Benjamin Gorgas's tie to the Wissahickon is the Gorgas family mill seat in Roxborough Township, on Wissahickon Creek below the Livezeys' mill at Glen Fern. The tax lists style him its oil miller in 1780 and 1781 — "Oylmiller," "Oil Miller" — the valley's only named oil miller on the record, and its grist-mill holder from 1782; and the family's dam on the creek produced one of early Pennsylvania's most quoted water cases, Levezey v. Gorgas, with its legal gauge of a hole bored in a rock. He was taxed in Roxborough from 1769, moved to Germantown by 1800, and died there in 1821, buried aged 74. One question his file carries openly: his grandfather's 1741 will also names a Benjamin, and for years the miller was taken for that son — but a man born by 1741 cannot be 74 in 1821. The burial age, the young freeman's first tax lines, and an unbroken twenty-year progression say the miller was the grandson, the son John's son. The identification is strongly supported; the entry stands, as the project ruled, "Benjamin Gorgas of Roxborough (generation left open)."
A working life in thirteen levies
The Roxborough tax lines, transcribed in full from the record images, are the spine of his life. In 1769 and 1774 he is taxed on his person alone, holding nothing — a young freeman. In 1780 he appears as "Benjn Gorgas, Oylmiller," and in 1781 as "Oil Miller," while his brother John is the seat's plain "Miller": John ran the grist mill, Benjamin the oil mill that stood with it on the same water. In 1782 Benjamin is "Miller" himself, on 60 acres with a dwelling, a horse, and two cows. In 1783 an assessor struck his name from the oil mill's line and wrote his brother Jacob over it — a reassignment whose reason no record gives. By 1785 the brothers have exchanged mills: Benjamin holds "1 Grist Mill" on 60 acres with two dwellings, and John holds the "Oyl Mill" (1785–86). In 1786 Benjamin and Jacob hold the grist mill in halves; in 1789 Benjamin stands on 72 acres with the mill. The 1790 census finds him heading a Roxborough household of six, his brothers John and Jacob on the same page. It is one man's arc — freeman, oil miller, mill holder — with no seam where a different Benjamin would have to be spliced in.
The 1779 Roxborough mill list (Horatio Gates Jones's) counts the Gorgas grist mill among the township's eleven creek mills and names Benjamin its oil miller. The list stands at the grade of a later compilation; the trade itself is proven by the tax lines in his own name.
The hole in the rock
The Livezeys, upstream at Glen Fern, declared that the Gorgas dam below them had been raised higher than before, penning the water back and breaking their works. Benjamin's own place among the defendants — the report names only "Gorgas et al." — is probable on the tax lists' evidence, not proven, and this account keeps it at that grade. Rather than try the case, the parties sent everything to four referees, whose award became the famous part: the Gorgases might keep their dam forever at a height "corresponding with the bottom of the hole bored in a certain rock" on the creek's north-east side; if they raised it wilfully, the Livezeys, after notices and a viewing by three freeholders, might enter the dam and tear it down themselves; and for the privilege the mill's holders would pay £50 down and £10 yearly. The Supreme Court confirmed the award in 1796 — and the High Court of Errors and Appeals reversed it on January 17, 1800, holding the referees had gone beyond what was submitted to them: they had sold a new privilege and built a standing tribunal for future fights. The settlement everyone quotes was undone; how the mills shared the water afterwards, no record read says.
The seat changes hands
In October 1798 the seat was advertised as "a valuable Merchant, Country and Oil Mill, known by the name of Gorgas's Mill," 25 acres on the creek. By January 1800 the neighbouring Rever plantation was being bounded by "Wisse's or late Gorgas's mill." That September, Benjamin Gorgas and his wife conveyed 41 acres on the township line to Jacob Gominger — the Gazette was soon calling it "Benjamin Gorgas's former plantation," about 20 acres with a stone house and a new stone barn (the acreages do not match; printed as found). Roxborough's only Gorgas household in the 1800 census is his brother John's.
Germantown: land, sales, and a paper mill
Benjamin's second act is Germantown real estate and mill-world dealing, traced through the newspapers. In 1802 he offers an elegant Mount Airy seat on Main Street, and serves as the contact for the sale of Cresheim Mill — "conditions of sale made known by Benj. Gorgas, or Son." Through 1802–1805 his name bounds other men's sales — Peter Care's tract, lots on Livezey's Mill Road, the Yorkes' Cresheim Creek lots — and he sells Germantown Turnpike lots of his own. His last newspaper trace, January 1814, is characteristic: a stone paper mill on Cresheim Creek, built about 1809, 33 by 45 feet with 30 feet of fall — "apply to Benjamin Gorgas, near the 8-mile stone." Contact, as so often, rather than stated owner. The censuses track him to Mount Airy in 1810, his son Benjamin Jr. in the next household.
The will, and the stepmother in the lot
His will (Will Book 7, pp. 397–398), dated August 25, 1819 and proved November 7, 1821, styles him "Benjamin Gorgas Senr of the Township of Germantown… Farmer." His wife Juliana takes the furniture, a fourth of the money and notes, and the life use of the mansion house and lot on Allens Lane; his son Benjamin Jr. and son-in-law Samuel French execute — affirming, not swearing, in the family's Brethren practice; daughter Susanna shares; and a fourth goes to the children of a son who died before him, including "Ann the wife of — Houston," her husband's first name a blank dash in the will. The lots to be sold include one adjoining Peter Bechtel and a last three acres in Roxborough on a mill road. No mill is named — the mill life was thirty years past.
He was buried October 23, 1821, aged 74, in the Germantown Church of the Brethren Cemetery — in a lot headed "Owner Rachel Gorgas, Estate." Rachel's will (Book 8, p. 462, read in the original) names her six children — exactly the younger six of his uncle John's ten — and so identifies her: the later wife of John Gorgas the son, mother of his younger children, and Benjamin's stepmother. It is her lot he lies in, beside his widow Julianna (d. 1833). His inventory was never found on either online collection and stands as a permanent gap; no newspaper noticed his death.
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1769 | First Roxborough tax line — taxed on his person alone, a young freeman |
| 1780–81 | Styled "Oylmiller" / "Oil Miller" in the Roxborough tax lines; his brother John holds the grist mill |
| 1782 | "Miller" — 60 acres, dwelling, occupation assessed £319 |
| 1783 | The assessor strikes his name from the oil mill's line and writes Jacob over it |
| 1785–86 | The brothers reversed: Benjamin holds the grist mill, John the oil mill |
| 1790 | Heads a Roxborough household of six in the first census |
| 1796–1800 | Levezey v. Gorgas: the referees' award (the hole in the rock) confirmed 1796, reversed January 17, 1800 |
| 1798 | The seat advertised as "Gorgas's Mill" — merchant, country, and oil mill, 25 acres |
| 1800 | Conveys 41 acres to Jacob Gominger (Sept 1); Germantown in the census; Roxborough's only Gorgas household is John's |
| 1802 | Offers a Mount Airy seat; contact for the Cresheim Mill sale ("Benj. Gorgas, or Son") |
| 1814 | Last newspaper trace — the Cresheim Creek paper mill, "apply to Benjamin Gorgas" |
| 1819 | Will dated August 25 (Book 7, pp. 397–398, no. 164) |
| 1821 | Buried October 23, aged 74, Germantown Church of the Brethren Cemetery, Lot 15; will proved November 7 |
What remains open
The generation, formally — held open by the project's ruling though the evidence runs one way. His birth record and marriage, nowhere found. His inventory, a permanent gap in the physical probate file. The brother John's death and burial — a John Gorgas buried two days before Benjamin proved, on examination, to be a boy of ten on another lot, not the brother. And the transaction behind an assessor's pen-stroke in 1783, when the oil mill passed on paper from Benjamin to Jacob. What is not open: the oil miller's trade, the tax arc, the lawsuit's course, the will, and the grave.
