USA > South Carolina > Spartanburg County > A history of Spartanburg county > Part 7
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All of these circumstances would have been enough to check the South Carolina iron industry, in spite of the recognized fact that the iron products made here were of excellent quality. But another situation made impossible the revival of the iron industry in this State; new iron works were being built in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Indiana, where rich iron ores were found alongside abundant supplies of cheap coal. These enterprises had the advan- tages of better ore and cheaper, more abundant fuel, and were able to secure cooperation with the new railroads being promoted. They
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THE OLD IRON DISTRICT
provided a competition which the South Carolina manufacturers could not meet.
Transition to a New Industry
At last cotton manufacturing entirely replaced the iron industry. Great cotton mills were built to utilize the water power which had operated the iron masters' bellows and stamping machines and rolling mills. The Kings Mountain Iron Company's plant became the site of the Cherokee Falls Cotton Factory. What had been Wofford's Iron Works, became, in 1835, Bivingsville-a seat for all sorts of manufacturing, as was customary at that period, but with an imposing cotton mill as its main under- taking. A cupola furnace at Bivingsville was used during the sixties to make bowie knives, crude swords, and war-time tools for the Con- federacy ; but after the war, iron making was abandoned at this his- toric site. Known successively as Buffington's Iron Works, Wofford's Iron Works, and Bivingsville, it was again, in 1878, renamed. D. E. Converse, one of the greatest of South Carolina's cotton manu- facturers, rebuilt and greatly enlarged the Bivingsville Cotton Mill, and gave the village the name Glendale. Two years later this same D. E. Converse bought the Hurricane Shoals site of the South Caro- lina Iron Manufacturing Company and renamed it Clifton. The Hur- ricane Shoals power soon turned the machinery of a million-dollar cotton mill-one of the two largest in the State. Two other great cotton mills in Spartanburg County-the Startex plant at Tucapau, and the Pacific Mills plant at Lyman-occupy sites where in early days small iron works were carried on by Willson Nesbitt and Michael Miller.
Vestiges and Relics Nearly one hundred years have passed since those old iron masters sent their sales managers to peddle iron wares through the Carolinas and Georgia. These men had in their charge trustworthy slaves who drove trains of wagons, loaded with pots, pans, kettles, plows, hoes, and nails. Some of the wares thus sold are to this day treasured as heirlooms by old families in Spar- tanburg and elsewhere; as are, also, wrought iron fencing, quaint andirons, and huge pots-all products of the once prosperous manu- facturing establishments of The Old Iron District.
On the side of Thicketty Mountain is a road known locally as "The Old Furnace Road." It leads to the "Old Furnace Place," which is situated in Cherokee County about eight miles from the Cowpens Battleground. That spot is the best preserved of the iron-
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
making sites. No vestige remains of the furnace itself; a gentle stream trickles over a dam made of large rocks, known to have been built in 1811. In this way power was provided to operate the bellows and the grist and sawmills which stood there. Quantities of slag and cinders are all about. Once there were more, but great loads of these materials have been hauled away for use in laying new roadbeds. Ugly hollows and gashes in the surrounding country show where were once the iron pits from which rocks were dug. On a hill may still be seen the large boarding house which housed the foreman and skilled employees. Once fifty or more cabins for the slaves were clustered about the big house ; but not one now remains.
The once familiar fact that this region used to be called The Old Iron District is almost forgotten; and few indeed are those who have visited the "Old Furnace Place" to see for themselves its scanty reminders of what was, one hundred years ago, the leading industry of the South Carolina Piedmont area.
CHAPTER SEVEN Looms and Spindles
Beginnings of Although iron making was begun sooner in Spartan- Cotton Mills burg and gave the district its picturesque appellation, "The Old Iron District," cotton manufacturing was the industry which eventually insured for Spartanburg wealth and culture. This was an outcome not foreseen before the Civil War.
The first settlers planted a little cotton, and made it into cloth in their homes-every step in the process of transforming the raw cotton into cloth being carried on by hand before Eli Whitney's gins were set up in South Carolina. Spinning wheels and hand looms were operated in most homes in the first fifty or more years of Spartanburg history. During these years the transition proceeded steadily though slowly from the making of raw cotton into cloth in the homes to- ward the eventual abandonment of all domestic weaving or spinning. Sometimes, after the first mills were built, farmers carried their cotton to a mill to be carded and took the carded rolls home. There the women and girls of the household spun it into thread for knitting, and wove it into homespun cloth. There were men and women who lived by the trade of weaving.
