A History of the Fabric Mills on the Dan River
- Catherine Gauldin
- 2 days ago
- 14 min read
When the family of Thomas J. Gauldin left Pittsylvania County, Virginia, in the late nineteenth century and crossed into Rockingham County, North Carolina, they were following a path taken by thousands of rural Southern families whose lives had been reshaped by the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the rise of the textile industry. Their move was not random. It was a direct response to the opening and rapid expansion of Dan River Mills, a textile powerhouse that transformed the economic landscape of the Virginia–North Carolina Piedmont and the Textile mills around Spray, Leaksville and Draper, NC where the Gauldin Family worked. The opening of the fabric mills was a turning point in Southern history, the moment when families, long tied to the land, began seeking wage labor in the new industrial South.
The Dan River, running from the Blue Ridge foothills through Virginia into North Carolina, became one of the South’s most valuable industrial rivers because of its steady current, dependable water volume, and natural fall lines. These features made it ideal for powering the machinery of early textile mills, which relied on water turbines long before electricity was common. Its wide yet manageable flow allowed dams and mill races to be built with relative ease, and its central location in the Piedmont placed it near thousands of small cotton farms and rural families who needed new sources of income after the Civil War.
In 1882, Riverside Cotton Mills—later known as Dan River Mills—opened on the riverbank in Danville, Virginia. The mill grew rapidly, becoming the largest textile firm in the South. Within ten years, four mills were in operation. In 1909, Riverside merged with the Dan River Power and Manufacturing Company, forming the Riverside and Dan River Cotton Mills. Production soared from 2 million yards of cloth in 1884 to 78 million yards by the early twentieth century. (1)
Even before the merger, Riverside Cotton Mills dominated Southern textile manufacturing. The mills created entire communities around them. Schoolfield, a mill village built by Riverside, became a self‑contained town where workers lived in company housing, attended company‑supported churches and schools, and relied on the mill for wages, stability, and community life. This pattern of mill‑village development spread across the Piedmont, including into Spray, Leaksville, and Draper in Rockingham County, North Carolina. The Dan River’s natural power made the mills possible, and the mills, in turn, offered a lifeline to families whose farming livelihoods had collapsed after the Civil War and Reconstruction.
The following is from LEAKSVILLE - SPRAY - DRAPER, Historical Sketch (2)
" In 1892, under the leadership of the late B. Frank Mebane, a marvelous expansion began, and for several years a new cotton or woolen mill was promoted each year, with all the available water power of the Smith River being utilized, and steam plants being required. In the meantime in old Leaksvllle, tobacco manufacturing was the chief, or only industry, as it had been for almost a century. Auction warehouses had opened here soon after the war between the states, and the market held up well in competition with other points. As late as 1893, eight factories were making chewing tobacco here, and some of their brands were famous throughout the country. The Danville and New River Railroad Company built its lines to Leaksville by 1884. It is now the Carolina and Northwestern, a branch of the Southern System. This ended all water transportation, as well as the hauling of freight from Reidsville and Danville by wagons with team horses, mules and oxen."
Thomas J. Gauldin’s estate in 1893 totaled only $122.73 in personal property—proof of how difficult farming had become and the mills were expanding when the Gauldins Needed Work. Dan River Mills opened in 1882 and Mebane’s mills expanded between 1898–1906. Thomas died in 1892, meaning his children entered adulthood precisely when mill employment was booming. Their migration from Pittsylvania County to Rockingham County was part of a larger regional transformation—one in which textile mills reshaped the Southern economy and gave struggling rural families a chance to rebuild their lives.
Why the Mills that were on the Dan River Mattered to Farming Families
1. The Collapse of the Agricultural Economy After the Civil War
Families like the Gauldins had been farmers for generations, but the Civil War devastated the agricultural economy as livestock herds were destroyed and tools and equipment were lost or worn out. Cash was scarce, land values plummeted and the labor system collapsed. Reconstruction brought new taxes, new debts, and new pressures. Many small farmers—especially those who had never owned enslaved labor—found themselves unable to recover economically. The Gauldins were exactly this kind of family. Their probate records show modest personal estates, limited cash, and reliance on livestock and simple tools. When Thomas died in 1893, his entire personal estate sold for $122.73, a stark illustration of how difficult farming had become.
