A Study by Narvell Strickland
As I study and ponder history, I often recall the old adage that "if we want to understand ourselves, we must study the history of our ancestry." Concluding that such a study is essential if we hope to understand who we are, where we have been, and where we are going, I embarked on this history study in search of answers.
At the beginning of my research, most of the Mississippi textile history had been ignored, unrecorded, and was on the verge of being lost. While textile manufacturing fell short of igniting an industrial revolution in Mississippi, it was extensive relative to other industry and paved the way for the state's industrialization in the 1940s and 1950s. The history is too important to loose, and for that reason, I decided to record the results of my study.
The first edition of the study, "A History of Mississippi Cotton Mills and Mill Villages," was completed in 1998 after several years of research and became available to Mississippi public libraries along with the Department of Archives and History in Jackson. It includes an introduction to the long history of cotton textile manufacturing dating back at least 8000 years, reviews the first American mills beginning in the 1790s in New England and the rapid southward movement of mills beginning in the 1880s. It then turns to a comprehensive study of Mississippi mills; beginning with the first at Natchez in 1842, it reviews each of the antebellum, post Civil War, and Twentieth Century mills and discusses their demise by the early 1950s.
After reviewing the roles of Samuel Slater and Francis Cabot Lowell in starting the early New England cotton mills, special attention is given to the most influential men in the history of Mississippi cotton mills: Colonel James Wesson who built the first successful mechanically powered mill in the state at Bankston in 1848, and after it was burned by Federal troops in 1864, the famous mill at Wesson in 1867; Captain William Oliver who, in the 1870s and 1880s, guided the Wesson mill in its phenomenal growth to nation-wide fame; T. L. Wainwright who, from 1875 to 1921, brought the Stonewall mill from near bankruptcy to one of Mississippi's greatest industrial
success stories; and finally James Sanders and his son, Robert, who together are credited with laying the foundation for the Mississippi cotton textile industry by establishing and operating a conglomerate of cotton mills throughout the state in the first half of the twentieth century, from 1911 to 1954.
My research indicates that this appears to be the first comprehensive book-length study of the Mississippi textile history, and my purpose with this site is to make it a continuing study and update it as frequently as appropriate. To accomplish and maintain this objective, comments and contributions from viewers with knowledge of the history are invited and needed. My immediate concern, however, is viewer comments about the site itself. In either case, comments are encouraged and can be sent to me at Narvell Strickland.
Last Updated February 6, 2007.
I. Introduction to Cotton Textile Manufacturing
Pre-historic beginning
Cotton textile manufacturing is generally recognized as one of the oldest and most important industries in history. Historians trace it to the beginning of various civilizations--dating back at least 8000 years in Mexico and Peru and 5,000 years in East Africa and Southern Asia. Of the ancient civilizations in the latter region (East Africa and Southern Asia), India lead the way in the growth of cotton and development of cotton fabrics, and coincident with that, developed a flourishing trade in cotton fabrics with nearby countries including Greece, Egypt, the Roman Empire, along with others. Then continuing for centuries, it remained dominate in the production of cotton fabrics as it provided clothing for most of the Old World.
From the beginning and continuing for centuries, cotton was spun and woven into cloth by hand until England, in the late 1700s, developed textile machinery that was to revolutionize cotton manufacturing and provide the impetus for the Industrial Revolution. It all started in the 1760s when James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny which Richard Arkwright improved with his development of the Waterwheel Spinning Frame. Requiring no special skills to operate, the new machinery quickly replaced the hand operated spinning wheel and vastly improved the quality and supply of thread. Textile mills, with cottages for imported workers, sprang up, and suddenly the factory system with the first successful system of mass-production was created.
Industrial Revolution Ignited: late 1700s
The advances in cotton textile manufacturing required coal for fuel and iron for the new machinery; the increase in coal and iron mining required improvements in transportation; and the transportation requirements in turn brought about the development of railroads and steamships. By the end of the eighteenth century, the various specializations had intermeshed, with the achievements of one contributing to the success of the other, and suddenly the world's first industrial revolution was underway.
In the 1820s, cotton manufacturing crossed the English Channel into Belgium to start the industrialization of continental Europe. By the 1830s, it had leaped the Atlantic to spearhead the beginning of the Industrial Revolution of New England which in turn brought about the Factory System and the Corporation. The introduction of Eli Whitney's cotton gin in 1793, James Watt's steam engine in 1776, Fulton's steamboat in 1807, Stephenson's locomotive in 1825, Cyrus McCormick's reaper in 1831, the Howe-Singer sewing machine in 1854, and Sir Henry Bessemer's converter in 1858 made essential contributions to the revolution. The new devices lowered the cost of producing cotton clothing, creating a world-wide demand for it, and in the process, freed farm workers to enter the newly created factories.
The resulting increase in cotton manufacturing created a corresponding need for cotton, and the South began to invest virtually all of its capital and labor in cotton-growing plantations. Big planters began to make great fortunes by raising cotton with slave labor, and Mississippi quickly developed an economy based on cotton growing and soon led the country in its production. Cotton mills were destined to follow.
Industrial Revolution moves Southward: 1880s
Later cotton textile manufacturing began to move closer to the cotton fields, and by 1880 the Industrial Revolution of the South was underway. Initially, most of the mills moved from New England to the Piedmont regions of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia because of the availability of water power. But in spite of its shortage of water power, Mississippi participated in the movement with the advent of steam power and the then developing electrical power.
The cotton textile industry has perhaps been studied as much as any industry in history, and this is particularly true of cotton manufacturing in England, continental Europe, Asia, New England, and the Piedmont states of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Hundreds of books, dissertations, theses, and magazine articles have examined the mills and their villages from several points of view, historical, economical, and sociological. But after exhaustive research, I have not found a single book devoted to the history of cotton textile manufacturing in Mississippi. While it fell short of igniting an industrial revolution, cotton textile manufacturing in Mississippi was extensive relative to other industry and paved the way for the state's industrialization that finally came with World War II and the 1940s. Its history should be preserved.
Again, my purpose in this book is to review and record some of that history to prevent its loss. It will examine the historical development of cotton textile mills in the state: the few antebellum mills, the post Civil War mills, the several turn of the century mills, the Sanders Industries conglomerate of mills in the first half of the twentieth century, and finally its demise in the 1950s. Special attention will be given to the five most influential men in the history of Mississippi cotton textile manufacturing. They were Colonel James Wesson who built the state's first successful mechanically powered cotton mill at Bankston in 1848, and after it was burned by Federal troops in 1864, the mill at Wesson in 1867; Captain William Oliver who, in the 1870s and 1880s, guided the Wesson mill in its phenomenal growth and to nation-wide fame; T. L. Wainwright who, from 1875 to 1921, brought the Stonewall mill from near bankruptcy to one of the state's greatest industrial success stories; and finally James Sanders and his son, Robert, who established and operated a conglomerate of Mississippi cotton mills in the first half of the twentieth century, from 1911 to 1953.
Along the way, it will highlight Mississippi mill village life and living conditions from the 1920s to the early 1950s--especially villages at Magnolia, Kosciusko, Meridian, Starkville, and Tupelo--and the impact of the nation-wide textile strike of 1934 and the Tupelo mill strike of 1937. Along with my own, it will draw on the personal experiences of the several individuals who shared their experiences with me. Life on the Magnolia mill village, purchased by Sanders Industries in 1932, is reviewed in greater detail than the others, but I should emphasize that living conditions there were typical of those at other Sanders villages and illustrate the struggles of Mississippi textile workers in general during those difficult years.
The Industrial Revolution of the South, spearheaded by the rapid southward movement of cotton textile manufacturing in the 1880s, never really came to Mississippi. The state and its people were reluctant to break away from its agricultural economy, but some twenty-five cotton textile mills did at least introduce the industrialization that finally came with World War II and the 1940s. But in spite of its slow start, the cotton textile industry played an important role in the state's history. It acted as a bridge, during the first half of the Twentieth Century--especially the 1920s and 1930s--between the farm and the factory, with people cautiously shedding the shackles of colonial farm life and moving in the direction of an urban activity promising greater income, better working conditions, and improved living and social conditions. Of those who made the move, very few ever returned to labor as share-croppers or tenant farmers, for despite the low wages and long hours, cotton mill life generally represented a marked improvement over conditions in the country.
For a better perspective of the role played by Mississippi in cotton manufacturing, we will start with a brief review of the first American cotton mills.
II. New England's First American Cotton Textile Mills
Pawtucket RI
The cotton textile industry in America was launched by Samuel Slater in 1790 at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Slater, an English textile mechanic with detailed knowledge of Richard Artrights revolutionary water-powered spinning machine, migrated to America and reconstructed two of the famous machines from memory to establish a 72-spindle mill--the first successful water-powered spinning mill in America. With the employment of young children from seven to twelve years of age to operate the machines, the mill was a great success. Building on that success, Slater with his partner, Moses Brown, began the construction of additional mills in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
One of Slater's earliest mills completed in 1793, became the prototype for early New England mills and still stands as a cotton mill museum in Pawtucket. His emigration disguised as a farmer, along with his rare textile mechanical expertise and a gifted memory, evaded the efforts of the British government to prevent textile workers, machinery, and plans from leaving the country and thereby removed one of the major obstacles to the development of cotton manufacturing in America.
Three years after the first mill was established, Eli Whitney introduced his cotton gin and removed another major obstacle by eliminating the tedious and arduous task of removing by hand the seed from the fiber. With the introduction of Slater's spinning frame and Whitney's cotton gin, cotton gained immediate commercial value, and a cotton manufacturing industry began to slowly develop in America.1
The number of Slater mills increased over the next two decades, but they continued to be small and were limited to the spinning of yarn. The practice of employing young children to operate the spinning machines continued, leaving cabin or domestic weavers to weave the yarn into cloth. This mode of operation became known as the Slater or Rhode Island system, and it was emulated for the next several years by manufacturers throughout the New England states.
Waltham and Lowell MA
Slaters spinning system was soon replaced by a vastly improved system. In 1814, Francis Cabot Lowell, a wealthy Boston merchant, after disguising himself as a potential merchant to overcome the secrecy surrounding English mills and observing the operation of textile machinery in England for almost two years, returned to Waltham, Massachusetts, where he, together with Paul Moody, designed the first American power loom and improved the spinning frame. The improved machinery was installed in a cotton mill, known as the Boston Manufacturing Company at Waltham, and for the first time in history, all phases of cloth manufacturing were made by power machinery under one roof--from the spinning of yarn to the weaving of cloth. The new mill, by bringing together the various functions under one roof, initiated the beginning of the American factory system and hastened the end of the cabin or domestic system in the manufacture of cotton cloth. Historians agree that it was the beginning of big business in America.2
Soon large water-powered textile mills began to spring up on the Merrimack and other New England rivers. They were immediate financial successes, and hence new mills were built at a rapid pace. In 1826, Lowell, Massachusetts was founded, and within eight years, the town had nineteen large cotton mills operating 4,000 weaving looms and spinning frames with more than 110,000 spindles.3 By the early 1830s, the industry was beginning to spearhead an industrial revolution, and initially, it would be centered in New England because of the availability of the then three essentials--water power, capital, and labor.
