Mill Workers and Life in the Mill Village

Mill Workers and Life in the Mill Village. . Mill workers were generally poor white tenant farmers who sought to better their condition. They desired the stable employment and steady wages that resulted from working in a mill., It was not uncommon for entire families, including children, to make up the textile labor force. Men were employed as weavers, loom fixers, carders, or supervisors. Women worked in spinning rooms and as weavers. Boys labored as doffers, replacing bobbins filled with thread with empty ones, or sweepers., The operatives worked long hours, six days a week. According to a report in the Minutes of the Stockholders’ Meeting, dated 30 October 1854:, …we began at five o’clock and ended at seven and on Saturday stopping at five o’clock., Factory hands toiled in the midst of the deafening clamor of the massive machines, the overpowering heat and humidity, and the suffocating dust and lint fibers. Severe injuries occurred when limbs or clothing became entangled in the fast moving machinery., Wages of mill workers were low and dependent on their skill level. Male operatives made $8 a month in the 1840s. By 1930, a women working in the mill earned $12 a week. In the early years, the Roswell Manufacturing Company paid wages in company scrip redeemable only at the company-owned store., The Roswell Store was built across from the town square in 1854. Workers purchased groceries, housewares, and goods made in the mills at the commissary., The company provided housing in an area called “Factory Hill”, overlooking the mill. Log cabins were replaced in the 1850s with duplex housing and apartment buildings, referred to as “The Bricks”. In October of 1898, the tenement dwellings were whitewashed and ceilings were installed to make them more comfortable in the winter. Water was drawn from common wells., Barrington King, president of the Roswell Manufacturing Company, took a fatherly interest in his workers. He protected them from the evils of drinking, made provisions for the instruction of their children, and supplemented their income in times of slow production., (captions) , The Bricks, photograph ca. 1950s. Courtesy of the Roswell Historical Society, Visual Arts Collection, Duplex in Mill Village. Courtesy of the Roswell Historical Society, Visual Arts Collection, Saltbox Residence (originally a duplex) in the Mill Village. Courtesy of the Roswell Historical Society, Visual Arts Collection, Illustration of Mill Worker at Loom by Winslow Homer, ca 1871. Courtesy of Museums of American Textile History, Sketch of Roswell Store by Ernest DeVane. Courtesy of the Roswell Historical Society, Visual Arts Collection, Roswell Manufacturing Company Scrip, 1846. Courtesy of Michael Hitt