Telling Stories, Connecting Communities

Tag: Chattooga

Berryton

Visit a town whose textile mill served as the foundation of a close-knit community.

This quiet town is completely founded around the formation of Raccoon Mill, later Berryton Mill, with the town itself serving as the mill’s mill village. Berryton no longer hosts any textile production as the mill closed down in 2000.


Visit


Places to See

The following properties are not open to the public, but you can view them from the exterior to learn more about the buildings that supported the textile industry here.

  • Berryton Mill and Mill Village, 850 Raccoon Creek Road: The mill has been largely demolished, but some remains might be visible. The mill’s village is laid out in the haphazard “mill hill” style that was common in the 1880s and 1890s. Many of the homes along Back Berryton Road, Racoon Creek Road, and Dove Circle are fine examples of historic mill village architecture. Look for homes with hipped roofs or two front doors!

History


Berryton, an unincorporated community in Chattooga County, began its textile journey in 1883 with the opening of Raccoon Mills along the banks of Raccoon Creek.   By the census of 1900, Raccoon Mill had a population of 441. Many area residents worked at Raccoon Cotton Mills operating the 104 looms and 3,400 spindles.

In 1910, John M. Berry purchased Raccoon Manufacturing Company, after the company declared bankruptcy, and changed the name to Berryton Mill. Berry, also owner of Rome Hosiery Mills in Rome, Georgia, used the mill’s 5,000 spindles and 200 workers to produce yarn for Rome Hosiery Mills and other mills in the area. Berry made extensive improvements and alterations to the mill, which operated by steam and waterpower and contained 5,000 ring spindles and 100 knitting machines.

The Raccoon mill village, later Berryton mill village, contained a mill owned company store, where residents could barter for goods, a public school, and three churches. The company owned about a 100 houses within the village and charged about 25 cents per room. Two families shared many of the mill homes and the village connected to other surrounding communities by railroad.

Although impacted by the national textile workers strike in the 1930s, through the decades the mill remained the center of Berryton life. The turning point for the mill occurred in 1951 during the Textile Workers of America strike with the killing of one non-striking female worker. Conditions for the mill continued to worsen when mill owner and President John M. Berry died in 1952. In 1958, a North Carolina company, Harriet & Henderson, purchased the mill from the Berry family and operated it until 2000 when the mill closed.


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Resources to Explore

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Summerville

This agricultural-turned-textile industry town boasted both a railroad and cotton mills.

Summerville was originally known for being an agricultural community but soon transitioned into a textile town. The first textile mill opened in this area in 1907, just eight years after the arrival of the first railroad. While portions of some of the old mills are still visible, Mohawk Industries is the only textile-related company that still operates within Summerville to this day.


Visit


Things to Do

  • The Crushed Tomato, 205 Montgomery Street: Grab a slice at this pizzeria, which happens to be in one of the last remaining portions of Summerville Cotton Mill!

Places to See

The following properties are not open to the public, but you can view them from the exterior to learn more about the buildings that supported the textile industry here.

  • Montgomery Knitting Mill, 10005 Commerce Street: This historic knitting mill still stands and is located downtown.
  • Summerville Cotton Mill, 194b South Penn Street: This piece of private property once served as an entrance to Summerville Cotton Mill. It stands directly adjacent to The Crushed Tomato, together they form the last remaining pieces of Summerville Cotton Mill.

History


Company photo at Summerville Cotton Mills during the early 1900s. Photo Courtesy of the Chattooga Historical Society.

Established in 1839 as the seat of Chattooga County and propelled by the arrival of the railroad in 1899, Summerville transitioned from a primarily agricultural area to a textile town. Known as the Historic commercial center of Chattooga County, Summerville’s first cotton mill opened in 1907 to produce duck, osnaburgs, awning cloth, and other heavy cotton goods. Operating both day and night by 1916, Summerville Cotton Mill proved early on to be a prosperous enterprise. Enlarged in 1923, the mill produced three times its initial capacity.

By 1917, the Summerville Mill village contained seventy homes on large lots and a church. The mill village boasted concrete sidewalks and its own waterworks system, with twenty of the residents owning their own home. A dedicated 75-acre plot of mill land served as a gardening space, an important aspect of mill village life, and almost every family kept a cow or a pig. The mill owners provided an African American groundskeeper and a mule to keep the grounds maintained for the mill operatives.