The mills continued to employ young children, but under the Lowell or Waltham system, single girls and women from ten to twenty-five years of age made up most of the labor forces used to operate the spinning frames and looms. The females, mostly from surrounding farms, were housed in company built boardinghouses and placed under strict moral and religious supervision. The paternalistic corporate communities, known generally as the Lowell or Waltham system, became popular and spread rapidly to other mill towns in the region. The 1830s in Lowell, as noted by Victor Clark in his History of Manufacturers in the United States, was the "most remarkable decade of progress, in a single place and industry, as yet achieved in our manufacturing history."4
Massachusetts's Merrimack River Valley
For the next several decades, New England continued to enjoy a rapid growth of mill towns; this was particularly true of the Merrimack River Valley where several populous mill towns and cities sprung up along the rivers banks. Inevitably, however, the mills began to move southward to be closer to the production of cotton, and in time, initiated the Industrial Revolution of the South. They moved first to the Piedmont regions of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia primarily because of the availability of water power, and then with the advent of steam and electrical power, to Mississippi as they moved still closer to the cotton fields.
III. Mississippi Antebellum Cotton Textile Mills
Southern states were happy to see the development of a cotton manufacturing industry in New England, and, in the beginning, more than content to concentrate their resources on the production of cotton for the mills. As the demand for cotton fiber skyrocketed, owners of large plantations began to make fortunes raising cotton with slave labor. It was an extremely costly system, but early successes of the plantations and the mythical romance surrounding them led others to turn to cotton-growing, leaving little capital to invest elsewhere.
Captivated by visions of riches, Southern planters by the thousands, big and small, began to convert all suitable lands to cotton fields. As the importance of cotton increased, the planters were increasingly less inclined to divert capital and labor from cotton growing to factory building. Cotton growing quickly became the South's economic base; this was particularly true of Mississippi which developed an improved variety of cotton and became the leading state in the production of cotton as well as one of the wealthiest states of the period.
Natchez Cotton Mills
Finally, in the late 1830s, a few scattered cotton mills began to appear in the South. While Mississippi lagged behind other Southern states, Dunbar Rowland in his book, A History of Mississippi: The Heart of the South,' notes that "tradition says that the first cotton mill in the State, and perhaps the world was that of Sir William Dunbar, erected at or near Natchez in 1834."5 The statement was an inadvertent misquote; by that time (1834)cotton textile mills were firmly established in England and were spearheading the beginning of an industrial revolution in New England. Rowlands source was A. M. Muckenfuss who, in his Industrial Mississippi in the Light of the Twelfth Census, indicated that the Dunbar Mill, named in honor of a noted scientist and father of the cotton-seed oil industry in Mississippi, was "the first cotton-seed oil mill in Mississippi, if not in the world."6 Hence Professor Dunbar should have said 'a cotton-seed oil mill' rather than a mechanically powered cotton mill; however, the cotton-seed oil mill may have had a few hand looms that qualified it as a small, cabin-type cotton mill.
Small mills, with hand looms, were still commonplace at the time; most of them in the South were associated with plantations and were used to produce a coarse cloth for their private use. In 1840, Mississippi, had some fifty of the small cabin-type cotton mills, which John Bettersworth in his book, 'Mississippi: A History,' describes as "small affairs employing in all only eighty-four persons; with a total capital of only $6,429."7
The state's first mechanically powered cotton manufacturing mill was built on the outskirts of Natchez, but in 1842 rather than 1834. John Robinson, a Scottish textile expert, came to Mississippi before the economic panic of 1837 to build a cotton textile mill for the Mississippi Cotton Company of Natchez. Before construction started, the company suffered substantial financial losses in the 1837 crash and was forced to abandoned its plans. After a similar experience with the Port Gibson Manufacturing Company, the tenacious Robinson in 1842 built a cotton and woolen mill himself, equipping it to the extent his limited financial resources permitted.8
The Robinson mill occupied a small two-story building and was powered by a twelve horse-power steam engine to operate 60 wool spindles and 260 cotton spindles. Be- cause of his limited funds, Robinson was forced to start producing cloth before the mill had all of the appropriate machinery. It was a disastrous start and, within two years, he was forced to liquidate. The failure resulted from several problems which included, according to D. Clayton James in his 'Antebellum Natchez,' "insufficient capital, inadequate machinery, shortage of skilled laborers, high cost of importing Indiana coal for fuel, and ruthless competition from New England textile producers."9
In the spring of 1844, a second attempt was made to established a cotton mill at Natchez. John Robertson and associates of a Boston firm purchased the bankrupt Natchez Cotton Compress and brought in textile workers from New England and a twenty-eight-horse-power steam engine to operate 2,000 spindles and 10 power looms. The Boston firm, after upgrading the machinery, sold the mill in November 1844 to Samuel T. McAlister who, with the assistance of a Massachusetts textile expert and seventeen Negro slaves, began to manufacture rope, plantation cloth, and a heavy cloth for cotton picking sacks.10
Like the Robinson mill, the Robertson mill never really got off the ground; the history of its short life was one failure after another. After struggling under several different owners, it closed in 1848 and left most cotton manufacturing in the state to household or cabin spinning and weaving.11 At the time of closing, according to De Bows Review, it was the only mechanically powered mill in the state and employed twenty black men, six females, and four children.12
The Natchez experiments were discouraging, but the failures were not sufficient to stop the establishment of three Mississippi textile mills which were at the time under construction or in the late planning stages: the Bankston textile mill in Choctaw County established in 1848; the State Penitentiary textile mill at Jackson in 1849; and the Edward McGehee mill at Woodville in 1850. The three mills were later followed by a still larger mill: the Thomas Green mill at Jackson in 1857.
Bankston Cotton Mills
The Bankston textile mill is regarded as Mississippi's first successful mechanically powered textile mill and became "famous throughout the Old Southwest as a model of industrial efficiency and profitability."13 Colonel James M. Wesson, its founder, was associated with a textile firm in Columbus, Georgia, the "Lowell of the South," which in 1847 decided to build a cotton and woolen mill in the back country of northern Mississippi. In January 1847 he, together with David L. Booker, John P. Nance, Richard Ector and Thomas J. Stanford, organized and chartered the Mississippi Manufacturing Company and, before the end of the year, began moving machinery and equipment to the new site on the west side of McCurtain's Creek, a tributary to the Big Black River in Choctaw County.14
It was difficult at the time to find native white workers for industrial work, and thus several experienced mill families were imported from Georgia to do the skilled work. The use of Negro slaves was thought to be too expensive, but a few were employed to operate the steam engine and perform other unpleasant assignments. A Semple steam engine, manufactured in Providence, Rhode Island, was brought in to power the mill. A very difficult journey to say the least. It was transported from Rhode Island to Greenwood by water and then drawn overland to the mill site by several oxen, a distance of sixty-five miles, several miles of which were through the Yazoo swamp. The eighty-horsepower engine actually provided more than sufficient power for the textile mill, and the enterprising Colonel Wesson added a flour mill and a gristmill to the textile equipment to utilize the surplus power.15
The Bankston textile mill began operations in December 1848 with twelve workers. It prospered and quickly expanded to include a tannery, a shoe factory, a machine shop, along with other enterprises. By June 1849, the textile mill operated 500 cotton spindles and spun 300 pounds of cotton into yarn and thread daily. During the first few years, the mill operated at a financial loss in the production of cloth but made a small profit on cotton yarn. During this period, Colonel Wesson left the looms idle and concentrated on the production of yarn and thread, along with his other enterprises such as the milling of corn and wheat, until conditions improved in the cloth market.
By 1855, the difficult years were over and the manufacturing company began to make substantial profits; reporting that year a net profit of $22,000 on a capitalization of $60,000. Over the next three years or by 1858, Historian John Hebron Moore noted that the company's "investment in cotton and woolen machinery alone had reached the sum of $80,000, and an additional $15,500 of the firm's capital was represented by such assets as a gristmill, a flour mill, and numerous buildings comprising the company-owned village of Bankston."16
The critical period came two years later with the nation-wide panic of 1857. The Bankston manufacturing company not only survived but prospered during the panic; and then for several years in succession, it paid annual dividends of 37 percent while building up a large reserve fund. In addition to the investors, some eighty-five workers enjoyed the prosperity. While wages were low, the company provided housing and made sure the workers were supplied with products of its several enterprises, shoes, cloth, meat, and flour. Alcoholic beverages, however, were forbidden. Like William Gregg, founder of the famous antebellum mill at Graniteville, South Carolina, Colonel Wesson vehemently opposed the drinking of alcoholic beverages and successfully promoted a law prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquor within the corporate limits.17
On June 4, 1850, Colonel Wesson wrote to De Bow's Review describing his manufacturing enterprises, and in the process, indicated his opposition to the sale of alcoholic beverages.
Our mill is located ten miles south of Greensboro, in a healthy neighborhood; fine water, good society, churches, schools, &e. We have but one grog-shop within seven miles of us, and that will probably not last long. Our building is made of wood, 108 feet long, 48 wide, three stories high.
We are now running about 800 spindles, 10 cards, 12 looms, and all the accompanying necessary machinery for spinning and weaving. Owing to the high price of cotton we have stopped our looms.
We have 500 spindles and five cards more, not finished; we shall probably get them in operation for the next crop. We carry on a machine shop in which we make every variety of machinery for carding and spinning. Our looms are built by Messrs. Rogers, Kechum & Grovanon, of Paterson, N. J. They are heavy and substantial, and are built for making heavy Linsey and Osnaburgs, such as are most used in the South. I think that companies in this state intending to embark in the manufacturing business, would do well to call to see our machinery before buying elsewhere.
We have just completed the finest flour mill in this state, or equal to any in the South. We will show flour with the St. Louis or any other mill North or South. We use a large fine Semple Engine, made by Messrs. Thurston, Green & Co., Providence. It is admired by all vistors for its great capacity and simplicity. It is run by a Negro engineer, who also serves as fireman, who had no acquaintance with engines until he took hold of this.
We have a double cylinder wool card that cards the wool twice as well as most of the country cards that have only one, and will turn off two hundred pounds of rolls a day, for which we charge a 8 c. a pound.18
The Bankston cotton mill became famous as it continued to grow and prosper. By 1860, it had expanded to operate 1,000 cotton spindles, 500 wool spindles, and 20 power looms; indeed, it operated the latest in textile machinery and was regarded as the forerunner in modern cotton manufacturing in the state.19 Except for the few slaves employed to operate the steam engine, the workers were white; Colonel Wesson, however, recognized that slaves were capable, but he "believed that hired whites were less expensive than either bought or hired slaves.20
Wesson also believed, along with William Gregg and other prominent Southern cotton manufacturers, that the South, in addition to agriculture, desperately needed to devote itself to manufacturing. On August 11, 1858, he wrote John F. H. Claiborne asserting that the "South stands in the same relation to New England now, that we as a nation did to Old England fifty years ago . . . if it was good policy for us then, as a nation, to adopt and support a general system of manufacturing the same policy is equally good now when applied to the South.<
21
The Bankston manufacturing company was a step in that direction. Moreover, the thriving community of Bankston was in every regard a model company town and Mississippi's first cotton mill village.
Mississippi Penitentiary Cotton Mill
The Mississippi Penitentiary Textile Mill was the next large successful mill to be built in the state. As early as 1840, the penitentiary produced clothing for convicts with the use of manually-operated spinning machines and hand looms. By 1847, the prison population had increased to the point that the primitive machinery could no longer produce sufficient clothing to meet its needs, and the state legislature responded by authorizing the superintendent to purchase power-driven equipment.