Some of the first mills were adapted only for carding wool and cotton. Later most mills were able to spin the cotton into thread ; and it was then woven in the homes. Few early mills were even equipped with looms, and none could weave all the thread they spun. Every large plantation had looms and skilled weavers. During the War Between the States, all of the cloth woven by the mills was used by the government, because the output was limited.
Cotton mills were established in the lower part of the State long before the first mills were built in the Up Country, but the excellent water power of the region soon gave the Piedmont a supremacy which it still holds. The first mills in the Up Country were built on the waters of Tyger River in Spartanburg District between 1816 and 1818 by two groups of New Englanders. One of these groups was led by the Hill brothers and the other by the Weaver brothers, and the honor of operating the first cotton factory in the county has been claimed for each group by their descendants. Unfortunately, neither family can establish such a claim by clear documentary evi-
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
dence, and traditions are contradictory. Both groups came from Rhode Island in 1816, both built small mills, and both mills-tradition runs-were twice burned and twice rebuilt. The Weaver factory ceased operations in 1826, but the Hills continued, with varying fortunes, to operate a cotton factory on Tyger River until after the Civil War.
The South Carolina It is quite clear that the Weavers used as a firm
Cotton Manufactory name "the South Carolina Cotton Manu- factory." Court records show that Benjamin Wofford, in 1818, lent money to the Weavers; that Wofford sold the South Carolina Cotton Manufactory, with 489 spindles and sixty acres of land, to Nathaniel Gist in 1818; that the Weavers confessed a judgment of $12,000 to Nathaniel Gist and W. G. Davis in 1819; and that Nathaniel Gist deeded the property to Barham Bobo in 1826.
Some fragments of the Weaver account books were preserved, and from them a few facts can be established, such as names of the men first employed, and approximate dates and costs of first products. These books do not contain mention of a firm name. In them appear the names of four members of the Weaver family-Philip, Lindsay, John, and Wilbur. Philip seems to have been the leader of the group. Others who came with the Weavers were Thomas Hutchings, Thomas Slack, William Bates, William Ralph-all of them apparently as em- ployes of the Weaver brothers. One of John Weaver's books con- tains this significant entry: "The following is the price of yarn in 1818 when the Burnt Factory first started on Tyger River in Spar- tanburg, S. C. No. 6, 66 cents per pound-$3.30 per bunch; No. 7, 69 cents per pound-$3.40 per bunch; ... No. 16, 96 cents per pound-$4.80 per bunch." This entry was apparently made from memory by John Weaver after he had removed to Greenville County and established a mill on Thompson's Beaverdam Creek there.
Although the indications are that the mill changed ownership more than once, the Weavers continued to operate it until possibly 1826. Nathaniel Gist, April 3, 1826, sold to "Barrum Bobo for $2,500 three tracts of land, on one of which was situated the late Manufactory called Weavers," and on another was situated "the late South Carolina Manufactory"-the presumption being that one of these sites was that of the "burnt factory" of the Weavers.
It seems possible-but is a matter of surmise-that a second fire and the general failure of the Weavers to adjust themselves to the
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locality accounted for their abandonment, at this time, of the enter- prise. Philip and Lindsay Weaver left the State. In a significant passage of one of his letters, Philip Weaver throws much light on social attitudes which affected his happiness in the South: "I wish to leave this part of the country and wish to settle myself and family in a free state, where myself and family will not be looked down upon with contempt because I am opposed to the abominable practice of slavery."
Common usage fixed the names of their operators on both the pioneer factories on Tyger River. The name Burnt Factory was at- tached not to the Weaver factory but to the Hill factory. That mill was not on the river itself, but on a tributary stream. To this day a county road retains in common language its old name, the Burnt Factory Road, and the bridge is yet spoken of by older citizens as the Burnt Factory Bridge, although in reality a re-survey of the road when it was paved led to the changing of the site of the bridge and of the road at this point, so that the site of the factory is no longer on the road named for it.
