The Rise of Cotton Mills in the South Part 11

[9] Clark, in South in Building of Nation, Vol. V, p. 310.

[10] Kohn, Cotton Mills of South Carolina, p. 7.

[11] Kohn, Cotton Mills of South Carolina, p. 7.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Kohn, Cotton Mills of South Carolina, p. 7. His citation is of the South Carolina and American General Gazette, Jan. 30, 1777. Cf. Ibid., pp.

6-7.

[15] Ibid., p. 8. Reference is particularly to the City Gazette and Daily Advertiser, of Charleston, January 24, 1779.

[16] Kohn, Cotton Mills of South Carolina. Citation is of the American Museum, VIII, Appendix IV, part II, July 1, 1790. The question mark is Mr.

Kohn's.

[17] Kohn, Cotton Mills of South Carolina, pp. 8-9.

[18] W. W. Sellers, A History of Marion County, p. 26.

[19] Clark, in South in Building of Nation, Vol. V, p. 312. Cf. Ibid., pp.

328-9. Referring to the manufactories near Charleston and Statesburg, and to carding and spinning machinery set up in eastern Tennessee in 1791, he concludes, "However the industrial progress of these years was irregular and local rather than general and permanent." Ibid., p. 310.

[20] Clark, History of Manufactures in the United States, 1607-1860, p.

537. As indicating further the lack of causation in these earliest ventures, it is said: "Maryland is hardly typical industrially of the Southern States. Its factories date from the Revolution...." (Ibid., in South in Building of Nation, Vol. V, pp. 328-9.)

[21] "In this country, as well as in England, the germ of the textile industry existed in the fulling and carding mills; the former, dating earlier, being the mills for finishing the coa.r.s.e cloths woven by hand in the looms of our ancestors; and in the latter, the carding mill, the wool was prepared for the hand-wheel. At the close of the Revolution the domestic system of manufactures prevailed throughout the states" (Carroll D. Wright, "The Factory System of the U.S." p. 6, in U.S. Census of manufactures, 1880.)

[22] The Bolton Factory was built in 1811 on Upton Creek, nine miles southwest of Washington, Wilkes County, Ga., in 1794, on this site had been erected one of Whitney's first cotton gins, propelled by the water power that later ran the cotton mill. It is said that here Lyon conceived important improvements on the Whitney invention, making a saw gin.

(Southern Cotton Spinners' a.s.sociation proceedings seventh annual convention, pp. 41 ff.) Here is a rather striking indication of the fact that the South was on the right road--a gin, so far from diverting attention entirely to the cultivation of the staple, gave way to a cotton mill which was located on the same site and operated by the same water power.

[23] H. R. Helper, The Impending Crisis of the South, (ed. of 1860) pp.

161-162.

[24] W. F. Marshall, interview, Raleigh, N.C., September 16, 1916.

[25] "The first cotton mill built in North Carolina was built at Lincolnton in 1813 by Michael Schenck.... This mill was the forerunner of that remarkable industrial development which has taken place in North Carolina since that time." (Pleasants, ibid.)

[26] John Nichols, interview, Raleigh, N.C., Sept. 16, 1916. A. A.

Thompson, President of the Raleigh Cotton Mill, expressed about the same view in an interview at Raleigh on the same day.

[27] J. L. Hartsell, interview, Concord, N.C., September 2nd 1916.

[28] Kohn, Cotton Mills of South Carolina, p. 15. Cf. Charlotte News, (N.C.) Textile Industrial Edition, Feb., 1917, with reference to the Rocky Mount Mill.

[29] Though their father had been prominent for his conduct of the mill and had displayed in his personality a generous disposition toward the community, the sons were said to be wild and reckless, and when they fell heir to the plant alienated the sympathies of the people of the vicinity.

Any possible public character for the business was thus destroyed.

[30] Charles E. Johnson, interview, Raleigh, N.C., Sept. 16, 1916.

