Document text
April 12, 1939
Brevard, N. C.
¶Vyploal mounta
Long
Or'Aiwa papposk
n town
twrAillew
Brevard, X. C.
The Transylvania Ttnning Co
The Wheeler Hosiery Mill
Pisgah Mills
The Carr Lumber Co.
The Lousto Paper Corp.
Changed Nom*
TMeoRY
The Bluehill Tannery
The Highmont Hosiery M111.
The Ton:loony Cotton Will
The rontvale Lumber Co.
The Happy Yalley Paper Co.
L!, 14 A
TOW
TUeony, with a present day population of about 2,000, was
incorporated in 180 as the eounty seat of a newly termed
mountain county. The incorporators were a handful of
intelli-
gent farmers living in the neighborhood. They gave the land.
A peaceful beginning was assured by giving every man jack a
publie office. Infractions of the law do not seem to have
been serious. It is recorded that farmers were sometimes
fined for riding their horses on the sidewalks. The town
fathers showed vision by laying out the streets wide. At
first it was objected that these streets would grow up in
grass and weeds. The answer was that cows could keep the
grass and weeds down until traffic grew heavier. Many rise
forest trees were left standing and maples were planted along
the sidewalks.
A visitor of forty year* ago generally remembered the
beautifully shaded streets, but if his visit occurred in
summer, he was more likely to remember the clouds of red
dust blowing up and damn the streets. In winter these
streets became red mud in which wagons were sometimes stalled
To cross one on foot, stenping from stone to stone, was an
adventure. In performing this stunt, wonen with long skirts
were even cozIpelled to display their ankles to the vulgar
gaze.
The tomn grew slowly but steadily. Here and there a poorly
constructed wooden business structure gave place to a modern
brick building. An Episcopal church built of stone was erected
under the patronage of a family from Charleston, S. C. Other
families from the coastal region filtered through the gaps
of the illue Eidge and built summer cottages in the neighborhood,
and a few of these became permanent residents. erobably the
strongest racial strain in the early years of the community
was Scotch.Irish, and it was this element that built the
Presbyterian church. Somewhat later baptist and Eetnodist
churches followed. These four comfortable and well organised
churches are now well attended. One often gets the impression
that people here are more interested in churches than in
anything else. The churches not only minister to the spiritual
needs of the community but alio help to satisfy the gregarious
instinct. The doleful prophecy made thirty years ago that
the automobile and the 6unday newspaper would empty the
places of worship has not COMO true in Tucson/.
A good private school was established early by a man
who was a real t,...acher. This school was later expanded into
what was ',mown as the Institute and housed in a commodious
brick wilding built by a woman of means and public spirit.
It passed into the hams of the %omen's Missionary Society
of the Lethodist Episcopal Church South, which gave it
financial support. After the opening of the high school with
its free tuition, the Institute languished, and finally it
was turned over as a gift to the Methodist Conference, who
developed it into a junior college for both sexes. This
college today, with its 400 students, is expanding in several
directions. Fifty years ago few people in North Caroline
ever dreamed tam would be coeducational colleges in the
state. Perhaps this coeducation was brought about partly
by the successful training of boys and girls together in
the high school.
The public schools of Tummy have long been well housed
and well manned. And the MIA boys have recently built
large log hut as an addition to the school buildings, to be
used for dances, theatricals, and all sorts of social
activities. This log house was so attractively designed
and skilfully built that other towns have asked for the
plans* It is common talk that the NIA has been of great
value to the community as a civilising, influence. And
the same may be said of the m.,re indirect influence of the
CCC camp near the edge of town.
Whet do the people of rucony read? Perhaps hell' a
dozen people have good private libraries. They buy sparingly
the new books that come out. Having read them, they pass
them on to their friends* The U D C has a small library,
open to the public, housed in a vineclad cottage with wide
porches and rocking chairs, end they add few volumes *ash
year; but their resources are slender. The junior collOg*
has a fairly good working library, bl,t it is not financially
able to buy many new books. A group of women in the town
have a book club and they spend their money for books of
current interests They buy such books as the ODYbSEY OF
AN AMERICAN DOCTOR, but their taste rune mostly to fiction.
