Evans Lake

**Days of Yore**
Evans Pond	as recounted by Bill Day Evans Pond 1908	Evans' Flour & Grist Mill,1819-87

Evans Lake Going down Mill Road toward the bridge by the spillway at Evans Lake with the Mews on the right, the lagoon on the left, and the lake directly ahead, it is difficult to realize that the areas were so different just some sixty years ago. In 1913 Mill Road was there, but on the right were the woods with a standpipe standing just off Kings Highway. On the left, Cooper Creek ran through the cow pasture on its way to the Delaware River. High on the hill where the Parkway Apartments now are, was the Munn's farmhouse whose cows supplied Haddonfield with milk. The mill hole under the bridge by the dam was the fishing and swimming spot for the kids who would spend all day there during the summers. The banks were held in place by hard bags of cement. Charred embers of the old mill were still in evidence and the old wooden spillway pilings were still there under the water. With the dam gone, no lake existed; just a twelve foot stream ran through from the direction of the Batesville bridge. That this was tidewater was proven by the presence of the river suckers that could be caught then all along the creek. On the right of Mill Road on the shore of the lake was a house that was occupied by Mr. William Oakley, a Civil War veteran, who was an employee of the mill when it was in operation. In later years old Dave lived in the house, and for a few dollars each summer he was caretaker of the canoes that the young swains wanted watched. Across the bridge and farther up the road opposite John Croft's farmhouse which is still standing, stood an old two story wooden house where the miller lived who operated the mill. The barn near the house was on the boundary line with half of it in Haddonfield and half in Delaware Township. The mill was destroyed by fire which was blamed on an itinerant umbrella mender who had been given permission to sleep in it. In use it had been that largest flour mill in the area. Sam Patton did most of the reminiscing of this lake area, as in his boyhood he lived in the miller's old house. Sam also recalls that Cooper Creek was navigable from the Delaware River nearly up to Evans Lake because barges were able to unload cargoes at the Grove Street bridge which was then know as Stoy's Landing.

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