[31] C. D. Wright, "Factory System of the U.S.", p. 6, in U.S. Census of Manufactures, 1880. Cf. Clark, in South in Building of Nation, Vol. V., p.

319.

[32] For a careful narrative of the establishments of the settlers who moved into South Carolina from New England about 1816, with details of the mills of the Hills, Shelden, Clark, Bates, Hutchings, Stack, the Weavers, McBee, Bivings, etc., consult Kohn, Cotton Mills of S.C., and The Water Powers of South Carolina; for those in North Carolina H. Thompson is useful. Cf. also Southern Cotton Spinners' a.s.sociation proceedings seventh annual convention, pp. 41 ff. and Tompkins, Cotton Mill, Commercial Features, pp. 301-302.

[33] Wood for the boiler of the Mount Hecla Mills, growing scarce, the machinery was taken to Mountain Island, and there run by water. (H.

Thompson, pp. 48-9.)

[34] Cf. Kohn, Cotton Mills of South Carolina, p. 14.

[35] Kohn, Cotton Mills of South Carolina, p. 14. Cf. Charlotte News, Ibid., with reference to the Rocky Mount Mill.

[36] H. Thompson, pp. 45 ff.

[37] Ibid.

[38] J. B. Cleveland, interview, Spartanburg, S.C., Sept. 8, 1916.

[39] H. Thompson, pp. 42-43. Cf. p. 12.

[40] Theckston, interview, Greenville, S.C., Sept. 12, 1916.

[41] Theckston, interview, Greenville, S.C., Sept. 12, 1916.

[42] Clark, in South in Building of Nation, Vol. V., p. 321. Cf. Kohn, Cotton Mills of South Carolina, giving quotation from Columbia Telescope.

[43] Charlotte News, Ibid. The McDonald Mill at Concord during the Civil War dealt in barter. A gentleman in a nearby town told the writer that he remembered as a boy trading a load of corn for yarn to be woven by the women at home. (Theodore Klutz, interview, Salisbury, N.C., Sept. 1, 1916.) In 1862 the Confederate government commandered the Batesville factory in South Carolina, and took nearly all of the product. That portion which was allowed to private purchasers was always sold by ten o'clock in the morning. (Thackston, interview, Greenville, S.C., Sept. 12, 1916.)

[44] Thompson, pp. 48-9.

[45] Tompkins, Cotton Mill, Commercial Features, pp. 183-4.

[46] Walter Montgomery, interview, Spartanburg, S.C., Sept. 5th, 1916.

[47] Thackston, interview, Greenville, S.C., Sept. 12th, 1916.

[48] John W. Fries, interview, Winston-Salem, N.C., Aug. 31, 1916.

Another with a broad view of the history of the industry in the South was willing to include in a similar statement the Graniteville mill about which a good deal of controversy has cl.u.s.tered: "The cotton mills in the South before the war were third-rate affairs. I speak of Graniteville and Batesville and such plants as these. I remember my mother's telling me that the warp ... used to be supplied by the mills for use in the homes of the housewives. They were not regular cotton mills as the plants of later establishment have come to be." (W. W. Ball, interview, Columbia, S.C., Jan. 1, 1917.)

[49] Figures of Thompson give 700 ______ and 7000 bales of cotton consumed. (Thompson, pp. 49 ff.)

[50] U.S. Census of Manufactures, 1900. Cotton Manufactures, pp. 54 ff. A map showing the distribution of cotton spindles in 1839 indicates a good representation for all the Southern States, except Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Florida, as to mills of small size, but the localization both as to plants and spindles in New England is marked. (Clark, History of Manufactures in the U.S., section on cotton manufactures, pp. 533-560. See the whole section for a masterful discussion of both historical and economic phases.)

[51] Cf. Thompson, pp. 49 ff.

[52] Clark, in South in Building of Nation, Vol. V, pp. 319-320. "Few mills south of Virginia had power looms prior to 1840." (Ibid., p. 321.) Cf. omission of looms for Southern States in the census figures quoted above.