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Size | 0.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 100 items) |
Abstract | In 1978, the city of Durham's plan to construct a dam and reservoir on the Little River, which would eradicate the textile mill village of Orange Factory, eight miles north of Durham, motivated the people of the village to form the Orange Factory Preservation Society. They obtained nomination for the inclusion of Orange Factory on the National Register of Historic Places. As a result, the engineering company hired to build the dam financed an archeological investigation of the area and a social and economic historical study that included oral history interviews with Orange Factory inhabitants. The findings, however, were not considered sufficiently "historically significant" and, in 1983, Orange Factory's residents were moved to other homes and construction of the dam began. The collection contains oral history interviews, supporting documentation, and photographs created and compiled by Mary Anne McDonald, a graduate student in folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. McDonald, who was hired by Mid-Atlantic Archeological Research Inc., of Delaware, conducted the interviews in April and May of 1983. McDonald interviewed five men and six women from Orange Factory, N.C., whose dates of birth ranged from 1892 to 1921, all of whom had worked in the Orange Factory mill. Topics discussed in the interviews include physical layout of the mill and its surroundings; relations with co-workers and supervisors; local health care; midwifery; recreational activities, including hunting, fishing, dancing, and crafts such as quilting; religion; and the 1983 closing of the mill and why many people chose to remain in Orange Factory instead of going elsewhere. Supporting documentation found in the collection consists of transcripts, reports, a topical index to the interviews, and supplemental materials compiled by McDonald during the course of the project. The collection also contains copy prints of photographs belonging to the interviewees, mostly taken between 1945 and 1964. They depict various people and buildings in Orange Factory. |
Creator | McDonald, Mary Anne. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection. |
Language | English |
Processed by: Laura O'Keefe, March 1985
Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008
Updated by: Anne Wells and Andrew Crook, August 2019; Dawne Howard Lucas, August 2021
Back to TopThe following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
The textile mill of Orange Factory, eight miles north of Durham, N.C., was built in 1852 on the Little River. It changed names several times as it changed owners, becoming the Willard Manufacturing Company sometime after the Civil War, the Little River Manufacturing Company in 1906, and the Laura Cotton Mill in 1916, a name it kept until it closed in 1938 at the height of the Depression. The population of the mill village, which retained the name of Orange Factory, dwindled then, but a number of its residents opted to stay there, either commuting to Roxboro where the mill's owners operated a larger facility, or trying to find other work.
In 1978, the city of Durham announced intentions to increase its water supply by constructing a dam and reservoir on the Little River, which would eradicate Orange Factory. The people of the village, linked by both blood ties and a strong sense of community, banded together to form the Orange Factory Preservation Society. Their efforts succeeded in a nomination for the inclusion of Orange Factory on the National Register of Historic Places. In accordance with that nomination, the engineering company hired to build the dam financed an archeological investigation of the area, and a social and economic historical study which included oral history interviews with Orange Factory inhabitants. However, findings were not considered sufficiently "historically significant." In late 1983, Orange Factory's people were moved to other homes, and construction of the dam began.
Back to TopThe Mary Anne McDonald Collection of Orange Factory Oral History Materials consists of oral history interviews, supporting documentation, and photographs created and compiled by Mary Anne McDonald, a graduate student in folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. McDonald, who was hired by Mid-Atlantic Archeological Research Inc., of Delaware, conducted the interviews in April and May of 1983. McDonald interviewed five men and six women from Orange Factory, N.C., whose dates of birth ranged from 1892 to 1921, all of whom had worked in the Orange Factory mill. Topics discussed in the interviews include physical layout of the mill and its surroundings; relations with co-workers and supervisors; local health care; midwifery; recreational activities, including hunting, fishing, dancing, and crafts such as quilting; religion; and the 1983 closing of the mill and why many people chose to remain in Orange Factory instead of going elsewhere. Oral histories are on audiocassette. Supporting documentation found in the collection consists of transcripts, reports, a topical index to the interviews, and supplemental materials compiled by McDonald during the course of the project. The collection also contains copy prints of photographs belonging to the interviewees, mostly taken between 1945 and 1964. Images depict various people and buildings in Orange Factory. Photographic formats include black and white photographic prints, color slides, and corresponding contact sheets.
