factory for carding, spinning and weaving cotton, the machinery to be impelled by water, the number of spindles to be employed not less than 500, which is calculated will prepare thread sufficient for weaving 250 yards of cloth per day. The sum with which the petitioners pray to be aided is $10,000, to be repaid with 7 per cent. interest, one-half at the expiration of two years, the balance at the expiration of three years; and the said payment to be secured to the State by a mortgage of real estate, of the value of not less than $100,000. The committee, therefore, impressed with the importance of encouraging domestic manufactories, and believing that the small loan solicited may be extended to the petitioner without inconvenience or loss to the State, recommend that the prayer of the petitioner be granted, and that a clause to that effect be inserted in the appropriation bill.' The plant seems to have been established, but what became of it is not recorded.

"From this time on the development seems to have been more or less spasmodic, but the industry was going through its experimental period in this State, and meanwhile it was being hammered at by the real leaders among Carolinians. "Calhoun and Langdon Cheves and the others who were conspicuous in their leadership really thought that cotton mills had no place in the economic develop

COX MANUFACTURING COMPANY, ANDERSON.

ment of South Carolina. Jefferson was bitterly opposed in his early days to cotton mills, and John Randolph in an address said that "the cotton mills in the South would bring yellow fever, not in August merely, but from June to January, and from January to June."

"Langdon Cheves, who was a leader of exceeding popularity, is quoted in the Southern Quarterly Review for 1845 as having said that 'manufacturing should be the last resort of industry in every country, for one forced as with us, they serve no interests, but those of the capitalists who set them in motion, and their immediate localities.' This expression was not peculiar to any one class of leaders in South Carolina at that time.

"About 1816 New England settlers went to the upper part of Carolina and laid the foundation for the tens of thousands of spindles which were in due course of time to hum in the Piedmont belt. Among these pioneers who went to the foothills of the Blue Ridge were George Hill and Leonard Hill, W. B. Shelden and Clark, William Bates, who was the grandfather of Mr. J. D. Hammett, the present successful president of the Chiquola Cotton Mills, at Honea Path; John Weaver and James Edward Henry. All of these men came about the same time, and several of them came together. It is most interesting to follow the work of these New Englanders, who came to this State to try to make a success of manu

!

facturing 'cotton thread. It is not essential whether the Hills or the Weavers started their factory first, but it is evident that the Hill factory, which was begun by Leonard Hill and John Clark (of Rhode Island), and which was probably the Industry Manufacturing Company, was started about the same time as the plant which was erected by Philip Weaver, Lindsay Weaver, Thos. Hutchings, William Bates and John Stack. They both started their machinery about 1818. Mr. R. Furman Whilden, of O'Neall's, thinks that the Weavers started their factory first, and that the Hills were just a little later than the Weavers. The Weavers

borrowed money from W. G. Davis and Col. Nathaniel Gist, and failed in 1819, when the court records show that a judgment for $12,000 was secured against them, but they continued to run the mill until 1821, when Weaver appears to have gone to Greenville County-his first plant having been erected on the Tyger River; and a short distance from this was the plant of Leonard Hill and John Clark.

"Landrum, in his history of Spartanburg, is rather inclined to give the Hills the credit of having established the first cotton mill in Spartanburg County on the banks of Beaver Dam, and it is his opinion that the 'Burnt Factory,' which is the plant of the Weavers, was built a little later, but Mr. Whilden is decidedly of the opinion that the Weavers' and Bates' mill was the first to be built in Spartanburg.

"Neither of these plants exist today, but the property on which Leonard Hill built his

first mill now belongs to the Enoree Manufacturing Company, one of the most prosperous corporations in Spartanburg County. William Bates, who was the father of Miss Bates, who married Col. H. P. Hammett, the founder of Piedmont, tried his fortune at Rutherford, N. C., came back to South Carolina and took charge of a local cotton mill, which was afterwards known as the Batesville Mill, and which is now in successful operation by Mrs. Mary P. Gridley, the only woman I know of who is the president of a factory. The present plant seems to have been started in 1848. although the site had previously been used for cotton manufacturing. In 1848 William Bates put in two spinning frames; and in 1858 this was followed by another plant on the other side of the stream, now known as Pelham. The building was burned in March, 1881, but was immediately rebuilt with a brick building, in which the present operations are conducted."

"The Hill factory in 1816 or 1817 contained 700 spindles, and of course it is to be remembered that all of the machinery had to be hauled from Charleston to Spartanburg County by wagon. Hill died in 1840. The Rev. Thos. Hutchings, who was associated with Wm. Bates and Weavers in the original enterprise, seems to have been a man of action in his day and generation. After his experience with the Burnt Factory he went to Pelham, where he erected a mill which began operations in 1822. At this time Pelham was known as Lester's Ford. Later on Hutchings sold his plant on the Enoree and built near Batesville about 1833. And again in 1837 he built on South Tyger, at what is known as Cedar Hill.

"As to the development in Greenville County, Col. S. S. Crittenden writes his personal recollections as follows:

"I can only tell you from my recollection, which goes back to about 1835, that at that time, in my early boyhood, there were three old cotton mills in GreenIville County. One was Vardry McBee's, on Reedy River, six miles from the village, which operated spinning cotton yarn for many years before and after the war. After various changes this mill is still in successful operation, and, of course, much enlarged, as 'Reedy River Cotton Mill,' under the presidency of Mr. James H. Maxwell.

"The Weaver mill was established and owned by Mr. John Weaver, a Northern man, who built it on a small creek, tributary of Tyger River, nineteen miles north of the then village of Greenville. This was successfully operated before

PACOLET MILLS.

and during the war by Mr. Weaver, and for several years after his death by his widow. Since her death the property has been sold or divided, and the old cotton yarn mill discontinued.

"The Batesville cotton mill was established by Mr. William Bates, a New England man, I suppose in about 1830. It was on the waters of Enoree River, ten miles east of Greenville. After changing owners several times it is still in successful operation with the distinction of having the only woman cotton mill president in the State-Mrs. M. P. Gridley.'

"The leading spirit in the development of cotton mills in the Piedmont section was D. E. Converse, who went to Bivingsville in February, 1855. The story of this Bivingsville development and of Mr. Converse is of enough interest and importance to command an entire chapter, but it would be impracticable to go into such detail, this historical sketch having already exceeded the limit set for this branch of my investigations.

"It might be mentioned that Bivingsville subsequently became Glendale, and is now the site of the D. E. Converse Company property. In 1849 Mr. Jas. Finger built the Fingerville plant, on North Pacolet River.

"The records of the time indicate that there was a cotton mill erected at Pendleton as early as 1828 and subsequently that there was a plant located there in 1838. The Rev. Wm. H. Mills, pastor of the Fort Hill Presbyterian Church, who is himself much interested, tells me that this 'Pendleton Factory,' which is located at Autun, near Pendleton, was begun March 1, 1838, and that it was built by Mr. B. F. Sloan, Thos. Sloan and Berry Benson.' Mr. Mills states that this mill made yarns and coarse and heavy cloth, weighing about one-half pound

MILL, SCHOOL, AND OVERSEER'S AND OPERATIVES' HOUSES.