Former Mill Villagers Spin Memories
of the Old Times

from The Charlotte Observer -- May 25, 2005
by Heather Howard, Staff Writer

The hot dogs on the menu at Saturday's gathering of residents from the old Henry River mill village did more than fill bellies: they fed memories.

They were a reminder, said Anita Rudisill Brittain, of Halloweens spent roasting hot dogs on bonfires, of the trick-or-treating routes that led mill village kids, year after year, to candy and ice cream.

"It was really a family atmosphere," said Brittain, who grew up in the Burke County village that, for decades, housed mill workers and their children.

On Saturday, the Henry River family held its first official reunion.

About 250 people gathered at the Longview Recreation Center to celebrate life at the mill village, an isolated cluster of homes and industrial buildings in rural eastern Burke County that now sits abandoned.

The mill's roots stretch back before the Civil War, when a machine shop ran on water power along the Henry River, according to a history of the village compiled in the 1980s by the Historic Burke Foundation.

In the early 20th century, Michael Erastus Rudisill and brother Albert Pinkney Rudisill laid out the village on about 1,500 acres and, with other partners, dammed the river, built the mill and set up housing and a store.

The 35 wooden homes built around the mill were usually four or five small rooms each, with an outhouse in back and a front porch. Residents drew water from outdoor pumps and heated with fireplaces.

The mill shut down in the late 1960s, and residents gradually moved out.

Today, the village, along Henry River road, is a ghost town -- an overgrown collection of crumbling houses, broken-down buildings and the store.

There's been talk between preservation advocates and the property's current owner about the possibility of restoring the village, maybe turning it into a cultural center or arts venue. But several former residents said they haven't heard anything concrete.

Although some former residents gathered in a smaller group before, and some helped celebrate the 90th birthday of one of Henry River's oldest former residents, Saturday was the village's first large-scale, official get-together, said Anita Brittain, one of the organizers.

Brittain and others had wanted to have a reunion for years, she said, but it took a while to put it together. That desire grew more pressing as the community's older members aged, she said.

So, on Saturday, they spent the afternoon remembering their village the way it used to be, when boys skinny-dipped above the dam, girls roller-skated down the village hill, and baseball games drew throngs.

They ate the hot dogs from a table piled with containers of banana pudding and baked beans, and a cake decorated with images from the village.

They filed by a display of family photos, fingered cotton from the mill warehouse and looked at the company money -- villagers called it "doogaloo," and it was only good at the company store -- that workers got when they needed an advance on a paycheck.

They talked about who swiped a watermelon off whose porch and how the boys put their heads together at Halloween to decide whose outhouse to tip over.

Johnny Pope's young life in the village revolved around swimming and playing in the woods.

"It was the greatest life" Pope said. "We didn't have a worry in the world."

"That's not to say it wasn't tough," said Doug Reep, who grew up in the village and who traveled from his Florida home for the reunion.

"Mill work was physically demanding, and back then was done mostly without benefit of safety regulations," Reep said.

"Pay was low, and much of it went to the company-owned store that sold food, clothing, cigarettes, and other goods. And mill workers were pretty far down on society's pecking order," Reep said.

"But life on the 'mill hill' taught hard work and perseverance," he said. "People looked out for each other. It was a hard life," Reep said, "but it prepared you for life."

Brittain's father, 91-year-old Bud Rudisill, who spent more than 80 years living at the village, remembers sharing produce with families who were close to starving during the Depression.

Glenda Young remembers the year that her family, which included six children, didn't have money for Christmas.

Miles Aderholdt, who ran the mill when Young was a child, saw to it that her family had presents, she said.

On Saturday, Young and one of Aderholdt's children, Nanette Temple, chatted about how every Christmas the mill owners gave each child in the village a crisp new $1 bill in an envelope with the child's name typed on it. "It was just a special time for all of us," Temple said.

"Some of those kids grew up to become teachers, doctors, business people," said Young, who attended Saturday's reunion with twin sister Linda Young Lail.

Their mother, Eva, worked the mill for years. To make ends meet, Eva Young also plowed neighbors' fields for $2 a field. When the mill closed, she got a job doing the night watch at the closed building, shotgun in tow.

Young, manager of the Snack Bar restaurant in Hickory, earned her first pay at Henry River -- $6 a week, for looking after Bud Rudisill's mother. It was the 1960s, and $6 was a pile of money for an 11-year-old, especially one used to wearing clothes made from feed sacks. Young bought two dresses at the Sky City department store in Hickory. "The first one I bought," she said, "had a white collar."

Having grown up using an outhouse, Young is happy to report that she now has two bathrooms.

"But growing up poor," she said, "didn't necessarily mean growing up lacking."

"You got good morals, you worked hard ..." she said. "I wouldn't change it if I could."