In 1824 entrepreneurs John Thorpe and Mark Scanlon obtained a government grant for the construction of a grist mill on a stream north of the settlement; although the partnership was dissolved about 1832, Scanlon built two sawmills in that vicinity. Water power being the only means of motive power at the time, as many as six mills were located on Scanlon Creek at one time. The family of Thomas Maconchy, one of the early settlers of Gilford, built a sawmill in Bradford at the bridge over the Holland River, in 1840. It was the first mill at that location.