Leaksville Cotton Mill

Leaksville Cotton Mill. Cloth for Sale. , Former Gov. John Motley Morehead built the Leaksville cotton factory here in 1839. Water from the nearby Smith River rapids powered the stone mill. In May and June 1861, the factory furnished 1,700 yards of osnaburg (a coarse, strong cloth developed in Osnabruck, Germany, by the 16th century) for uniforms for Confederate infantry companies commanded by Capts. John H. Boyd, Thomas T. Slade, and Giles P. Bailey. That winter, the factory also made 500 twelve-man tents for the Confederate forces. Known as Sibley tents for their inventor, Gen. Henry H. Sibley, who sided with the Confederacy, they were also called “bell” tents because of their shape., When authorities ordered additional cloth from Morehead, he refused even after they threatened to confiscate the mill because sales to civilians were more profitable. After the younger male employees were conscripted into military service, Morehead used older men, women, children, and slaves to manufacture cloth. He finally closed the mill when all able-bodied men under fifty were forced to serve. Morehead later convinced Confederate authorities to detail two older men to work in the mill and resumed the production of cloth for sale to civilians., After Morehead died in 1866, his son James Turner Morehead managed the Leaksville factory. The original structure burned in 1893, and a brick mill was built on the site using the rock from the old building as a foundation. The mill was demolished in 1992, leaving only the stone foundation.