Brookside Mills

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Brookside Mills, as it appeared on an 1886 map of Knoxville Brookside-cotton-mill-1886-tn1.jpg
Brookside Mills, as it appeared on an 1886 map of Knoxville

Brookside Mills was a textile manufacturing company that operated in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The company's Second Creek factory was the city's largest employer in the early 1900s. [1] Brookside Village, a neighborhood in North Knoxville, was originally developed to house many of the factory's workers. [2] The company closed in 1956. [3]

Textile manufacturing is a major industry. It is based on the conversion of fiber into yarn, yarn into fabric. These are then dyed or printed, fabricated into clothes. Different types of fibers are used to produce yarn. Cotton remains the most important natural fiber, so is treated in depth. There are many variable processes available at the spinning and fabric-forming stages coupled with the complexities of the finishing and colouration processes to the production of a wide ranges of products. There remains a large industry that uses hand techniques to achieve the same results.

Knoxville, Tennessee City in Tennessee, United States

Knoxville is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Knox County. The city had an estimated population of 186,239 in 2016 and a population of 178,874 as of the 2010 census, making it the state's third largest city in the state after Nashville and Memphis. Knoxville is the principal city of the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area, which, in 2016, was 868,546, up 0.9 percent, or 7,377 people, from to 2015. The KMSA is, in turn, the central component of the Knoxville-Sevierville-La Follette Combined Statistical Area, which, in 2013, had a population of 1,096,961.

Tennessee State of the United States of America

Tennessee is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th largest and the 16th most populous of the 50 United States. Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, Arkansas to the west, and Missouri to the northwest. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, and the Mississippi River forms the state's western border. Nashville is the state's capital and largest city, with a 2017 population of 667,560. Tennessee's second largest city is Memphis, which had a population of 652,236 in 2017.

Contents

History

After the Civil War, Knoxville grew to become the third largest wholesaling center in the southeastern United States. In the 1870s and 1880s, wholesale company owners began reinvesting their profits in other industries, helping to build the city's first large-scale textile factories. Knoxville Woolen Mills, the city's first major textile manufacturer, was founded in 1884. [4]

American Civil War Civil war in the United States from 1861 to 1865

The American Civil War was a war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War is the most studied and written about episode in U.S. history. Primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people, war broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.

Southeastern United States Region

The Southeastern United States is broadly, the eastern portion of the Southern United States, and the southern portion of the Eastern United States. It comprises at least a core of states on the lower Atlantic seaboard and eastern Gulf Coast. Expansively, it includes everything south of the Mason-Dixon line, the Ohio River and the 36°30' parallel, and as far west as Arkansas and Louisiana. There is no official U.S. government definition of the region, though various agencies and departments use different definitions.

Profit, in accounting, is an income distributed to the owner in a profitable market production process (business). Profit is a measure of profitability which is the owner’s major interest in income formation process of market production. There are several profit measures in common use.

1910 photograph of Brookside workers, some children, taken by Lewis Wickes Hine Brookside-cotton-mill-workers-hine-tn1.jpg
1910 photograph of Brookside workers, some children, taken by Lewis Wickes Hine

Brookside Mills was organized in November 1885, with $150,000 in initial capital. The following year, the company erected its two-story factory along Second Creek, on what was then the city's northwest periphery. [5] The factory was initially 78 feet (24 m) by 210 feet (64 m), and contained 6,000 spindles and 176 looms. W. R. Tuttle, who had helped establish the Knoxville Iron Company in the late 1860s, was chosen as Brookside's first president. [5]

In economics, capital consists of an asset that can enhance one's power to perform economically useful work. For example, in a fundamental sense a stone or an arrow is capital for a caveman who can use it as a hunting instrument, while roads are capital for inhabitants of a city.

Storey level part of a building that could be used by people

A storey or story is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people. The plurals are "storeys" and "stories", respectively.

