Vladimir has been visiting me again this weekend, and yesterday we went to Raleigh to meet Alex.

We had nothing special planned, so we just met Alex at his house, and then went to him to his usual Saturday workout at the Taekwondo school. There were 3 students working out, so Vladimir got to be the fourth, which worked out well. It was a kind of ’self-defense’ class- Alex said the theory is that the elegant traditional moves of martial arts aren’t always literally useful for self-defense purposes, so they class is about what actually works in a fight.

It appeared that Vladimir loved it; with a little warm-up he was in the middle of it all just like some high school wrestling match. It turned out to be a pretty strenuous workout, too.

We went to the mall after that, took the tour of the Bose sound studio (Alex wants their home theater system now), looked at the sales at Sharper Image (they are closing, bankrupt). Then we ate at the Rocky Mountain Grill, which was very good. (They had massive chocolate brownies for dessert.)  At lunch we talked about Russian nicknames, and the fact that Americans have trouble pronouncing the name ‘Vladimir,’ which is also Alex’s father’s name.  Alex said they called his father ‘BO-buh,’ which is kind of a Russian pun- since ‘B’ = ‘V’ in cyrillic writing, the nickname ‘Vova’ is spelled ‘Boba’ in Russian.   So maybe we can call our Vladimir Boba also, since he’s not sure he likes ‘Vlady’.

We had already met Alex’s friend Olga in the morning, and I didn’t want to monopolize Alex’s whole day, so I tried to leave soon after that. But ’soon’ was after Alex showed me the product (excellent) of his new expresso machine, and Vladimir had a chance to download some of Alex’s russian music to his MP3 player. We were back home in plenty of time to see Carolina play horribly and lose in the final four!

I don’t know if I moderated or liberalized the debate in Asheboro tonight, but at least I can say I didn’t ‘conserve’ it.

 I bought a stopwatch at the mall and was at our new 2008 Randolph County Democratic Party HQ at 6:15.  Our people already had the sound system set up, and the candidates all three arrived by 6:45 for a 7PM start.   We ‘drew straws’ for the starting and ending statement order.  It was drizzly and cold and by 7 about 20 people had arrived– but only one of our journalists.  J.D. Walker of the Asheboro Courier-Tribune was ready to go with her questions– but we were missing the reporter from the Pilot of Southern Pines.  Wayne Abraham, the Chair of the 6th Congressional District committee, assured me that a John Chappell of the Pilot would be here, because he and Wayne had had a lengthy phone conversation.   We waited ten minutes, but then I went ahead and started, because J.D. had a 9:30 copy deadline, and we needed to get started.  I hoped that the Pilot reporter would turn up, wet and late, but he never did.

To compensate I gave the candidates (Teresa Sue Bratton,  Johnny Carter and Jay Ovittore) 2 minutes to answer questions instead of 90 seconds (actually 90 seconds was usually plenty); I also solicited more questions from the audience  (we ended up using about 6 of them); and I also let the candidates ask each other a couple of clarifying questions, in addition to allowing rebuttal time at several points when the candidates focussed on one another’s statements or record.  This all unfolded surprisingly (to yours truly) well; I especially liked the audience questions (a couple I allowed the writer to explain in person to the candidate, which worked great to clarify a question on employee choice and collective bargaining).   And the candidates were good about maintaining a professional tone, even in their follow-ups and rebuttals.

I must say that, once I got it started and everyone got familiar with the process, it became fun.  It felt kind of like refereeing a tennis match.  ‘Your serve, Dr. Bratton;’ ‘Ball’s in your court, Mr. Ovittore,’ ‘Nice save Mr. Carter,’ etc.  Until that point, though, I was a nervous wreck, trying to make sure everything came together.   You all ought to try it sometime- like, ‘here’s some silk and thread, now jump out of this airplane and sew yourself a parachute on the way down.  You be careful!’   Yeah, right!

I tried taking pictures, but once it started I was too busy directing traffic and keeping time and reading through audience questions and trying to remember what to do next to take any more.  So what I’m posting are all before and after shots.  Sorry.

I will post the link to JD’s story tomorrow, and  Jordan of Yes! Weekly in Greensboro was there doing lots of interviews (he’ll be a questioner next week at the last debate, to be held Friday April 11th at 7 p.m. at the Paramount Theater, 128 East Front Street, Burlington) so I’m sure we’ll see something from him one day.  And Jay Ovittore told me that tomorrow they will be editing the video from tonight and from the first debate, and will post stuff on Youtube.  So there should be a lot of good information out there soon.

I’m ready for my close-up now!  Can I get on stage with Katie Couric later this month?

Roman has been accepted at Guilford College, where I went for a special lecture today on 19th century history.

While I was there I walked around and took these pictures so Roman could see what a pretty April day at Guilford really looks like:

The entrance on Friendly Boulevard.

Campus information

Campus Map

  Looking from Friendly down the center of campus toward the student union

The dining hall/ student union, called Old Main Building

The Library, and a classroom

A Dormitory

Students playing drums and eating pizza

Soccer players going to practice

LaCrosse players going to practice

Tennis players

Football stadium field house

Inside the football stadium

International Student Headquarters

Vladimir Kadeev is a 15-year-old boy in foster care, and is the first child I’ve been able to host since being licensed as a foster parent. Vladimir was originally born in Belarus, which is now separate from Russia but is actually closer to Moscow than Roman’s home in Orenburg. He has been in DSS custody for a couple of years, and it is a long strange story we won’t get into here. I was introduced to him during lunch in Monroe with his DSS social worker Judy Parker, and we spent several hours together. We got along well, so Ms. Parker set up a weekend visit, called ‘respite care,’ where the foster child takes time away from the therapeutic foster home. We had dinner at my mother’s house, worked around my house cleaning up the yard and moving stuff around. I had a rather full Saturday- Democratic precinct meetings in Ramseur, a special meeting between local Democrats and state senator Kay Hagan, who is running for US Senate. Vladimir came with me to those, and met people, and seemed to interact well. Of course we also had some meals out and trips to the mall, etc. And Sunday we spent the day at the zoo- a pretty and sunny day, comparted to Saturday. I took him back to Concord at 4PM, and I hope he’ll get to come back soon.