Spinning machinery and power looms were purchased and brought in from Patterson, New Jersey, and in October 1849, the mechanically-operated penitentiary textile mill went "into full production, turning out cotton and woolen cloth and yarns at the rate of 1,700 yards of cotton osnaburgs, 300 yards of woolen linseys, and 400 pounds of yarn per week."22 Osnaburgs had excellent wearing qualities and toughness; it could be made into overalls, other durable work clothes, and was occasion- ally substituted for canvas or duck requiring rough usage. The material was obviously ideally suited for prison use and the reason for its extensive production.
It was an impressive start, and the legislature, at its next session in 1850, authorized the purchase of additional machinery to increase the production of cloth from 1,700 yards per week to 1,000 per day. Production soon exceeded the penitentiary needs, and the state began competing with private enterprise by selling the surplus to wholesale dealers in cities as distant from Jackson as Mobile, New Orleans, and St. Louis. The venture became very profitable, and by 1853 the penitentiary textile mill had become one of the state's most valuable assets, returning a small profit to the state after paying the entire cost of the prison system.23
In 1857, the mill was destroyed by fire, but without any delay, the legislature decided to rebuild and on a much larger scale. In late 1858, a vastly enlarged mill was completed; it reopened with 150 convicts to operate "2,304 spindles for spinning cotton, twenty-four cotton carding machines, seventy-six looms for weaving osnaburgs, four mills for producing cotton twills, and a full complement of machinery for making woolen linseys and cotton batting."24 It proved to be a great success story for the state, although its critics were quick to assert that its success was attributable to the obvious advantages the venture had over private enterprise, including free labor and state financial support.
Woodville Cotton Mill
The Wilkinson Manufacturing Company was the third large cotton textile mill to be built in the state. It was organized in 1850 by Judge Edward McGehee, a noted planter and railroad entrepreneur, who decided to expand his business interests. After visiting Lowell, Massachusetts to familiarize himself with the operation of a cotton mill, he employed Colonel James Woodworth, a skilled textile mechanic, to construct the mill in the small village of Woodville about twenty-five miles south of Natchez.25
McGehee's mill was completed and began operations in March 1851, powered by a wood-burning steam engine of eighty-horse-power, and initially employed a force of 125 white Mississippians and New Englanders to operate 3,500 spindles and ninety looms. As at Bankston, apartment houses and a large boarding house were constructed to provide living quarters for the mill workers.26 Hence, Mississippi's second cotton mill village.
In 1852, Judge McGehee dismissed Superintendent Woodworth, assumed management of the mill himself, and replaced the 125 white workers with slaves. Just three years later, in 1855, he bought out the other co-owners and proceeded to operate it as a family enterprise for the next several years, producing shirting, lowells, linsey, and kerseys. Unlike Colonel Wesson's openness regarding his mill, Judge McGehee was very secretive about the Woodville mill and, as a result, not much is known about its operations except that the mill was apparently very successful. In 1860 the value of its finished products was reported to be $102,000 in comparison with $72,000 for the Bankston mill.27
Jackson's Pearl River Cotton Mill
The Thomas Green Cotton Mill was the last and largest mill to be built in Mississippi before the Civil War. In June 1858, the banking firm of Joshua and Thomas Green con- structed the mill on Pearl River in Jackson, and, with a capitalization of $100,000, began operations with Samuel Poole as superintendent and some two hundred white employees. Although short-lived because of the Civil War, it was a financial success from the start. By 1860, it employed more than two hundred workers to produce 450,000 yards of cloth annually which was valued at $151,000, the highest figure reported by any Mississippi cotton mill.28
Civil War Cotton Mill Destruction
At the beginning of the Civil War, Mississippi lagged far behind in becoming industralized but it had made some progress. It had four large cotton mills, the Bankston mill, the Edward McGehee mill, the Penitentiary mill, the Thomas Green mill, along with two small insignificant mills--one in Columbus and the other in Tishomingo County. The value of the cloth produced annually by the four large mills was not insignificant; it ranged from $72,000 for the Bankston mill to $151,000 for the Green mill before production was interrupted by the war.29 Professor John Bettersworth concluded that Mississippi, though far from having become industrialized, was showing gains. The Bankston mill was able to declare a 29 per cent dividend in that year, and the entire cotton industry of the state could boast that the value of its product in 1860 was $261,000 as compared with only $22,135 in 1850.30
The modest gains showed that antebellum Mississippi simply was not ready for industrialization. The people preferred to continued to concentrate nearly all of their resources in the cotton plantation system which, unfor- tunately, left the state ill-prepared for the impending Civil War and the Radical Reconstruction years that followed. Its small textile industry, however, proved that it could "survive and prosper in Mississippi as well as in Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, despite economic depressions, competition from northern manufacturers, and opposition from agrarian critics of southern industrialization."31
The Civil War, unfortunately, was to destroy the state's four textile mills along with most of its other small industry. In 1863, General Grant and his troops destroyed the Woodville, Jackson, and Penitentiary mills; but because of its isolated location, the Bankston mill survived a while longer. Federal troops later learned of the Bankston mill, and on December 30, 1864, a foraging party, under the command of General Benjamin H. Grierson, raided the defenseless village and burned the cotton and wool mill, the shoe factory, and the flour mill while the inhabitants slept and without a shot being fired.
Much of Bankston was a legitimate military target, for its mills were producing 1,000 yards of cloth and 150 pairs of shoes daily for military purposes. But unfortunately, the foraging party did not restrict its activities to legitimate targets; it not only destroyed the 5,000 yards of cloth, 10,000 pounds of wool, 125 bales of cotton on hand but, in addition, destroyed 10,000 pounds of flour and took the farm animals, horses, cows, pigs, and chickens, leaving the town's people hard pressed to escape starvation.32 Fortunately, Colonel Wesson, before the raiders arrived, anticipated the apparent danger of a raid and distributed much of the cloth among surrounding inhabitants. At the time, the need for clothing was so great that one woman, J. P. Coleman notes in his Choctaw County Chronicle, rode horseback forty miles, round trip, a few days before the raid to get a single bolt of cloth.33
With the destruction of the four cotton mills, Mississippi's emerging textile industry was devastated, and except for a small mill in Columbus, cotton manufacturing in the state returned to cabin or household spinning and weaving. Thus the four mills, including Mississippi's first successful steam powered cotton mill and its first mill village, took their places in history, and, as will be seen, cotton mill building in the state was painfully slow for the next three decades.
Colonel Wesson, however, survived to pick up the pieces and build the first phase of Mississippi's most famous post Civil War manufacturing plant of any type. Of the prewar cotton textile manufacturers in Mississippi, he was the only one to continue in the textile business in the postwar era.34
Our review will take us next to Colonel Wessons new mill, the states first post Civil War mill, which eventually gained national and international fame for its efficient operations and production of high quality fabrics.
IV. Post Civil War Cotton Mills:
1865-1898
Wesson Cotton Mill
Soon after his Bankston mill was destroyed by fire, Colonel Wesson set out to establish another. Before the war was over, he and two associates, W. H. Hallam and James Hamilton, selected a wilderness site about forty miles south of Jackson, and in March 1865 the site was incorporated as the town of Wesson. Three years later, the construction of a cotton mill, the Mississippi Manufacturing Company, and seventy-five houses for workers was completed.1 It was Mississippi's first large mill
village; and replacing a wilderness, it was built out of necessity to provide housing for the influx of workers from nearby farms and towns, rather than for the paternalistic reasons often associated with company-owned mill villages.
Colonel Wesson donated land for three church sites, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist, and the town of Wesson began to develop around the mill. It was patterned after the South's first mill town established by William Gregg at Graniteville, South Carolina. The village houses were very similar and most were built to accommodate two families, and each family was provided with sufficient land for a vegetable garden, a cow, a pig, and a few chickens. But as at Bankston, no alcoholic beverages were permitted; Colonel Wesson was successful in having the charter prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages within the corporate limits.2 The new town prospered and grew rapidly from a wilderness to the largest town on the Illinois Central Railroad between Jackson and New Orleans--a distance of approximately two hundred miles.
The Wesson mill was to become Mississippi's most famous postwar manufacturing plant of any type. Unfortunately, however, abusive practices during the Radical Reconstruction era created major financial problems for Colonel Wesson, and he was forced to step aside before the mill reached its summit. Early in 1871, Mississippi Manufacturing Company went into bankruptcy and receivership, and on February 23, 1871, the company was sold by the receivers to Captain William Oliver and John T. Hardy, New Orleans businessmen. After paying all of his debts, Colonel Wesson, the father of the Mississippi cotton textile industry, quietly retired to nearby Bogue Chitto. Earlier that
year, his wife died, and some believed that her death may have influenced his decision to sell out and retire.3
Captain William Oliver, after being named general manager, moved to Wesson with his family to manage the operations. Just two years later, disaster struck again. The mill was destroyed by fire, and Oliver, as Colonel Wesson had done after the Bankston fire, was determined to rebuild. He persuaded Edmund Richardson, one of the largest cotton growers in the world with 25,000 acres in cultivation and known as the "Cotton King," to purchase Hardy's share and controlling interests in the operations.4 Together with Richardson, as president, and Oliver, as general manager, they made immediate plans to not only rebuild the company but to do it on a much larger scale. The
first of four mills was completed in late 1873 and Mill No. 2 in 1876. Two more mills were later added--Mill No. 3 in 1890, and Mill No. 4 in 1894.5
The mills, renamed Mississippi Mills, consisted of four large brick buildings when completed, one of which was five stories high with a seven-story tower, and covered several city blocks. From the beginning they were pow- ered by steam engines
and very early illuminated by electricity. As unlikely as it seems, the electric lights were installed by 1882, within three years after Thomas Edison perfected his electric lighting plant and bulb, and before either New York or Chicago had adopted the
new lighting system.6 This was not, however, unusual as several small towns and plants throughout the country were able to install the new electric lights before politicians in major cities like New York and Chicago could adopt, rip up their
streets, and install the new lighting system.
In any event, a giant, five-story, electrically illuminated plant in the small town must have been an unexpected and unique sight. The Wesson Enterprise reported that people came from miles around to see the "little lights in bottles" and
that passengers on the Illinois Central Railroad were amazed at the sight as they passed through Wesson--a small hamlet in the midst of the state's famous piney woods region.7
The Wesson mill grew into a mammoth textile plant at a time when most Mississippians were still openly hostile to in dustry. In the late 1880s, Mississippi Mills employed 1,200 workers to operate 25,000 cotton spindles, 26 sets of woolen machinery, and 800 looms in the production of 4,000,000 yards of cotton goods, 2,000,000 yards of woolen goods and 320,000 pounds of yarn and twine annually. The mills produced a variety of high quality and award-winning fabrics--including cassimirs, plaids, jeans, stripes, tweeds, doeskins, and several others--with a reputation "for excellence not surpassed by the product of any mills in the world...[and sold in] almost every state and territory in the Union." In 1876, its products won first prizes at the Philadelphia Centennial, and in the eighties, one of its cotton fabrics used for dress goods was of such handsome finish that it was called "Mississippi silk."8
By 1890, the Wesson mill was the largest manufacturing enterprise of any type in Mississippi and reputed to be the largest in the South. Senator L. Q. C. Lamar of Mississippi proudly noted that the mill had become "the subject of a great deal
of pride and interest to the citizens of the state."9 It also attracted national and international attention, luring President William McKinley and industry leaders from as far as England to Wesson just to see the operations.10
William Oliver, as general manager, was given credit for the phenomenal growth and success which brought the nation-wide fame. Under his leadership from 1873 to 1891, most of the profits were reinvested to finance growth, but much of his managerial success can be attributed to his special interest in the mill workers and lcal community affairs. Reviewing his accomplishments, the Wesson Enterprize noted that
"he took interest in the affairs of the community, the
public school, the municipal government, or whatever was of interest to the people. He was especially interested in the welfare of the operatives in the mill; he
considered them people."11
This attitude earned him the support of both the community and the workers. For the workers, they recognized that his fair treatment was a valuable benefit and a good reason for them to be concerned about the success and general welfare of the company providing them employment. Hence the fair treatment also benefited the company.