2. Textile Mills Offered Something Farming Could Not: Cash Wages
The Textile Mills provided steady wages, housing in mill villages, a predictable work schedule and employment for men, women and older children. Riverside developed a mill village for its workers, providing housing in order to retain labor that had been recruited from the surrounding areas, so for families with many children this was transformative. Farming could not support such a household in the postwar economy. Mill work allowed multiple children to earn wages.
3. The Mills Were Close Enough to Reach
Danville, Virginia, and Rockingham County, North Carolina, are adjacent. The Gauldins did not have to uproot their entire world—they simply crossed the state line into a region where mills were multiplying. This expansion required thousands of workers. The Gauldins were exactly the kind of labor force the mills sought: rural, hardworking, accustomed to long hours, and in need of stable income.
Frank Mebane and the Mills of Spray & Draper, North Carolina
Benjamin Franklin “L. Frank” Mebane Jr. (1865–1926) (4) was one of the most influential textile industrialists in the Piedmont region of North Carolina. Born in Mebanesville on February 4, 1865, he came from a prominent family—his father was Dr. Benjamin Franklin Mebane, known for patent medicines, and his mother Frances Lavinia Kerr Mebane belonged to a well‑established local lineage.
Mebane was educated at the Bingham Military School, but he entered business early, becoming self‑employed at age seventeen. He first worked as a salesman in Danville, Virginia, and New York City, gaining exposure to textile markets and industrial operations. (5)
His life changed dramatically in 1893, when he married Lily Connally Morehead, granddaughter of Governor John Motley Morehead, founder of the Leaksville Cotton Mill, the first textile mill in Leaksville.
Through this marriage, Mebane entered one of the most powerful textile families in the region. Lily’s father, James Turner Morehead, had consolidated the family’s textile interests into two major companies in 1892: the Leaksville Cotton and Woolen Mill Company and the Spray Water Power and Land Company. Morehead placed Mebane at the helm of both companies, giving him the foundation he needed to launch an extraordinary industrial empire. (7)
Building the Mills of Spray and Draper
Between 1898 and 1906, Mebane built a new mill almost every year, transforming the small communities of Leaksville, Spray, and Draper into one of the largest textile manufacturing centers in the South. His mills included: (5)
1. Nantucket Mill (1898) - The Nantucket Mill was Mebane’s first major construction project in the Spray area. Built in 1898, it marked the beginning of his ambitious plan to create a vertically integrated textile empire. Nantucket Mill produced cotton goods and helped establish Spray as a rising industrial village. Its success encouraged Mebane to continue building additional mills on his newly acquired land.
2. American Warehouse (1899) - Completed in 1899, the American Warehouse served as a crucial storage and distribution hub for Mebane’s growing operations. As production increased, the warehouse allowed raw cotton, finished cloth, and mill supplies to be organized and shipped efficiently. It supported all of the surrounding mills and helped streamline the movement of goods along the Dan River corridor.
3. Lily Mill (1900) - Named for Mebane’s wife, Lily Connally Morehead, the Lily Mill opened in 1900 and specialized in terry cloth—part of Mebane’s original vision to manufacture towels on a large scale. Lily Mill became one of the central facilities in the Spray textile district and contributed significantly to the reputation of the region as a producer of high‑quality household textiles.
4. Spray Woolen Mill (1902) - By 1902, Mebane expanded beyond cotton manufacturing and built the Spray Woolen Mill, which produced woolen cloth and later became associated with the famous Karastan rug division. The woolen mill diversified the local textile economy and brought new types of skilled labor into Spray. A 1908 postcard of the mill survives in the UNC Archives.
5. Morehead Mills (1902) - Also built in 1902, Morehead Mills honored the Morehead family—Mebane’s in‑laws and early textile pioneers in Leaksville. This mill produced cotton goods and strengthened the industrial link between Leaksville and Spray. It was one of the mills later absorbed by Marshall Field & Company during the 1910–1912 takeover.