Henry Humphreys and his Mount Hecla Factory

By L. McKay Whatley

Home to the world’s largest apparel manufacturer in the 21^st century, the world’s largest textile conglomerate in the 20^th century, and the world’s largest flannel and denim mill in the 19^th century, Greensboro is no stranger to the superlatives of American textile history. But the association is even older. Before 1830, Greensboro was home to what appears to have been the first steam-powered textile mill in the South, and the first textile mill of any kind in the North Carolina Piedmont: the Mount Hecla factory, located on the northwest corner of Bellemeade and Battleground, now North Greene Street. The proprietor of the factory, Henry Humphreys, is an unsung trailblazer for the southern textile industry. The state historic marker on West Friendly Avenue at North Greene Street is Humphrey’s only memorial in Greensboro, but his personal initiative and vision were crucial to the industrialization of antebellum economy, with his pioneer example inspiring textile entrepreneurs for more than half a century.

Personal Life.

Humphreys’ background is largely a mystery, even to his descendants.ⁱ He is said to have been born in Virginia around 1787, and soon moved to Caswell County, NC,ⁱⁱ where he married Mary Baldwin.ⁱⁱⁱ Humphreys first appears in Guilford County records in May, 1807^iv, and is listed in the census of 1810. He was one of the first residents of Greensborough, and was appointed one of the six Commissioners of Police “in and for the Town” by the state legislature in 1810.^v In 1814 he is listed as a Lieutenant on the Muster Roll of the 2^nd Regiment of the County Militia.^vi In 1815 he is listed in a Guilford County tax list as owning a town lot worth $800.^vii By 1829, the Greensborough tax listings describe Humphreys as the wealthiest man in town, owning property valued at $12,000. By contrast, his son-in-law John Motley Morehead, living at Blandwood, was listed with a total of $200.^viii

Humphreys lead a very active civic life in Guilford County for more than 30 years, but less personal information has survived there than about his business activities. He remained involved with Greensborough’s local government all through 1820s and 1830s. He was elected to the town council repeatedly and was chosen as chairman of the council in 1832 and 1834.^ix He served as a presidential elector for Andrew Jackson in the election of 1832,^x and as President of the Greensborough Temperance Society.^xi He was an active member of Buffalo Presbyterian Church, and a member of the building committee for the brick sanctuary that was built in 1826.^xii

His grandson recalled that “his one recreation… [was] a great love of music,” and “he was accustomed to play his violin for the frequent dances of his employees.” One of the family’s prized heirlooms was Humphreys’ “old hand organ in a mahogany case, with its repertoire of eighty old Scotch tunes.”^xiii Perhaps music made up for some personal tragedies. Three of Humphrey’s children died in infancy, and his wife Mary died in 1820^xiv, soon after the birth of their daughter Ann L. Humphreys, a/k/a “Nancy”.^xv Humphreys lost little time in courting and finally marrying in 1820 Letitia Harper Lindsay, the recent widow of Col. Robert Lindsay and the mother of nine young children.^xvi She would bear Humphreys three more children before her death in 1835,^xvii two of whom would survive them both.

To house his new wife and expanding family Humphreys first rented, then purchased, Blandwood, a four-room farmhouse on “the Salisbury Road” built in 1795 by Charles Bland. Humphreys expanded the house to six rooms after he purchased it in 1822,^xviii then sold it to his new stepson-in-law, John Motley Morehead, in 1827.^xix Humphreys moved from Blandwood to his new mansion on one of the most prominent and valuable locations in Greensboro, the southwest corner of Market and Elm, facing the courthouse square.^xx The three-story stuccoed brick, hip-roofed townhouse with Italianate detailing would have been fashionable in New York or New Orleans, but in antebellum Greensboro it appeared so lavish and out of place that it was popularly known as “Humphreys’ Folly.” ^xxi

Business Life.

The dwelling became both the central headquarters of the ever-expanding Humphreys clan and the center of his far-flung commercial empire. The upper floors, entered through a central stair hall, were the residence of his family, but the spaces devoted to Humphreys’ mercantile business– the cellar and the street level “Store Room” and “Counting Room”—were the true heart of the building.^xxii Humphreys had not only an aptitude for shopkeeping, but a genius for commerce. His corner shop was packed with the kind of dry goods, groceries and hardware that would most appeal to the Greensborough community. If, as one historian of southern commerce puts it, “A storekeeper had to be a catalogue of his community’s tastes,”^xxiii then Humphreys’ semi-annual advertisements in The Patriot document Piedmont fashions of the 1820s and 30s. One such boasted

To give a detailed description of all the Goods which comprise his assortment would make a catalogue too long to be perused in this busy season of the year;– Suffice it to say, that his present stock is inferior to none in the Southern States.^xxiv

In the fall of 1826 his list of “Staple and Fancy GOODS… just received from the North” offered seventy different types of textile fabrics on hand, many available in multiple colors, together with wearing apparel for men, women and children, as well as “a good assortment of Hardware, Cutlery, Sadlery, Crockery, Groceries, Paints, Dye Stuffs, Hatters Materials, Pearl ash &c.”^xxv The inventory taken after his death in the spring of 1840 demonstrates even more variety, featuring everything from bolts of imported silk, taffeta and glass buttons, to “English soap,” “figured vests,” twenty dozen “mens hose,” and “mens fur capes.”^xxvi

While the store in his townhouse appears to have been run by Humphreys himself, he regularly branched out in partnership operations with other local businessmen. He and his neighbor Abraham Geren purchased real estate in partnership for years.^xxvii In 1829 he advertised the end of the association of “Humphreys and Long” so debtors could come in and settle their notes.^xxviii He not only operated two stores Greensborough, but one in Lexington^xxix and another in Statesville^xxx, boasting in print that this diversification and economy of scale allowed him to undersell his competition:

He does not pretend to any superior advantages over his brethren in business—except that of purchasing at the same time, for four large retail Stores of his own, one at Statesville, one at Lexington, and two in this place. The reduction in price to be derived from such extensive purchases, cannot be overlooked in these “pinching times.” The goods, in the Stores enumerated, when examined, will speak for themselves.

