Glencoe Mills Records, 1837-1978

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Summary

Creator:
Glencoe Mills.
Abstract:

The collection consists of records of Glencoe Mills, a cotton mill established in 1880, the Glencoe Mills store, Lakeside Mills, Windsor Mills, and Carolina Mills, all owned and operated by the white Holt and Green families of Alamance County, North Carolina. The earliest letters are between Robert Holt in North Carolina and his brother Samuel Holt in Texas. Early mill records consist mainly of correspondence, inventory books, day books, ledgers, time records, meeting minutes, letter books, and other records. The collection also includes the papers of Walter Guerry Green (1868-1946) that document his law practice, his political activities in the Republican Party and the American Independent Party, his community activities, and his financial affairs.

Extent:
60,000 items (90.5 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Glencoe Mills, established in 1880 by James Henry Holt (1833-1897) and William Erwin Holt (1839-1917), operated until 1954, producing cotton fabric. In 1951, the mill reported capitalization of $225,000; 5,736 spindles; and 220 looms. It operated with electric power, had a dye plant, and had finishing equipment. Glencoe Mills closed in 1954.

Glencoe Mills was one of several mills owned and operated in Alamance County, N.C., by the Holt family. Edwin Michael Holt (1807-1884) started the Holt and Carrigan Cotton Mill in 1837. By 1860, it was called Alamance Cotton Mill and was famous for plaids. Edwin Michael Holt's sons, James Henry Holt and William Erwin Holt established Carolina Cotton Mills in 1869. Carolina Mills was operated by J. H. and W. E. Holt and Company. In 1879, James and William Holt acquired a building that had been a tobacco processing plant and that was a short way upstream from Carolina Mills. By 1880, they had installed cotton mill machinery and built mill tenement houses and a company store. They called the mill and the village Glencoe. William Holt moved to Charlotte to be a banker, leaving James Holt to run Glencoe Mills.

In 1890, James Henry Holt helped his sons, James Jr. (1864-1924) and Robert (1866-1923) build Windsor Cotton Mills in Burlington. Windsor Mills was operated by R. L. and J. H. Holt and Company. In 1892, Holt helped sons Samuel (1862-1924) and William (1868-1916) build Lakeside Mills in Burlington. After James Henry Holt died in 1897, his sons Samuel and Ernest moved to Texas to be cattle ranchers. Robert Holt managed Glencoe, Carolina, Alamance, and Elmira Cotton Mills, and was almost sole owner of Glencoe Mills. In 1902, he retired from management of the other mills and devoted 100% of his time to Glencoe. When Robert Holt died in 1923, ownership of Glencoe Mills passed to his sister, Daisie Holt Green (1879-1976).

Daisie Holt Green's husband, Walter Guerry Green (1868-1946), managed Glencoe Mills for a number of years. Green was a native of Sumter, S.C. He married Daisie Holt on 25 November 1902. Their son, Walter G. Green, Jr. (d. 1987), managed Glencoe Mills after his father. Walter Green, Jr., was an attorney. He married Irma Camman Jameson on 1 September 1934. He served in the United States Navy during World War II. Green was an active Republican in the 1950s and 1960s.

Scope and content:

Records of Glencoe Mills and Lakeside Mills, a few records of other mills owned by the Holt family, and papers of Walter G. Green, Jr. The early correspondence files arrived at the Manuscripts Department in letter boxes which were not labeled. The earliest letters are between Robert Holt in North Carolina and his brother Samuel Holt in Texas. Early mill records consist mainly of correspondence and ledgers. Volumes include inventory books, day books, ledgers, time records, meeting minutes, letter books, and other records of Glencoe Mills, the Glencoe Mills store, Lakeside Mills, Windsor Mills, and Carolina Mills.

Files removed from filing cabinets in Walter Green's office at Glencoe Mills include files relating to his law practice, his political activities, his community activities, and his financial affairs, as well as Glencoe Mills records. For the most part, folder order and titles have been retained. Folder titles have been created for a few folders that were not labeled and a few folders containing material that was not in folders. Papers on any one subject may be found in several boxes.

The Addition of September 2019 consists chiefly of financial records, 1948-1951, including invoices from Charles W. Angle Inc. Building Contractors regarding the cost of construction of a new dam. Additional invoices from this company involve the construction of a new finishing plant, as well as other miscellaneous projects and installations. Also included are invoices from the Ambursen Dam Company and the E.F. Craven Company for road building machinery and power repairs, and a few checks. Correspondence from 1946 concerns Glencoe Dam rebuilding plans and includes blueprints, sketches, and cost estimates. Correspondence from 1949 concerns flood damage and includes cost estimates due to lack of insurance. Other materials include photograph copies of the Glencoe Mills site and operations from the 1940s; maps and sketches of site plans, including R.L. Holt's planting plans for 1919; engineering diagrams of machinery; company graphics and print materials; and a folder of educational materials on the history of Glencoe Mills, which was required learning material at the Glencoe School, according to the Charlotte Observer.

Acquisition information:

Received from Preservation North Carolina in July 1997 (Acc. 97093) and September 2019 (Acc. 103715).

Processing information:

Processed by: Linda Sellars, December 1997

Encoded by: Margaret Dickson, February 2006

Revisions by: Nancy Kaiser, Gillian McCuistion, and Chaitra Powell, October 2019

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Sensitive materials statement:

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to use:

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

No usage restrictions.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the Glencoe Mills Records #4881, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu