old Pictures Show Fieldale Towel Mill 50 Years Ago
Old pictures show warpers many years ago
Scene in Carding Department in early 1920’s
Former Dale Theatre building now houses Fieldale Fire Department
How the interior of the
ieldale Towel Mill looked in
^ygone days is shown in a series
f about 20 old photographs
'hich Leonard Tilley has been
(lowing to people at the mill.
^ he pictures belong to R. E.
Bob) Joyce, owner of Joyce
'rug Store, who loaned them to
Ir. Tilley.
Mr. Joyce isn’t sure when the
ctures were made. He said he
’ ^und them upstairs when he
irchased the drugstore in 1954.
thinks that the pictures
donged to a former owner of
;i(ie drugstore.
itfThe pictures are believed to
iteiive been made from 40 to 50
esiiars ago, perhaps in the early
tlt'20’s after the Fieldale Towel
HI, ill began operations in 1919.
ortipparently they were made on a
epinday since the machinery was
j it in operation and no people
[l( 'e shown at work.
^ addition to the scenes inside
mill, the pictures show some
I# the early buildings in the com-
tjiiunity. Included is one of the old
Theatre which was
•erated by the late Coy
0 'impbell.
iiHLeonard Tilley worked for Mr.
p^irnpbell at the theatre on
e^rious jobs. He recalls that a
LONDAY, APRIL 14, 1975
day or two before Mr. Campbell
was to open the theatre, the
bridge across Smith River
collapsed and Mr. Campbell
worried that people could not get
across the river to come to the
theatre. Mr. Tilley said they
went up the river to what is now
Stanleytown and crossed at a
bridge there.
Mr. Tilley said he could
remember old scenes in the mill
even before he was old enough to
go to work. “Even a kid could go
in and out of the mill at anytime
in those days,” he said.
He pointed out a picture made
in the Weave Room where he
was hired 40 years ago. “They
didn’t have a Personnel Office
then; if you wanted a job, you
just went in the mill and saw one
of the overseers.”
He recalled that he was
interviewed and given his job by
J. E. Perry and Gaither Overby,
both now retired. “They had a
little desk there in the Cloth
Room area of the Weave Room.”
He said the old system of hiring
was quite different from
today’s procedures.”
Mr. Tilley has worked in the
Weave Room at Fieldale for 40
years and has been a weaver
since 1938. He was born at
Patrick Springs but moved to
Koehler when he was two years
old. He moved to Fieldale when
he was married.
He said that he has seen many
changes in his 40 years with the
company. His main impression,
he said, is that
“much better
efficient.”
everything is
and more
Leonard Tilley (left) shows old pictures to C. Hoyt Wiggonton, division vice president
and general manager of Fieldale towel manufacturing.
7
Jib.