The Rowan Museum in Salisbury, N.C.

Sue is a wizard at finding places to go which are still close enough for me to visit comfortably. She often “discovers” places which I have passed without notice several times; such as this little museum in Salisbury, the seat of Rowan County. 

It’s located right next door to the Rowan County Court House and Police Station; two  places with which I am familiar. I’ve filed many documents in the one; and pled to a few citations in the other. But I never noticed the small Greek revival building next door on Main Street.

But Sue did. Actually she read about it in one of those little papers which most men don’t ever look at. You know; the local ones with coupons and gardening stuff. Also; apparently; articles about local historical sites in the area. That’s where she ran across this one.

Located on Main Street, next door; as I’ve said; to the Courthouse, is a small Greek revival building which looks as Southern as it can. It was built in 1855 and was home to the original County Courthouse until 1914, when the building next door opened. It is now home to the Rowan Museum and is open Monday through Saturdays from 10 AM to 6 PM and is free of charge; though donations are encouraged.

When you walk through the doors your senses are assaulted with color from all of the objects displayed in cases which line the walls of the main hallway. Off of this hallway; to either side; are rooms which are devoted to different aspects of the history of Rowan County. These rooms range from the early settlers; this was once the Western frontier, long before the Wild West of Hollywood fame; to the more modern ones about the mill towns and textile industry; which was once such a predominant part of the economy here.

The room dealing with the impact of the First World War locally was of special interest to me as my grandfather trained in nearby Spartanburg, S.C., right before shipping off to France in the summer of 1918, just in time for the final offensive drive to Berlin. All in all, this was a delightful meander back through the county’s attic; so to speak; not unlike the Smithsonian in its own unique way.

I know that Sue was especially delighted to see this room; which serves as the meeting room for the local DAR chapter, as she is a member in the Mooresville one. Her great, great, Grandfather Henry Pensinger fought in the Revolution; losing a leg at the Battle of Ticonderoga humping cannon over snowy mountains for the surprise raid on the British. Then they humped the cannon back over the same mountains on the way home.  There is also the actual old courthouse; which is located upstairs and I did not see. Sue did, and she can finish telling you about that as well as more about the local DAR chapter. Take it away, Sue....

   

The Elizabeth Maxwell Steele Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was chartered in 1898. It is named for Elizabeth Steele as she was a “Salisbury Patriot”, who operated a Tavern just up the street from this corner during the American Revolution. The story is that General Nathanial Greene stopped overnight at the Tavern. When Mrs. Steele realized he needed funds for his Troops, she gave him her life savings. (Note the money bag on her portrait on the wall.)

The second floor is the actual old courtroom with a wrap- around interior balcony.  You can stand in the balcony and imagine the old courtroom scenes below. It has been refurbished and is available for event rentals. To the side of the courtroom, are doors that lead you out to the exterior balcony that overlooks the historic downtown.

"Gastonia Gallop" - Cotton Mill Songs (1927-1931)

This unique recording is the real deal; 24 songs recorded by local Cotton Mill bands during the years 1927-1931. The town of Gastonia is about 20 miles from my home and I have even driven past the old mill shown on the cover many times. At one time Gastonia was amongst the leading cotton mill towns in North Carolina. The Great Depression, as well as the increasing demands of the Unions, both combined to shut most of these mills down. When "Globalization" and "outsourcing" began in the 1980"s, it spelled the end of these mills. But what a rich history they leave behind in terms of music and storytelling!

Cotton mill workers were pretty much the victims of greedy bosses and a lack of labor laws during their time. They worked 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week, with no protection from the fibers as they spun the threads to make the clothes that were sold worldwide. The irony of it all was that, even in the heady days before the Great Depression struck, these same workers were wandering about in near rags, never making enough to buy the clothes made from the threads they spun. But they survived, in their own fashion, through song, sex and liquor. Even with the country in the grips of that great experiment, Prohibition, the supply of local "hootch" made Saturday night dances, often called "socials", the most attractive, and affordable means of entertainment.

These men and women, pictured here marching on Main Street in Gastonia during a strike on Labor Day 1934, were the backbone of the industry. They were also the ones singing these songs, and living the life described in them. From the opening number by The Carolina Twins doing an instrumental number on harmonica and guitar, to the more risqué "Get Your Head in Here", which describes some of the Saturday night pleasures available in a mill town, this album teems with the real life experiences of these men, women and children who labored so hard and long for so little.

Some of the songs are Union oriented, as in Wilmer Watts and The Lonely Eagles number "Been On the Job Too Long", as well as the "Cotton Mill Colic" by David McCarn, which describes the hardships faced by the average Cotton Mill worker.

The mills may be long gone, but the music, and stories, left behind by these hardworking men and women will live forever thanks to these recordings, which were restored and re-released in 2009.

There is an empty feeling in the air when you walk down the Main Street of an old mill town. They used to connect one town to another, but now have all been supplanted by the Interstates, which took most of the businesses to the freeway exits, leaving the Main Streets to become ghost towns. But when walking past the mill, if you lean your head just right, you can hear the spindles and looms humming away. And if you're really lucky, you can still hear the strains of the songs sung on Saturday nights at the socials.

Linthead by Wilt Browning

I moved to North Carolina 11 years ago. I had never seen a "Mill Town" before. I had been to some coal towns in the Appalachians when I was a kid with my parents. They took us to see a company coal town in 1964 around the time Lyndon Johnson was cranking out his "War Against Poverty." We went home greatly appreciative of all that we had.

Time, though, has a way of erasing and replacing the bad memories with Nostalgia.

I have seen many of the former mill towns here in North Carolina, most notably Mooresville, which was a bustling place through the early 1960's. It was a mill town, a railroad town and a farming community. All of that changed when Lake Norman was built and the Interstate came through several miles to the West about 45 years ago.

But I have walked the streets of, and worked in Mooresville for a good portion of my time here and always wondered what it was like in its' prime. "Linthead" gives me some answers.

In less than 200 pages Mr. Browning has painted a wonderful, sepia tinged potrait of the mill town of Easley, South Carolina in the 1940's and 50's. His was the last generation of true "lintheads". Lintheads were the people who worked in the mills. The carpenters, loom hands and spinners all came home each day covered in the white lint of the mill.

This was a time of Company Stores, scrip instead of cash, hog boiling time and baseball. It was also the generation that would witness the demise all these things as they were replaced by Unions,cash,chain stores and the general breaking down of the old order.

This is an unusual book written by a man who escaped working in the mills (he became a sports writer) but is clearly proud of the simple way of life which he once knew.I think that is the charm of this book- we all want to go home again- but can't. The way is filled with memories, some good and some bad. The past ways are harder to live with as we age. We have all become a bit softer, yet we want to go back to the struggles of our earlier years.

We can't and so Nostalgia is the next best thing.