The Industry Man- Although "The Industry Manufacturing Com- ufacturing Company pany" seems to have been the official name of the Hill family's factory, it rarely appears in records or traditions. This group included George and Leonard Hill, William B. Sheldon, John Clark, and James Edward Henry, and possibly others. The traditions concerning their operations indicate that they were free from the financial difficulties which so embarrassed the Weavers. Family stories have been handed down of how the machinery was shipped from New England and hauled from Charleston by wagons --- a strenuous undertaking. The first mill erected is said to have had 700 spindles, and four looms. The machinery and its operation ex- cited such interest throughout the surrounding region that the place was constantly thronged with visitors. The Hills, like the Weavers, suffered two losses by fire, and had no insurance; but they recovered each time and continued their enterprise.
Indications are that the Hills operated as a stock company, and it may be that it was by taking in partners they were enabled to re- build and resume operations after their fires. Leonard Hill apparently always held the controlling interest. In 1820 William Sheldon re- tired from the firm; and in 1825 George Hill sold his share, return- ing to Rhode Island. The firm then became Hill and Clark, and so
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
remained until 1830, when Clark sold his interest to Leonard Hill, who thereby became sole owner. On December 17, 1835, a charter was granted to the South Carolina Manufacturing Company, the list of incorporators reading "James Edward Henry, Leonard Hill, James Nesbitt, Jr., Simpson Bobo, and others who now are or here- after may be members." According to the records of the Hill family, Leonard Hill retained control-if not sole ownership-of Hill's Factory, as the common name for it always ran, until his death in 1840. At that time it fell into the hands of his four oldest sons- James, Albert, Whipple, and Leonard. About 1845 or 1846 James and Albert bought the interest of the other two brothers and operated the factory until 1866, when they sold the machinery but not the lands of the mill to Nesbitt and Wright. The machinery was then removed to a site at Mountain Shoals on Enoree and used in setting up a new factory, the Barksdale Factory.
The Hill factory was so small in 1847 as to fall presumably among the "several minor establishments in the back country," ac- cording to a survey of the cotton mills of the State published that year in the Columbia Telegraph. Yet in the fifties Hill's Factory was ad- vertising the quality of its work, and was stressing its "seamless woven pictorial counterpanes." During the Civil War it was listed with Bivingsville as turning in valuable supplies to the Confederate Govern- ment.
The Story of The life of William Bates exemplifies an era of cot- William Bates ton manufacturing. He was born in 1800 in Rhode Island, the son of a poor farmer. At the age of eight he was put to work in Green's Cotton Factory-the second of its sort in the United States, Slater's, near by, being the first. At that time these mills made only yarn ; in fact, there was not in the United States then a power loom. Bates worked next for Senator De Wolf of Rhode Island, whom he described as a "celebrated United States senator and slave- trader." In 1812 he worked in Sprague's factory which operated day and night, Sundays too, to keep up with the demand. In 1819, with $17 in his pocket, he left Rhode Island to try his fortune in the South, and landed in Charleston with $2 in his possession. But he had an overcoat, and this he sold to the stage driver to pay for his passage to what he later designated as the Burnt Factory. He worked there for two years without receiving a cent of pay, and then he obtained employment with Hill and Clark. He worked for them two or three
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years, and saved over $500. During this time he had married and he determined to attempt to better his fortunes by establishing a factory. He found partners in Colonel Downs and Hugh Wilson and set up a mill on Rabun's Creek in Laurens District, which turned out a dis- astrous failure and he lost all of the money he had saved. He then went to Lincolnton, North Carolina, and worked there for Hoke and Bivings for a time. Returning to South Carolina he bought at sheriff's sale the mill built in upper Greenville District by John Weaver and operated it for a time. Then he moved to Lester's Factory and entered into a partnership with Lester and Kilgore. Soon he exchanged his interest in this factory with Kilgore for a small mill Kilgore owned on Rocky Branch; and at this place Bates, in partnership with Cox and Hammet, founded Batesville. So suc- cessful was this factory that during the Civil War it was sold to George Trenholm and others, of Charleston, for $340,000. With the money thus obtained, Bates bought lands and established permanently the prosperity of his descendants. So able a man was William Bates that a keen observer and close friend of his for forty years was sur- prised to learn after his death that he could neither read nor write and signed his name mechanically. Although he made a career for him- self in Greenville District, Bates first worked in three Spartanburg factories.