They bought GONE WITH THE of course, and they rsed
it because evrybc41/ else was reading it, bit sou,* of thew
thought it *unrefined* and were chary of discussing it.
The two newstands in town carry a full line of newspapers and
magazines as well as reprints of novels popular in the recent
pest. The N.Y. UERALD TRIBUhE and the N.Y. TIMES art alloys
on hand, but no Hearst papers. Half a dozen of the leading
daily papers in the state ars for sale, as well as two or
three dailies from S. C., GA., and Ala. People who come
here for the summer from the deep South like to see their
home papers on the stands. Nearly ever' magazine published in
the U. S. is to be found, but no foreign periodicals. The
best seller among the magazines is the &AMR'S DLAILST.
Sixty copies are sold each month. Zhis large sale is partly
dvo to the fact that the high school uses several copies in
its class roost work. The pulps, of course, are ppular. They
are cheap and filling. You may have your pick from three
long shelves.
Valet bocce** of to. ggiduates of to. hish school, boos
of the boys go to the junior eollogo and fres those to larger
colleges. A few enter professional schools. oso who :lover
go to college h4como clerks in stores, work at as stands,
drive trucks, whils moat of the boys frus the countri 4o back
to the form. Aftor the crop season, some of thee* got odd
jobs at lumbering, saw milling, or road making. Girls of
the first layer of intelligence so through the junior aolloge,
study to be teachers, professional nurses, or outer selfare
or hYA work. Law of to., fall by to. waiside into marriage
and a few of this. become leader& in church, civic:, or social
life. Girls in the second layer of intelliseuee hecose
waitresses, helpers in beauty shops, cooks, or workers in
the hosiery mill. Girls in t..e third loier work in small
shops, become *Quatro' helpers, or go to the cotton mill.
One is surprised to find the hish school sraduates,
whether they livo in town or up on ,Akesafras Fork or in
Squirrel Hollow, so such alike in dross, manners, and outlook
on lift. Toe transformius iikfluencote are tho church, the
public schools, magazine.* and newspapers, arid the movies.
Forty years ago the only place a girl could see a new hat
or a new dross was at ohurchi and there sartorial standards
were not high.
The finances of the town nave iot escaped the ups and
downs of panics and depressions. In the horse and buggy days
the business of running the town was simple, but the town awoke
from its sleep when the railroad cage', and, later, 'Inas paved
bleimays and motor cars arrived. If the town was to get its
share of summer visitors, it must have more to offer than
good air and cool nigats, It at have a goad supply of pure
water, electric lights, telephone, and paved streets and
sidewalks. So the fine old maples along tat sidewalxa were
supplanted by electric light poles. Such progress was not
entirely pleasing bit it had its advantages. *hen ttAe street
paving was finisLed, t:ae citizens slapped one another on the
back and 4:racked jokes about how John zImithis wagon and mules
once got stuck in the mud on kola Street and bid fair to
remain there until the resurrection.
But all of this improvement bad to be paid for. Street
assessments broke the backs of many property holders. and it
is doubtful if all of these assessments have been paid yet,
after 4 lapse of twenty f44214. VA town was able to carry
its bonded debt until 1920. After that people got out of the
habit of paying taxes and the Londe were in default. Rather
recently there has been an adjustment of this debt and it
now looks as if it might be liquidated sooner or later.
wban a town suffers financially, it is, of course, because
its citizens are suffering financially. Kush distressed
property changed hands during the long depression. but the
stratum of this liquidation has now nearly dried up. :Ample
are beginning to build houses again and others are able to
asks improvement*. ftrhaps moat of this progress is due to
the gel-lerosity of the Federal Government.
The architecture of the town is mostly nonAlscript.
There may be nail a dozen commodious houses of ≥OuiXi5rn colonial
type. with we porces and white pillars. but t.4* great
Lajority are rather flimsily built. with feeble attempts at
adornment and utter disregard of type. A fey of the newer
houses show some improvement in taste. Most of the older
ones sadly need paint. The business structures are of brick.
and they look as commonplace here as they do in the older
ports of New York City.
