Charles and Alfred LeCarpentier

Industry type: Flour mill, Saw mill, Metal works
Location: Rockland on the West bank of the Brandywine
Active dates: c. 1850-1908

Summary: Charles LeCarpentier, a French immigrant, purchased the land formerly owned by the Kirk family sometime between 1849 and 1859. Charles's brother, Edward LeCarpentier, operated a tin shop next door to the mill; the cotton mill that Caleb Kirk had formerly operated on the property was also used as a tin shop and later a farm building. All three mill buildings got some or all of their water power from Wilson's Run, a small tributary of the Brandywine paralleling Adam's Dam Road. LeCarpentier's son, Alfred, a clerk for E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, operated the mills until 1908. By 1940, the mill buildings had been converted into apartments, and the former tin shop had become a store.

Sources: Zebley, Frank R. Along the Brandywine. Wilmington: William Cann, Inc., 1940.

Online sources / images:Pomeroy and Beers, Atlas of the State of Delaware, 1868. Hagley Digital Archives.