Soon after moving to Greenbrier County, Virginia, in 1794, Jacob and Mary Hackman built a gristmill at the confluence of Mill Creek and Muddy Creek, and the Hackman Mill opened in 1796 producing cornmeal for the local population. In 1842, the mill passed to their daughter Susan and her husband George Lewis. John Blaker, from Loudon County, Virginia, was the first Blaker associated with the mill after the Lewises hired him to work there, and he eventually married Susan Lewis, probably the granddaughter of Susan Hackman Lewis and George Lewis. The Blakers had eight children, and three of them, James L., Mamie, and Ida, operated the mill until it eventually closed. Robert Hackman Blaker of Wilmington, Delaware, a direct descendant of the family that built and operated the mill for almost two centuries, donated it, and with the help of many volunteers it was carefully disassembled stone by stone and board by board, transported from its original site to Jackson's Mill, restored, and put back into operation.