Merchants report t:.at business La better here now than
it has bean in the last six plass. The coming of a new
industry into the neighborhood, emplojing 600 workers, has
brompt increased trade to the stores. and has also added
a fillip to ti4 real estate market. The only bank in the
town collapsed during the depression and was liquidated
with considerable distress to depositors. stockholders, and
debtors. But a new bank ea* promptly organ_sed, and this
one seems to bear the marks of permanence. Four industrial
plant. in or near the town take up the slack of unemployment
and enrich the arteries of trade.
The aesthetic side of life receives more attent:on as
time goes on. There is a flourishing musical club and the
garden club puts on a show every year. The community is
distinctly flower conscious.
For men the centres of contact are the drugstores, the
newetande, the barber shops, the cafes, the i,Asonic 1,odge,
the Kiwanis Club, and the Chamber of Commerce. Two reataurants
provide excellent cups of coffee as well as wine and beer.
One large hotel caters to summer trade only, but a amaller
hotel, better than fair, ia oven the year around and is a
rendezvous for hunters and fishermen. 4xcellent ,;uest houses
are numerous. .hridge parties and dances brir man and wocien
toLether and so do church aupows and lamming pictures. A
dancing school provides training for childrel.. And L"-eautY
parlors seem to be doinz a god business.
The town has two or three excellent piveicians, men of
modern training, and there is an alert board cf health. A
few of the older physicians are known as "good country doctors.*
They do not always keep abreast of tile chants in medical
theory and practice, but they are often akilfull in such
diseases as recur frequently, having acquired skill through
trial and error. The one hospital, *ell managed and well
manned, reflects credit on tpe town and is good enough to
receive a slice of the Duke endowment fund. It needs more
space, however, and more equipment. 004 of the most marked
gain* in the matter of public health is in the care of
maternity cases and in the feeding of babies, brought about
by modern physicians and by the spread of medical knowledge
through magazines and newspapers. Changes have come also
in the art of cooking, but fairly intelligent people still
fry their vegetables in hog grease.
In spite of the spread of modern ideas, a few pioneer
ways of life still persist. The pioneers, of course, had no
rubber boots or overshoes or raincoats or umbrellas. They
took the snows and the rains as tihey came. And it was not
uncommon to see men crivled with rheumatism sitting in the
corner by the fire, old at GO. Even today men and women past
middle life may be seen slowing along in the rain unprotected.
They think it la sissified to tame care of themselves.
The institution of afternoon tea has never reached the
town. Tea is regarded as a drink for old grannies and sick
people. People associate it with grandma's miasmata* tea for
the ailing or for her catnip tea for infants. They do not
know that the Lnglish polo players drank tea instead of
cocktails when tiJay were in this country a few years ago. If
they did know, it wouldn't make any difference. Old ideas
die hard. It is doubtful if there is a house in Tucony
where afternoon tea is served to callers.
Prejudice of any kind racial, political, or rel4ious
is not strong in T4C01161. Churches work together in friend•
linies. Negroes are not numerous enough to breed friction.
The town is Democratic, but Republicans are not ostracised
socially or otherwise. The only two Jews in the conwvaity
are married to Oentile wives and attend the Uinrchee of
thlir wives. Clot is a member of his wife's church. krejUdioe
against iankees survives, but it is only a faint echo of the
Civil Tar. This prejudice spends itself largely in words
it is more like a formula of speech and is rarely translated
into action. A man from the North may surely reckon on bei4g
treated ace rding to his worth. A leading barber in town is
the son of a an who belonged to a band of Union soldiers
who captured the writer's father and took AiM to a Federal
prison in 1864, but this barber today cuts the hair of
the writer in peace and serenity. aasore are not flourished.
Alto -ether, life has changed much in to. last fit*, years.
Cows no longer graze in toe streets and pigs do not root in
front of stores. People no loLger crosJ muddy streets in
the dark Typiloll fever no longer takes its toll. 4en
have other tnings to think about basidee meronsu,dising and
hunting and fishing, and the thoughts of lock.aen are no longer
colined to brides, babies, and bonnets,.
The spirit of the town is optimistic, but it is sobf,red
by recollections of deflated real estate booms. As tine goes
on the town bids fair to enjoy a healthy growth, and more and
more it will be brushed ty the tide of travel to and from the
Oreet anokisit.
