Established in 1845 by New Hampshire native Dr. Jonathan (or Johnathan) D. Hale and John F. Jouett, Hale's Mill was a grist mill and a sawmill on the Wolf River near Byrdstown. During the Civil War, Hale was loyal to the Union, and his example and influence contributed to the enlistment in the Union Army of numerous Overton County men. On September 15, 1862, Champ Ferguson's band, which included Confederate soldiers, burned the mill. Citizens deemed by a U.S. military commission to have been responsible for the mill's destruction were ordered to pay reparations. This incident illustrates the intense division of loyalty among Tennesseans during the war.