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Company News from Erlanger Mills

Headmast from Lexington, NC paper The Er-Lantern

Here we have issues of Lexington’s The Er-Lantern spanning from 1958 to 1971. Similar Spray’s Fieldcrest Mill Whistle and High Point’s Sew It Seams The Er-Lantern was a company paper depicting everyday life around the Erlanger Mills village.

Photo of a group of women and young girls standing on bleachers indoors. Captioned "Fashion Show" and taken by H. Lee Waters
Er-Lantern
September, 1969

Opened in 1914, Erlanger Mills was created by Charles and Abraham Erlanger as a source of cotton for their Baltimore underwear company, which originally produced the one-piece “union suits.” By the 1920s, the company’s 250-ace complex included over employee 300 houses, multiple churches and schools, a hospital, and even its own baseball team. The village was officially annexed into Lexington in 1942 and the mill was sold to Gastonia’s Parkdale Mill Inc. in 1972. In 2008, the village was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

photo of a woman looking up at a bulletin board on the wall in the Erlanger Mills factory
Er-Lantern
November, 1960
Ten men in 1917 style baseball uniforms standing in a row with their coach, in a suit and hat, kneeling in front
Charlotte News and Evening Chronicle
February 21, 1917

Photographer H. Lee Waters, who took many of the photos featured in the paper, has a collection of village-life snapshots on their website here.

These papers were provided to us by our partners at the Davidson County Public Library.


More Issues of Fieldcrest Mill Whistle have been Added to DigitalNC

Fieldcrest Mill Whistle newspaper masthead

Three additional issues of The Fieldcrest Mill Whistle are now available to view on DigitalNC thanks to our partner, Rockingham Community College.

The Fieldcrest Mill Whistle provided Spray, North Carolina residents with a community newspaper and also doubled as a source of information for Fieldcrest Mills employees. Fieldcrest Mills was a textile mill that produced items such as blankets, towels, and bed sheets.

Newspaper clipping of a large group of young girls at a library with their dolls

Doll party at the Rockingham County Library, from January 10, 1949.

 

Newspaper clipping of two employees at a workplace event.

Employees are celebrated at a Safety Barbecue, October 23, 1978.

 

Newspaper clipping of advice used as newspaper space fillers.

An example of fillers for blank spaces in the paper, January 10, 1949.

 

To view more material from Rockingham Community College, click here, or for the entire issue catalog of The Fieldcrest Mill Whistle, click here.


New Materials from Rockingham County Public Library, Including Yearbooks, Films, and More

The James J. Dallas home in Rockingham County.

The newest batch of materials from our partner, Rockingham County Public Library, includes two yearbooks, three books, a vertical file, several newspaper issues, and two short films. The yearbooks, from 1967 and 1968, were created by Madison-Mayodan Junior High School. The books cover the stories of Rockingham county notables John D. Robertson and James J. Dallas, as well as the Greensboro Telephone Exchange. The vertical file contains materials related to Smyrna Presbyterian Church’s centennial celebration, and the newspapers include more issues from the Fieldcrest Mill Whistle.

Lastly, video footage in this batch includes two films converted from 8mm format. The first shows the 1969 Madison Christmas Parade filmed in downtown Madison, NC. The second is a film created by Macfield Inc. that details their continuing education program for employees.

Serious student government officials seen in the 1968 Madison-Mayodan Junior High School yearbook.

To browse through the items in this batch, click the links below.

To see more materials from Rockingham County Public Library, check out their DigitalNC partner page, or take a look at their website.


Birthdays, Community Accomplishments Featured in New Additions to Rockingham County Legacy Project

5 Scrapbooks, several fliers, a local mill’s employee newspaper, and an assortment of news clippings from the Rockingham County Public Library are the latest additions to the collaborative Rockingham County Legacy project.

Birthdays were a pervasive theme among some of DigitalNC’s new additions from the Rockingham County Public Library. The Welcome to Madison Rockingham County – Wagon Train Scrapbook documents the festivities for the town’s 150th Birthday, including parades, dances, and competitions. Perhaps one of the more interesting competitions was the “Beards of the Week,” featured in the back pages of the scrapbook. Sesquicentennial activities had Madison reliving earlier days, as the clippings demonstrate costumes from several different decades. The most popular period covered in the scrapbook appears to be the early 19th century, with men, women, and children all looking the part in articles from the Madison Messenger. The Madison Sesquicentennial Celebration [1968] folder also features fliers, brochures, and order forms for the different events during the celebration. However, the town of Madison was not the only community celebrating. The congregation of Bethel A.M.E. Church, Reidsville, N.C. documented their Centennial Celebration with a booklet, as well. Speedwell Presbyterian Church and Some Rockingham County Churches are sets of newspaper clippings that document several other churches’ birthdays, anniversaries, and moments.

rcpl_publiclibrary099

Madison Public Library, Page 42

The Madison Public Library Scrapbook documents the successes and trials of several library branches in Rockingham County during the 1950’s. While Madison Public Library experienced growth, both in the collection and in numbers of users, it also faced budgetary and resources constraints.

rcpl_people1141

Rockingham County People Vol. I, Page 34.

Rockingham County People, Volumes I-III, could serve as an interesting research tool to those seeking genealogical research about members of the Rockingham County community. The scrapbooks, sorted alphabetically, feature profiles of people who once resided in the county. Some profiles document the daily lives of everyone from church leaders to stay-at-home mothers, while others highlight the interesting and important accomplishments of people that represent the county. One such example is the story of newspaper editor, Horace Carter, who waged a print war against the Ku Klux Klan during the 1950’s. Carter attacked the Klan through his paper and aided the FBI and SBI in undercover work. He eventually won several awards including the Pulitzer Prize.

To see any of the items featured here in full, along with the entire collection, visit the Rockingham County Legacy exhibit page. For more information about the Rockingham County Public Library and their materials, visit their contributor page on DigitalNC or their website.

 

 

 


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This blog is maintained by the staff of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center and features the latest news and highlights from the collections at DigitalNC, an online library of primary sources from organizations across North Carolina.

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