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Painting of HCC Mill Wheel Presented to College

Haywood Community College

NEWS RELEASE

Contacts: Debra M. Davis, Diana S. Conard

185 Freedlander Drive

Clyde, NC 28721

828-627-4521 Fax: 828-627-4513

Date: 8-13-06

For immediate release.

PAINTING OF HCC MILL WHEEL PRESENTED TO COLLEGE

Blanche and Donald Campbell of Maggie Valley recently presented an original oil painting of the HCC mill wheel in a handmade wormy chestnut frame to the college. Self-taught artist, Robert J. Bushong, gave the Campbell's the painting as a housewarming gift. It features the wheel at its original Haywood County home on Campbell Creek where the Campbell's currently reside.

The Campbells moved to Haywood County when Donald retired from Ford Motor Company over 30 years ago. They plan to relocate to Michigan to be with their children. It is the Campbell's wish that the painting be in a location where the public can enjoy it. It is currently displayed in the President's office.

For the first time since the waterwheel's erection at HCC, the wheel was used to grind corn at HCC's Mountain Echoes Festival in June.

The waterwheel has a long history in Haywood County. It was first purchased in 1908 from a company in Pennsylvania by David Crockett Campbell for Campbell Creek in Maggie Valley. The wheel was used to power a gristmill, sawmill, and electric generator, which powered the first electric icebox in Maggie Valley. The wheel spent 39 years on Campbell Creek.

In 1947, the waterwheel was sold to A.L. Freedlander and remained on his estate for 33 years. In 1979, the waterwheel was donated to HCC in memory of Freedlander. The Dayco Charitable Foundation gave HCC a $10,000 gift to move the waterwheel to HCC and refurbish it.

The waterwheel was erected beside the HCC Mill Pond in 1980. Students, faculty, and staff carefully reassembled the wheel bolt by bolt.

In 1983, Mr. and Mrs. W. Curtis Russ donated money to start the construction of the mill house and to hire a consultant to provide technical assistance. Shortly afterward, Irene Campbell McKaughan, David Crockett Campbell's daughter, and Doan Ogden, a landscape architect from Asheville that had drawn the original landscape plans that called for construction of the millpond, donated the original millstones to HCC. Ogden also donated all the gears and working parts of the waterwheel.

Today, the HCC waterwheel and Mill House is a symbolic reminder of Haywood County's Appalachian heritage.

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Photo (by Debra Davis) attached:

(cutline)

Blanche and Donald Campbell are shown with the Millhouse painting that they presented to Haywood Community College. Dr. Rose Johnson, (right) accepted the gift on behalf of the college.

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