West Georgia Textile Heritage Trail

Telling Stories, Connecting Communities

Tag: Walker

Rossville

Visit a community whose textile industry is older than the town itself!

Rossville’s textile industry began in the late 1800s with the construction of the Richmond Hosiery Mill. This mill is considered one of the oldest and largest mills in the region. Soon after the hosiery mill was constructed, Peerless Woolen Mills was established, and it eventually led the textile industry in woolen products. This mill shut down in the late 1960s.

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.

  • Park Woolen Mills/American Textile Woolen Company, 108 West Gordon Avenue: This hundred-year-old mill is still intact and can be seen from the street.
  • Peerless Woolen Mills, 555 McFarland Avenue: This location is now privately owned and is not open to the public. Peerless Mills can still be viewed safely from the street. The mill was purchased by the Hutcherson family in 2012.

History

  • Photo of female mill workers standing outside the mill fence
    Group of young mill workers. Photo courtesy: Library of Congress

Rossville’s textile history began in the late 1800s. Richmond Hosiery Mill, established here in 1898, was one of the largest and oldest textile mills in Northwest Georgia. The mill produced socks for men, women, and a unique section of the mill was dedicated to making hosiery for “misses”.  The mill employed 400 men, women, and children in 1910 and 700 by 1922. Richmond Hosiery Mill and the many young children whom the company employed were the subjects of Lewis Wick Hines’ historic pictorial survey of child labor in American industry.

In 1905, the same year that the city of Rossville was incorporated, John L.
Hutcheson Sr. established Peerless Woolen Mills. Peerless Woolen Mills was the primary manufacturer for blankets for the armed forces during World War II. Peerless claimed to be the largest single-unit mill in the world by the 1950s, leading the textile industry in woolen products.

In 1952, the Hutcheson family sold Peerless Woolen Mills to Burlington Industries. Textile workers in Rossville began to feel the strain from competition in overseas markets and voted to unionize in August of 1961. Strongly against organized labor, Burlington Industries made plans to close the plant by the end of 1961.

In an attempt to save one of Rossville’s largest employers, local businessmen tried to identify one large company to buy the plant but their efforts proved unsuccessful. Instead, dozens of smaller textile-related companies purchased the plant and leased out the space.  A large part of the plant burned in 1967 after a fire broke out from a short-circuiting piece of equipment.

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.

LaFayette

The textile industry of this community is one that is still in operation after over 100 years.

The railroad that was built in 1888 gave way to the first textile mill to open in LaFayette. To this day, the textile industry is still present and active in this community with Shaw Industries.

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.

  • Union Cotton Mill/Consolidated Cotton Corporation Mill and Mill Village, 15 Probasco Street: The mill itself appears to have been demolished and replaced at the modern site of Syntec Industries; the village of this factory, however, can still be seen today. The neighborhood bounded by North Chattanooga Street, Bradley Avenue, and Probasco Street is largely made up of mill village homes.
  • Walker County Hosiery Mills/Barwick Mills Site, LaFayette Cotton Mills, and Mill Village, West Main Street: The southern end of the first mill, which contained a greater part of the original Walker County Hosiery Mills, burned in November of 2015; the western portion of this building, however, still stands. Situated along the Chattooga River at 365 West Main Street, this site facility was originally known as Elizabeth Hosiery Mills before being renamed to Walker County Hosiery Mills. It was then occupied by Barwick Mills until its collapse in 1980. Lafayette Cotton Mills, located across West Main Street from Barwick Mills at 300 West Main Street, was demolished in 2007. The homes of their shared mill village remain. The mill village straddles West Main Street and can be seen by heading west on that road when coming from town. The first mill houses can be seen after crossing the Chattooga River. These homes are private property and can only be viewed from the street.

History

  • Photo of young male mill worker leaving
    Young mill worker boy. Photo courtesy: Library of Congress

A busy textile town established in 1835, Lafayette became the seat of Walker County in 1885. The building of the Chattanooga, Rome, and Carrollton railroad in 1888 gave LaFayette its first vision of prosperity. LaFayette hosted a diverse number of textile mills from cotton and hosiery to carpets.

Organized in 1893, Union Cotton Mill, the first textile mill to open in LaFayette, produced cotton yarns, towels, and osnaburgs and duck fabric. In 1920, the Consolidated Textile Corporation of New York purchased Union Cotton Mill. From 1934 to 1939, operations at the mill were shut down before being purchased and reopened by Exposition Cotton Mills and began operating again. In 1948, S. Liebovitz and Sons of New York purchased the mill and changed the name to Public Shirts Corporation. In 1984, a fire destroyed the building.

Organized in 1900 as the Elizabeth Hosiery Mills and later renamed Walker County Hosiery Mills in 1906, this textile enterprise played an important role in the growth and development of the LaFayette area. The mill began operations with only 80 machines. By 1917, the mill was equipped with 346 modern knitting machines. The mill employed 270 people and with an output of 1,450 dozen men’s and 400 dozen women’s hose per day of Raven Brand hosiery. Employees lived in the nearby mill village where residents maintained their own vegetable gardens and a cow or pig. A baseball diamond and a primary school were also located within the mill village. Liquidated in 1951, the mill was later occupied by Barwick Mills.