6. Rhode Island Mill (1903) - The Rhode Island Mill, completed in 1903, continued Mebane’s rapid expansion. It added additional spinning and weaving capacity to the Spray complex and helped meet growing national demand for cotton textiles. Its name reflected Mebane’s interest in adopting northern textile practices and technologies.
7. German-American Stock Company Mill, Draper (1906) - In 1906, Mebane partnered with William F. Draper, a prominent New England textile machinery manufacturer, to build the German-American Stock Company Mill in Draper. This mill extended Mebane’s industrial reach beyond Spray and into the neighboring village of Draper. It represented a blend of Southern investment and Northern industrial expertise, and it helped establish Draper as a full participant in the regional textile economy.
These mills specialized in cotton and woolen textiles, producing cloth, towels, and other goods that fed the booming national demand for affordable fabrics. Mebane’s operations were strategically located along the Dan River, where water power could be harnessed for industrial use.
The communities of Spray and Draper became classic Southern mill villages—company towns where workers lived in mill‑owned houses, shopped at mill‑owned stores, and relied on mill wages for survival. These villages later merged with Leaksville to form the modern city of Eden, North Carolina. (1)
L. Frank Mebane and His Farmland Tenants
Benjamin Franklin “L. Frank” Mebane Jr., the driving force behind the textile boom in Spray, Leaksville, and Draper, was not only a mill builder—he was also one of the largest landowners in North Carolina. His industrial empire rested on two pillars: textile manufacturing and land ownership, both of which shaped the lives of the families who worked for him.
According to the historical record:
“Mebane… retained, through his Spray Water Power and Land Company and Rockingham Company, possession of 8,000 acres of farmland—known as ‘the Meadows’—near the confluence of the Smith and Dan Rivers and the town of Draper. There, he developed a successful cattle business and established a hunting lodge.”
This enormous tract of land was far more than a gentleman’s estate. It was a working agricultural operation, and like most large Piedmont landowners of the era, Mebane did not farm it alone. The Meadows required laborers to tend cattle, maintain pastures, and cultivate feed crops. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such labor was almost always supplied by tenant farmers, share‑renters, or laborers who worked partly for wages and partly for shares.
Although the sources do not explicitly state “sharecropping,” the context is unmistakable:
Mebane owned 8,000 acres, far more than a single family could farm.
The land was managed through his Spray Water Power and Land Company, which was both a textile and land‑development corporation.
Mill villages in Spray and Draper were surrounded by farmland owned by the same industrialists who owned the mills.
Tenant farming was the standard agricultural labor system in Rockingham County during this period.
Mill workers often supplemented their wages with small rented plots or lived on company‑owned farmland.
In other words, Mebane’s landholdings were part of a dual economic system: mill labor for wages and farm tenancy for subsistence. Many families who worked in his mills also lived on land owned by the company or rented small plots nearby. This arrangement allowed mill workers to:
Grow food to supplement low wages
Keep livestock
Maintain traditional rural lifestyles while working industrial jobs
Reduce dependence on mill wages alone
For families like the Gauldins, who migrated from Pittsylvania County seeking mill work, this system offered stability. They could work in the mills during the day and rent small plots of land for gardens, livestock, or supplemental farming—an arrangement common across the Piedmont mill villages.
The Greensboro Daily News described Mebane as: “one of the largest landowners in North Carolina.”
Large landowners in this era did not leave thousands of acres idle. They rented them—often to the same families who worked in their mills.
The recollections of James W. Gauldin
In 1986 I talked to my father James W. Gauldin about what he remembered about his grandfather Dock W. Gauldin and where his grandparents lived. He remembered that Dock and his wife Annie lived on land they worked for shares from Frank Mebane and that is probably the same place some of the other members of the family of Thomas J. Gauldin migrated to from the farmland of their former home. For a transcription of my father’s recollections, see Gaulding Origins The Recollections of James W. Gauldin.