He derives pleasure from the fact, that he has the entire control of his own “CASH;” because if he were subject to the management of Gentlemen in Philadelphia or New-York, it would be readily and reasonably conjectured that his Store here would be the receptacle of but bad bargains and unfashionable Goods.^xxxi

Humphreys’ boast that “he has the entire control of his own ‘CASH’” points to another aspect of the business life of a southern shopkeeper. Due to the lack of banks, merchants with cash on hand regularly made loans, received notes, charged interest, and took personal and real property as security, just as a banker would have. The inventory of his estate made in the summer of 1840 revealed thousands of dollars in outstanding loans to individuals which his executor grouped into “Good Claims” (24 different notes); “Doubtful Claims (30 bonds for future payment); and “Desperate Claims” (19 warrants to the sheriff for legal collection).^xxxii

The Merchant becomes an Industrialist.

Diversification into textile manufacturing must have seemed like a natural expansion of Henry Humphreys’ business operations. Rural merchants commonly operated grist mills to supply their customers’ demands for flour, meal and feed, all items which could not reasonably be shipped long distances. Once the hydrological elements (dam, head race to supply water to a wheel, and tail race to channel away the waste water) were in place, any other type of machinery could be added. For this reason large “merchant mill” operations not only ran grind stones for flour and meal, but also powered saw mills, oil mills, wool carding machines, and cotton gins.^xxxiii

Humphreys in fact began operating a cotton gin as a side-line to his business before 1827, when one was located on a lot to the east of Blandwood.^xxxiv Other Greensborough merchants owned and operated gins; in 1829 Humphreys bought the stock and property of William T. Shields, including the lot “where the said Shields’ cotton machine now stands.” ^xxxv Used to clean the seeds out of cotton brought to town by farmers, cotton gins were the first step towards industrializing the production of cotton cloth.

There had only been sporadic efforts to institute textile manufacturing in North Carolina before Henry Humphreys became involved. In 1813 Hance McCain of Guilford and General Alexander Gray of Randolph were among 19 of the most prominent Piedmont citizens who met in Hillsborough “for the purpose of establishing a COTTON and WOOLLEN FACTORY,” but the proposed joint stock company never received sufficient capital subscriptions to begin operations. ^xxxvi A “joint stock company” is today commonly known as a “corporation,” but in the early 19^th century it was an uncommon method of business organization. All new entities could only be “incorporated” by the state legislature, and then could only begin operations when sufficient shares of stock had been sold to accumulate the capital needed to operate. Many southerners were too suspicious of stock ownership to risk investing, no matter how attractive the business opportunity.

The first operating textile mill in North Carolina was organized by Michael Schenk in 1814, when he installed spinning machinery shipped from Rhode Island in a log grist mill in Lincoln County. A flood washed it away in 1819.^xxxvii The first factory of any permanence was established in Edgecombe County in 1817, becoming known as Rocky Mount Mills. Henry A. Donaldson, a manufacturer from Rhode Island, bought machinery and installed it in Colonel Joel Battle’s flour and grist mill on the Tar River. Donaldson trained a workforce of Battle’s slaves to operate the spinning frames, producing as much as 1500 pounds of coarse cotton yarn each day, packaged in 5-pound skeins and sold to the local market for hand-weaving. ^xxxviii

Donaldson went on to consult on building the first mill in Fayetteville in 1825, a small operation similar to Battle’s in Rocky Mount, and also run by slave labor. Pioneer textile historian Richard W. Griffin states that this Fayetteville factory was “sold… in 1834 to the owner of the fourth and last cotton mill built in the state before 1830, Henry Humphreys of Greensboro.” ^xxxix Nothing else is known about Humphreys’ purchase of the Fayetteville factory, but it indicates where he may have learned much about the industry. Fayetteville and Petersburg, Virginia were the two most important wholesale shipping destinations for Piedmont North Carolina, and both were places where Humphreys, visiting to restock his merchantile stores, could have obtained a first-hand look at cotton manufacturing.^xl

Richard Griffin uncovered evidence that Henry Humphreys’ interest in manufacturing began earlier than any Guilford County records indicate. “First built in 1818, Humphrey’s Mount Hecla Mill had two distinct periods of operation, the first from about 1818 to about 1825 and a second and more prosperous period after 1830 when plans were made for the use of steam power. The original mill was built on a stream outside Greensboro and employed the waterpower of a dam Humphreys had constructed earlier to operate a grist mill. The first frame structure apparently excited little interest in the 1820s, for it was listed in a newspaper article as merely “one of the four mills in the state.” But from this humble start, the second largest mill in ante-bellum North Carolina soon developed.” ^xli

Details of this first factory have been impossible to trace; Humphreys was a prolific real estate investor, and owned property on virtually every watercourse in Guilford County.^xlii But it makes sense that, like most if not all of the first North Carolina factories, Humphreys began by experimenting with spinning frames in an existing grist mill. Purpose-built factories were expensive to construct, and the ability of local people to operate the complicated spinning machinery was an open question. Such an operation could only a hint at what the Mt. Hecla mill would later become, but required a similar level of organization. To support even one spinning frame, specialized preparatory equipment such as openers, pickers, carding and drawing frames would have been necessary. Adding that to a Humphreys merchant mill would have required a substantial portion of the available power, and would have taken up even more floor space than a grist or saw mill.^xliii

Planning and Building a Factory.

By the late 1820s it must have become obvious to an experienced business man like Humphreys that a stand-alone textile mill made financial sense. An agricultural depression was encouraging mass emigration to western territories, especially among the local Quaker population. The North Carolina legislature established select committee under chairman Charles Fisher of Rowan County , charged with finding ways to diversify the state’s economy.^xliv The Fisher Report “on the Establishment of Cotton and Woolen Manufactures,” together with a highly protective tariff passed by Congress,^xlv inspired confidence in North Carolina’s pioneer industrialists that 1828 was the year other investors would finally get the message. No fewer than five “joint stock” companies sought incorporation by the General Assembly that year to open or recapitalize cotton factories.^xlvi Although promoted heavily by progressive journalists, none of the proposed factories found it easy to attract stockholders and raise the money needed to get into operation.

In September 1828 a notice began to run in the Greensborough Patriot, requesting “THE citizens of Guilford County… to meet at the Court House in Greensborough, on Saturday the 1^st day of November next, for the purpose of making arrangements for Establishing a Manufacturing Company, in this County—and petitioning the General Assembly for incorporating the same.” ^xlvii Nothing further is reported about this meeting, but local support cannot have been widespread. The practical outcome was that Henry Humphreys decided to risk his fortune on textile manufacturing, and build one of the South’s largest factories all by himself.

