Thomas Viverett ran a grist mill on the Tar River just south of Rocky Mount during the 1780s. Thomas was forced to grind mill for Lord Cornwallis’s army when he passed through Nash County on his way to Yorktown, Virginia, where he later surrendered. This painting by William Vivrett of Missouri depicts such a mill in a rustic setting. Thomas’s son James also ran a mill in the same area many years after his father’s death. A 1921 letter by William Randolph Vivrett makes reference to the old mill.
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