Bowen's Mill was built about 1860 by Col. Robert E. Bowen (1830-1909), a Confederate officer, state representative, state senator, and Pickens County businessman who advocated progressive farming and was also active in the railroad and timber industries. In addition to the mill, the complex included a store, blacksmith's shop, saw mill, and cotton gin. In the first quarter of the twentieth century, ownership passed from Bowen's son James O. Bowen to Albert Kay and Kay's widow Tallulah, then successively to N.T. Waddell, Ida S. Johnson, and a Mrs. Shembosky, who sold it to Hovey A. Lark (1890-1968) during the Depression. Lark ground corn here from the early 1930s until about 1965.