November 22, 2010 Coats Museum News
Last week you read about the various Coats business ventures that former Harnett County Sheriff John McKay Byrd and banker-businessman N.T. Patterson entered into between 1916 and 1920. The last business was the modern hosiery mill which is believed to have begun in early summer of 1920 according to Patterson’s son, Dr. Bill Patterson, who wrote about it in his book, “From the Isle of Skye to the Isle of Maui”. Dr. Patterson recalled that the mill had been located in the center of town near the other mills and cotton gin. Large stacks of new lumber cured by the sun always covered the space between the buildings. The sawdust from the sawmill had been stored in a large pile away from the buildings. It had been used to fire the boiler to make steam to operate the engines, but if there had been an excess, the sawdust was hauled away to a swamp two blocks away. (Do you recall where there was a swamp in Coats. Is a swamp always a swamp? Is this the same sawdust pile location that P.F. Pope put his excess sawdust in the 1930’s from his sawmill?)
Patterson shared with his readers that the hosiery mill faced the road and contained two large offices, one for the partner operating the mill and the other one for the mill’s secretary. Behind the office section, the building was two stories high. Many large wooden vats used for dyeing the hosiery were inside as was a wooden walkway from which the operation could be observed. A large work room housed about 30 women who used machines to sew the hosiery. Patterson recalled that the hosiery were of superior quality and that they sold well immediately. However, he wrote by September of 1920 that business conditions resulted in a recession. The hosiery no longer sold and the mill had to be closed (Patterson 32). He pointed out that cotton had sold for forty cents a pound in the spring but by the harvest time, cotton brought only five cents per pound. He said that farmers had let it rot in the fields and hence many defaulted on their bank loans which put the banks in jeopardy. Most businesses were in recession including the lumber industry. He even remembered that his brother, Orus Patterson, had to return home from college. N.T. Patterson had to sell his large Paterson (the seven –passenger car I wrote about last week). To make matters worse, one rainy day in November when Patterson was riding to school with his father, they had to ride past the hosiery mill. The hosiery mill had burned and N.T. had no insurance on his half.
“The Harnett County News” could be purchased for five cents a copy or $1.50 annually in 1920. Possibly some folks in Coats were scampering for a copy of the Volume 2 Number 47 issue for the large bold print on that edition read “COATS HOSIERY MILL BURNED”. The article revealed that the fire was discovered Tuesday morning at 4 o’clock. The fire completely destroyed the plant and its contents including all machinery and equipment, 5,000 dozen pairs of manufactured hose and large quantities of raw materials. The fire was supposed to be of incendiary origin. Evidence was discovered of robbery in connection with the fire.
Did Coats have police officers at that time? It is interesting to note that the population of Coats was 526 people in 1920. ( Angier had only 375 people.) Coats HAD had a “new “ police officer that year who had departed his position because he could not be sheriff, judge, and executor according to an article that appeared in the “Harnett County News” (August 16, 1920).
The news article on the hosiery mill differs slightly from Dr. Patterson ‘s book which stated that the hosiery mill had closed. “The Harnett County News “ article(Vol.2 No. 47) recorded that the mill had been running full time till lately the schedule had been cut to four days per week with about 25 employees being thrown out of work. The plant was valued at $50,000.00 with insurance covering $25,000. Patterson stated that his dad had no insurance coverage on his half of the mill. Apparently Mr. Byrd had felt the need to insure his portion of the business.
Recall that the structure was brick and two stories. Coats had no public water supply, but the bucket brigade enlisted practically every person in town who fought valiantly for the safety of the nearby buildings. ( Why did the Pattersons not know about the fire until the trip to the school house?) The mill had a water tank on the property which helped save the other property. The only other damage was the destruction of the town’s light plant owned by Dr. H.C. Roberts. This was completely destroyed and Dr. Roberts had carried no insurance on his light plant. (Harnett County News, Vol.2 No.47)
Read future columns to discover what else happened in Coats during this recession and to N.T. Patterson and John McKay Byrd.
A very special thank you goes to Ken Stewart of Buies Creek area who came to the Coats Museum meeting with a huge chimney cornerstone bearing the date 1859. Ken retrieved the stone from one of the two chimneys in the old Barclay’s Inn when he was helping to tear down the inn. Read a future article about Ken’s remarkable find and what he did with other materials he salvaged from the inn. Thank you, Ken, for placing the artifact on loan to the Coats Museum. Thanks also to Pat Sutton of Lillington who has shared additional pictures of the Rufus Beasley family . We now have a face to the 1858 Rufus Beasley log cabin school between Barclaysville and the old settlement of Troyville. Another thank you to Lynda and Robie Butler for their contribution to the Coats Museum Building Fund in memory of Sherrill Coats and to H.L. and Gayle Sorrell to the Coats Museum Endowment in honor of the memory of Sherrill Coats who was a descendant of the founder of Coats .
