By 1760, Charles Woodmason had established a store near here, following a 1745 Act of the General Assembly that provided for clearing of the watercourses at the head of Black Mingo Creek. Soon thereafter, schooners carried local products to Charlestown; by the early 1760s Black Mingo Settlement, later known as Willtown, had developed on the creek. By 1804 Black Mingo stage stop had a tavern and approximately twelve wooden houses. About 1843, local merchant Cleland Belin built on his own land the Black Mingo Baptist Church, which is all that remains of the early inland settlement.