Ripley’s first grist mill was built along Mill Creek in 1824 by Jacob Starcher. In 1853, Jacob Sayre sold the mill to John McGrew, who had come to Jackson County in 1844. The McGrew Mill building was about 40 feet by 30 feet and two and one-half stories high, and it furnished flour, feed, meal, and buckwheat, important staples of the day. On September 3, 1862, General Albert Jenkins and his Confederate cavalry passed through on a raid of central western Virginia and looted the mill, dumping excess barrels of flour they could not carry into the stream. Both armies raided the McGrew Mill during the war, and as the Civil War progressed, violence against McGrew from each side steadily increased. The final straw came when soldiers roughed up the workers and broke the steam engine that powered the mill when the water level was too low for operation. During the final years of the war, McGrew sold the mill to his son-in-law, D.K. Hood, who later changed its name from McGrew Mill to Valley Mill. The Hoods renovated and enlarged the facility, and it remained in the family until its closing in 1930.