Like Colonel Wesson, Captain Oliver was also a devout believer in the proposition that whiskey and manufac- turing did not mix. He insisted that land conveyances by Mississippi Mills, which owned most of the land in and near Wesson, include
a clause providing that if alcoholic liquor were ever sold on the premises illegally, the title to the property would revert to the grantors or Mississippi Mills. No evidence surfaced indicating that title to proper- ty actually reverted under the
clause or that chargers of violation of the clause had ever been made.
After his death in 1891, a series of events--including absentee man- agement, the panic of 1893, and increased transportation costs--began to bring Mississippi's largest manufacturing venture and greatest industrial success story to a close. John
Richardson, who had succeeded his father as president, unwittingly started the decline when he moved to New Orleans in the midst of the difficult times and brought in a general manager from the North to replace Oliver. Labor unrest was the immediate result, followed in 1906, by forced receivership. Then, in January 1910, the price of cotton plummeted to a low of $5.85 a bale and delivered the coup de grace as mills throughout the
country, including the Wesson and four other Mississippi mills, were forced to liquidate their assets.13
Three years before liquidation, the Directory of Southern Cotton Mills, Edition 1907, reported Mississippi Mills’ assets at $344,000 and listed some of its key officers and employees: R. L. Saunders, president; Frederick Abbott, superintendent; J.
S. Rae, secretary and treasurer; Frank Reed, overseer cotton department; W. D. Ross, overseer woolen department; George W. Watson, dyer; J. R. Can- non, engineer; John Thompson, electrician; S. J. Sasser, cotton weaving supervisor; P. B. Raiford,
wool weaving and finishing supervisor; Z. C. Rushing, cotton carding supervisor; James Barnes, spinning supervisor; and W. H. Stevens, spooling, warping, and slashing supervisor.
Within a year of liquidation, Wesson the largest town on the Illinois Central Railroad between Jackson and New Orleans, decreased in population from 5,000 to 1,000.15 The Wesson mill never reopened. Part of one of the brick mill buildings and
several of the village houses still stand as a reminder. One of the houses is protected as a historical site.
Stonewall Cotton Mill
Wesson was a great success story for its time, but it would eventually be surpassed. In 1867, two years after the Wesson mill opened, the greatest success story for a mill in the history of Mississippi cotton manufacturing was launched.
Daniel Dupree, John Harland, and M. M. Brooks, supported by ten investors in Mobile, organized and began construction of a cotton mill on land formerly a part of a plantation near Enterprise and about twenty miles south of Meridian.
The new mill, named Stonewall Manufacturing Company in honor of Stonewall Jackson, opened in late 1868 with A. P. Bush as president and W. B. Hamilton as secretary-treasurer. In the beginning, the mill was powered by a steam engine to operate
2204 spindles but used country hand looms to weave cloth. At the time, the use of hand looms was not unusual as many mills concentrated pri- marily on spinning thread; in fact, many of the early cot- ton mills were "spinning factories" and stopped short
of weaving cloth. But shortly after opening, the Stonewall mill installed fifty-two power looms and began weaving sheeting.16
The first few years were difficult as financial losses mounted. By 1875 the directors had lost all hope of making a profit and assigned T. L. Wainwright to run the cotton out of the machinery and prepare the plant for sale. Wainwright, an
enterprising young man, turned out to be the right man at the right time. Within a few months after taking the assignment, Wainwright turned the mill around and stopped the losses. So, the directors reevaluated their decision and elected to continue operations a while longer rather than putting the mill up for sale. They, then, promoted Wainwright to plant manager and gave him a new charge--make the mill profitable.17
It was a fortunate decision and turning-point for the struggling mill. Under Wainwright's leadership, the mill continued to prosper; by 1882, the capacity of the mill had doubled. A few years later in 1895, the directors elected to increase the capital stock to $400,000 and add a second mill at a cost of $200,000. The expanded mill operated 10,000 spindles and 300 looms, and soon began producing a variety of fabrics,
including ratine goods, sheetings, drills, osnaburgs, shirtings, mattress ticking, and Turkish towels.18
Continuing success earned Wainwright the presidency in 1903. Four years later in 1907, the Directory of Southern Cotton Mills reported that the mill employed 500 workers in the
operation of 21,000 spindles, 500 narrow looms, and 8 boilers. It listed the key officers and employees as T.L.Wainwright, President and Treasurer; G. I. Case, Secretary; H. C. Dresser, Superintendent; W. A. Gilliland, Engineer; Overseers: carding, S. L. Adler; spinning, A. L. Askew; weaving, J. S. Crane.19
Wainwright retained the presidency until 1921 when the mill was sold for $1,500,000 to Crown Overall Company of Cincinnati. Oscar Berman, president of Crown Overall, assumed
the presidency of Stonewall Cotton Mills and his brother Israel was named general manager. Crown, a producer of overalls, purchased the mill for the production of a line of denim it used in the manufacture of overalls. The new line was quickly added
and soon replaced most of the other fabrics.20
In the late 1930s, the mill's management, anticipating World War II, converted to the production of khaki and tenting. The conversion was timely. As it turned out, the military required great amounts of khaki and tenting, and with the military as its biggest customer, the mill enjoyed booming prosperity throughout the war years. The prosperity attracted the attention of the textile giants, and in the end, made the mill a
candidate for acquisition.
The late thirties brought the addition of new and modern buildings and machinery, giving the mill the latest in state of the art textile machinery. Most important to the workers was the attention given to their living conditions. With the installation of city water and a modern sewage disposal system in the village, sanitary conditions improved and the "out houses" disappeared. Village improvements were accompanied by pay increases and paid vacations; the employee benefits, including improvements in the village and housing, were at the time unique in the Mississippi textile industry. This perhaps explains, to some extent at least, the great difficulty labor
unions experienced in their unsuccessful attempts to organize the Stonewall textile workers.22
The Stonewall mill continued throughout the thirties and war years of the forties to enjoy success after success. After the war, Erwin Mills, later a division of Burlington Industries, purchased the mill and in 1948 initiated another five-year program to expand and upgrade the plants, the machinery, and the mill village. In 1962 Burlington Industries purchased Erwin Mills, including the Stonewall mill, and immediately implemented still another intensive upgrading and modernization program. A few years later in 1976, it initiated another large expansion program which involved spending $35 million to construct a new weaving and finishing plant. Burlington not
only upgraded and modernized the mill but signaled the community and the mill workers that the mill was there to stay. The signal was important because the Stonewall mill, the last surviving cotton manufacturing mill in the state, was becoming a
part of the largest textile-mill corporation in the world.
The Stonewall and Wesson mills were pioneers in the development of cotton manufacturing in Mississippi. The Wesson mill led the way and enjoyed phenomenal suc- cess and fame for a substantial number of years and then faded into oblivion. The
Stonewall mill, however, enjoyed greater success in the long run. At the time of this writing, one hundred and thirty years after its founding, it is still operating and planning for the future. Very few, if any, cotton mills in the United States,
and no other in Mississippi, can boast that record.
Meridian Cotton Mills
Let’s turn our attention back to the late 1860s and review two other cotton mills of significance that were established in Mississippi during that period. In 1863, W. W. Shearer established a small yarn mill, the Pioneer Cotton Manufacturing Mill, two miles east of Meridian--a hamlet of five hundred near the eastern boundary of the state. A few months after it opened, the army of General W. T. Sherman raided the mill and
community, destroying the mill and leaving only three houses standing in the small community. Three years later in 1867, another mill was built on the site and began operations, under the name East Mississippi Cotton Mill, with J. W. Monette as
general manager and George S. Covert as superintendent.
In 1871, J. S. Solomon, a local compress operator, purchased the East Mississippi Cotton Mill and expanded it to employ some forty workers to operate 768 spindles and twenty looms in the production of 1000 yards of sheeting daily. He later upgraded the machinery and increased the number of workers to one hundred and fifty to produce primarily yarn, rope, and osnaburgs. By the end of the decade, it was one of the
largest industries in a city (Meridian) that had become known for its industrial development.27
Corinth Cotton Mill
The last Mississippi mill built in the eighteen sixties was the Whitfield Cotton Mill at Corinth in 1869. Very quickly, the mill became known for its award-winning fabrics, and at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial, it competed with the Wesson mill for first place prizes. However, the success was short-lived; two years later it fell victim to the 1873-1878 Depression and closed its doors.28
Natchez, Water Valley, & Bay Saint Louis Cotton Mills
In the 1870s, Mississippi was confronted with another economic depression (1873-78) and the continuing Radical Reconstruction throughout most of the decade. It was hardly ideal times for cotton mill building. But in spite of the Depression and harsh Reconstruction impositions, Mississippi built three more mills in the 1870s: the impressive Natchez Cotton Mill in 1878, eventually employing 300 workers to operate 12,000 spindles and 330 looms; the Yocona Mill at Water Valley in 1879, employing 100 workers to operate 5000 spindles; and a small yarn mill at Bay Saint Louis in 1874.
Shuqualak, Rosalie, Columbus, Port Gibson Cotton Mills
In the 1880s, the state established four more: the Noxubee Mill at Shuqualak in 1880, employing 50 workers to operate 1400 spindles and 40 looms; the Rosalie Cotton Mill at Natchez in 1884, employing 275 workers to operate 10,000 spindles and 300 looms; the Tombigbee Mill at Columbus in 1887 with 200 workers to operate 8064 spindles and 252 looms; and the Port Gibson Mill in 1888 with 150 workers to operate 5000 spindles and 200
looms.30
After three mill failures in the 1880s, Mississippi operated nine cotton mills at the end of the decade. The state had made very little progress, far less than the mill promoters had anticipated; indeed, the various mill campaigns of the seventies and eighties promoted by the state's most influential government leaders and planters, were big disappointments. They attracted very few mills and fell far short of bringing the
much herald Industrial Revolution of the South to the state, and the ailing cotton-growing economy continued to prevail.
Before leaving the Nineteenth Century, we will review in the next chapter the mill campaigns in some detail for they reflect the clash between the proponents of indus- trialization and those clinging to an ailing cotton-growing economy.
V. Cotton Mill Building Campaigns: 1870s-1890s
The Gilded Age, as Mark Twain called the thirty-five year period following the Civil War, brought rapid change to American life as more and more people moved to the developing industrial centers. But throughout the period, most Mississippians,
in spite of the abject poverty, had little appreciation for industrialization and were openly hostile to it. Primarily sharecroppers and tenant farmers, they did not appreciate the economic factors contributing to the widespread poverty; and
influenced by provincialism, many associated manufacturers with the North and wanted nothing to do with Yankees or their industries.