Spindle (textiles) spike used for spinning fibers into yarn

A spindle is a straight spike usually made from wood used for spinning, twisting fibers such as wool, flax, hemp, cotton into yarn. It is often weighted at either the bottom, middle, or top, commonly by a disc or spherical object called a whorl, but many spindles exist that are not weighted by a whorl, but by thickening their shape towards the bottom, such as Orenburg and French spindles. The spindle may also have a hook, groove, or notch at the top to guide the yarn. Spindles come in many different sizes and weights depending on the thickness of the yarn one desires to spin.

In 1895, Brookside raised its operating capital to $500,000, and overhauled its Second Creek mill. [5] The factory was extended from 210 feet to 350 feet (110 m), and a new weaving building was built adjacent to the main factory. The number of spindles was increased to 21,000, and the number of looms was increased to 650, quadrupling the mill's output from 3 million yards of fabric per year to 12 million. [5] After Tuttle left in 1898, James Maynard, son of former congressman Horace Maynard, was named president. [5] [6]

Horace Maynard American politician

Horace Maynard was an American educator, attorney, politician and diplomat active primarily in the second half of the 19th century. Initially elected to the House of Representatives from Tennessee's 2nd Congressional District in 1857, Maynard, an ardent Union supporter, became one of the few Southern congressmen to maintain his seat in the House during the Civil War. Toward the end of the war, Maynard served as Tennessee's attorney general under Governor Andrew Johnson, and later served as ambassador to Turkey under President Ulysses S. Grant and Postmaster General under President Rutherford B. Hayes.

By the early 1900s, the textile industry had become Knoxville's largest employer. [1] While Knoxville Woolen Mills had the larger factory, Brookside's 1,200 employees represented the city's largest workforce. [1] The father of movie director Clarence Brown was general manager of the Brookside Mills in the first decade of the 20th century. [7] Photographer Lewis Hine visited Brookside Mills in 1910 as part of his assignment as an investigative photographer documenting the working conditions of child workers for the National Child Labor Committee. Several of his photographs of Brookside's youthful workers survive. [8]

Clarence Brown film director

Clarence Leon Brown was an American film director.

Lewis Hine American sociologist and photographer

Lewis Wickes Hine was an American sociologist and photographer. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform. His photographs were instrumental in changing child labor laws in the United States.

Photographer person who takes photographs

A photographer is a person who makes photographs.

After World War II increasing foreign competition and the high costs of modernization doomed the city's textile factories. After Cherokee Mills and Venus Hosiery closed in 1954, the city offered Brookside $350,000 in tax incentives to keep its factory open. [3] The company cut salaries and gradually reduced its workforce before finally shutting down in 1956. [3]

World War II 1939–1945 global war

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. The vast majority of the world's countries—including all the great powers—eventually formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. A state of total war emerged, directly involving more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. The major participants threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. World War II was the deadliest conflict in human history, marked by 50 to 85 million fatalities, most of whom were civilians in the Soviet Union and China. It included massacres, the genocide of the Holocaust, strategic bombing, premeditated death from starvation and disease, and the only use of nuclear weapons in war.

Mill site

Weaving operations continued in some form at the Brookside factory until 1969. In 1996 the buildings were demolished. The site remained vacant until recent years when Holston Gases built a facility on the site. [9]

The lot is located at 523 West Baxter Avenue adjacent to the intersection of Baxter Avenue and Interstate 275.

In October 2011, Holston Gases announced their intention to move their Knoxville gas facility to the former Brookside Mills site. [10] The $10 million project is forecast to produce between 20 and 30 new jobs. [10] This business is now in operation.

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Statesview, or States View, is a historic house located on South Peters Road off Kingston Pike in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Built in 1805 by early Knoxville architect Thomas Hope and rebuilt in 1823 following a fire, Statesview was originally the home of surveyor Charles McClung (1761–1835). Following McClung's death, newspaper publisher Frederick Heiskell (1786–1882) purchased the house and estate, which he renamed "Fruit Hill." The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and political significance.

