Sloat+Mill

In 1815 Jacob Sloat built a mill to manufacture cotton and cloth. It was located on Mill Street across from where the horse barn is now. Jacob’s mill was a building that was 20 by 60 feet and three stories high. The mill had two wings. In the first wing, they made heavy mill screws and vises with a machine. It also had a Smith Shop. In the other wing they made cotton and cloth. In 1824 Jacob Sloat hired Charles Danforth to oversee how the mill was working. Charles Danforth was working on making a new spindle. After much work and testing Charles was forced to leave the project. Sloat however who had watched Charles work on the new invention thought he detected the reason for its failure, and offered to correct the mistake and complete the work. Finally the spindle was done. Unfortunately for Sloat his agreement with Danforth was never signed. So he received nothing for all his hard work. In 1836 Jacob Sloat had one wing of the mill torn down. Then he replaced it with an addition 20 by 30 feet and three stories high. The ground floor was used for a machine shop. A smaller addition was made on the north side of the mill. Two years later, the mill operation was turned entirely to making fine and coarse wraps. They discontinued the weaving of cotton cloth. In 1840 Jacob Sloat created a process for dressing cotton twine, making the cotton stronger. The improved twine was such a hit that the entire mill operation became focused on their cotton twine. I spoke to Harold Brush who was born and raised in Sloatsburg. He also used to work in Sloat Mill in the 1940’s. The owner of the mill at that time was Mr. Schwartz. The mill still had two sides but they were used for different jobs. On one side they continued to make cotton into twine. They sold the twine to clothes makers. Mr. Brush worked on the other side called Ramapo Piece and Dye Works. They bleached and cleaned rolls of cloth. Then they dyed it. The color water was put into the ground between the mill and what is now known as the community fields. This was done to filter the water before it drained back into the river. Workers either worked an 11 hour day shift or a 13 hour night shift. In 1946 Mr. Brush made 40 cents an hour. The fire destroyed the mill on March 21, 1955, but no one died. Mr. Brush believes that the fire may have been caused by electrical problems. The land is empty where the mill used to be. There are no signs of the mill left. The land was cleared after the fire to make room for new developing. Sloat Mill has so many interesting things to hear about.