Designing and building North Carolina’s first purpose-built, completely integrated cotton mill was a visionary quest for Humphreys, and one that would require most of his time and capital to accomplish. It appears that he began in 1828 to free up his time and money by selling his successful mercantile operations. ^xlviii The next order of business would have been to acquire machinery, which was built to order and might take many months to be delivered. Humphreys somehow developed a relationship with Rogers, Ketcham and Grosvenor, one of the earliest American textile machinery manufacturers, headquartered in Paterson, New Jersey. The firm was founded by Thomas Rogers, the pre-eminent American mechanical engineer, and could manufacture anything from a sugar mill to a locomotive. His original machinery purchases are unknown, but an inventory of the contents of the factory at the time of Humphreys death in 1840 shows that it included all the equipment needed for “vertically integrated” textile manufacturing, that is, “from bale [of cotton] to bolt [of cloth].” Seventeen boxes of Humphreys’ machinery was shipped from Paterson through the port of New York to Petersburg, Virginia “on the schooner Planet;”^xlix and hauled on wagons from there to Greensborough.^l

While the production machinery would have been extraordinarily “high-tech” to local residents, undoubtedly the star of the collection was the steam engine that was designed to power the entire ensemble. Using the first steam engine in the county, and what may have been the first in western North Carolina, as the factory’s prime mover was a central aspect of Humphreys’ vision to bring the factory to Greensborough, a county seat without a major watercourse.^li Steam power was so unusual that it suggested the name of the entire operation: Mount Hecla (or Hekla), after the most active volcano in Iceland, which had memorably erupted in 1756.^lii Although the “annual operating expense of $4,000 for coal left a Raleigh editor aghast” in 1836,^liii in 1840 the steam boilers for the engines were fired with wood.^liv

If the engine was the beating heart of the factory, a transmission system of iron shafts, pulleys and leather belts was the circulatory system that transferred that power to each machine, and a massive brick and stone building the framework needed to anchor and shelter it all. A four-story, 50-foot-wide by 150-foot-long brick building, with attic and basement, was built at the upper corner of Bellemeade and Greene Streets, where Battleground angled off to the northwest. ^lv Space for future expansion was built in: though just 21 spinning frames with 2,096 spindles operated at the time of Humphreys’ death in 1840, the building was designed to accommodate 8,500 spindles or 71 spinning frames.^lvi The imposing factory was probably the largest structure in Greensborough at the time, yet it was just one element of a sixteen-acre campus that included “Stables and Lumber houses and houses for operatives” and “the Cottage and Grove,” the home of Humphreys’ daughter Nancy, wife of factory manager Thomas R. Tate.^lvii

Running a Factory.

The reference to “housing for operatives” opens up a question as to the nature of the workers in Humphreys’ factory. “Operative” does not necessarily mean “employee,” and several sources assert that Mt. Hecla, at least initially, used slave labor. A contemporary newspaper article states that statement that “Two supervisors accompanied the shipment [from Paterson] and taught the white and slave girls to tend the machines.” ^lviii Humphreys even went so far as to ask the legislature in November, 1832 for what may be the state’s first industrial development tax incentive, based on his investment in personal and real property.

“Mr. Parker presented the petition of Henry Humphreys, of the county of Guilford, praying the legislature to pass an act exempting from taxation, for the term of fifteen years, a cotton factory, with the slaves therein employed, together with the lands and appurtenances thereto belonging, situated in Greensborough, which was read and referred to a committee…”^lix

There is no indication that Humphreys himself ever owned enough slaves to operate all the machines in the factory.^lx Hiring enslaved workers from other owners in the local market would have eliminated the financial advantages of slave labor.^lxi By the late 1830s, it appears that Humphreys and every other factory using slave labor converted to a policy of using white labor only, and the fact that slave labor had ever been used was quietly forgotten.^lxii The editor of the Patriot, writing in 1843, lauded Humphreys for his civic-mindedness in providing “employment for numerous hands hitherto doing nothing for the community, and but little for themselves.”^lxiii It may be that one of Humphreys’ greatest innovations was made in conjunction with the conversion to paid labor: making up for the lack of currency in a tight money market, and lacking a local bank, Humphreys in 1837 printed and issued his own paper money. Undoubtedly these notes were needed to pay employees, and the one dollar bill even included a drawing of the factory itself.^lxiv

Operatives of whatever status needed not only a place to live, but a job to do. The types of jobs available at Mt. Hecla posed the most revolutionary aspect of the transition from agricultural “private” work to factory-wage “public” work. Employment in the factory was linked to technically complicated machinery performing a number of very specialized functions. Those workers who tended certain machines became specialists in supporting the action of that machine, and seldom transferred from department to department. The functional layout of the Mount Hecla factory can be reconstructed from the machinery listed in the 1840 inventory^lxv:

• The Engine Room, with two steam engines and access to 592 cords of wood;

• The Opening Room, with two hoppers where cotton bales are opened and mixed;

• The Picking Room, where a Picker machine spreads the fiber out into a batt or “lap;”

• The Carding Room, with 20 Carding Machines, 3 Draw Frames, 5 Speeders and a Card Grinder;

• The Spinning Room, with twenty 120-spindle frames and one 96-spindle frame;

• The Packing Room, with nine Reels, two Yarn Presses, a Baling Screw, Scales, and rope;

• The Dressing Room , with a Band Machine, a Spooler, two Warpers and two Dressers to strengthen the warp with starch before weaving;

• The Weave Room, running 26 looms;

• A Blacksmith Shop, with a Turning Lathe, vice and bench, tools, springs, files, and wood screws and everything necessary to maintain the upright and horizontal shafting and pulleys;

• An Office, with Desk, writing table, patent balance, steelyards, iron chest, clock and bell;

• A Supply Room, with harness leather, lace leather, hemp twine, dusting brushes, tallow and sperm oil

• A Store Room, warehousing finished bales of sheeting and bundles of yarn.

The number of “operatives” is nowhere made clear, but a collection this size would have required at least 60 employees to tend the machinery and supervise operations.

Success at Last.

