The Fishing Creek Manufacturing Co.

The Fishing Creek
Manufacturing Co.
The Fishing Creek Manufac
turing Company anJ the Etl^emoor ami Manetta Railroad Com
pany, organized ^0 yyars bcfu:e
the turn of the century, are still
going strong in Chester Coumy,
The name of the manufactur
ing plant has beer, changed
twice during its history; I-'i; At,
to Lewisvilie Mills Manufactur
ing Company and later to Maiietta Mills, the name now u>t-d.
The railroa'l
company, '.v'uh
three miles of track anil one of
the nation's few remaining sleum
locomotives, still muko one
round trip per day from Lundo
to Edgemoor and back. It conrn-cts with the Seaboard Airline
Kailroad at Kdgemoor and haul<
in cful and raw materials and
-hips out mill manufactured pro
ducts.
A. J. Stephenson, engineer of
the short freight train for more
ihan 40 years, is retired now
and Willie Starnes, his son-inlaw, makes the run.
During the era in the South
when King Cotton paced the eco
nomic prosperity, a group of
Chester County men conceived
the idea of building cotton mill-'
to u^-e the cotton locally rather
than ship it al! to the North. In
187H, a bill was introduced in
the South Carolina legislature
permitting the Fishing Creek
Manufacturing Company . to or
ganize.
The stockholders were Fergu<-on H. Barber, John R. Alien. F.
A. Connor, John L. Agurs, John
S. Wilson, W. T. D. Cougar,
.George A. Gill, W. C. Hicklin,
James A. Erwin, Henry Moffatt,
•X. K. Hutchinson, N. P. Alexan
der, John F. Gage. J. T. Atkin>.»n and I>. Hutchinson.
The original capital stock was
§10,000, with the privilege of
increasing it to $200,000,
At
the first meeting of stockhold
ers, F. A. Connor acted as chair
man and J. F. Gage as secretary.
Klected to the first board of di
rectors were F. A. Connor, J. L.
Watson, Giles J7 Patterson, W.
T. D. Cousar, John S. Wilson,
V»*. C. Hicklin and W. H. Hardin.
The directors elected these of
ficers: Piesident, F. H. Barber;
Vice-president, F. A. Connor;
Secretary and Treasurer, J. Taylor Marion.
Building of the plant at Lando
on the hanks of Fishing Creek
was slow in Kitting started. But
in 1881, the original frame build
ing was completed and textile
machinery began to arrive. Ac
cording to old records, operation
of the mill began sometime duting 1HH2.
The first year, President Bar
ber reported a net loss to iht:
company of .*l.fl^7..'18. But the
report from 1M1 to May. 1R84,
showed a pr( f; 1 in excess of ten
percent <,n the capital stock
which at that time was $.'-15,00(1.
In the lattur part of 1HH4,
the mill i-auirhi fire and the dam
age was reported as $15,00(1,
covered by insurant"**,
\\. H. Hardin, "connected
with a Philadelphia concern,"
was stiling airent f*H' the mill's
products during )he. early yeais
for Fishing Creek Manufactur
ing Company.
In IKXi; the mill hmi labor
troubles and a strike developed
but the -triki1 was soon setUed.
The company paid small divi
dends
until
the yeur lKJt:{.
Kiirly in IKli-l. the Company de
clared bankruptcy and W. H.
Hardin and T. J. Marion were
appointed receivers.
The mill wa« put up for sale
and K. H. Barber buutrht it for
$27.000 and chiinued the namt- to
Lewis vi llf Mi IN. This new or
ganization lasted less than two
years. The mil] was then sold to
Benjamin Jtawson Heath of
Charlotte. North Carolina; u
1 cadi MIT Charlotte, business man
and une uf tin- city's wealthiest
men.
Benjamin~rfeatJi and two of
his brothers, W. C. Heath and
p. P. Heath, reorganized and re-
I
[ l,i-\vi^ville Mill to
ManeUa .M ills and began manu
facturing cotton bedspreads and
blankt ts.
The mill was incor
porated in ]R!ifi.
Benjamin Heath left distinct
cuntributions and successes to
the business life of North and
South Carolina. Beginning his
active life among the stress and
( (infusion attending the War Be
tween the States, Heath willing
ly shouldered his part in all the
heavy and hart! tasks that fell to
the rnen of his generation.
The south, at the time, was
utterly wrecked, property gone
and industries destroyed or idle.
From his humble beginning in
business, that of operating a geneial store at Waxhaw, ju*t across the line from South Caro
lina, he created an industrial
empire,
Realizing the importance of a
business education, as soon as
his savings permitted, he took a
commercial course at the Bryon
and Stratton Business College,
Baltimore, Maryland. In 1874
he opened a general mercantile,
cotton and banking establishment in Monroe, N. C. that pros
pered healthily. He helped to
ami was president for
15 years of the Charlotte Na
tional Bank.
By 11(12, H«?ath found it ne
cessary to devote his entire at
tention to his industrial enter
prises, which by this time not
only included Manetta Mills at
Lundo, but Jackson Mills, Munroe, N. C., Newton Cotton Mills,
Newton, N. C., the Kdgemooi and
Manetta
Railroad Company,
Stock Mutual Life Insurance
Company of (Jreensboro, N. C.,
Piedmont Realty Company and
Oukhurst Land Company, both of
Charlotte, N. C. He was at one
time president of the Cliffside
Railroad Company and Cliffside
Mills.
Heath named Manetta Mills
for his two wives. His first
wife, whom he married in 1870
at Cureton's Store, was Mary
Wilson. She was the mother of
nine children including the late
Gilbert B. Heath of Chester. She
died in 18H2.
In 181)5, Heath married Nettle
Morgan
Haley of Columbia,
Tennessee, who bore him seven
children.
The Manetta Mill today Ul
operated by the .fourth (genera-
4
i;
^
3
tion of the Heath family. Ben
jumin Heath died in 1919 ami
was succeeded by his son, Ciiibert Brown Heath, as president
G. B. Heath was succeeded by
his son, Harry Bascom Heath,
who is now president of the com
pany. Alien and Billy Heath,
sons of Harry B. Heath, are both
working with the firm; Alien ui
Manetta and
Billy at Monru*/
Mill, Monroe, N. C.
Manetta Mitts at Lando now
employs 400 persons and Mon
roe Mills, 350 persons on three
I shifts.
Blankets
made at
Manetta are sold through Can
non Mills and retailed all over
the nation and abroad. All em
ployees and management stuff
are lo<ral people.
Blankets made at Manetta are
matchless in quality and beauty.
The workmanship is first quality
and reflects the pride of the em
ployees in the products they
manufacture.
In 1<>62 a large warehouse and
quantities of new machinery
were added to the Manetta uhuit.
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The Chester News
July 17,1963