“Dock lived in Rockingham County after his marriage to Annie Catherine Powell. They lived on a farm about three miles from Draper and downriver on the Dan River. This land at the time of my visit with my father and my Uncle Bruch (about 1948) was grown up with second growth timber. Dock and family did not own the land but did own their teams of mules and farm implements and worked the land under some system oof shares with the owner. I’ve heard my Daddy talk about being raised there, and they raised primarily corn in the lowlands of the Dan River and the reason that they put corn in the lowlands is that chemical fertilizer wasn’t too much known and the flooding of the river each year would wash nutrients and fresh soil and it would still grow a good crop of corn. They also grew tobacco and I would imagine a garden. That was pretty standard throughout the South at that time.” The land that Dock Gauldin farmed was owned by B. Frank Mebane, who owned 1000 acres in the area and rented out parcels to farmers.
“The owner of the land that Dock worked was called “Colonel” somebody…Pap said that he always had a Christmas party for the kids that lived on the property and would have oysters and things shipped in from the Chesapeake Bay and they were the only oysters that he had ever seen, because transportation was not readily available like it is now.” Dock farmed and raised cattle on about 100 acres. According to B.I. Atkins of Martinsville VA the farm was located near Berry Hill, on the way to Danville. Cesero and Cory Underwood bought the land after Dock died.”
In the 1910 Census Dock and Catherine were living on the farm they rented from B. Frank Mebane. The older children were helping on the farm, but two including my grandfather Lester were supplementing the family income by working in the fabric mill, also owned by Mebane.
Doc W Gauldin - Age 45, listed as a farmer
Annie K Gauldin – 37, working at home
Robert Gauldin - 19, working as a farm hand
Bertha L Gauldin – 16, working in the cotton mill
Posie G Gauldin – 13, working in the cotton mill
Arthur T Gauldin – 11, no occupation.
This arrangement was probably typical among similar families. The older son helped on the farm while some of the younger children, including my grandfather Posie were sent to the mills to earn a few dollars to help support the household. It was the grim reality of life then; education had to take a second place to earning money.
The Recollections of James W. Gauldin
My father’s memories describe the land as second‑growth timber by the late 1940s, suggesting that it had once been cleared and farmed intensively, then allowed to regrow after Dock’s death. Dock and his family worked the land under a share‑rent or tenancy system, a common arrangement in Rockingham County at the time. They owned their teams of mules and farm implements, but not the land itself—an arrangement typical of Piedmont tenant farmers who supplemented mill wages with agricultural production. The Gauldins primarily grew corn in the lowlands along the Dan River. This detail reveals a great deal about the environment. The Dan River’s annual floods replenished the soil naturally, making the bottomlands ideal for corn without purchased fertilizer. This was a traditional farming practice in the Piedmont, especially among families with limited cash. Dock also grew tobacco, the region’s most valuable cash crop, and maintained a garden, which your father notes was “pretty standard throughout the South at that time.” The combination of corn, tobacco, and garden produce was typical of tenant farmers who needed both subsistence food and a small cash income.
My father’s memory also preserves a glimpse of the social world of the landowner. He recalled that “Colonel” (almost certainly Mebane or one of his overseers) hosted Christmas parties for the children living on his property. He had oysters shipped from Chesapeake Bay, a luxury in a time when transportation was limited. These oysters were memorable because they were the first he had ever seen—an example of how mill‑village and tenant‑farm life blended hardship with occasional generosity from the landowning class. Dock farmed and raised cattle on about 100 acres, a substantial parcel for a tenant farmer. According to B.I. Atkins of Martinsville, the farm was located near Berry Hill, on the way to Danville—an area known for its river bottomlands and proximity to both the Dan River and the textile towns.
Happy Home Church sits in the northern part of Rockingham County, in the community historically known as Happy Home, a rural settlement between Ruffin and the Dan River valley. This area lies just upriver and northwest of the old Spray textile district, where the Gauldin family worked after leaving Pittsylvania County, thus the land was close enough to the Spray mills for daily work but far enough into the countryside to maintain the farming lifestyle my father described.