The Career of More romantic, but less successful from a
Thomas Hutchings material standpoint, was the career of another of the New Englanders who came to Spartanburg in 1816 and partici- pated in the textile and cultural development of the Piedmont. This was Thomas Hutchings, who after the failure of the Weavers, with whom he came South, built a small cotton factory at Lester's Ford on Enoree River. This mill was operating in 1822. No doubt Philip Les- ter furnished the capital for this enterprise, and it was soon known as Lester's Mill. At an early date Josiah Kilgore bought an interest in this mill, and its operations were greatly enlarged. Its name was changed to Buena Vista, and under the joint ownership of Kilgore and Lester it consumed about 500 bales a year, producing quantities of yarn which not only sufficed for local barter but were distributed in wagons through Western North Carolina, East Tennessee and lower South Carolina. One important item of the Tennessee trade was the flax brought from that region to the mill and made into flax thread for shoe makers and also into linen cloth. Much of this weaving was
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A HISTORY OF SPARTANBURG COUNTY
done in the homes, and the factory had a standard rate of payment for such weaving, giving a skein of cotton thread ready for weaving in exchange for the weaving of a yard of linen cloth.
Thomas Hutchings seems to have had special talents as a pro- moter, starting enterprises and then passing on to new fields. He started a small factory in Greenville District in 1833, which he abandoned to undertake a factory at Cedar Hill, which was known as the South Tyger Manufactory. Capital for this enterprise was sup- plied by Simpson Bobo, James McMakin, and David W. Moore, but the management seems to have been entrusted to Hutchings. Soon the affairs of the mill were involved, litigation ensued, and Hutchings was the loser. Soon afterwards-and apparently as an outcome of this matter-he was removed from the ministry of the South Caro- lina Conference of the Methodist Church. He had been exceedingly popular as a preacher, as well as mill promoter. After his unfortunate experience at Cedar Hill, Hutchings removed to Georgia, and there became a minister of the Protestant Methodist Church. He died in Savannah, April 27, 1869, and his body was brought to his former home and buried beside that of his wife in Mount Pleasant Grave- yard, thirteen miles west of Spartanburg.
Dr. James Bivings The first large mill in the District was that and His Mills which came to be called the Bivingsville Cotton Factory. All of the mills which preceded it were small and meagerly equipped. Its erection may, then, be regarded as a milestone in the textile history of Spartanburg-and indeed of the State, because tex- tile operations have gone on at the same place uninterruptedly ever since its erection. This is a record rivalled only by that of the Pendle- ton Manufacturing Company of Anderson County.
Steps toward building Bivingsville began in the early 1830's, under the leadership of Dr. James Bivings, who came from Lincolnton, North Carolina, about 1832. He brought with him a full set of competent workmen, stonemasons, carpenters, machinists, and the factory build- ing he put up was, for its time, a very imposing affair. He bought his machinery in Paterson, New Jersey, one feature which elicited ad- miration being an overshot wheel of 26-foot diameter and 12-foot breast. This mill had 1,200 spindles and 24 looms.
County records show that Dr. Bivings acquired titles to extensive tracts of land adjacent to and including the site of Wofford's Iron Works. He organized a company, The Bivingsville Cotton Manu-
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facturing Company, "for the purpose of manufacturing cotton and wool." The incorporators were James Bivings, Simpson Bobo, and Elias C. Leitner ; and the capital was $100,000, with the privilege of increasing to $500,000. The charter "provided that the said indi- viduals should not have corporate capacity until $100,000 shall have been actually paid in, also that the stockholders shall be liable in- dividually, in case of insolvency of said company, to an amount equal to the amount of share in said company, which they may have respec- tively held within one year of the failure of said company, over and above their original subscriptions." It had not been long in operation before litigation arose which resulted ultimately in the withdrawal of Dr. Bivings from the mill to which he had with pride given his name. Incidentally, the name of the village was retained until 1878, when it was changed to Glendale, a name retained to the present day.
A vivid picture of the activities of Dr. Bivings in developing Biv- ingsville may be found in a racy communication in the Spartan, March 10, 1880, signed J. W. V .:
Here a mere shadow (physically speaking), with gold frame spectacles over his face all the time, had the thorn bushes and scrubby cedars removed, the gullies filled up, and the mills and houses, and shops and a church and a cotton factory put upon the unpretending waters of "Lawson's Fork." Inducements were offered to sell to a company, and E. C. Leitner (one of the most plausible men I ever saw) was elected superintendent. He as- sured the stockholders that if all hands would pay in what was due the company, he would show them in one year's time "how to turn over the stumps and kill spiders." The company paid in the money, but they never got a peep at him again. The proba- bility is that he emigrated to a country where pepper grows spontaneously. Jno. C. Bomar, or "Big John," as many called him, became superintendent, and perhaps owner of most of the stock. He was a good man as ever lived, but never was cut out to manage a cotton mill. Converse and Twitchell let on a small stream of Yankee genius and Yankee energy, and the machinery moved with unwonted ease.