Back to TopOral history interviews conducted by Mary Anne McDonald with Orange Factory, N.C. residents. All interviews are on audiocassette. Corresponding transcripts reside in series 2.
Arrangement: alphabetical by name of interviewee.
Texts of the interviews (average length about 30 pages), including McDonald's typed notes and observations on each; her report, Oral History Studies at Orange Factory, which describes project objectives, procedures, and subject matter covered; and her handwritten index to the interviews. Corresponding oral history interviews reside in series 1.
Folder 1 |
Interviews Effie Roberts Castle |
Folder 2 |
Interviews Odell Castle |
Folder 3 |
Interviews William Henry Castle |
Folder 4 |
Interviews Albert G. Cox, Jr. |
Folder 5 |
Interviews Grace Johnson Crabtree |
Folder 6 |
Interviews Virginia Johnson Dixon |
Folder 7 |
Interviews Chester Ellis |
Folder 8 |
Interviews Janie Roberts Ellis |
Folder 9 |
Interviews Vesta Roberts Ellis |
Folder 10 |
Interviews Vesta Roberts Ellis (Part II) |
Folder 11 |
Interviews Beatrice Dixon Lanier |
Folder 12 |
Interviews Garland Roberts |
Folder 13 |
Interviews Ruth Johnson Suggs |
Folder 14 |
Rough Topic Index |
Folder 15 |
Oral History Studies at Orange Factory |
Arrangement: by subject.
Materials compiled by McDonald during the course of the project, including lists of questions to ask; financial and procedural information; and such printed matter as articles on similar mill villages and about Orange Factory itself.
Folder 16 |
Preliminary Case Report |
Folder 17 |
Scope of Work |
Folder 18 |
Memorandum of Agreement |
Folder 19 |
Budget Information |
Folder 20 |
Interview Questions |
Folder 21 |
Miscellaneous People to Talk To |
Folder 22 |
Correspondence with Annette Liggett (of the City of Durham) |
Folder 23 |
Orange Factory Pay Roster, 1899 (Photocopy) |
Folder 24 |
Orange Factory: Article and Pamphlet |
Folder 25 |
Orange Factory: Newspaper Clippings |
Folder 26 |
Reading Notes |
Folder 27 |
Miscellaneous Articles (Re North Carolina industrialization) |
These fourteen images are copy prints of photographs belonging to the interviewees, mostly taken between 1945 and 1964. They depict various people and buildings in Orange Factory. McDonald's own descriptions of them follow.
Note: The Southern Historical Collection has added its own numbers, P-4381/1 through P-4381/13, to those assigned by McDonald: OF-1, OF-2, etc.
P-4381/1-13 are 17.5 x 12.5 cm.; P-4381/14 is 10 x 13 cm.
Scenes of people and places in Orange Factory, as well as photographs of pictures and documents belonging to the interviewees. All were taken by McDonald in April 1983.
Image P-4381/15-17
P-4381/15P-4381/16P-4381/17 |
P-4381/15-17: Grave markers in the Orange Factory Methodist churchyard. |
Image P-4381/18 |
P-4381/18: Porch swing on Ruth Suggs' front porch. |
Image P-4381/19-20
P-4381/19P-4381/20 |
P-4381/19-20: 1911 pay envelope of Ruth Suggs' mother, Deva Woods Johnson. |
Image P-4381/21-22
P-4381/21P-4381/22 |
P-4381/21-22: Arthur Ellis, Ruth Suggs' paternal first cousin, in front of the Orange Factory schoolhouse. |
Image P-4381/23-32
P-4381/23P-4381/24P-4381/25P-4381/26P-4381/27P-4381/28P-4381/29P-4381/30P-4381/31P-4381/32 |
P-4381/23-32: Unidentified images of Orange Factory people from Vesta Ellis' collection. |
Image P-4381/33-43
P-4381/33P-4381/34P-4381/35P-4381/36P-4381/37P-4381/38P-4381/39P-4381/40P-4381/41P-4381/42P-4381/43 |
P-4381/33-43: Quilts made by Vera Ellis, displayed on her front porch. Ellis appears in P-4381/36, 38, 39, 42 and 43. Note: Ellis discusses quilting on pp. 31-32 of her first interview with McDonald. |
Copies of vintage prints and some contemporary pictures of Orange Factory people and places. Most of the images on Contact Sheet #2 were enlarged and are in Folder 1 of this series.