Like Thomas Jefferson, who believed farmers to be God's chosen people, many feared that industrialization would bring about urbanization, accompanied by crime and corruption, and interfere with their agrarian way-of-life. The poor whites
were accustomed to the difficulties in eking out an existence on small farms, and not appreciating the benefits of industrialization, were willing to endure the hardships for the freedom and independence associated with farming, hunting, and fishing.
The Civil War had devastated the state's economy, leaving the cotton plantation system in shambles, with an abundance of both cotton and surplus white labor, and a host of growing social and economic problems. Radical Reconstruction had made matters worse; rather than bringing recovery, it had augmented the chaos. It was apparent that the cotton plantation system was gone forever and that the state desperately needed an alternate economic base. Fortunately, some of Mississippi's most influential leaders realized that the state, struggling for economic independence and freedom from its colonial agrarian economy, could not break the chains of bondage unless it supplemented cotton-growing with industry.
Some of these leaders became spirited mill promoters and were willing to go to great lengths to promote and conduct mill campaigns in an effort to bring the cotton manufacturing industry to the state. There were met with encouraging signs; in
the midst of the widespread adversity cotton manufacturing was beginning to move southward, particularly to the Piedmont regions of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.1 Optimism and confidence grew throughout the South, especially in
Mississippi, as influential Southerners began to demand that cotton mills be brought to the cotton fields, with the frequent suggestion that the mills be built in the heart of the cotton fields.2 Indeed, Mississippi, saturated with cotton fields with excellent nearby water and rail transportation, seemed to be ideally situated to share in the movement.
Beginning in the 1870s, E. G. Wall, editor of the Southern Field and Factory, and W. H. Worthington, editor of Patrons of Husbandry, frequently presented articles advocating the construction of cotton mills in the state. On one occasion, Wall
argued that "we must encourage home manufacturers and home markets, ...and thereby keep as far as possible the profits of labor in our State."3 Unfortunately, Mississippi, having suffering through most of the devastating Radical Reconstruction
epoch, was faced with still another obstacle--the 1873-1878 Depression which continued to frustrate the movement for industrial development.
Thus the Mississippi cotton mill campaign in the 1870s, as illustrated in the previous chapter, met with very limited success; by the end of the decade the state had only eight mills, along with a few very small and insignificant mills, while the
three Piedmont states had one hundred and three.4 The meager showing was disappointing because simple logic seemed to suggest that the state, with its capacity for producing cotton and its excellent rail and water transportation systems, should have gained a far greater share of the mills.
The 1880s brought new hope as an upturn in the business cycle reestablished the cotton mill campaign. At the beginning of the decade, Mississippi was still relying on an ailing cotton-growing economy, and the need to supplement cotton-growing
with industry was critical. No other industry was in sight, and thus the cotton textile industry still appeared to be the obvious if not the only answer. Cotton mills meant markets and profits for the planters, work and wages for the poor whites, and in time would bring related industries. Hence the clamor for cotton mills gained momentum.
Early in 1879, influential planters gathered at Vicksburg and founded the Misissippi Valley Cotton Planters' Association, later renamed the National Cotton Planters' Association, to promote multi-crop planting and cotton manufacturing in Mississippi. Frank Moorehead, the newly elected president, set the tone by urging planters to work toward the establishment of cotton mills and predicted that the profitable business of exporting cotton fabrics would reach into the billions.5 With great enthusiasm. the organization, through its Planters' Journal, predicted that mill towns would abound and "double the profits now possible to the farmer in the majority of localities in the Cotton Belt."6
In 1882, Robert Lowry, Mississippi's newly elected governor, prodded by Moorehead, Wall, Worthington, and other prominent Mississippians, recognized the potential and implemented Mississippi's first definite industrial development program to
attract cotton mills to the state. Legislation was enacted to promote the establishment of factories in the state by exempting them from taxation for the first ten years of operation. Pressing for more concessions, Moorehead complained that "ten
years are too little, let it be twenty years and
it will be all the better."7
Later, Moorehead, together with other key members of the Planters' Association, put "pressure on the national government to open Latin American markets for the output of their cotton mills, ...[and] succeeded in 1884 in getting federal funds appropriated for an exposition to be held in New Orleans," the primary purpose of which was to acquire new markets for manufactured cotton goods.8
Hence Mississippi’s 1882 Industrial Development Program set in motion for the first time serious preparations for a movement toward industrialization. Expectations sky-rocketed as The Rural Mississippian suggested that, as a result of the new act, "the profits of planting, which used to be invested in slaves, will be invested in spindles."9
Government officials, anticipating an industrial revolution in the state, established a Commission of Immigration and Agriculture, and it compiled a Handbook of Facts for Immigration which was widely distributed "through-out the country and
even in Europe with the hopes of attracting laborers to the state."10 There was a perceived shortage of industry workers to meet the needs of the anticipated increase in cotton mills, and this problem was compounded by a massive exodus of Negroes
who had left the state in the late 1870s to homestead in Kansas. As we will see, the expected growth in industry and the corresponding need to import labor never materialized. Hence the immigration program was left without a meaningful purpose;
and except for a few Italians, it failed to attract immigrants.11
The Commission's efforts, in trying to attract cotton mills to the state, were less than forthright, if not a little misleading. Its handbook claimed that Mississippi offered abundant water power, cheap fuel, and cheap labor. Cotton mills at Bay Saint Louis, Columbus, Corinth, Meridian, Natchez, Stonewall, and Wesson were cited as examples of great success stories.12 One contemporary booklet, citing Meridian as the
Metropolis of the Southwest, argued:
"It is a well known fact that the most judicious managed mills in the New England States are frequently compelled to close their doors...owing to the conditions surrounding the business in that portion of the country. There is not a single instance where a well handled, properly capitalized business in the South has failed to make money. The manufacturer is near the raw material...has less loss of weight in transportation...and [has] cheap motive power."13
While power sources may have been available, an abundant supply of water power and cheap fuel simply were not available. Mississippi had no water fall lines, no coal supply, and electrical power lines had not yet been strung.14 But it did have an
abundance of cotton, surplus unskilled labor, and excellent
rail and water transportation systems.
The Industrial Development Program of 1882 got off to a bad start. Within a year after its implementation, the program was faced with a major hurdle--another economic slump beginning in 1883. But in spite of the slump, the southward
movement of the textile industry gained momentum in the 1880s with a proliferation of cotton mills in the Piedmont states to initiate the Industrial Revolution of the South. But Mississippi continued to lag behind; the concerted efforts of its
most influential leaders to attract cotton mills to the state had very little impact and met with very little success. During the decade the state built four new mills and closed three, for a net gain of only one, bringing the total to nine as compared with thirty-four in South Carolina and nine hundred and five in the United States. To repeat, the nine Mississippi mills at the end of the decade were at Port Gibson, Columbus,
Meridian, Natchez, Bay Saint Louis, Water Valley, Shuqualak, Stoneall, and Wesson.
Ironically, Mississippi's textile industry experienced far greater growth during the Radical Reconstruction period than it did in the 1880s--the decade during which mills were moving to the Piedmont states at a rapid pace and initiating the Industrial Revolution of the South. Mississippi constructed eight mills, utilizing 18,568 spindles, during the Reconstruction years as compared with a gain of only one new mill during the
1880s.17 Obviously, the state’s mill campaign in the 1880s was not only a disappointment but rather a colossal failure, especially when viewed in light of the concerted efforts of Governor Robert Lowry, Frank Moorehead, and several other prominent
Mississippians.
With the phenomenal success in the Piedmont states, one must wonder what brought about the failure in Mississippi with its abundant supply of cotton, surplus unskilled labor, and the availability of excellent rail and water transportation. Let us pause here to briefly examine some of the often cited reasons.
The poor whites in Mississippi, who stood to benefit most from industralization, appeared to be indifferent about the failure. As noted earlier, most of them knew very little about the benefits of industry and were content with sharecrop or tenant farming, even though it often required them to rely on hunting, fishing, and gardening to supplement their food supply. Like poor whites throughout the South, their life style
left an appearance of complacency and lack of industry; this image was to subject them to harsh criticism for years to come. For example, New Englanders, considering themselves the epitome of excellence, were quick to lump most of the Southern white
population together in the same category and brand them as lazy and backward. The indictment was widely accepted as true, and in time, as noted by Broadus Mitchell in 'The Industrial Revolution in the South,' New Englanders were called "thrifty, hardy, active, industrious, while Southerners, were often referred to as Poor Whites, Red Necks, Lint Heads, Crackers, and Dirt Eaters, [came] down in history as lazy and improvident,... [and worse yet] degenerate."
New England mill workers in the 1880s, as cotton mills began to move southward, laughed at the thought of cotton mills moving to the South to be operated by "ignorant farmers and squirrel hunters." The laughter was premature; it would later
backfire soundly. The Great Depression between 1893 and 1897 intensified the competition between New England and the South for supremacy in cotton manufacturing, and after a long and bitter struggle between the two antagonistic regions, the industry moved to the South. The squirrel hunters, together with the sharecroppers and tenant farmers, would move from the farms to the mills. Some historians, according to David Carlton in
'Mill and Town in South Carolina,' "suggested that the rise of mills in such a backward region could have come only through the intervention of Divine Providence." The statement was another example of the unfair and harsh criticism of the poor whites; obviously, no reputable historian seriously believed it. Numerous antebellum and post civil war mills had demonstrated beyond doubt that cotton mills could be operated successfully in the South.
While skeptical of industrialization in the beginning, the poor whites of the South, including Mississippi, would finally welcomed cotton mills. They had little to loose because, as James Scherer notes in his Cotton as a World Power, they could
always "return to the land if beaten, but then later nearly all of them would drift back to the mill towns again, for the sake of better housing, better food, better clothing, and, above all, better social facilities than could be found in the deadly
isolation of the backwoods."
The Mississippi mill campaigns of the 1870s and 1880s had failed, but in spite of the failure, the southward movement of cotton manufacturing marked the beginning of a new era in Mississippi. It forced Mississippi, along with the other cotton
states, as Eugene C. Brooks notes in The Story of Cotton and The Development of the Cotton States, to examine its impoverished educational system and recognize the need for an improved system to produce skilled labor equal to that of the North and
the rest of the world.21
Most Mississippians initially opposed the public school system, first established in 1869 to provide every child with four months of free schooling each year, ostensibly because the hard times after the Civil War left little money for school expenses and taxes. But as conditions improved, the opposition began to decrease so that by 1890 Mississippi school laws had been revised to improve standards, provide uniform examinations for teachers, and increase the number of public schools. While it still lagged behind other southern states, Mississippi finally, after years of reliance on private academies available to the wealthy only, had at last accepted the public school.22 Although a small and cautious step, it was an essential first
step if the state ever expected to break away from its dependence on a cotton-growing economy and share in the southward movement of cotton mills and other industries requiring skilled labor.
The change in attitude toward education, however, had no immediate impact in attracting industry to the state. Beginning early 1893, another severe financial panic swept the country, causing thousands of business failures and throwing several million persons out of work. Farmers suffered from heavy debts and demanded reforms; a group of unemployed men, known as 'Coxey's Army,' marched from Ohio to Washington on May 1, 1894, demanding a huge road-improvement program to create employment; and general labor unrest mounted as cotton mill workers continued to suffer from harsh and often unsafe working conditions, including low wages and long hours. It was hardly the time for industry growth of any type at any place, and thus the Mississippi textile industry remained at a standstill until the turn of the century.
