USA > North Carolina > Guilford County > The History of Guilford County, North Carolina > Part 5
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Robert C. Donnell, Captain, cm Sept. 1, 1862.
Robert L. Morehead, Ist Lieut., cm May 8, 1862; r Sept. 1863; p from 2nd Lieut.
Joseph Henry Scales, Ist Lieut., cm Sept. 1, 1863; p from 3rd Lieut., Vir- ginia.
FIFTY-THIRD REGIMENT, INFANTRY-FIELD AND STAFF.
James T. Morehead, Jr., Lieut .- Colonel, cm May 6, 1862, p from Captain of Company D, p Colonel.
FIFTY-THIRD REGIMENT, COMPANY D.
David Scott, Jr., Captain, cm March 1, 1862.
Peter F. Daub, 2nd Lieut., cm March 1, 1862. (This Company from For- syth, Stokes, Surry and Guilford.)
FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT, COMPANY F.
Rufus L. Hooper, Captain, cm Feb. 14, 1863.
Joseph S. Ragsdale, Ist Lieut., cm Feb. 14, 1863.
Charles W. Ogburn, 2nd Lieut., cm Dec. 1, 1862.
Wm. H. Young, 2nd. Lieut., cm Aug. 13, 1863, p 1863. (The above from Vols. II. and III. of N. C. Roster.)
Johnson and his army for days and days poured in one steady stream into Greensboro, where he surrendered. Wheeler's Cavalry, Dibble's Divi- sion, was in Guilford also. The last meeting of the Cabinet of Jefferson Davis was held in Greensboro.
NOTE: Wars of medieval Europe were fought along the lines of race or religion: Wars of modern history are industrial problems wrought out under restraint and com- pulsion. The Civil War was fought along the lines of Southern institutions. That was the great problem of institutionalism versus individualism. The verdict of the western world is that the individual is above and better than all sorts of institutions. But the lives of men like Morehead, Gen. Scales, Col. J. I. Scales, Gilmer, Gorrell, Vance, Maftatt, Lee and Jackson, and many another, will forever give the Southern cause and the South- ern army glory and dignity in the world. It is sweet and beautiful to die for one's country.
CCL. J. I. SCALES. EMINENT SOLDIER, LAWYER AND STATESMAN DURING THE DARK DAYS OF THE SOUTH, A PATRIOT WITH HONOR TRIED.
CA. i
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NORTH CAROLINA.
CHAPTER IX.
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT.
Guilford County, lying near the middle of the plateau region of North Carolina, is twenty-four by twenty-eight miles, rectangu- lar. This is the watershed county of the State; Haw River and Deep River rise from the Oak Ridge elevation, but join in Chat- ham County, flowing to the ocean as the noble Cape Fear. The Dan may be called a Guilford river, because this land was once Guilford's. Draining part of Guilford's territory, the beautiful Dan flows north, joining at length the great Roanoke. The aver- age elevation of Guilford County is between 800 and 1,000 feet above tide. The mean temperature is 50 degrees. Roses bloom out of doors nine months in the year. Guilford County is almost a square. Her eighteen townships are rectangular. Fifteen of these are penetrated by one hundred and eleven miles of railway.
Guilford has always been a great public highway. Before railroads, the Salisbury and Petersburg stage coach line passed through Guilford, as did also the Salisbury and Fayetteville road. And before these, the same roads were the great Trading Paths of the Indians. The Five Nations on the north; the Tuscaroras, in their Kehukee and Toisnot rendezvous, on the east ; the Catawbas on the south; and the Cherokees on the west, passed over the Trading Path in their commerce with each other, or with the whites. But the road was not original with them. They held it by right of conquest from the buffalos, which fed all winter on the tall peavines growing luxuriantly and abundantly in Guilford. These early lords of the savannahs of Guilford left their name writ in the waters of the North and South Buffalo Creeks.
Peavines grew here tall enough to reach the shoulder of a
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GUILFORD COUNTY,
man on horseback. (Col. J. T. Morehead.) Hawks, Swain and Graham say that: "Between the Yadkin and the Catawba were immense grazing grounds. The Reedy Fork was bordered by cane brake, within which game abounded." McAdoo's Woods was a resort for bear, deer, wolf and panther. C. H. Wiley and Addison Coffin agree in saying that there were all kinds of game and fish in abundance. The Address on Alamance Church, by Dr. Wiley, shows "that shad came up the Buffalo." At one time the crows and blackbirds were so numerous and destructive a law was passed that each man should kill so many. (Life of Caldwell, also Addison Coffin in Guilford Collegian, Col. Rec., Vol. 8.) A bonus was given for their skins. Before 1850 chestnuts were so plentiful that hogs were fattened on them. The ground where Greensboro · is situated was, when the site was chosen, an unbroken forest with a thick undergrowth of huckleberry bushes, that bore a finely flavored fruit. Dr. Wiley, in his Address on Alamance Church, says: "That a scientific Englishman, who was in the Van Buren exploring expedition around the world, thought that he found more kinds of wild flowers in Guilford and the adjoining region than he had ever seen elsewhere."