II
!five industrial plants, in or near it, add mush to the
vital life of Moony. They are the Bluehill Tannery, the
Highsont Hosiery Mill, the Toxioany Cotton rill, the Uent-:
vale Lumber Company, and the nappy valley Paper Company.
They not only give eaployeent to workers, but the life of
the town is enriched by the presence of the higher executives
and their families. They help to fatten the loan fineness
of the churches, they sing in choirs, they join the numerous
clubs, and they soon become civic conscious and lend a band
in all natters of public welfare.
iSaoh of those five plants has an individuality of its own.
Life in most factory towns is apt to conform to a fixed pat....
tern. It vrill be interesting to note the variations from
pattern in these five industries:
The Blushill Tannery is perhaps the oldest. It is housed
in an unpainted ramshackle building which may have been a
barn originally or a larsio livery stable. It has never knows
the snell of paint, but it has smells of its own which the
people living in its vicinity do not relish.
For a long time work in the ',winery has been fitful.
7erhaps it is safe to say it runs about half the time* Some..
times there is a delay in ettin. a supply of hides, and
sometimes a scarcity of orders for the finished product
causes tempera/7 shut -downs. The workers are therefore
shifting class. They come mostly from the town and from our
rounding farms There is no colony of dwellinggs and no eau-
Amity life. When work is suspended, the worker goes bask
to his farm or ;ets an odd job around town. If he is ambi-
tious, he 3oes to work In a lar4er plant somewhere else.
During the depression, the Tannery was run at a loss part
or the tine. The manager did this to help fill empty
stomaehs. Ind the worker, even at reduced wages, was glad
to have a dinner pail half full rather than no dinner pail
at all. Most of the workers in the Tannery are white, but
a few Negroes are employed to do wheelbarrow work.
The Lighmont Uosiery mill, a branch of a larger mill in
another town, oame to Tueony in 1939. It is houses in a
three-story brick building —ken old house =,dernized--en the
main business street and in the heart of town. Some seventy-
five workers are employed in makinig full-fashioned rayon
silk hosiery for women. A night shift, ending at 11 p.m.,
gives employment to women who are busy at the cookstove
during the day. The workers, drawn from the town and the
surrounding country, art of a more intelligent class than
those working in the cotton mill and they get better wages.
Some of the women are high school graduates. They live in
their scattered homes*
The output of the 4 sold to distributors in New
Text. If a merchant in TUeony wishes to handle these hose,
he must order 11407: the distributors. The limiter was unable
to buy a pair of these stockings in Tueony. The merehants
handle goods made faraway.
The Toxisany Cotton Vill, established several years ago,
on the outskirts of Tueony, employs about a hunfired workers.
The management has always tried to avoid long shut...downs.
In dull Vmes the mill may run two or three day* a week;
sometimes it will run a month and then shut down for a
month.
The pattern of life is '4ucoh like that in other eotton
mills in this South. The workers are drawn partly from the
native population and partly from those who have floated
in from other cotton mill *enters. These floaters are
often people who have got In debt, or into other trouble,
and they move on to mks another start. The matter of
health also plays its part; people move from malarial or
hot weather districts to the uplands. The most stable
among the workers are natives who have always owned their
awn homes but who nfed more money for their growing fami-
lies, especially when they have promising children who are
ambitious to extend their education beyond hilh school.
The more unstable workers live in a group of cottages belong-
ing to the mill. These cottages are generally of four rooms
and are kept painted; all painted the same color, a slate
gray. The surroundings are clean but not artistic, The
'sorters have their own church, bearing the name of the Roll..
ass. Church, some form of Uethodism. The minister beats the
tom -tons of early evangelism. The community seems to be
reasonably free of vice. As a group they are commonplaee,
colorless, and somewhat irresponsible. They keep mush to
themselves, but are socially inclined within their own eircle.
Thus they tend to form a class with their own standards of
life, just as any other group of people might who out them.
selves off from a larger community.
What do they spend their money for? Not much for veg.-
tables, except potatoes and cabbages, perhaps half of them
have vegetable gardens. They have the reputation of lam*.