After serving in the Coast Guard during World War II, Eugene Thomas Barwick started buying and selling tufted goods for Sears. In 1949, Barwick brought out one of his chief suppliers and formed his own company, Barwick Mills. Doubling his sales in 1950, Barwick expanded his business. By 1954, Barwick Mills’ revenue topped $26 million. By 1971, the company had two massive production facilities, one in LaFayette, Georgia, and one in Dalton, Georgia. One of the early producers of tufted carpet Barwick Industries Inc. invested in many recreational facilities including an airport. Barwick Industries dominated the carpet industry for more than 20 years. As with many textile mills in Lafayette, Barwick closed down by the mid-1980s due to increased competition from overseas textile companies.

Established in 1903 by J.E. Patton, LaFayette Cotton Mills operated successfully for seventeen years. Heated by steam, the mill owners maintained the mill building, along with flowerbeds on the mill property. In 1946, Lawrence Fabrics Corporation purchased the mills to make abrasive jeans until about 1954. After Lawrence Fabrics sold out around 1957, the mills changed hands several times until finally shutting its doors for good in 2004 as Sunrise Hosiery, a sock company.

The LaFayette Cotton mill village cottages ranged in size from six to eight rooms each on one-eighth acre of land. Along with electricity and running water to each house, the mill village also boasted concrete sidewalks. Many village residents maintained their own vegetable gardens within the mill village, which also featured an orchard large enough to supply every family in the village with fruit for the summer. The village also included a primary school, a clubhouse, and playgrounds for the mill village children. Today, LaFayette still influences textile history through its carpet manufacturing at Shaw Industries Inc., the world’s largest carpet manufacturers.

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.

Chickamauga

While Chickamauga is historically known for its Civil War history, its citizens knew it for operating the Crystal Springs Bleachery, which was the town’s largest employer during its operation.

Visit

Things to Do

  • Walker County Regional Heritage/Train Museum, 100 Gordon Street:  Located in the historic Chickamauga depot, the Walker County Regional Heritage and Train Museum allows museum visitors to view artifacts relating to the history of Walker County. Their hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday 10:00 am – 4:00 pm.
  • Crawfish Springs, 220 Cove Road: See the spring that helped power the Crystal Springs Bleachery. Crawfish Springs provides a beautiful park and recreation area and includes two gazebos, picnic areas, and a train bridge that park visitors may walk over.  

Places to See

  • Shaw Industries Plant SI/SP, 12545 North Highway 27: An heir of northwest Georgia’s traditional tufting and carpet business, Shaw Industries is a major employer throughout the region. The plant is private property and not open to the public.
  • Crystal Springs Bleachery Site and Mill Village, West 10th Street: The bleachery that was once the heart of Chickamauga’s economy has been largely demolished, all but the foundations and a few walls are gone. The houses built for the Bleachery’s employees are still intact. Look for homes with hipped roofs or shotgun houses, both of which were traditional architecture for Southern mill villages.

History

  • Image of the Crystal Springs Bleachery
    Crystal Springs Bleachery. Photo courtesy: Chickamauga Public Library

Daniel Ashley Jewell, a New England native, purchased land in Chickamauga in 1907 to relocate the textile business that he had previously started in Jewell, Georgia. Jewell saw the potential for a textile mill in Chickamauga. Envisioning that Crawfish and Crystal Springs could provide power for the mill, Jewell quickly began developing local infrastructures within Walker County.  The Georgia Central Railroad, established here in 1888, could easily ship out mill products.

Partnering with W.L.L. Bowen, Jewell established the Crystal Springs Bleachery in Chickamauga in 1909.  The company produced and bleached bag goods. By the early 1920s, its 350 workers made over 100,000 yards each day. Crystal Springs Bleachery’s management was kept within the Jewell family. In 1967 Thomas Wall Jewell, the youngest child of Daniel Ashley Jewell became treasurer of the company.

The shift in American manufacturing to overseas markets after World War II placed pressure on textile manufacturing companies in Georgia and the textile industry in Chickamauga was no exception. In the years following World War II, Crystal Springs Bleachery was sold and changed names several times. Dan River Mills bought the company in 1969.

After a public outcry that the mill would be closed, three local entrepreneurs Frank Pierce, Stanley Cunningham, and Steve Travin purchased the mill from Dan River. This eased fears in Chickamauga that the mill, then Chickamauga’s largest employer, would shut down. This effort was short-lived.  After employing over 1,000 people in the mid-1970s, Crystal Springs Print Works eventually closed in 2013, and the mill was torn down in 2014.

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.

Visit Us

Summer Hours:
Monday – Thursday, 10:00-3:00
By appointment

Physical location:
Ground Floor of
Ingram Library at the
University of West Georgia

Parking:
Call UWG Parking Services at
678-839-6525 to register your car

Contact Us

Phone:
678-839-6141

Email:
wgtht@westga.edu

Mail:
Center for Public History
History Program, TLC 3200
University of West Georgia
1601 Maple Street
Carrollton, Georgia 30118

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