Friday, June 1, 2012

Carolina Linthead's Cotton Mill

Lincoln County, NC, has long been associated with cotton milling




Shenck's success in cotton milling led him to recruit investors and build the Lincolnton Cotton Factory two miles south of town at a prime location on the South Fork River, which they dammed for water power. That mill burned in 1861. The remaining Carding mill was destroyed in 1863, when a Confederate laboratory was established at that location.
For more on the history and future of this site, see here:  http://www.thelaboratorymill.com/




The old laboratory sat here, utilizing fresh water from the spring and water power from the dam

In the heyday of the South's post-Reconstruction textile boom, a distant cousin of mine began what became a local institution: Rhyne Mills

Laboratory Mill, where my grandfather and grandmother worked

The mill as it appears today...even my father worked there for a time

Now it is being remodeled as a reception center for weddings and such

The old tower and superintendent's office

The local guard dog (he licked my leg...I guess to see if I tasted like a Rhyne, lol)

The oldest part of the mill

The crank for the sluice gate on the old dam

Now boys fish in the run-off that used to turn a water wheel

Flood wall along the mill run

Dam and flood wall

Even with muddy water, the scene is so lovely

Ever-present logs along the dam

Can't wait to see what it looks like when they finish landscaping!

This "cooter" seems to enjoy the place

The dam from above

Sluice gate

The D. E. Rhyne House

The Hoke-Rhyne House

The mill house into which my grandmother moved as a little girl; the home in which my father grew up; one of the last survivors of the old mill village where so many lived, loved, worked, worshiped, shared, and survived. I am a part of their legacy, proudly so.

4 comments:

Tess Kincaid said...

A beautiful legacy. You should be proud. Is this where the black dog licked the mutton?

The Bug said...

It's true - you are a Linthead :)

Catalyst said...

It's always good to visit "the old homesteads". I once got a tour of the home where my father and his brother were born and "brought up."

NCmountainwoman said...

Rhyne gave so much money to a local college they re-named it "Lenoir Rhyne." Loved the nostalgic trip to the workplaces of our ancestors. I'm sure you know that the village scenes in "Hunger Games" were shot at the Henry River Mill Village in nearby Burke County.

Yep, I have no doubt at all that somehow we are cuzins, good blogger buddy.