After years of design, construction, training and practice, the risky and costly venture finally went into operation and was declared a winner. On June 30, 1834, Humphreys proudly announced in the local newspaper “THE subscriber takes unfeigned pleasure in announcing to the public, that his splendid STEAM COTTON FACTORY is now in the full tide of successful operation; and that whether factories of this description can now be advantageously carried on in the South is no longer a matter of doubt. It has long been disputed, and not until recently given up that an individual enterprise of the kind could succeed; but he is now making from twelve to 1,500 POUNDS of spun cotton per week… He expects to put an additional quantity of machinery in operation during the month of August, when he will be able to turn out THREE THOUSAND POUNDS PER WEEK.” ^lxvi

The factory was a source of both public pride and consuming curiosity in the Greensborough community. “When the mill was first established the yarns were so popular that people from the country camped all round the factory, waiting for the yarns to come off the machinery.”^lxvii Much of its success was attributed to the novel yet vital steam engine, which guaranteed constant reliable operation while water-powered mills generally shut down for at least a month each summer due to drought.^lxviii Humphreys was happy to tour visitors through the noisy factory, and many of his future competitors must have had their first real look at an operating cotton mill at Mt. Hecla. Soon the competition became direct and heated. In July 1836 thirty Moravians organized the Salem Cotton Manufacturing Company and began to build a factory and worker housing. The Salem factory would also require steam power for its operation, and an engine was purchased in 1838 in Baltimore. ^lxix “A certain Danforth, ‘who brought the factory at Greensboro into operation,’ gave them helpful advice” concerning machinery and operations.^lxx The Salem factory also became an immediate success,^lxxi which evidently irritated Henry Humphreys. In 1838 he angrily accused Francis Fries, the superintendent of the Salem factory, of “luring away one of his skilled employees.”^lxxii Fries countered by complaining that Humphreys tried to undersell his local competitors .^lxxiii

Untimely Death.

Henry Humphreys enjoyed the success of his creation for less than ten years before he died March 26, 1840.^lxxiv The circumstances of his death are unknown, but he made a will in early February that attempted to provide security for his minor children. Humphreys left his property equally divided among Absalom, aged about 18, Sarah, aged about 12^lxxv, and Nancy, wife of Thomas Tate and mother of her own expanding brood of children.^lxxvi He made his “highly esteemed and well-beloved son-in-law Thomas R. Tate, in whose prudence and honest I have unbounded confidence” the executor of his will, giving him also the “superintendence and management of the cotton factory and its operations” at an annual salary of $1,000.00.^lxxvii Humphreys’ desire was that his children share equally in all his property, save that Absalom was to inherit the family townhouse. If the beneficiaries of his will had all been adults, that is, at least aged 21, Tate would have been able to execute the will in a straightforward manner. But two of the siblings were minors, and so the Clerk and Master in Equity became involved. Guardians were appointed for Absalom and Sarah, and rather than operating the factory and executing the terms of the will as he saw fit, Tate was required to report to the Court and confer on decisions with the Guardians.

Absalom proved to be an unruly young man. Though Humphreys had willed the townhouse directly to his son, until Absalom reached age 21 the will directed his sisters Sarah and Nancy, and Nancy’s entire family to live there with him. Absalom appears to have chafed at the supervision of his older sister and her husband. Within eighteen months he had wooed and wed Susan Dick, daughter of a prominent Guilford attorney.^lxxviii But even before the marriage, and apparently without the knowledge of his sister or guardian, Absalom contracted to buy a dwelling in Greensborough to house his girlfriend (as distinct from his future wife) and other members of her family. This all became public knowledge when, in 1844, Absalom suddenly died at age 22.^lxxix Outraged, Thomas Tate refused to pay for the house. The seller sued Absalom’s estate; the case went to court, where a local judge ruled that Absalom’s estate had to pay, and Tate appealed to the state supreme court. Tate’s legal argument was that, since the house had been intended “for a family with one of the members of which the intestate was in the habit of having illicit sexual intercourse,” and the seller knew of that purpose, that the whole transaction was immoral and void. The Supreme Court rejected the argument, ruling that the Humphreys estate had to pay for the house.

Absalom’s rather sad end added to the complexity of the administration of the Henry Humphreys’ estate by adding the claims of Absalom’s widow, to whom he left one-third of his inheritance from his father. She proceeded to further complicate matters a year later by marrying Dr. David Weir, a physician and Greensborough’s only pharmacist.^lxxx Susan Humphreys had already petitioned the Court for her Widow’s Year Allowance,”^lxxxi but her new husband soon began to push, not just for her share of Absalom’s estate, but for distribution of her portion of the Henry Humphreys estate. A suit was instituted in the Guilford County Court of Equity, captioned “David P. Weir and wife vs. Thomas R. Tate, Executor of the Estate of Henry Humphreys, deceased, et. al.,” which resulted in a Jarndyce v. Jarndyce-style Victorian civil action that wended its way through court for the next five years.^lxxxii Lesser assets of the Humphreys estate were fought over and sold piecemeal, until at last the factory itself was the subject of extensive litigation.^lxxxiii

In February 1848, Thomas R. Tate purchased the factory with all its outbuildings, shops and machinery, together with the housing and associated land, at auction for the sum of $15,845.00. Unfortunately, final approval of the sale was delayed until all of the other Humphreys assets were divided, including his 29 slaves. The Tates finally received a deed to the property on October 27, 1849.^lxxxiv David and Susan Weir received $1,052.35.^lxxxv

Mountain Island.

While the final report on the Testamentary Trust of Henry Humphreys by the Clerk and Master in Equity was not filed until 1850, Thomas Tate was effectively the master of Mt. Hecla after the auction in February, 1848. With that settled, he could finally make decisions free of his sisters-in-law, and what he decided to do, was leave town.

