Rand-Bryan House, photograph by June Lioret (courtesy of randsmilldar.com).
We will soon celebrate the 250th anniversary of America as we know it. What was happening in what we now know as Garner 250 years ago?
When I first moved to Garner in 1983, I was totally baffled by all the roads and streets bearing the name “Rand.” (Mind you, this was way before GPS and the first “Tom-Tom” I ever owned. Paper maps were all that a driver could use for navigation.) Rand Street, Rand Road, Rand Mill Road, etc. had me totally baffled and often lost!
Here’s a brief history of Rands in our area of southern Wake County: In 1759 the King of England (George II) granted 3,000 acres of land to a Virginian named William Rand. Although he never lived in this area himself, William Rand’s two sons, named John and Walter, settled here and had many descendants.
If you have ever driven south down Highway 50/Benson Road from Garner and crossed the bridge just past Buffaloe Road (near the current Raleigh water treatment plant), you have driven through the original Rand land. (What is now Lake Benson was originally Rand’s Mill Pond.) The original Rand’s Mill was built there in 1780, but it burned around 1900. Parker Rand, a descendant of the original Rand family, rebuilt the mill in 1920 and operated it until 1928. It served local citizens grinding grain and corn until 1928. One elderly Garner resident said that local mail was even delivered to the mill when he was a boy.
In 1926, the City of Raleigh had a serious water shortage; city officials began eyeing Rand’s Mill Pond in Garner as an auxiliary water source. Parker Rand sold the lake to Raleigh in 1927. A newer, higher dam was built around 1953-54. Rand’s Mill Pond is now known as Lake Benson, and serves as a back-up water source for the city of Raleigh.
Submitted by contributing author: Karen Padgett
Sources: News & Observer, March 13, 1955. Personal interview with Bill Middleton.