While the Mississippi mill campaigns throughout the Gilded Age, especially the seventies and eighties, fell short of their objectives, the state did take an essential first step in preparing for industralization by improving its public school system. As the Nineteenth Century approached its end, the increased emphasis on education coupled with the enactment of more favorable tax exempt laws, placed the state in a better position to attract industry. But as the end of the 1890s approaced a small lumber industry, then developing in the piney woods region of southern Mississippi, was the only immediate challenge to the cotton-growing economy. This was too little,
and thus Mississippi again renewed its interest in cotton mill
building.
Mississippi’s new campaign that began in 1898 was to be far more successful than the campaign failures of the seventies and eighties. It should be noted that, here too, the campaign followed an economic depression--the Great Depression of 1893-97. But this time, Mississippians were obviously better prepared emotionally, psychologically, and educationally to compete for new mill construction. They were beginning to shed the 'lazy and improvident' image and become serious about supplementing their ailing cotton-growing economy with the cotton mill industry; finally, a substantial improvement in the contruction of cotton mills would be the result.
VI. Twentieth Century Cotton Mills
Cotton mills moved to the South at a rapid pace in the quarter century between 1880 and 1906. Broadus Mitchell and other historians, in writing about the movement, described it as the "Industrial Revolution of the South." Again, the center of the revolution was in the three Piedmont states of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. While behind those states, Mississippi shared in the southward movement with an increase from eight to twenty-two mills during the period, most of which were opened near the turn of the century. With surplus unskilled labor, an abundant supply of cotton, and the availability of both rail and water transportation, the state had good reason to expect a greater share of the southward bound cotton mills. It had certainly hoped for more, for the 1893 Depression had again convinced influencial leaders that the state desperately needed to break away from its ailing agricultural economy and move toward industrialization.
There was no doubt about Mississippi's ability to compete with other sections of the country in cotton textile manufacturing. Its four antebellum mills, along with the post Civil War mills at Bay Saint Louis, Columbus, Corinth, Meridian, Natchez, Port Gibson, Shuqualak, Stonewall, Water Valley, and Wesson had demonstrated beyond any doubt that it could. But for three decades after the Civil War, as discussed earlier,
the state struggled along with its ailing agricultural economy while an industrial evolution was ignited and gained momentum in other southern states. Mississippi needed to join the mainstream and move toward industrialization.
So, finally in the late 1890s, Mississippi became serious about cotton mill building; it enacted more favorable tax exempt laws, improved its education system to produce skilled labor, and launched still another cotton mill campaign. Although
again short of expectations, the new campaign was far more successful than the campaigns of the seventies and eighties: fourteen mills were constructed in the ten year period between 1896 and 1906, increasing the number in operation, after failures,
to twenty-two (see Table 1).
Table 1.... Mississippi Cotton Mills:1906
NAME..........................LOCATION..............ESTABLISHED
Mississippi Mills........................Wesson....................1867
Stonewall Cotton Mills..............Stonewall.................1868
Natchez Cotton Mill...................Natchez....................1878
Yocona Mills...............................Water Valley............1879
Noxubee Cotton Mills...............Shuqualak...............1880
Rosalie Cotton Mill....................Natchez....................1884
Tombigbee Mill...........................Columbus................1887
Port Gibson Cotton Mills..........Port Gibson.............1888
Meridian Cotton Mills................Meridian...................1896
West Point Cotton Mills.............West Point...............1899
McComb Cotton Mill..................McComb..................1899
Kosciusko Cotton Mills.............Kosciusko..............1899
Laurel Cotton Mills.....................Laurel......................1900
Bellevue Mills..............................Moorhead...............1900
Winona Cotton Mills...................Winona....................1900
Yazoo Cotton Mills.....................Yazoo City..............1900
Tupelo Cotton Mills....................Tupelo.....................1901
John M. Stone Cotton Mill.........Starkville................1901
Mississippi Textile School........Starkville................1901
Magnolia Cotton Mills................Magnolia................1903
Columbus Yarn & Corage.........Columbus..............1904
Batesville Yarn & Cordage........Batesville...............1906
State University Textile School
Anticipating that the new campaign would promote rapid growth in cotton mill building, Mississippi A. & M. College, now Mississippi State University, began planning as early as 1899 for a textile school. With an ever increasing size and number of cotton mills, the use of more complex machinery, and the competition to improve the quality of the product, technical education was essential to train competent superintendents,
managers, and technicians. Textile schools had already opened or were in late planning stages at universities in the three Piedmont states, Clemson College in South Carolina in 1898, North Carolina A. & M. College in 1899, and Georgia School of
Technology in 1899.
With state legislative support, Mississippi A. & M. opened a textile school in 1901 with over seventy-five students. Professor Arthur Whittam, a graduate of the Harris Technological Institute of Preston, England, and a member of the New England
Cotton Manufacturers's Association, was named director of the new department. The new school included an electrically powered cotton mill with 824 spindles and twenty-five looms. Touting the textile school, A&M's 1904-05 College Bulletin boasted:
"The home of the Textile School is situated at the
eastern end of the campus on a hill overlooking the
rest of the college buildings. Two hundred and
twenty-four feet long, two stories high, with two
towers and a facade, it presents a most imposing
appearance."
The school was the fourth textile school to be established in the South, and indicated that Mississippi was planning for the future and looking forward to the coming of more cotton mills. It was timely as Mississippi had three mills to open in 1899, four in 1900, and another three to be opened in 1901--a total of ten mills in three years.
Once again, Mississippians appeared poised, this time with determination, to break away from the dependence on the cotton-growing economy and move toward industrialization. Finally, the people were beginning to realize that the protracted de¬
pendence on cotton-growing had been wrong, and that the small lumber industry then developing in the piney woods region of southern Mississippi was not an adequate supplement. The state needed a broader based economy; it needed cotton mills.
Again, political and other influential leaders, as they did in the 1870s and 1880s, felt that the textile industry was the answer. The state produced a great volume of cotton which could be processed locally; mills were enjoying success at several towns and could be expanded to others. James Sanders and his son Robert David would appear at the right time to shape and dominate the development and expansion of Mississippi cotton mills.
In 1911, James Sanders purchased his first cotton mill. It was located at Kosciusko and was a very successful venture, permitting him to expand rapidly and acquire mills at Yazoo City, Starkville, Natchez, Winona, and Mobile. Robert, after attending Mississippi A & M College and serving as a captain in the U. S. Army during World War I, became general manager of his father's cotton mills in 1920 and played an important role in the development of the Sanders textile company.
When his father died in 1937, Robert inherited control of Sanders Industries and launched an expansion program with the motto, "What Mississippi Makes, Makes Mississippi."29 By that time the Natchez mills had been closed, but the corporation had grown to include the Aponaug Cotton Mills at Kosciusko, West Point, and Yazoo City; the J. W. Sanders Cotton Mills at Magnolia, Winona, Starkville, and Meridian; the Delta Chenille Mills at Summit, Durant, Kosciusko, and Winona; and Sanders Motors and Jackson Opera House at Jackson.30 Rather than the purchase or construction of additional mills, Robert's expansion program was restricted primarily to the purchase and expansion of existing mills. Nevertheless, Sanders Industries held its dominant position and controlled most of the cotton manufacturing in the state during the first half of the twentieth century--particularly from 1911 through the Depression and World War II years.
In reviewing Mississippi’s Twentieth Century mills, I will divide them into two groups: (1) the indepentent mills and (2) the Sanders mills. Six mills established at the turn of the century, along with the Berthadale mill established at McComb
in 1925 and the Tombigee mill reorganized in 1901, were never absorbed by the Sanders conglomerate, They, along with the Stonewall and the A&M College mills discussed earlier, operated separately and independently. Those that have not already been
discussed--the Tupelo, McComb, Berthadale, Laurel, Batesville, Moorhead, Columbus, and Gulfport mills--will be reviewed in the next chapter. Then, the Sanders mills in Chapter VII.
VII. The Indepentent Cotton Mills
Tupelo Cotton Mill
Tupelo led the northern part of the state at the turn of the century in establishing a thriving cotton-based industrial complex. In September 1900, the citizens of Tupelo, led by John M. Allen, John C. Clark, C. P. Long, and E. Clovis Hinds, organized and financed the Tupelo Cotton Mill. Early officials included J. H. Ledyard, as president; J. J. Rogers, vice-president; W. W. Trice, secretary-treasurer; W. C. Van Hoose, engineer; R. M. Larkin, carding supervisor; J. H. Edwards, spinning supervisor; and G. B. Hamby, weaving supervisor. The mill was the town's first large industry; it was powered by five steam engines and initially employed 250 workers to operate 10,000
spindles and 320 looms to produce demins, pin checks, shirtings, and madras.1
With local capital, the group went on to develop a thriving industrial complex based on the growing of cotton--a dress factory, a shirt factory, a baby clothes factory, and a cottonseed products factory. Within a three-block area adjacent to Union Station, serving the St. Louis-San Francisco (Frisco) and the Mobile and Ohio (M&O) railroads, cotton was "ginned, compressed, dyed, made into yarn and thread, into cloth, and finally into dresses, shirts, and baby clothes." Not to waste anything, the cotton seed was then pressed for its oil, and finally the residue ground into a meal for cow feed. Rather
quickly, the small rural settlement altered its course to become a thriving industrial community.2
Workers at the several plants lived together in a pleasant, middle class village which gave the small town a look of prosperity. The village housing and streets were comparable to middle class communities in most Mississippi small towns. The
well maintained houses were neatly painted, alternating white and yellow, and by the early thirties were provided with electricity, city water, and inside plumbing. Paved streets and sidewalks ran throughout the village with its several small businesses, two churches and a well maintained brick building housing an elementary school for the first four grades.
The pride and joy of the community was its a semi-professional baseball team and a well maintained ball park with a grandstand. My early childhood was spent in the community, and I have fond memories of it, the school, the community park, and
the ball park. I attended the first and second grades at the school, and the baseball games were very special to me with my uncle, Lester (Monk) Strickland, playing third base and my next door neighbor, Hugh Trainer, pitching for the local team.
The village and the small town of Tupelo blended together to form a proud, congenial community. On April 5, 1936, the community's strength of character was thoroughly tested when it was suddenly disrupted by one of the most devastating tornadoes to ever strike a town in America. The Tupelo Daily Journal reported that
"In 33 seconds 201 persons were killed, 1000 injured;
hosts of others wandered helplessly without homes,
schools, or places of worship. The great oak trees
were broken or uprooted. In less than a minute Tupelo
received the most disastrous blow ever delivered to a
Mississippi town."3
The final count was two hundred and thirty persons killed, two thousand injured, and over eight hundred homes destroyed. One mill family of thirteen, the Burroughs family, suffered an unthinkable blow; the entire family of thirteen was killed.4
I was seven years of age at the time and vividly recall the morning after with National Guard troops patrolling the streets, the general confusion, but most of all, the people working together to care for the dead, the injured, and clean up the widespread devastation. My mother and other women in the neighborhood busied themselves making coffee and biscuits for guardsmen and workers, while my father, along with several
other young men of the community, assisted in clearing debris from the streets and later in digging a common grave for the Burroughs family.