Bankrupt by 1935 and auctioned in 1938, Summerville Cotton Mill changed ownership several times. However, World War II brought the mill back into production through the manufacturing of fabric for military uniforms. The mill remained a major county employer for years after. By the 1980s, the mill ceased production and started demolishing most of the mill buildings.

Aerial view of Georgia Rug Mills, one of Summerville’s major employers in the mid-20th century. Photo Courtesy of the Chattooga Historical Society.

Several other mills operated in Summerville as well including Montgomery Knitting Mills manufacturer of children’s novelty hose, which opened in 1927. In 1950, Bigelow-Sanford, one of the largest carpet companies in the country, acquired the Georgia Rug Mill Inc. of Summerville and added a 40,000 square foot addition to the building in 1951. Later, the Georgia Rug Mill became part of Mohawk with their acquisition of Bigelow-Sanford in 1993. Carrying on the textile heritage tradition, Mohawk continues to be a major employer in the Summerville area.


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Trion

Come and visit one of the oldest cotton mills in Georgia!


Visit


Places to See

The following properties are not open to the public, but you can view them from the exterior to learn more about the buildings that supported the textile industry here.

  • Trion Manufacturing Company/Mount Vernon Mills and Mill Village, 91 4th Street: This massive facility can be viewed from the street. The historic mill has been expanded several times since its original construction after the 1875 arson attack. By 1935, the mill was a massive facility that operated 102,354 spindles and 2,358 looms and employed 1,600 people. While other mills in the region have declined or collapsed, the Trion mill has thrived and is still operated by Mount Vernon Mills. While the whole town is based around the mill, and therefore basically serves as a mill village, there are certain neighborhoods that feature historic architecture which is consistent with mill villages across the region. The neighborhood directly across the street from the mill makes up a sizeable portion of the historic village. Directly to the south of the mill, across the Chattooga River, another section of the historic village can be viewed.

History


  • early aerial view of the Trion mill and housing
    Early aerial view of Trion Mill and housing. Photo courtesy: Trion Public Library

Incorporated in 1869, the textile industry in Trion began with the first cotton mill in northwest Georgia, Trion Factory, in 1847. The original mill included 600 spindles and employed 40 people to produce yarn and osnaburg sacks for the local wheat crops.

During the Civil War, Trion Factory had a contract with the Confederacy to manufacture coarse woolens for the soldiers. Spared from the destruction of the war, Trion Factory later burned in 1875 possibly due to an arsonist. Forming a new company, Trion Manufacturing Company, the mill owner constructed a new two-story brick building and began producing indigo denim. In 1889, the company added a second mill and a third mill in 1900.

By 1912, the mills belonging to the Trion Manufacturing Company were in decline. Benjamin D. Riegel, a New York businessman, purchased the mills and renamed the company Trion Company. Both the mill and the town prospered during this period. In 1931, a glove mill employing over 900 young girls opened prompting the building of Leila Riegel Hall in 1934, a dormitory to accommodate any single girls working for the company. Later the building became the Trion Inn.

In 1934, the plant closed for a third time in its history due to the General Textile Strike of 1934. “Flying Squadrons” of union activists, traveled to Trion to encourage other textile workers to join them. Met with violence from local authorities, on September 5, a deputy opened fire on two strikers. In Trion at least 22 people died or received injuries during the strikes. The mill remained closed for six weeks.

Presented with the prestigious Army-Navy E Award in 1943, Trion Company and its employees produced 50 million yards of herringbone for use in making fighting uniforms, 4 million yards of tent twill, and over 7.5 million yards of material for gun patches, during World War II. The Glove Mill also produced over 7.5 million dozen gloves for the armed forces.

In the late 1940s, the Trion Company and Ware Shoals Manufacturing Company became Riegel Textile Corporation. Various machinery upgrades and mill expansions are made through the 1950s and 60s. In 1971, the mill began producing denim fabrics.

Unlike other textile mills, Mount Vernon Mills business was still steady in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1985, R. B. Pamplin Sr., owner of Mount Vernon Mills purchased the Riegel Textile Corporation. In 1991, the company modernized and still produces over a million yards of denim a day as of 2015.


Charter Trail Members

Resources to Explore

Click on the following links to learn more about this region.


Back to Community List

Email the Trail at wgtht@westga.edu or visit our Contact Us page for more information.

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