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The Holston Historic high-rise in Knoxville, Tennessee

The Holston is a condominium high-rise located at 531 South Gay Street in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Completed in 1913 as the headquarters for the Holston National Bank, the fourteen-story building was the tallest in Knoxville until the construction in the late 1920s of the Andrew Johnson Hotel, located a few blocks away. The Holston was designed by architect John Kevan Peebles, and today represents the city's only Neoclassical Revival-style high-rise. In 1979, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture and its prominent position in the Knoxville skyline.

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William Rule was an American newspaper editor and politician, best known as the founder of the Knoxville Journal, which was published in Knoxville, Tennessee, from 1870 until 1991. A protégé of vitriolic newspaper editor William G. "Parson" Brownlow, Rule established the Journal as a successor to Brownlow's Knoxville Whig. Rule twice served as mayor of Knoxville, and published the city's first comprehensive history, Standard History of Knoxville, in 1900.

Knoxville Iron Company

The Knoxville Iron Company was an iron production and coal mining company that operated primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, and its vicinity, in the late 19th and 20th centuries. The company was Knoxville's first major post-Civil War manufacturing firm, and played a key role in bringing heavy industry and railroad facilities to the city. The company was also the first to conduct major coal mining operations in the lucrative coalfields of western Anderson County, and helped establish one of Knoxville's first residential neighborhoods, Mechanicsville, in the late 1860s.

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Edward J. Sanford American businessman

Edward Jackson Sanford was an American manufacturing tycoon and financier, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 19th century. As president or vice president of two banks and more than a half-dozen companies, Sanford helped finance Knoxville's post-Civil War industrial boom, and was involved in nearly every major industry operating in the city during this period. Companies he led during his career included Sanford, Chamberlain and Albers, Mechanics' National Bank, Knoxville Woolen Mills, and the Coal Creek Coal Mining and Manufacturing Company.

History of Knoxville, Tennessee

The History of Knoxville, Tennessee, began with the establishment of James White's Fort on the Trans-Appalachian frontier in 1786. The fort was chosen as the capital of the Southwest Territory in 1790, and the city, named for Secretary of War Henry Knox, was platted the following year. Knoxville became the first capital of the State of Tennessee in 1796, and grew steadily during the early 19th century as a way station for westward-bound migrants and as a commercial center for nearby mountain communities. The arrival of the railroad in the 1850s led to a boom in the city's population and commercial activity.

References

  1. 1 2 3 East Tennessee Historical Society, Lucile Deaderick (ed.), Heart of the Valley: A History of Knoxville, Tennessee (Knoxville, Tenn.: East Tennessee Historical Society, 1976), pp. 46–47.
  2. ↑ Ann Bennett, Historic and Architectural Resources of Knoxville, Tennessee, May 1994. Retrieved: 9 January 2011.
  3. 1 2 3 Michael J. McDonald and W. Bruce Wheeler, Knoxville, Tennessee: Continuity and Change in an Appalachian City ( (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 1983), pp. 96–99.
  4. ↑ Mark Banker, Appalachians All: East Tennesseans and the Elusive History of an American Region (Knoxville, Tenn.: University of Tennessee Press, 2010), p. 88.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 John Wooldridge, George Mellen, William Rule (ed.), Standard History of Knoxville, Tennessee (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1900; reprinted by Kessinger Books, 2010), pp. 210, 215–216.
  6. ↑ Will Thomas Hale and Dixon Lanier Merritt, A History of Tennessee and Tennesseans, Vol. VII (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1913), p. 1881.
  7. ↑ Milton M. Klein, Prominent Alumni: Part III, University of Tennessee, Knoxville History. Accessed January 15, 2011.
  8. ↑ National Child Labor Committee Collection, U.S. Library of Congress. Accessed January 15, 2011.
  9. ↑ Knoxville Chamber, Brookside Mills Archived 2011-07-13 at the Wayback Machine .. Retrieved: 9 January 2011.
  10. 1 2 Carly Harrington, Holston Gases expanding to I-275 corridor, Knoxville News Sentinel. Accessed December 19, 2011.
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