder for the Virginia militia".   Could it be what Thomas had in his Powder Mill?

  Joanne


[log in to unmask] wrote:
      We all know our ancestors had powder, does anyone have any day books entries, that may denote where the powder came from, or any day books that denote family entries of recieving powder?





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