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Size | 1.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 200 items) |
Abstract | Glen Raven Mills Inc. was owned by John Quentin Gant (ca. 1847-1930), who established John Q. Gant Mfg. Co. in Burlington, N.C., in 1900 and began using the name Glen Raven in 1902. Gant had entered the retail dry goods business in Company Shops, N.C. (renamed Burlington in 1893) in 1872, with Lawrence and Banks Holt as inactive partners. He had been employed since 1867 by Edwin M. Holt in the E. M. Holt & Sons Mill, the first in the South to manufacture colored cotton goods. The collection contains family correspondence and other family papers, as well as business records relating to Glen Raven Mills Inc. and other mills. Most of the family letters, 1879-1890, are from Corinna Morehead Erwin Gant to her husband, John Q. Gant, when he was at Company Shops and she was visiting at the Erwin family farm near Morganton, N.C. Family letters, 1903-1930 and later, are about relationships among family members and family history. Also included are copies of 18th- and 19th-century wills of ancestors of John Q. Gant and genealogy materials relating to the Gant and Erwin families. Business correspondence, 1900, includes letters to John Q. Gant about day-to-day mill operations in Mt. Airy, N.C., and about the possible sale of the mill there. Business letters, 1914, discuss attracting South American clients; letters from the 1930s are about awning and cloth prices. There are also Glen Raven Mills record books detailing some of the production, sales, and delivery of mill textiles, 1904-1962. |
Creator | Glen Raven Mills Inc. |
Curatorial Unit | Southern Historical Collection |
Language | English. |
The 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.
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John Quentin Gant (ca. 1847-1930) entered the retail dry goods business in Company Shops, N.C., (renamed Burlington in 1893) in 1872, with Lawrence and Banks Holt as inactive partners. He had previously been employed for six years by Edwin M. Holt in Alamance Mills, owned by E. M. Holt & Sons. Gant's brothers-in-law, William and Locke Erwin, successively came down from Bellevue, their family farm near Morganton, N.C., to work for him after he opened John Q. Gant & Co. In 1880, Gant sold his interest in John Q. Gant & Co. to William A. Erwin.
In 1880, with Berry Davidson as partner, John Q. Gant entered the cotton mill business, opening Altamahaw Cotton Mills. In 1884, the Holt brothers bought out Davidson's interest. Edward Knox Powe, who married Claudia Erwin, came from Morganton to work there.
John Q. Gant established John Q. Gant Mfg. Co. in 1900 and, in 1902, began using the name Glen Raven Cotton Mills.
Lawrence and Banks Holt were the sons of Edwin M. Holt and nephews of William R. Holt. William Holt's daughter Elvira J. Holt married Joseph J. Erwin and was the mother of Margaret L. Erwin, who married Lawrence Holt, and of Corinna Morehead Erwin (1854-1932), who married John Q. Gant in 1879. Corinna M. Erwin and John Q. Gant had ten children: Joseph Erwin (b. 1880), Kenneth (b. 1881), Jessamine (Jesse Minerva, b. 1883), John Q., Jr. (b. 1885), Roger, Corinna Harper, Edwin Holt, Russell, Cecil, and Allen Erwin.
For more information about the Gant family and Glen Raven Mills, see Margaret Elizabeth Gant, The Raven's Story (1979).
Back to TopThe collection contains family correspondence and other family papers, as well as business records relating to Glen Raven Mills Inc. and other mills. Most of the family letters, 1879-1890, are from Corinna Morehead Erwin Gant to her husband, John Q. Gant, when he was at Company Shops and she was visiting at Bellevue, the Erwin family farm near Morganton, N.C. Family letters, 1903-1930 and later, are about relationships among family members and family history. Also included are copies of 18th- and 19th-century wills of ancestors of John Q. Gant and genealogy materials relating to the Gant and Erwin families. Business correspondence, 1900, includes letters to John Q. Gant about day-to-day operations of Hazelhurst Cotton Mills in Mt. Airy, N.C., and about the possible sale of the mill. Business letters, 1914, discuss attracting South American clients; letters from the 1930s are about awning and cloth prices. There are also Glen Raven Mills record books detailing some of the production, sales, and delivery of mill textiles, 1904-1962.
Back to TopArrangement: chronological.
Family correspondence and other papers, mostly genealogical information, chiefly of members of the Gant family. Included are letters, 1879-1890, written by Corinna Morehead Erwin Gant to her husband, John Q. Gant, when he was at Company Shops and she was visiting her family at Bellevue, the Erwin family farm in Morganton, N.C. Typed transcriptions of these letters are included.
John Q. Gant's correspondence includes one letter to his wife in 1886. The rest, 1903-1930, are to and from other relatives and document family history and relationships. There is also a 1932 letter from Corinna Erwin Gant's sister to Corinna, and four letters of John and Corinna Gant's daughters, Jessamine and Corinna, and their grandson, Roger Gant, Jr., about family relationships and family history.
Also included is genealogical information about the Erwin and Gant families that was compiled by Roger Gant. The Gant family folder contains a biographical sketch of Colonel Jesse Gant written by his son, John Q. Gant.
Folder 1 |
1879 |
Folder 2 |
July 1880 |
Folder 3 |
August 1880-October 1880 |
Folder 4 |
1882 |
Folder 5 |
1883-1890 |
Folder 6 |
1903-1908 |
Folder 7 |
1912-1914 |
Folder 8 |
1915-1919 |
Folder 9 |
1920-1924 |
Folder 10 |
1928 |
Folder 11 |
1929-1932 |
Folder 12 |
1954, 1973, 1984, 1993 |
Folder 13 |
Erwin family genealogy |
Folder 14 |
Gant family genealogy |
Arrangement: chronological.
Letters from 1900 include some to John Q. Gant about day-to-day operations of Hazelhurst Cotton Mills in Mt. Airy, N.C., from the manager, William Sumner, and others about the possible sale of that mill. Correspondence in 1914 involves attracting South American clients. The 1930s correspondence concerns awning and cloth prices.
Folder 15 |
1900 |
Folder 16 |
1914 |
Folder 17 |
1933-1939 |
Receipts include a tax receipt issued by John Q. Gant's father, Colonel Jesse Gant, when he was deputy sheriff of Orange County, N.C., and a receipt for items that John Q. Gant bought on a trip to the Panama Canal in 1913.
Wills include those of John Q. Gant's great-great-grandfather, Edward Gant; his great-grandfather, John Gant; his grandfather, Isham Gant; and ancestors, John Anderson and William Anderson.
Folder 18 |
Receipts |
Folder 19 |
Wills |
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Record books detailing some of the production, sales, and delivery of Glen Raven Mills Inc. textiles. Note that original volume titles have, for the most part, been retained.
Oversize volumes (V-4914/S-10 and S-11).
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