Gastonia, N.C

Former Mill Worker

September 18, 1938

Thomas Cocks, Writer
 

It was a warm and sunny spring day with very few clouds as I walked into the small mill town of Gastonia.  As I walked I was greeted by numerous people.  They were of all races and ages.  Many small children were playing in a field near the end of the unpaved street.  They were playing games like hopscotch and other children's games.  The adults were going about their business which implied that the mill had either closed or laid off many people.  As I continued down the road I was greeted by even more citizens. Everyone was very pleasant even the poorest of poor were cheerful.  Everyone seemed to have a mission to accomplish and a place in the community.  As I continued my walk to the end of the street, the large mill came into view.  It was extremely large and was painted a dull gray.  It was large but seemingly empty.  I continued through the town to find a person to interview.
                               ...                     The old mill at the end of the street.                                  Mr. Stiles on his porch with some neighbors.
 
As I approached a house that was particularly run down I was greeted by an older man sitting on the front porch. He introduced himself as Duncan Stiles. He welcomed me into the house and said, "This isn't much of a house, but it is enough for me seeing as how the mill fired me about two weeks ago."  The house was missing shutters and was in need of a new coat of paint.  The siding was extremely molded and the roof had a hole in the corner.  The house was painted a dull gray but you could not tell that by the way the paint was chipping.  The house was full of pictures of family, friends, and art.  It was small and very quaint.  The kitchen was tiny but large enough to do everything he needed it to do.  He had a small hide-away bed with a bookcase full of books against the wall.  "I assumed the position as book keeper and school teacher when the former teacher moved away with her husband."  Everyone in his community appeared to be well educated.
 
"Every one in the community has something to contribute.  They all make the best of the worst times.  Everybody in the community supports everyone else if they are having physical or emotional problems.  When my bank went bankrupt and closed, I lost  about one thousand four hundred dollars. That was everything I had saved over my years of working at the mill."
 
"The mill that I worked in had been run by Susan Jackson.  When her husband died of a heart attack she took over and she did a great job.  She told everybody that she was trying to keep everybody working but she just couldn't sell enough of our cloth.  We did everything in that mill.  Everything from making the thread to packaging the bright and beautiful cloth.  She said that we were very important to her and she really hated to have to lay off so many people. She really thought of herself as a worker.  She was the only person that would come down onto the floor to fill in a spot where someone was absent.  She really was a different type of person.  She visited the workers if they were sick or hurt.  Unfortunately, she lost everything with the bank failing too."

                   Preparing a bolt for shipment.                                           The mill workers on break.

 
He took me around the small town and showed me the mill.  The mill was large and had a lot of machinery and could produce many bolts of different colors of fabric.  Today, only two of the machines were working because of the small demand for fabric.  All of his neighbors were extremely welcoming and even the poorest of the people still offered me something to eat and drink.  The picture was impressive.  Even though almost all of the workers had been fired, they still were going strong and helped one another out.  They all had a sense of security I have never seen before.  Mr. Duncan Stiles had many views to offer.
 
"My family isn't the most exciting family in the area.  It is rather small and most people are in the same condition I am in. My mother, Sylvia, and my dad, Donald met while working in that mill.  They were married for about twenty six years.  They were not the cutest couple but they were just right for one another.  My brother was born about five years before me and then I was born on March 27, 1895.  None of the family was wealthy but my father's friends cousin is supposedly a rich person.  My father never told me who he was.  I married another women from this very town, Jennifer Johnson.  She died two years after we were married in an accident in the mill.  Everyone of my family members was well educated which is not very common now-a-days.  My father died about three years back of a heart attack and mother died of cancer about five years back.  My family seemed to scramble out of the area when the depression started.  I stayed because I still had a job.  But I don't anymore and am wondering as to whether or not I should move away too.  I think as long as I am here with all of the great neighbors and other folks I will stay here in hopes that the mill will open soon."
 
"I think these people up in the capitol of the US are not doing a thing for people like us.  Conditions here are getting worse every day and the things that they are claming to be doing are not happening.  A close friend said that it is like a car on a hill.  Every time that they try to push it to the top of the hill to let it roll by itself, it rolls back down the hill.  They need to get it together.  This thing they call "Reconstruction" is a royal joke.  This so called "New Deal" is supposed to help the economy.  It was already bad enough to start with.  It seems to be making everything worse.  Every time they try to start the economy, it just stops again.   It certainly is not "reconstructing" anything around here.  I've just about lost all hope in "reconstruction" and the government about a year ago.  They aren't helping anyone."

George Gershwin
Duke Ellington

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tshome.html
http://www.brackettville.com/eldoradowoolen/aboutus.htm
http://sites.unc.edu/storyforms/gastonia/mill.html
http://www.richmond.edu/~ed344/hotlistg/mgdepression.html#cat2
http://www.albemarle-nc.com/camden/history/mills.htm
http://www.itpi.dpi.state.nc.us/counties/watauga/watauga/mill2.html
http://www.dorrwoolen.com/history.html
http://www.angelfire.com/co/pscst/gershwin.html
http://www.angelfire.com/co/pscst/ellington.html
 
 

This Page was created by:
Thomas Cocks
8th Grade
Ms. Brooks
5-1-99
Ligon Middle School