Within a few months, Tupelo had almost recovered from the storm when another tragedy struck. This one was man made. On April 8, 1937, the utopian existence between mill and village came to an end when fifty-two workers on the night shift, led by Jimmie Cox, went on a sit-down strike demanding a 15 percent increase in wages and a reduction in weekly work hours from forty-five to forty. The next day fifty day-shift weavers joined the sit-downers, bringing the total to one hundred and two, and the leaders, claiming the support of nearly all of the four hundred workers, renewed their demands with the statement:
"We assure you that our requests are serious; that we wish
settlement without union intervention except as a last resort. We will not tolerate sabotage of company property
while we are domiciled in same. We have treated you fairly, honorably and in the friendliest possible manner and
anticipate like treatment."5
The strikers had the support of George McLean, editor of the Tupelo Journal, whose editorials and on-the-scene reports blasted away at the injustice of their wages and working conditions. He accused businessmen of luring "starvation-wage outfits to the state under the guise of progress, and once the industries were established, the industrialists would block efforts to improve conditions in the name of state's rights." He stopped short of urging workers to resort to a strike, but
when it occurred, he was blamed by the mill's management and the town's merchants who initiated a boycott against his newspaper. The boycott was ineffective; McLean continued his reports in support of the mill workers.6
With the passing of the first week without pay, tensions began to mount and other groups began to claim to be the true representative of all of the workers. The Tupelo Journal reported that it was an explosive situation and nearly got out of control when National Guard troops appeared on the baseball grounds adjacent to the mill to practice the firing of weapons. With the test firing of some of the weapons, according to the report:
"strikers from the mill charged the grounds
armed with wrenches and other pieces of loose metal, they
swarmed across the open field prepared to do battle on the
spot. No explanation by the commander of the unit [Sam
H. Long] could convince the strikers that these events
were anything but an attempt at direct intimidation.
The unit pulled back."7
The sit-downers held their ground, and on April 14 Governor Hugh White met with them in the mill and later the mill officials in an effort to mediate their differences. It was an exercise in futility; the Governor left Tupelo, leaving "the sit-down strike exactly where he found it."8 Both sides were intransigent in their positions, and after three weeks of unproductive and fruitless negotiations, General Manager J. H.
Ledyard announced that the parties were unable to break the deadlock and that the mill would be closed and its assets liquidated.9
Reluctantly, the disheartened sit-downers began to vacate the mill; they had miscalculated and their unilateral action had lost the jobs of all of the workers--most of whom were opposed to the strike from the beginning. But true to their
word, the sit-downers never damaged company machinery or property.
After the shock, some four hundred mill workers gathered their possessions and moved on to other mills, mostly to nearby Sanders mills at Kosciusko, Starkville, West Point, Winona, and Yazoo City. Both sides had lost, but the mill workers had stood up against their bosses in an unparalleled fashion and some of the town's leaders (or goons) were not willing to let it go unchallenged. Jimmie Cox, the strike leader, was "abducted from the streets of Tupelo, taken to a secluded spot...,
tied face down and severely beaten with belts." It was said that the original intent was to kill him but that the objections of some of the participants saved his life; he was instead ordered to leave town and never return.10
My father and mother were among those displaced and they elected to move on to Winona. For them and most of the displaced workers, the disappointment lingered for years as they waited for the Tupelo mill to reopen and restore their utopian mill and village. Shortly after the strike, James Savery, the new president of the Chamber of Commerce, headed a short-lived effort to reopen the mill, but "no amount of effort by any of the town's agencies could heal the deep schisms within the
community."11 The Tupelo mill never reopened.
McComb Cotton Mills
In 1900 McComb, a railroad town in the piney woods region of southern Mississippi, built a large cotton mill to augment its Illinois Central Railroad shops and its thriving lumber industry. The mill, named Delta Cotton Mill, began operations that year with Captain J. J. White, as president; J. J. White, Jr., secretary and treasurer; William Holmes, vice-president; George Gleason, superintendent; J. W. Mayes, carding and spinning supervisor; and J. H. Roberts, weaving supervisor. Powered by two steam engines, the mill initially employed up to 200 workers in the operation of 220 looms and 6,000 spindles. It enjoyed modest success for two decades and then sold at auction in 1921 to Standard Textile Products Company of New York for $270,000.12
The new owners, with Alvin Hunsicker, as president, and Charles K. Taylor, as superintendent and manager, announced that their ambition was to make McComb a textile center as large as any in the South. The mill, renamed McComb Textile Mill, was expanded to operate 20,000 spindles, 424 looms, and employed five hundred and forty mill workers day and night, and began to manufacture a fabric used in the production of imitation leather for tops and upholstery of automobiles.13 After the expansion, the mill was indeed one of the state's largest cotton mills. Three years later, Charles Butterworth replaced Taylor as superintendent and manager.
By the early 1930s, like a host of other mills throughout the country, the mill was operating in bankruptcy, and at the time of the 1934 nation-wide textile strike, the directors were faced with the prospect of losing its major account with the
Ford Motor Company which they felt would force the mill to close completely or, at the very least, operate on a part-time basis. The mill had survived a six-week strike earlier in the year, and Ford was threatening to take its business elsewhere
should the mill be struck a second time within five months.14 Fortunately, the nation-wide strike was short-lived, and the mill survived to continue operations until closing its doors in 1942. More will be said about the strike in a later chapter.
In 1925 a second cotton mill was constructed in McComb by A. K. Landau and his brother W. Lober. A. K. Landau had operated a mill at Magnolia, seven miles south of McComb, but fearing the threat of unionism at that mill, he decided to sell out
and relocate. The new mill and its village, consisting of approximately fifty houses, was named "Berthadale" in honor of the mother of the Landau brothers. It was a small mill in comparison to the McComb Cotton Mill but it employed approximately
two hundred workers in the production of draperies.15
With the approach of the Depression in the late 1920s, the Berthadale mill began to suffer financial problems, and after struggling through the onslaught of the most difficult years of the Depression, the Landaus gave up in 1938 and ceased operations. The brothers moved the machinery, along with several employees, to Valdese, North Carolina where, for the third time, they organized and began the operation of a new cotton
mill.16 The Berthadale mill never reopened.
Workers at both McComb mills lived in adjoining villages, typical small town villages such as those at Kosciusko, Magnolia, West Point, and Winona. All of the small frame houses were white, on small lots, and had very few amenities--no city
water or sewage system, no paved streets or sidewalks, and no electricity until the mid-thirties. Sites for churches and play grounds were provided at both villages, but, unlike many mill villages, neither provided a school.17
In July 1922, the TriState Builder, describing the McComb Cotton Mill, said:
"We understand that it is the ambition of this company to
make South McComb a large textile center, perhaps as large
as any in the South. They believe that to get one
hundred percent efficiency from their operators is to
give them pleasant surroundings and good homes, so the
company has laid out a fine park adjoining the mills
and fenced it using over two thousand feet of wire fencing. This park which is well shaded is for the use of
the children of the employees of the mills and the grown
ups to for that matter. It has been fitted up with swings
and all such amusements, making a connection with this
company means the ideal life to the operators."18
The owner's ambition to make South McComb a large textile center was realized, at least for the next twenty years before the mill closed in 1942. The McComb Cotton Mill brick buildings and several of the old village houses still survived at the time of this writing. Most of the houses, however, were in desperate need of paint and repair. While at Berthadale, there were no signs of the mill buildings, but several of its former
village houses still dot the neighborhood.
Columbus Cotton Mill
In 1887 Columbus, a small town on the Tombigbee River in the northeastern part of the state, established its first large industry and the first of two cotton mills. The mill, named Tombigbee Cotton Mill, was built by Harrison Johnston, a wealthy pioneer citizen of the small town. After his death, it was reorganized in 1901 with a capital investment of $180,000 and resumed operations with T. O. Burris, as president; T.B. Franklin, vice-president; Benjamin N. Love, secretary; and O. Tasker, superintendent. The steam-powered mill employed one hundred and seventy-five workers to operate 8,064 spindles and 252 looms in the production of drills, sheetings, and shirtings.19
The impressive four-story mill was located in the heart of a section of town known as the "factory district," and according to the Columbus Commercial, the "busy hum of the machinery ...and the air of activity which pervaded the whole building,
spoke of industrial progress and typified the New South." The workers earned an average of eight dollars per week and lived in the adjoining company-owned village of some thirty-two small houses. Most of the workers, the Commercial concluded, had
abandoned nearby farms and exchanged the "hard life of the farm ...for the steady, sure weekly pay of the mills, with attendant bettering of conditions."20
From its beginning, the mill provided the economic base for Columbus; it consumed 3,000 bales of locally grown cotton annually and was the impetus for related industrial activity. After the reorganization at the turn of the century, and under new management, it continued to prosper. The mill, in fact, was a great success story; it prospered and continued to operate for forty-seven years. Like many cotton mills, it fell on
hard times at the beginning of the Great Depression and was forced to closed in 1934. An era ended when the old cotton mill building was sold in the following year to Authur McGahey who converted it to a casket factory.21
In 1904, a second cotton mill was established in the small town; with a capital investment of only $10,000, a small yarn mill under the name Columbus Yarn and Cordage Mill was built. It began operations with J. W. Steen, as president, and Benjamin Love, as secretary, and employed forty workers to operate 2,000 spindles in the production of cordage and twine.22 The small yarn mill never had a chance; it floundered from the
start and closed before the end of the decade.
Laurel Cotton Mill
In 1900 Laurel, a small town on the Mobile and Ohio (M&O) and Southern (SRR) railroads in southeastern Mississippi, built its first large industry. The Laurel Cotton Mill, with a capital investment of $300,000, was one of the state's largest cotton mills to be built at the turn of the century. It began operations with G. S. Gardiner, as president; W. B. Rogers, vice president and treasurer; F. G. Wisner, secretary; J. S. Pleasant, superintendent; W. O. Hedgpeth, carding-spinning overseer; and S. H. Holmes, weaving overseer. Initially, the mill utilized two steam boilers and employed some four hundred workers to operate 19,968 spindles and 640 looms.23
The workers lived in an adjoining village, a typical Mississippi mill village. Like the McComb villages, the small white houses had very few amenities--no city water or sewage system--except electricity which became available in the midthirties. By that time, the houses were in desperate need of paint and repair to conceal the many years of neglect, but with the deepening Depression, that would have to wait.
The mill survived the economic panic of 1907, the difficult years of the twenties, the Great Depression of the thirties to play a significant role in the industrial development of the small town. For the first four decades, it provided an
economic base for the town; and then finally, after fifty-five years of operations, it was closed in 1955. Only two cotton mills in Mississippi survived the Laurel mill--the J. W. Sanders Mill at Starkville which, as will be seen in the next chapter, survived until 1962 and the Stonewall mill which continues to operate today. By the time the Laurel mill closed, it had been replaced as the town's largest industry by the
nation's largest fiberboard factory.24
Moorhead Cotton Mill
The small community of Moorhead, in 1900, heeded the advice of Southern mill promoters to build the cotton mills in the cotton fields. The community, a hamlet of 500 in the center of the Mississippi Delta or Alluvial Plain and the nation's
leading region for growing long-staple cotton, literally built a cotton mill in the middle of the cotton fields. With a capital investment of $200,000, it built the Bellevue Cotton Mill and began operations with W. H. Harriss, as president; Peter H.
