Once Thriving Village
Now a Ghost Town

from The News Herald, Morganton, NC -- March 27, 2005
by Lauren Williamson

Driving through the old Henry River Mill Village today reveals no similarities between the once thriving community that existed.

Long ago, Henry River was well known for its water power and Lincoln County native Michael Erastus Rudisill wanted to build upon it.

He traveled to Henry River early in the 1900s with the hopes of building a cotton mill along the river. His brother, Albert Pinkney Rudisill, ventured to the site and engineered the building of the Henry River Dam.

Several others, including Gus Quickie, Monroe Houser, Miles R. Rudisill, David William Aderholdt, and Marcus Lafayette Aderholdt, came to Henry River about the same time. The group formed a corporation known as Henry River Manufacturing Company.

Construction of Henry River Mills was complete in 1905, and thus the cotton manufacturing began.

In its early years, the mill operated 4,000 yarn-making spindles. By the time it shut down in the late 1960s, the mill had 12,000 spindles and produced fine combed yarn for lace.

The village consisted of not only the mill and company store but a boarding house and 35 clapboard structures that housed the mills' workers and their families.

Local native Frank Eckard grew up on the south side of the river and fondly remembers his days growing up around the mill village.

"When I was a kid, I used to go with my grandparents and uncles over into the village," he said. "They had a farm and sold their milk and vegetables over in the village.

Eckard said he always looked forward to traveling around the village whenever his family went to sell their produce.

"Most everyone there worked at the mill," Eckard said. "They bought most of the stuff they needed at the store. It was its own thriving community."

The booming village, however, began to vanish after the mill was closed in 1973. Wade K. Shepherd bought it in 1976, but never got to open for business because of a fire in 1977 that destroyed the entire mill.

In 2002, The News Herald published an article by correspondent Don Benfield about the village's disintegration.

In the article, Bud Rudisill described the vivacity of the old village and its residents. For 82 of his 88 years, Rudisill resided in the village, having been born in one of the 21 remaining workers' houses and raising his five children for 52 years in a house opposite the old store building, the article said.

Before his father died in 1930, Rudisill had to quit school at the age of 14 and start working in the mill in order to help out his family.

"I had to quit school when I was partway through the fifth grade," he said.

Twelve-hour shifts filled with backbreaking labor took up a good part of the workers' days, with an hour taken out for lunch, but that time rarely taken in reality. The mill had to be run nonstop for the entire 12 hours.

In the hours when mill workers weren't working, they either tended to gardens and livestock, or found ways to entertain themselves, such as square dancing, playing baseball or just going over to a neighbor's place and chewing the fat. Others took a different approach, Rudisill remembers.

"Used to be a lot of drinkin' goin' on around here, he said. "A lot of it. But back then there wasn't much that you had to do..."

The days of the thriving village are long gone now. Instead of the busy mill town, the area is more of a ghost town.

After the mill burned, the community seemed to die out along with it. Workers moved on to new jobs and new communities. Weeds have overtaken the homes' yards and the houses themselves are rundown and falling apart at a steady rate.

When driving through the village today, it is hard to imagine the scores of children playing by the river or the men and women hanging out after working hours.

Eckard and his wife, Diane, have spent numerous hours around the old village, making maps and notes and interviewing folks who either lived in the village or who had relatives who did.

Preservations advocates, government representatives and tourism officials are considering ideas for redeveloping the crumbling village along the Henry River in eastern Burke County.

The group wants to reactivate an application to add the village to the National Register of Historic Places, a designation that could mean tax credits for rehabilitation work.

The Historic Burke Foundation is currently working on the application to have the site placed on the National Register of Historic Places and hopes to have it completed by summer, said Mickie Vacca, director.

"I remember when it was a boom town," Eckard said. "It's sad now, it really is."