There were only a few scattered oaks in Guilford previous to the Revolutionary War. (Col. J. T. Morehead and others.) These rolling plains, with fertile soil and temperate climate, fur- nished a good foundation for the earliest occupation of the Pioneer Settler. With the present staples, wheat, corn and tobacco, they cultivated flax, indigo, hemp, and made large quantities of butter and honey. Agriculture, mining, manufacturing and many of the occupations known to men have been followed here. On many of the old plantations were made most of the things of common use. Salt, and on rare occasions, a pound of coffee, were bought.
Guilford has been a leading section in the South in the culti- vation of fruit. The early settlers brought with them from across the "Big Waters" seeds of the different kinds of fruits. To a Quaker woman is due the honor of bringing the first varieties of
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fruits and garden seeds here. In 1790, says Addison Coffin in the Guilford Collegian (Vol. 3, page 175), Ann Jessop, a minister of Friends, went to England and returned two years later bringing grafts of the standard fruits. Abijah Pinson, an expert in graft- ing, did the work of successfully grafting her seedling trees in the spring of 1793. These varieties of apples were the "Father Abraham," "Red Pippin," "June-eating," "Yellow Pippin," "Eng- lish Russett," "Horse Apple," "Pearmain," "Vandever."
While enduring hardships, the early settlers of Guilford were working out great problems that would reach far into the next century. There are now about forty nurseries in the state. Four of these are around Greensboro-Pomona Hill, John A. Young, Lego, and Vandalia Nurseries. At the first railroad meeting in Greensboro, July 4, -, Mr. Joshua Lindley came up from Chat- ham County bringing a crate of the first ripe peaches. They were considered very early, but at the present his son, Mr. J. Van Lindley, has developed the culture of that fruit so that peaches may be gathered from the trees in Guilford from June to Novem- ber. In the cultivation of fruits the name Lindley has stood for much. Joshua Lindley was the pioneer in the business in Indiana. (His son, J. Van Lindley, Pomona Hill, N. C.) In 1850 he came to Guilford County. Pomona Hill is a continuation of his "New Garden Nurseries" and the "Mendenhall and Westbrook Nur- series," three miles west of Greensboro. In the last twenty-five years the old-fashioned pears have been replaced by the Oriental varieties, and the quantity greatly increased. Japanese plums have been introduced, which are more delicious and productive than the old. Guilford is the mother of the peach orchards of Georgia.
Though the soil of Guilford is well adapted to the cultivation of wheat, the old people say that their fathers and mothers rarely saw wheat bread except on Sunday. This was due largely to the want of a good thresher. The history of how the early Guilford people worked out the problem of threshing wheat is a good index to their power of industrial development. They at first spread the
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GUILFORD COUNTY,
wheat on the barn floor and the horses were driven around to tread it out. Elihu Coffin made an improvement on this method by having his barn loft made with holes all over the floor for the wheat to drop through. So the horses were led upstairs to tread the wheat, the straw being left above, the wheat falling on the floor below. Dr. Swain had a means of threshing by rolling a big log over and over the scattered sheaves. John Ballinger run the first thresher. It was called the "chaff piler." The sheaves were run through it, the straw and wheat coming out together. The next improvement separated them by means of a trough, which carried the straw off, this being an invention of Addison Boren. (All these improvements were thought out by Guilford men.)
The wheat was harvested with a reap hook until in 1840 cradles were introduced. Matthew H. Osborn, a Guilford man who went to Kansas City, invented the reaper. Madison Osborn invented a thresher in 1842, called the "Osborn Thresher," or the "ground-hog." He lived about six miles west of Greensboro. Before the war of 1860, three hundred bushels was an unusually large crop of wheat. In the vicinity of Deep River and James- town a thousand bushels is now raised by many farmers. On Mr. Ragan's farm near High Point, one of the best wheat farms in the state, forty-seven and one-half bushels has been raised to the acre. The farm yields three thousand bushels of wheat annually. C
THE CRAFTS.
The industrial development of Guilford resembles that of New England. Whittier might have written his "Songs of Labor" for these people as well as for those of Massachusetts. The "Nan- tucketers" brought with them the handicrafts, and the idea of apprenticeship, New England ideas, transplanted from Old Eng- land. (See the Chapter on the Settlement of Guilford County.) Western Guilford is Yankee North Carolina.