Henry Humphreys had owned property in Rutherford and Lincoln counties, which may have allowed Thomas Tate to become familiar with the assets of western North Carolina. Tate discovered and purchased a tract of land near Mountain Island in Gaston County^lxxxvi which featured the remains of a canal; originally meant to open the Catawba River to navigation down to Charleston, SC, it was perfect for conversion into a mill race.^lxxxvii Construction of a four-story brick factory was complete by the fall of 1848, when Tate closed Mt. Hecla in Greensboro and began to move the machinery west to Gaston County. Water-powered textile production began at Mountain Island in the fall of 1849 and continued profitably for generations. Mountain Island was operated by Thomas Tate until his death in 1872, and by members of his family until 1894. It was completely destroyed by a flood in 1916.^lxxxviii The relocated factory was the first cotton mill in Gaston County, which within fifty years was destined to become the home of some of the largest factories in North Carolina.^lxxxix

The prime factor traditionally cited as the reason for the move was that the Catawba River’s waterpower was free and plentiful.^xc This certainly must have been a financial factor; the annual cost of fuel for Mt. Hecla in 1836 was reported to be $4,000,^xci and a similar expense was reported in 1849 for the Rowan Factory in Salisbury.^xcii The reporter noted more significantly that these additional expenses made the difference between profit and loss: “Although the Rowan Factory appears to be doing a flourishing business; and doubtless, upon the present investment which is, perhaps, not one third of the original cost, the profits are large; yet we have no idea that it will be able to compete with those driven by water power.”^xciii When the cost of fuel was combined with the impact of competition, the reason for Tate’s removal to Mountain Island is clear. While Mt. Hecla was the Piedmont’s pioneer cotton factory, it rapidly saw itself surrounded by competitors. As early as 1841, the clerk of the Salem Manufacturing Company noted “that the local market was glutted with yarn.”^xciv The Directors of the Company noted in 1849 that “Owing to erection of a number of cotton factories in western part of the state the trade in coarse yarn has been overstocked.”^xcv In 1852, after several unsuccessful attempts to sell the factory, they explained the lack of offers as “because we are situated beyond the limits of the cotton growing country, and because our factory is propelled by steam.”^xcvi Fuel costs, yes, may have led to the move, but the stiff competition of other Piedmont manufacturers and the lure of open markets in western North Carolina undoubtedly promised an improved bottom line.

Impact on the Industry.

The legacy of Henry Humphreys lies not just with his son-in-law and grandchildren of Mountain Island, and their pioneer efforts in opening Gaston County to manufacturing. Though perhaps inadvertently, Humphreys’example in creating from nothing and successfully operating the Mt. Hecla factory trained an entire generation of North Carolina’s industrial pioneers. Edwin M. Holt, a young farmer on Alamance Creek east of Greensborough, began his education there in 1836:

Following the natural inclination of his mind for mechanical pursuits, my father made it convenient to visit Greensboro often, and as often he went there he always made it his business and pleasure to call on Mr. Humphries. The two began to like each other very much, and soon became good friends, and the more my father examined and saw into the working of Mr. Humphries’ mill, the more he determined to go into the business himself.^xcvii

Holt and his partner/ brother-in-law William A. Carrigan established the first of five antebellum cotton mills in what would become Alamance County.^xcviii

Humphreys exerted a similar influence on his own step-son-in-law, John Motley Morehead. In 1828 Morehead, son of a Leaksville blacksmith, purchased an interest in the wooden dam and a 4,200-foot canal powering the overshot wheel of a grist mill at Island Ford on the Smith River in Rockingham County. ^xcix By 1831 he was sole owner and operator of a grist mill, oil mill, saw mill, carding machine, cotton gin, and general store there, and determined to add a cotton factory. In 1837 he determined to add a cotton mill in partnership with William A. Carrigan, the same partner of Edwin Holt in the Alamance Factory.^c In 1839 they hired John Hall Bullard (1808-1870), a textile mechanic and Massachusetts native, to build and manage the mill, and by 1840 a three-story stone factory was in operation, powered by a large iron water wheel,^ci and employing 40 people.^cii Morehead’s cotton mill, the first in Rockingham County, became known as the Leaksville Factory.^ciii

Mt. Hecla inspired a run of steam-powered mills in other Piedmont county seats. Thomas McNeely built the Mocksville Cotton Factory in Davie County in 1836.^civ The Lexington Manufacturing Company in Davidson County, incorporated in 1839, was another urban mill built around steam power. ^cv One of its nine incorporators was James P. Humphreys, almost certainly a relative of Henry Humphreys and perhaps the manager of the Humphreys store in Lexington.^cvi The Lexington factory flourished until it was destroyed by fire in September 1844.^cvii The Concord Manufacturing Company was established in 1840 in Cabarrus County; capitalized at $30,000 it included looms and twisters to produce cotton twine, all powered by a sixty-horsepower engine.^cviii Also in 1840, a three-story brick factory was built in Salisbury housing 3,000 spindles and 70 looms made by the Matteawan Company of New York, and powered by a fifty-horsepower engine.^cix

Less documented, but undoubtedly present, was Humphreys’ influence on other Piedmont industrialists. Certainly the nearby example of Mt. Hecla must have been instructive for merchants such Benjamin and Henry Elliott when they started their Cedar Falls factory in 1836; as also upon the Quaker entrepreneurs who in the mid-1830s, founded the factories on Cane Creek and at Franklinsville and Union Factory on Deep River in Randolph County. Henry Humphreys and his example of industrial entrepreneurship was a primary influence in the creation of a positive attitude toward industrialization in antebellum North Carolina.

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Bibliography

Diffee W. Standard and Richard W. Griffin, “The Cotton Textile Industry in Ante-Bellum North Carolina, Part 1: Origin and Growth to 1830.” The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 34, No. 1 (January, 1957).

Diffee W. Standard and Richard W. Griffin, “The Cotton Textile Industry in Ante-Bellum North Carolina, Part II: An Era of Boom and Consolidation, 1830-1860.” The North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 34, No. 2 (April, 1957).

Thomas D. Clark, The Southern Country Store. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1944.

“The History of Guilford County, North Carolina,” by Sallie W. Stockard, L. B. (1897, Guilford College), A. B. (1898, University of North Carolina), A. M. (1900, University of North Carolina.) Knoxville, Tenn.: Gaut-Ogburn Co., Printers and Book Binders, 1902.

Sallie W. Stockard, The History of Alamance: Work for the Degree of M.A. at the University of North Carolina. Raleigh: Capital Printing Company, 1900.

Bettie D. Caldwell, ed., Founders and Builders of Greensboro, 1808-1908; Greensboro: Jos. J. Stone and Co., 1925.

Beatty, Bess. “Lowells of the South: Northern Influences on Nineteenth-Century North Carolina Textile Industry.” Journal of Southern History 53, no. 37 (1987).