Corr, vice president; T. Ashley Blythe, secretary-treasurer; L. I. Allen, superintendent; G. F. Sharpe, spinning overseer; A. L. Smith, weaving overseer; C. Miller, engineer; and M. Duncan, electrician. The mill was powered by steam and initially employed two hundred and twenty-five workers to operate 5,000 spindles and 150 looms in the production of sheetings and drills.
The mill was later purchased and operated by the Orleans Cotton Mills, a New Orleans textile company, which also bought the mill at Magnolia in 1918. The Moorhead mill survived the economic panic of 1907, the difficult years of the 1920s, but,
as was the case with several Mississippi mills, the Great Depression of the thirties was too much. It closed at the beginning of the Depression in 1932.25
Batesville & Gulfport Cotton Mills
The Batesville Yarn Mill, the last mill established at the turn of the century, should be noted. In 1906, the small yarn mill, with a capital investment of $30,000, began operations with C. B. Vance, as president; J. C. Price, secretary-treasurer; and B. M. Love, superintendent. The small mill employed thirty-five workers to operate 1,500 spindles in the production of rope and twine. Financial problems plagued the mill from
the start and it was unable to survive the decade.
Finally in 1934, as cotton mills throughout the nation were going under, Gulfport made an effort to enter the cotton mill business. It built a small yarn mill, the Walcott and Campbell Yarn Mill, with 5,000 spindles; the small mill was
unable to get off the ground and closed a few months later in the following year.26 One must wonder what its founders expected, starting a cotton mill in the middle of the Great Depression, and as we shall see later, with the industry in shambles because of industry-wide overproduction.
The Sanders mills will be visited next. As mentioned earlier, Sanders began his accumulation of cotton mills with the purchase of the Kosciusko mill in 1911 and ended it with the purchase of the Magnolia mill at a foreclosure sale in 1932.
Altogether, his conglomerate absorbed eight cotton mills established at the turn of the century and went on to play a dominate role in the development of the state's textile industry in the twentieth century. The mills were located at Kosciusko, West Point, Starkville, Winona, Magnolia, Meridian, Yazoo City, and Natchez, and will reviewd in that order.
VIII. Sanders Industries Cotton Mills
James Sanders started his conglomerate of cotton mills in the midst of difficult times for the textile industry. There was a nation-wide epidemic of mill closings in 1910 which included five Mississippi mills: one each at Batesville and Port
Gibson, two at Columbus, and the mammoth Mississippi Mills at Wesson. It was a disastrous year, and while the state would later build three new cotton mills, the number of mills in Mississippi would steadily decline over the next fifty years. The
next year, 1911, Sanders purchased the twelve-year-old Kosciusko mill and immediately initiated an expansion program. The expanded mill was very successful, enabling Sanders not only to pay for the expansion of that mill but to purchase several others.
Rather than building new cotton mills, Sanders concentrated on the purchase of existing mills; more often than not, mills that were in serious financial trouble or, as in the case of the Magnolia mill, actually closed. With the purchase of the Magnolia mill in 1932, Sanders completed his accumulation of Mississippi cotton mills. By that time, he had a conglomerate, operating under the name of Sanders Industries, and already
playing a dominate role in Mississippi cotton manufacturing and would continue to do so until a few months before the death of Robert Sanders in Kosciusko on September 25, 1954.
James Sanders, as a result of his efforts in the textile industry from 1911 to his death in 1937, has been credited with having "laid the foundation for the development of the textile industry in Mississippi in the twentieth century."1 His son Robert shared in that endeavor; he was a very active participant from 1920 to 1953 and deserves credit for playing an important role in laying that foundation. And, at the end as will be seen later, he witnessed the demise of the Sanders conglomerate in 1953 and thus most of the Mississippi cotton textile industry.
Management of the several Sanders mills was coordinated from the corporate office in Jackson, and thus the operation of the various mills and the condition of their villages were very similar. The pay scale, workload, village housing, and living conditions varied little from one mill to the next. Most Sanders workers were aware of the various mills at Kosciusko, Magnolia, Meridian, Natchez, Starkville, West Point, Winona, and Yazoo City as many often moved from one mill (especially if
closed or destroyed by fire) to another and, in the process, expected to find employment and old acquaintances at the new mill.2 In my youth, I personally experienced several relocations of this type as my family moved during the depression and early war years from Tupelo to Winona, to Magnolia, to Kosciusko, to Meridian, and then back to Magnolia. And always, old friends and acuaintances were found at the new mill village to
make the relocation easier. In our review of the Sanders mills, we will start with Sanders's first mill acquisition.
Kosciusko Cotton Mill
Kosciusko, a small town in central Mississippi, entered the twentieth century looking toward the future. On August 26, 1899, the small town, later known locally as the Beehive of the Hills, organized and approved a capital investment of $167,000
for the construction of its first large industry. It was the town’s first major move toward industralization. Two years later in August 1901, the Kosciusko Cotton Mill was completed and began operations with C. L. Anderson, president; W. B. Potts,
vice-president; and Walter Burgress, secretary; A. E. Kelly, W. L. Anderson, N. O. Thompson, Walter Burgress, C. C. Kelly, John Fletcher, W. B. Potts, J. A. Gilliland, and F. Z. Jackson, board of directors.3
The mill was initially powered by a single steam engine and employed approximately one hundred workers to operate 5,000 spindles. The machinery, including spinning frames, came from a mill at Charlotte, North Carolina, which was purchased in tact from the owner, S. W. Cranner, and moved to Kosciusko. The mill was an instant success, and in 1907, it added a second steam engine, installed 320 looms, increased the number of spindles to 12,600, and workers to some one hundred and seventy-five in the production of white goods.4
In 1911, as the state's textile industry fell on hard times, James Sanders entered the cotton manufacturing business. He purchased the Kosciusko mill and immediately initiated still another expansion program; and under his program, the number of workers more than doubled to some three hundred and fifty, spindles increased to 30,572, and looms to 1,131. The production changed from white goods only to a variety of fabrics, including chambry, gingham, bed ticking, and pillow ticking.5 He effectively saved the mill and small town.
The Kosciusko mill, renamed Aponaug Manufacturing Company, continued to be a booming success; it enabled Sanders to expand rapidly and acquire mills at Starkville, Natchez, Winona, Yazoo City, and Mobile. Other purchases would follow, but, to reiterate, this was the genesis of the Sanders conglomerate of cotton mills. The mill was to remain Sander's largest mill and Kosciusko's largest industry for the next forty-two years. By the late 1930s, it operated day and night, employing some four hundred workers with an estimated payroll of $175,000 annually.
With the wide variety of fabrics, Sears Roebuck & Company soon became its largest customer, and in the mid-thirties, the mill often had up to six months in back orders for Sears. In addition, the mill served customers in most of the major cities in the United States and several international markets.6 With Preston Newell as superintendent, the immense prosperity that began in the late thirties continued through the war years.7
Most of the mill workers lived in an adjoining village, consisting of about eighty-five small frame houses. Being isolated from the town, the village had few amenities such as city water, inside plumbing, paved streets, or sidewalks; except for electricity which became available in the early thirties, other services and utilities such as the telephone, natural gas, and mail delivery did not come until the late forties. Each house, as usual, had sufficient land for a vegetable garden, a pig, a few chickens, and access to a community pasture for milk cows. The mill provided an elementary school through the eight grade, a church, a community playground and three large ponds. John Felder's grocery store, a barber shop, and Bud Felder's small
hamburger shop completed the village and assisted in keeping the mill people within the village limits.8
Several mill families lived in Crowley's flats consisting of twenty-two small frame houses near the business section of town and Peeler's flats with about thirty-two similar houses midway between the town and village. Living in either flats had the disadvantage of being a substantial distance from the mill, and most workers in the twenties and thirties had little choice but to walk to and from work. Crowley's was about a mile and a half from the mill and Peeler's less than a mile and, in either case, a considerable distance to walk when added to a ten-hour workday.
Later, as the labor market became more competitive at the beginning of World War II, Sanders provided bus transportation. But living in the flats had some advantages. The houses had a few more amenities than the village houses, but the big advantage was the close proximity of both flats to the town school. Unlike the children in the village, children in the flats attended the town grade school and that, as will be seen later, was a tremendous benefit.
Like most other Mississippi cotton mill towns in the early years of the Twentieth Century, many of the Kosciusko mill villagers felt that most of the town people preferred that they stay out of town, except on payday. And like most other Southern mill towns, social intercourse between town people and mill people was limited. Whatever the reason, it was not unusual. Most historians agree that an attitude of superiority by town people toward cotton mill people was common, and the attitude generally applied, as noted by Jennings Rhyn in Some Southern Mill Workers and Their Villages, to textile workers throughout the nation, North and South.9 In fact, it is interesting to note that textile workers throughout the nation were generally referred to as “hands or operatives” as if they were something less than human.
If these attitudes prevailed at Kosciusko as most villagers believed, ironically the village elementary school may have contributed to or actually promoted them by segregating and isolating village children. Before !940, most Mississippi children, like most American children everywhere, did not attend school beyond the eight grade, and thus the separate schools restricted the opportunities for village and town children to interact and establish relationships with each other. This pattern changed, beginning in the early forties, when more and more Mississippi children began to attend high school and college. Children from the town, the village, and the country came together for education and, in the process, established lasting relationships. The relationships became even closer when, almost simultaneously, the young men began to march off together to World War II and a few years later to the Korean Conflict.10
Children attending the village school experienced classical segregation and discrimination, but the potential damage was offset by teachers quietly promoting the development of self esteem and stressing the importance of preparing for the
future. Miss Alva Thomas, principal and strong promoter of the Sanders mill and its school, taught the seventh and eight grades; her two sisters, Anna and Lois, along with Christine Paine taught two grades each and completed the faculty. Each school day
started in a way now considered unlawful; the student body assembled in the school's auditorium for the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, a short biblical reading, and a prayer. The big event of the year was the annual play, with
eight grade actors playing to a full house of villagers. I attended and completed the eight grade class and have fond memories of the school and Miss Alva. I recall it as a memorable and beneficial experience, highlighted by a leading role in the
annual play.
The school with its community playground and three large ponds nearby provided the village with a very active recreation center. The ponds provided water for the mill's five steam engines, and for the villagers, swimming, boating, and fishing. The best fishing, however, was at Fletcher's bridge, about five miles south of the village, where my friend, Joe Mathews, and I would frequently go on a Saturday morning with his father and usually one other adult male in a horse-drawn wagon, camp and fish overnight, and return Sunday afternoon. Other social activities centered around the church and John Felder's Grocery where, across the street and under the shade of two large Oak
trees, the men played checkers and dominoes.
For fifty-two years to the month, the Kosciusko mill was the town's largest industry and its economic base. Then in August 1953, Robert Sanders in ill health closed the mill, along with his other three remaining mills at Magnolia, Starkville
and West Point, and after his death in 1954, the mill and village houses were sold. Ironically, Sanders suffered a heart attack while attending a conference with local business leaders about the possible reopening of the Aponaug Mill and died a few
days later on September 25, 1954.
Rather abruptly, the mill was gone, never to reopen. At the time of this writing, the old brick mill building was still standing and occupied by a small electric lamp company. There were al |