The old records show (see Chapters V. and VI. above), that the boys, and girls too, were trained in industrial pursuits, i. e.,
1
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"to learn the art and mystery" of weaver, tanner, hatter, plow or gunmaker. Guilford was the county ot gunmakers, plowmakers, hatters, tanners, woodworkmen and other industries.
In the section of country between Guilford College and High Point were many gunmakers. Though this was under Quaker influence, a people opposed to war, still they seemed to think it the right thing to make guns. There were the Wrights, the Armfields, the Lambs, the Ledbetters, the Stephens, the Couches, Dixons and Johnsons who made guns for the Regulators and Tories of the adjoining counties. The soldiers of the Battle of Guilford Courthouse used guns of home manufacture. Many rifles were made here. About the first guns with percussion locks were made by these people. "The Guilford Rifle" was known in the other States.
The plows of Guilford attracted public attention. The metal, or cast-iron mould-board, succeeding the wooden mould-board, was invented in 1830 in Guilford by Eli Pugh, near Jamestown. The output of plows from his shop was about three dozen per week. The manufacture of plows was a regular business for years; they were sold directly to farmers, being hauled by agents in wagons for many miles.
I have seen an old hatmaker living a few miles from Greens- boro. He said that the making of hats in this county was once a fine business. It was usual to get six, eight or ten dollars in those days for hats. The hatters used the hides of rabbits, squir- rels, opossums, coons, foxes and sheep. The fur was trimmed with a knife made for that purpose. A liquid was used on the fur. That mixture, just as fine as silk, was "bowed out on a big hurl," like a counter. A linen cloth was used to raise it from the hurl. A rough, awkward hand could not touch it without breaking it all to pieces. With the linen cloth the fur was moulded into the shape of the letter V. It was sized over the fire in a boiling pot. "It would felt up fast, sometimes too fast." In a few moments lit was tough as sole leather and could not be torn. These hats held
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water like a bucket. A ten-dollar hat lasted ten years, a two-dol- lar hat was made to last the purchaser two years.
The Mendenhall tanyard, as old as the county, is still doing business.
The greatest auger-maker in the State was M. C. Iddings. His augers and gimlets have been in use over seventy-five years.
The Swains were chair and bedstead makers. The beds were made with high posts, with curtains around the top, to be grace- fully looped back. The "Valance," or foot-curtains, were strung around the bottom.
Westbrook, the tailor, employed several hands in making suits for Guilford and neighboring counties.
Spinning wheels were made by Col. James Neeley. His flax wheels sold for four dollars, his cotton wheels for three dollars.
Ballard's soap yard and Beard's hat shop were industrial enterprises until the slavery question drove their proprietors west.
A notable example of old-time industries carried on by slave labor was at Jamestown. From 1820 to 1845 George C. Menden- hall had a large system of industrial labor on his farm. His slaves were all special workmen. Being taught a trade they worked at it, not running around from one thing to another. He introduced the system that prevailed among the white people. In his store a negro clerk sold and bought goods. His harness shop was kept by a slave, a set of whose harness before the War took first premium at the State Fair. His carpenter helped to build the capitol at Raleigh, N. C. His caterer was sent to wait on President Buchanan when he visited the University of North Carolina. George Mendenhall had a shoe shop; a work shop in which were made plows, rakes, hoes, etc .; a large flouring mill, cotton gin, tanyard and farm, all worked by specially skilled negro slaves.
MINERALS OF GUILFORD.
The mining interests in this county have in the past been worked to some profit. In north Guilford is the iron zone. The
MR. J. VAN LINDLEY, POMONA, N. C.
JNIE OF ICH
2
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NORTH CAROLINA.
old iron works existed in the days of Greene and Cornwallis. In south. Guilford is the gold zone. It is said that no gold has been found north of the railroad in Guilford, but south of it gold and copper ore are found. Tradition says that the Indians had some knowledge of gold in this section.
The following is a copy of a letter written by Robert W. Hod- son and placed in my hands through the kindness of Mr. Phillip Horney Hodson.
Plainfield, Indiana, 5 mo., 24th, 1879.
P. H: Hodson,
Dear Cousin : Thy letter reached in due time, but from various causes, has not been replied to earlier. I have been from home and otherwise engaged. I have recently returned from Philadelphia, Pa., as well as some shorter visits nearer home.
My health is pretty good for a person of my age (in my 83rd year).