It would make a book to tell how these men endured and toiled and hung on during long years, with only partial success. Any- body else would have quit.
Bivingsville Mill was, in 1847, listed as one of the important cot- ton mills of the State-with the notation, "The Bivingsville Cotton Factory, near Spartanburg Courthouse, now the property of G. and E. C. Leitner ... doing well." However, in 1856, it was sold, in
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bankruptcy proceedings, and was bought by John Bomar and Com- pany for $19,500. The company included at first, S. N. Evins, Simp- son Bobo, Vardry McBee, John Bomar, John C. Zimmerman, and D. E. Converse. McBee's connection soon ceased.
Dr. James Bivings, in 1846, undertook a mill on Chinquapin Creek, about two miles north of the courthouse on the old Rutherfordton Road, and failed because of the inadequacy of the water power. Un- daunted by this disappointment, he and his son bought and completed a mill eight miles west of the courthouse. To this mill, begun by a man named Williams, the Bivingses gave the name Crawfordsville, in honor of John Crawford. It was noted by The Telegraph, in 1847, as among the ten important mills of the State, with the comment "a new establishment, now being erected by Dr. Bivings, on a large scale, not yet in full operation . . . but, from the intelligence and energy of the proprietor, we have no doubt of his success."
In 1857 this mill had 1,000 spindles and 20 looms. It had been sold by Dr. Bivings and his son the preceding year to the firm of Grady, Hawthorn, and Turbyfill. Soon afterwards Dr. Bivings removed to Georgia and died there less than three years later. His death elicited in the Spartan this tribute: "He did more than any other individual to build up and promote the manufacturing interests of our District. He possessed a remarkable foresight and a discriminating judgment."
Dr. James Bivings was indeed a superior man. He was an ardent supporter of Adams against Jackson in 1828, and of Harrison against Van Buren in 1840, and was a forceful campaign speaker. He was also an advocate of temperance, and a man of positive religious con- victions. On one occasion he closed the Bivingsville Factory and urged all of his operatives and their families to attend a revival meet- ing in progress.
In 1839 another citizen of Lincolnton, North
Joseph Finger and Gabriel Cannon Carolina, moved to Spartanburg to take advan- tage of its water power facilities. This was Joseph Finger, who bought lands and erected a "large merchant mill" on North Pacolet River one mile above the site of McMillan's Mills, where were also located saw and merchant mills, equipment for wool-carding, a store, and a blacksmith shop. According to some accounts, Finger pro- jected a cotton factory at his arrival, but abandoned the enterprise until 1848, when he formed a partnership with Gabriel Cannon, and
GLENDALE
Site of Wofford's Iron Works, 1773; Bivingsville, 1835; Glendale, .1878. Probably the oldest seats of continuous manufacturing in the Up Country.
LYMAN : SEAT OF A PACIFIC MILLS PLANT, 1924
BRIDGE OVER PACOLET RIVER AT CONVERSE (Hurricane Shoals)
ONE OF THE HANDSOME ANTEBELLUM HOMES ON MAGNOLIA STREET Home of Dr. Lafayette Twitty, on the site now occupied by the United States Post Office and Courthouse
T
THE CHURCH OF THE ADVENT, BEGUN IN THE FIFTIES
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LOOMS AND SPINDLES
they built a mill which was successfully operated until its destruction by fire in 1885.
Cannon was at the time engaged in various enterprises, one of which was a large store at New Prospect, within three miles of Fin- ger's merchant mill. When built, the mill was very modest, with a capital of only $5,000, according to Landrum, and it operated 400 spin- dles. According to the statistics collected by August Kohn, it had, in 1867, 500 spindles and 15 looms. Upon the organization of the Manu- facturers' Association of the Confederate States, at Augusta, Georgia, November 19, 1862, Gabriel Cannon, of Fingerville, was named presi- dent and H. F. Lester, of Buena Vista, secretary.
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