Blackwell P. Robinson and Alex Stoessen, History of Guilford County

Lindley S. Butler, Rockingham County: A Brief History. Raleigh: N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, Division of Archives and History, 1982.

Walter Whitaker, Centennial History of Alamance County 1849 – 1949.” Charlotte, N.C. : The Dowd Press, Inc., 1949.

APPENDIX

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Greensboro Patriot, 10-11-1826; 11-1-1826

Cheap Fall Goods.

The Subscriber returns his thanks to his friends and customers for the very liberal support heretofore received, and begs leave to inform them, that he has just received from the North, an additional supply of Staple and Fancy GOODS, which added to his former Stock, will make his assortment equal, if not superior, to any that has ever been opened in the place.

The Assortment consist in part of the following articles:

Superfine, middling, and low priced Cloths and Cassimeres, assorted colours,

Double and single milled Drab for Great Coats,

Swansdown, Valentia and Toilinet vestings,

Red, green and white Flannels, Bockings and Baize

Rose, Duffle and Point Blankets

Tartan and Sacatian Plaids

Green, red and black Tabby Velvets,

Lambs wool and worsted Hose,

Cassimere Shawls and Points,

Merino Shawls, an elegant article,

Canton Crapes, a variety of patterns,

Madarine Crape Robes and shawls,

Levanteen, Sattin, Florence and Grudenap Silks, plain and figured,

10 pieces well assorted Irish Linen and long Lawn,

3-4 and 4-4 apron Checks, Indigo dye,

3-3, 4-4 and 5-4 brown Shirtings and Sheeting

3-4 and 4-4 Bleached Shirtings and Sheetings, part Sea Island

Olive and light coloured bangup Cord.

Black and Brown Bombazetts, plain and figured,

Green and Crimson Mareens, for lining Carriage tops,

3-4 and 5-4 Cambrie Muslins and Dimities,

3-4 and 5-4 Jaconet and Mull Muslin,

Bandanna and flag hankerchiefs,

Fancy Prints, part Indigo dye, well assorted,

Gentlemen’s Woodstock Gloves of the best kind,

Book Muslin, plain and figured,

Black, green and white Italian Crapes,

Bobbinet and Thule Lace, plain and figured,

Bobbinet Veils and thread Laces,

Green and white Florence silks for Bonnets,

Grodenap Bonnet Ribbands in setts, latest fashion,

Window curtain and Cosell Fringe,

Cotton and Silk Hose assorted,

Whittemore’s Cotton and Wool Cards,

Leghorn and Straw Flats, elegant assortment,

Silk Velvet Bonnets, latest fashion for Winter,

Ladies’ Walking Shoes and Pumps,

Misses and Children’s Shoes and Bootees,

Russia Rabbit Skins, of an excellent quality, a good assortment of Hardware, Cutlery, Sadlery, Crockery, Groceries, Paints, Dye Stuffs, Hatters Materials, Pearl ash, &c. &c.

Wishing to close my Mercantile concerns, I shall sell Goods in future for CASH alone; those who have open accounts standing with me, are therefore requested to call and close them as soon as convenient, and those that have bonds in my hands, that were not taken as Guardian bonds in my hands, are requested to call and renew them, otherwise they will be put out for collection.

HENRY HUMPHREYS

Greensboro’, Oct. 11, 1826

One of my Russian friends just bought a new house in Morrisville, near Raleigh.

It was dark when I was there, so I don’t have pix of the exterior.

But here are some photos of the inside:

Coming in the front door is the office on one side and the dining room on the other.

Down the hall is the living room on the right and the kitchen on the left.

Upstairs along a hallway is a guest room, spare bedroom, master bedroom,  master bath, huge walk-in closet, laundry room, and game room.

On the third floor is an unfinished attic big enough for another apartment!

The area around the Raleigh Airport, Cary and Morrisville is just packed with brand new, big houses like this.  It’s the only place in NC that I’m aware is still selling strong in the current poor real estate market.

Roman flew back to Russia a week ago, today, and arrived safely last Thursday– 18 hours in the air, and about that many in airport layovers.  He arrived back in Orenburg at 3AM. He called me on Friday, and I’ve had emails from him. Yesterday I bought a phone card and called him– midnight my time, 10AM his time. He said he’d been having trouble sleeping, and wasn’t interested in eating. As far as I recall, that was the way he felt the first week he was here- and I’ve always heard that jet lag is worst going COUNTER-clockwise around the earth. He’s also feeling depressed, he says, because his friends have changed in some ways that he doesn’t like. And Russians, he says, seem rude and mean compared to Americans. So I think he’s feeling some homesickness for Franklinville.

I’ve been putting off posting some of our last activities together, at first because we were so busy getting him ready to go, and then because I’ve been adjusting to not having Roman around , myself. My house certainly does seem bigger and quieter without him, and his friends.

He didn’t have to take exams (though he took pre-Calculus anyway, so he would have the practice when he takes it at home this summer), so he spent much of the last week of school taking pictures of Eastern Randolph to share with his Russian schoolmates. He also documented my house , and my livestock , and Mother’s house.

On Thursday the 7th, Roman had to be at Graduation at 4:30, and Mother and I went at 5:00- it was very hot, and very crowded. I had already spent the morning doing the History of Randolph County class for the 33 people in the Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Randolph, so I was already wiped out. Graduation was on the football field (appropriate for the state champions, I guess!). Elizabeth Mitchell, her god-daughter Nikki, and Maxine Wright came to watch.The band played, the graduates marched , and the valdictorians spoke. Roman was given a present by the senior class (a set of #24 Jeff Gordon beer glasses- something to remember NASCAR by, no doubt). It was a happy time, meeting his teachers and seeing his friends and their families. We made it to the Mexican restaurant in Asheboro in time to get served, and Charlene Edgerton, the district representative of the exchange program, met us there to give Roman his certificate of completion and his airplane tickets home. Another kind of graduation present.