The Dick and Willie
Mebane was ambitious—perhaps too ambitious. In 1911–1912, he poured enormous resources into building the North Carolina & Virginia Railroad, hoping to improve transportation of cotton, finished textiles, coal, and supplies between his mills and Danville’s larger rail network. The project ultimately overextended him financially and contributed to the Marshall Field takeover of his mills in 1912. Although the railroad began as a corporate industrial line, it survived long after Mebane’s financial collapse. Over time, locals began calling it the “Dick and Willie Railroad.”
The nickname came from the two towns it connected:
Danville (“Dick”)
Williamsburg / Leaksville / Spray (“Willie”)
The line ran from Danville into Rockingham County, serving the mill villages that later became Eden, NC. It carried freight for the textile mills, tobacco warehouses, and local farms, and eventually became a beloved part of regional lore. (1)
The Route Summary:
Danville, VA → diverges from Southern Railway at Stokesland
Ran southwest through rolling hills
Approached the Dan River valley
Crossed the NC border twice, then returned to Virginia
Followed the north side of the Dan River
Passed Berryhill
Reached Leaksville Junction (major junction)
A Branch line ran 7.5 miles to Leaksville–Spray–Draper
The main line turned north into the Blue Ridge foothills
Passed Aiken Summit, Boxwood, Axton
Turned west
Passed Burnt Chimneys, Chatmoss, Ballast Siding
Terminated at Martinsville, VA
By the mid‑20th century, the “Dick and Willie” was no longer a major freight line, but its right‑of‑way remained visible. In Danville today, the old railbed has been converted into the Dick & Willie Rail Trail, a popular walking and biking path.. His largest creditor, Marshall Field & Company of Chicago, seized control of nearly all his mills except Morehead Mills and the original Leaksville mill. By 1912, the takeover was complete. Marshall Field later consolidated these holdings into Fieldcrest Mills, which became one of the most famous textile brands in America. (7)
Despite losing control of most of his mills, Mebane remained a major landowner and influential figure in Rockingham County. He retained 8,000 acres of farmland known as “The Meadows”, where he operated a cattle business and built a hunting lodge. (5)
He also served:
As president of the Imperial Bank and Trust Company
As founder of the Spray Institute of Technology
On the Rockingham County school board from 1919 to 1925
As a prominent Republican in a largely Democratic county
The Greensboro Daily News described him as a millionaire and “one of the largest landowners in North Carolina.” Mebane died suddenly in New York City on June 15, 1926, while preparing to sail for England.
Works Cited
1. Textiles History. NC State University. [Online] Fieldcrest Mills, Eden, North Carolina. https://history.textiles.ncsu.edu/textile-companies/fieldcrest-mills/?utm_source=copilot.com.
2. LEAKSVILLE - SPRAY - DRAPER Historical Sketch . leaksville.com. [Online] Based on the writings of Judge Henry P. Lane of Leaksville. http://www.leaksville.com/History.html.
3. Photo Credit Itsdevo - Own. Image of Spray Cotton Mills Complex. Wikipedia. [Online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spray_Industrial_Historic_District#/media/File:Spray_Cotton_Mills.jpg.
4. B. Frank Mebane. Find a Grave. [Online] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34123739/benjamin-franklin-mebane.
5. Frank Mebene. Wikipedia. [Online] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Mebane?utm_source=copilot.com.
6. image of Lily Connally Morehead. Find a Grave. [Online] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19891742/lily-connally-mebane.
7. Benjamin Franklin Jr., Mebane. NC Encyclopedia. [Online] https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/mebane-benjamin-frankli-0?utm_source=copilot.com.
8. Gauldin, Catherine L. Map Danville and Western Railroad Route by Catherine Gauldin for Gaulding Origins.
9. North Carolina, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998. ancestry.com. [Online] Rockingham, Wills, 1916-1946. https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryuicontent/view/6095993:60548?tid=&pid=&queryId=2a0fbc0081e75a72ff07d73fd505d2c8&_phsrc=xjf3078&_phstart=successSource .
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