As to thy inquiries relative to the gold mines in N. C. The mine where I worked was in my brother Jeremiah's land, I was only privileged to work on a certain part of it under a lease to my father, James Kersey, and myself.
I think in the year 1825 my brother Jeremiah and I in prospecting along a branch found some particles of gold by washing the sand in a pan (a little previous I think some particles had been found on John Teague's land near by on another branch, perhaps by a Wm. Jessup, which was afterwards known as the Horney mine). From some knowledge of the Geological stratas of the earth we coursed the vein over the high land to the next branch, thence up the hill some distance, where a ledge of quartz jetted out, not more than a foot thick, leading S. S. W., the gen- eral course of ledges of rock in that section of the country. We found some particles of gold in quartz.
After harvest that summer my brother and I commenced sinking a pit on the hill, went perhaps 15 or 18 feet deep, looking for larger pieces of gold than are generally found in the veins, but finding none then gave up the pursuit till next summer.
In the meantime I applied my mind closely to gain a knowledge of Geology, Mineralogy, and Metallurgy from the best books, papers and men, &c., in my reach-the manner of gathering and working metals in Peru and elsewhere. Then we commenced work with a little better understanding of the manner of gathering gold in other countries by following the vein of quartz only, gathering the ore, crushing it in mortars, grinding it, &c., and
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washing with Mercury. We washed the ore first, then crushed and ground the residue. The gold in the ore was pure, but there was sulphates of various metals combined in the ore. When we succeeded in the work it produced a wonderful excitement. Men came from far and near, went to work sinking shafts at random and getting no pay.
The Horney mine was soon opened and worked with some success; and subsequently many other places in Guilford and Randolph Counties were worked for gold, though copper abounded in some of those mines.
I think gold was first found in Cabarrus County, in the southwest part of the State, in alluvial beds in larger pieces, some of those pieces very large.
We worked more or less of the time about four years in the mine. The value of the ore by the ton varied so much that I can make no satis- factory estimate of it. There were small beds in the veins very rich; we called them pockets.
My brother-in-law and myself worked together, one dug ore, one hauled to the washing place and the other washed. Some days not make more than $1.00 to the hand, other days much more. The largest day's work we ever done, was to dig out the ore, haul it to the washing place and wash out a little over $90.00, or $30.00 to the hand. We only went a little over fifty feet deep while I worked the vein. The vein thickened from near a foot on the surface to near five feet in the bottom. We sold out, I think, in the spring of 1831 to Andrew Lindsay, James Robbins and Jesse Shelly.
Perhaps I need not say more at present. If we were together, we might speak of many things transpiring betwen '25 and '31 when I left Carolina for Indiana. I am so nervous it is difficult to write.
In love, thy cousin, ROBERT W. HODSON.
Among the older mines of Guilford County lying from six to twelve miles south and southwest from Greensboro, that were, previous to the Civil War or at one time, successfully operated for gold and copper, are "The North Carolina or Fentress Mine," "The Hodgin Hill," "The Fisher and Millis Hill Mine," "The Gardner Hill Mine," "The McCulloch or North State Mine," "The Lindsay Mine," "The Deep River Mine," "The Guilford Mine," "The Twin Mine," and some twelve to twenty miles north and east, "The Melvin Mine" and "The Gibson Hill Mine." These mines were worked to depths varying from fifty to three hundred
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and fifty feet, the quartz veins varying in width from one foot to twelve feet or more. They produced free milling gold ores run- ning from $2 to $100 per ton or more, and even a better average grade of iron pyrites gold ores from which they were unable to extract the gold with the methods then known and used.
HISTORY OF COTTON MANUFACTURING.
North Carolina is the pioneer of the Southern States in the manufacturing of cotton. Feeble beginnings were made in Lin- coln and Edgecombe Counties, but these were unsuccessful. By these failures the cause was hindered rather than established.
Henry Humphreys, a citizen of Greensboro, was the first to demonstrate that cotton manufacturing might be carried on profit- ably in the South. He built and completed the Mount Hecla Steam Cotton Mill, in 1832. To build a cotton factory then was a great undertaking. The machinery had to be hauled in wagons either from Petersburg, Virginia, or from Wilmington, North Carolina. Postage on letters was twenty-five cents. Mr. James Danforth came down from Paterson, New Jersey, to set up the machinery, and spent a year or so teaching the people how to run it. The hands were white people from the neighborhood.
A bill of lading for Mr. Humphreys' machinery says that "seventeen boxes had been shipped on the Schooner Planet whereof Capt. I. Cole is master for this present voyage now lying in the port of New York harbor and bound for Petersburg, Va. Goods to be delivered in good order and well conditioned at the port of Petersburg, Va. (the danger of the seas only is excepted). Freight for said machinery is eight cents per cubic foot. These goods were insured, marine insurance, policy costing $1.25."
