With a vision for what a fast-flowing stream could do, John J. Rife moved south in Rockingham County in 1822. He secured permission from the circuit court to dam the water, then put it to work powering both a merchant mill and a sawmill. Around the mill pond, he built something larger than a business – a small, but thriving, German Baptist industrial community. Within a few years, the successful entrepreneur took his family west to Ohio, where he explored still newer opportunities.
The mill passed to Frederick Kline, the uncle of Brethren martyr John Kline and a trusted steward within the German Baptist community.
Daniel Bowman became a partner in 1839 and sole owner in 1842, steadily expanding the mill’s reach and capabilities. His German Baptist principles shaped everything he did. Known for his staunch anti-slavery and non-resistance convictions, Bowman lived those beliefs openly. Family stories – passed down through generations – tell of him purchasing enslaved people at the courthouse and immediately granting them their freedom. Though not proven, census records from before the Civil War show several free Black households not far from the mill.
Always an early adopter of new technology, Daniel Bowman was also the single largest donor to the construction of the Warm Springs Turnpike – today’s Virginia Route 42 – and worked to bring the railroad to Dayton. Transportation was a key issue for Bowman’s merchant mill, which sent its production by horse-drawn wagons to Winchester, where it made connections to Baltimore’s port.
The Civil War brought destruction to the mill community. The 116th Ohio Volunteer Infantry camped at Dayton in late September 1864, and some soldiers were grinding flour 24 hours a day at Bowman’s mill to feed Union troops camped in nearby Harrisonburg. Despite Bowman being a “Union man,” Union General George Armstrong Custer burned the mill to the ground on the evening of October 5, along with the hired miller’s house across the street.
The destruction was devastating, but Bowman did not walk away – even when his parents and siblings were among more than 400 wagon loads of Brethren and Mennonite families moving north toward Martinsburg to escape the war’s reach. Daniel stayed and slowly began rebuilding. The sawmill was back in operation by 1866; the flour mill followed in 1867. Around 1870, three of his four sons headed west, playing pivotal roles in establishing Brethren congregations in Missouri, Texas, and California. In the twentieth century, grandsons Warren D. Bowman and Rufus D. Bowman served as President of Bridgewater College and Bethany Seminary (Chicago), respectively. Great-great grandson Myron Augsburger became President of Eastern Mennonite University.
In 1884, Daniel Bowman sold the mill to a local businessman—closing a remarkable 62-year chapter of unbroken Brethren ownership.
Today, Daniel Bowman’s mill—also known as Rife’s Mill—stands at the heart of the 104-acre Silver Lake Historic District established in 2019 by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and placed on the National Register.
Cheryl Lyon