Ins on cake and coca cola. If one fatally buys a good radio,
it is said that cal the other families want to buy the same
radio. And the same thing ha2?ens when one writin buys a
pretty dress. _eeping up with the Joneses seems to be a
primitive instiet. When they buy furniture it is apt to be
the kind that makes a show. They send their children to the
public schools, but truancy is con amok; than. When
father and mother are working at the looms it is easy for
children to play ball in the streets.
How do mill people live when wages stop? Nobody knows.
They rarely save money for a rainy day. Wages are often
spent before next pay day. ,Sametimes women go out to do
house-eleaning by the day, but they sometimes ask for wages
in advance to buy medieine for the baby* and then don't come
beak for work. Llen will borrow fifty cents from anybody an
the street who will lend it. But it Is mysterious still how
they live through the lean periods. Perhaps they don't;
maybe they merely exist with consequent impairment of health
and effieleney.
The Montvale Weber Co* two miles from Tueony, has been
runnin3 for several years. It has bought timber rights at
several spots and it buys logs from farmers. Its finished
products go far and wide. Its workers come from the neighbor-
hood. 7.ome of its foremen have held their jobs for years
and have bought their own houses and own good motor cars.
Those who live on the spot are housed in unpainted cottages
along a paved road shaded by maples. Some of these cottages
have two rooms and others have three or four. Flowers and
vegetables grow in every garden and fruit trees and beehives
are not uncommon awing machines and radios are in almost
every house. The women of t:is community as one sees them
on the road and at the !general store are not of the slatternly
111 -fed type, une notices in the store that beef liver is
sold plentifully; fat -beak is no loner the leading item of
diet.
The manager and part owner of the mill is an intelligent
and ener7Atic man in middle life. He also runs a general
store and spends most of his time there. He hus a private
office in one corner of the store, but he spends at least
half of his time behind his counter, often in his shirt
sleeves. In this way he comes to know his people and their
problems. The humblest may approach his. without hesitation.
He is the superintendent of a Sunday school and a member of
the County 7elfare Board. He radiates energy and good will.
:lin people like him and trust his..
The Happy Valley "-aper Co. is about three miles from
TUeony and near the 2ontvsle Lwber Co. It was organized in
1938 and the main buildings are now (1939) completed, When
the mill starts to run, it will employ from Ye to ?CO work
ere. It will manufacture a special and peculiar kind of
paper, such as has never been made in the U.:J.-. The company
is bringing over a numb -r of French men and women to teash
the technique to the new workers. oat of these new workers
will be drawn from this county. awn they are properly
trained, they will probably earn higher wages then they could
in any other mill in the vicinity. Applicatione for Jobs
have iled high. goat of these workers will probably live
in their own houses, in town or on ftIrms. They will thus be
able to attend their own churches, patronize their accustomed
*torus, sand their children to school with the children of
their neighbors, and otherwise live their normal lives. The
calpany is already running a bus line into Tucony.for the
benefit of its workers. People living on the countryside
will eome to the mill in their own automobiles, for almost
every family in the county, no matter how poor, owns some
sort of motor oar. It is often bought by some enterprising
boy in the family, just as his grandfather acquired a horse
and buggy --by saving a few dollars here and there. In some
cases four or five people will bunch up in one ear, each
paying his share of the gasoline. This 3eneral plan of
living has its advantages over the regimentation of families
in barracks.
A few workers have already one to board and room in nearby
farmhouses, or rented the second floors as apartments. This,
of course, works to the advantage of the farmer. He not only
gets rent money, but he has a market for his product* right
at his door. The executives of the mill have rented houses
in Tucony, or taken apartments, and some expect to build
their own houses later. Little available housing has been
left in Tueony. .any of the executives :nti most of the
capital of the mill come from outside the state. The
rest
dent, from New York, expecto to bald a house and live in
Tncony. ArrawTements have already been made for the temporary
accommodation of a group of French women who are to serve
the mill as instruotors. They will take their meals and
have rooms in a nearby country house. As each French woman
requires a room to herself, there will be an overflow of
roomers into a neighborin3 country house.
It in thought that in tine recreational fetures will be
added to the plant, suoh as reading and asserIbly roans,
shower baths, Lind so on. The plant will be nir conditioned.
Alto3ether, this industrial experiment is extremely interest-
ing as the decentralisation of industry is now osoupying the
close attention of etoonomists.