That Saturday Roman went to Lake Jordan with Tyler Milliner and his brother Gary and their boat. Roman evidently learned to water ski pretty well for his first time out. They and their friends had a LOT of fun, if only gauged by their Class A sunburn- both Roman and Tyler being too macho to put on sunscreen. The next Tuesday Roman went to Carowinds with his band friend Andy Augustyne and his family, and they really loved that. Roman took loads of pictures of the rides and roller coasters to show his friends back home. the one ride he thought was scary was the “Drop Zone”– and ironically, that’s the one that was shut down this week, after a similar ride in Kentucky seriously injured a teenage girl.

Wednesday afternoon I decided on the spur of the moment (nothing important being on the work calendar), that we’d drive down to Jill’s house at Morehead City so he could have one last beach experience. I had to be back Saturday to speak at the Magna Carta luncheon at the country club, and he had to pack, so it was a long whirlwind trip- and we were back Friday night late.

There were a lot of ‘last times’ the next few days, as there eventually had to be after so many first times this past year. His last night at my house was actually Sunday night, as we spent Monday night at our friends Alex and Kay Rogozhin, so that we’d be near the Raleigh airport in time to eat breakfast and get him through security. It was hard for me to watch him go; we waited through all the bag searches and shoe searches and etc., until he turned out of sight walking to the gate. Alex and Kay got me to spend the day with them, to cushion the separation anxiety, but it was still hard to know that my year of fatherhood was at an end. It was a great experience for me; for us both, I think. My friend Greg said that both of us “won the lottery” in this exchange- I got a student as smart and flexible and open as could be asked for; he got a father who’d treat him like a son, not a tourist, and show him everything great about America.

For weeks everyone has been saying I’d be looking at feeling the “empty nest syndrome”– lost, depressed, dislocated from our old routine. And that has been true. But I guess that’s the price of investing 100% in the experience, and I certainly don’t regret that. I just hope I’ll get to Russia some day, and that he’ll come back to visit some day. For now, I just look forward toward feeling like going back into Roman’s side of my house! I haven’t even opened the door there since he left- it already feels lonely enough.

June 1^st was the 83^rd birthday of Mother’s oldest brother, Broadus Chriscoe. On Saturday the 2^nd, his family had a surprise picnic party for him at his house, inviting all his brothers and sisters and their families. I drove down to his house in the Union Grove community in Moore County with Mother and Roman.

Someone from every branch of the family was there except for Aunt Vera’s, who is down in Atlanta. Kenneth cooked burgers and hot dogs on the grill, and everyone else brought something, so it was a typically-overstocked American picnic. Aunt Mona Rae brought a banana pudding, which I liked the best. (BTW: The skinniest people in these photos are obviously not Chriscoes… besides Roman, there are the boyfriends of Patricia’s daughters Heather and Amber. )

I used part of the time to collect names and dates for the Chriscoe side of our family tree which I’ve put into the geneaology program at Ancestry.Com (one of those Mormon programs, stored forever in a salt mine out West). Anyone can check it out; this is the link to my tree, which will show both the Whatley and Chriscoe sides: http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/pedigree.aspx?tid=2384080&pid=-1844418166&pg=0

We got up early on Sunday and drove South through and around Boston to Cape Cod. There wasn’t much traffic, and it took a little more than an hour to get to the bridge over the Cape Cod canal. Then it was just 15 minutes to Hyannis, and the ferry terminal. There’s a brand new ferry, just put into service in 2006, which is for pedestrian passengers only and takes less than half the time the auto ferries do. The ferry runs about 40 miles an hour (FAST for a ship) and really churns up the wake.    It costs more, but it makes twice as many trips during the day, so that’s the one we got tickets for. Roman and me and about ten youth-league lacrosse teams, going to a tournament on Nantucket. They were remarkably loud!

The sun came out and the day was pretty nice by the time we got to the island  – in just 55 minutes! Like I always do on Nantucket  , we just walked around  , looking at the historic houses, the shops, the landscapes    and the ocean.  It’s obvious, though, that Nantucket has really ‘gentrified’ over the last 25 years– every house in the real estate magazine was priced at over a million dollars, and there were some very fancy boats in the harbor.

Roman developed a hankering for Italian spaghetti,  which was just the wrong thing for Nantucket, one of the seafood capitals of New England. We had lunch in a beach bar, and both enjoyed whatever it was we had.  We shopped,  bought t-shirts and gifts for friends  , got coffee,    and toured the whaling museum (totally renovated with new galleries since the last time I was there). We walked out to the Brandt Point lighthouse at the entrance to the harbor, and by the time we got back to the center of town, the 5:00 ferry was leaving. We realized we were exhausted, and the thought of sitting down on the ferry sounded pretty good. So we caught it back to Hyannis.

I drove a short distance to our cheap hotel- a third the cost of a Boston hotel- and we swam in the heated pool. Later that night we went to an English pub in Hyannis, where we had “pasties”- pastries like calzones, filled with cheese and stuff. I had the “New England Tradition” pasties– turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, peas and cranberry sauce, wrapped up in a pie crust. Something unusual, and good.

The next morning, Monday, we slept late for once, and got on the road at 10AM. My plan was to return the car to the airport and then take the subway downtown so as to avoid the parking problems. With some backtracking (I missed the  airport exit and had to navigate the narrow streets of the North End  to get turned around), we turned the car in about noon, took the bus to the terminal, and were all set for our 6:15PM flight. So with 5 hours to wait, we took the new Silver Line bus trolley across to Boston. It uses a restricted lane on the Interstate  to go to the new Convention Center on the old South Boston waterfront (30 years ago, that was all warehouses and fish wholesalers); then it has its own underground tunnel which links to the subway system at South Station.

When we got out of the subway, Roman was surprised- this was the Financial District  , the super new part of Boston, and looked very different  from the half of town we walked through Saturday. He was amazed at the variety of the skyscrapers, and how everything was oriented toward the piers and waterfront. We walked  around   what will soon be the Rose Kennedy greenway, on top of the now-underground “Big Dig” expressway,   and got to Fanueil Hall and Quincy Market. The Market has every kind of trinket and food for sale you can imagine, and that’s where Roman finally found his Italian pasta.

We bought more gifts, walked up to the Blue Line stop at the Old State House, and took the subway back to the airport. (The odd photo of an octacycle… 8 people pedaling the hills downtown.  It looked like work!)  We still had a little wait for our flight, but after a quick change of planes at LaGuardia in New York, we got back to Raleigh about 10PM.  Roman was hungry enough to eat week-old doughnuts… and did!