Another letter bears date of August 5, 1835, Paterson, N. J .: To Mr. Henry Humphreys :
Wages with mechanics have advanced in a much greater ratio and there is a scarcity of workmen. Besides the Trades Unions have created throughout all the whole Northern and Eastern section of the country much insubordination. Workmen have struck in many places for a reduc- tion of the hours of labor. The cotton mill hands have been standing out for eleven hours per day for more than four weeks.
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We trust the reasons stated are sufficient to justify the increased price of the 120 spindle frames. ROGERS, KETCHEN & GROWNOR.
The mill was built of brick and contained four stories, with a basement. It was one hundred and fifty feet long by fifty feet broad. Twenty-five hundred spindles and seventy-five looms were run. Sheeting, shirting and osnaburgs were woven, and also cot- ton yarn, which was put up in five-pound packages and sold throughout the country round to be woven on old-fashioned looms. When the mill was first established the yarns were so popular that people from the country camped all around the fac- tory, waiting for the yarns to come off the machinery. Other products of the factory were hauled in large wagons to Virginia, Tennesseee, Kentucky and western North Carolina.
This, the first cotton mill in this State, stood on the corner of Bell Meade and Green Streets, in Greensboro, N. C. Edwin M. Holt, who became the leading cotton mill owner in the State and in the South, learned the cotton manufacturing business from Henry Humphreys. (See a letter of Governor Thos. M. Holt's in the "History of Alamance.")
Currency was issued by Mr. Humphreys. This bore a picture of Mount Hecla Steam Cotton Mills. Fifty-cent bills, dollar bills and three-dollar bills were issued in 1837. Many of these were made payable to Thomas R. Tate, his son-in-law.
At present Greensboro is the home of one of the great cotton manufacturing plants in the State. Western Greensboro is a manufacturing city in itself.
The Proximity Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of colored cotton goods, was organized in 1895. Its officers are :
CAESAR CONE, President.
B. N. DUKE, Vice-President.
J. W. CONE, Secretary and Treasurer.
R. G. CAMPBELL, Superintendent.
This mill began operations in the latter part of 1896, with about 240 looms, and now has 985 looms. The company employs
.
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NORTH CAROLINA.
about 1100 people. The village immediately surrounding the mill contains about 300 residences and a population of about 2,500. In the village there are three churches of various denominations, and also a public graded school.
Hucomuga Mills, manufacturers of colored cotton goods, was organized in 1895 and began operations the same year. Its of- ficers are:
J. W. CONE, President.
G. O. COBLE, Vice-President.
CLARENCE N. CONE, Secretary and Treasurer.
J. H. DENNY, Superintendent.
This mill contains 144 looms.
The Revolution Cotton Mills, manufacturers of cotton flan- nels, organized in 1899, began operations in 1900. The officers are :
E. STERNBERGER, President.
S. FRANK, Vice-President.
H. STERNBERGER, Secretary and Treasurer.
J. W. HOLT, Superintendent.
This mill contains 374 looms.
The Coulter & Lowry Co. Finishing Works are also situated at Greensboro.
The Van Deventer Carpet Co. operates the only carpet fac- tory in the State.
The Minneola Manufacturing Company, of Gibsonville, began business in 1886 as a private company, of which B. and J. A. Davidson were the proprietors. In 1888 the company was incor- porated, with Mr. B. Davidson as president and J. A. Davidson as secretary and treasurer.
In 1862 Oakdale Cotton Mills were moved from Petersburg, Va., to Jamestown, in Guilford County, where they occupy the site of the old gun shops. In 1892 the original stockholders, ex- cept Mr. J. A. Davidson, retired, and Lawrence Holt became the president. Mr. Holt was succeeded in 1894 by Cæsar Cone, and
A
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GUILFORD COUNTY,
he in 1896 by B. Frank Mebane, of New York. The mill is equipped with a 200-horse power Corliss engine, 181 looms, 2,000 spindles, and employs 150 hands.
THE CIVIL WAR.
"After the War," men said, "fashions came and destroyed our peace." Factory-made cloth and calico put an end to home- spun dresses. After the war cotton was per pound sixty cents in gold. A suit of clothes was worth a thousand dollars in Confed- erate money. The soldiers turned farmers and wore out their army clothing in the cornfield. Men wore homespun hats and shoes with wooden soles. People practiced all sorts of economy. The women of North Carolina, God's women, thought, planned and worked, during the War and while its darkest clouds were pass- ing over, they held the country together.
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