Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1878-06-07


same time benefit our town and county, In
the North towns are built up through the in
fluence of factories. Here they die for tho
want of them. There a fcw families settle on
a stream, q factory is started, which draws
operatives aud other families, then other in.
dustries spring up which bring trade. popu-
lation, schools, churches, and finally railroads,
and o barren waste becomes thriving
village, then town, then city with its
looming population. With us overy man
soems to bo for himself. We would like to
SEQ enterprises spring up, but we don't like to
vouture in thom, and so tho capital of each
being small and there being no disposition to
unto, all enterprise ends in talk and wo hear
of nothing but hard times. Every man is
said to be the architect of his own fortune.
1t is equally true that overy community is
responsible for its own prosperity and devol~
opmont: With the most favorable climate,
abundant water powor and the raw material
at hand, our peoplo are oontentod to mako
cotton, freight it abroad and then back, and
pay for tho same article in o different form
from three to six times what they sold it for
originally. Is it to be wondered at that wo arc
poor, that times are hard and trado dull3 The
wonder is that wo arc not sold out of house
and homo to pay for tho articles we ourselves
once owned aud sold.
With the view of encouraging manufacto-
rios among us, we visited tho machinery of
Neville & IIolleman, two miles above Wal
halla, last Saturday. This firm has in oporao
ton corn mill, saw mill, grist mill, planning
mill, cotton gin, turning latho and first class
wool cards in o building thirty by sixty feet.
throo stories high. The machinery is nearly
now and is turned by twenty foot ovorshot
wheel. The stream is little larger than
that usod by tho Westminster Company and
tho fall sufficient to draw the entire wator of
the dam on tho wheel. In connection with
tho buildings there are over two hundred
aoros of good farming land q store house and
smith shop. Tho grist mill last year ground
flvo thousand bushels of corn, and the cards
paid handsome profit. In fifty yards of tho
buildings there is bold IMMORAL spring, the
schiof ingredient being iron, and tho wators
are so strongly impregnated that tho taste con
discover tho presence Of minerals. It flows
FROM granite rock and it's course is marked
by heavy deposits of q yellow cast. The mill
is on the main road leading from Walhalla to
North Carolina, across tho Stump. House
Mountain, and in two miles of the former.
The members Of this firm aro anxious to
establish factory in connection with their
machinery to spin cotton from tho seed, and
desire to form joint stock company for that
purpose. Tho building is sufficiently largo
and the motive power is already there, needing
only the cotton machinery proper. This
would cost perhaps not above $l,500, and
could be run by the samo power as the cards
and corn mill. The firm, We hear, is willing
to put in oil or such portions of tho machinery
now in operation as joint stock company
may desire to retain, (romoving any it may
rejcct,) at first cost, and also to put in any or
all the land at tho same rate, and enter into q
company to be known rs tho Wahalla Manu-
facturing Company. This is fair. The firm
will either take tho value of oil its machinery
and land in stock, or will put all in
and take an equal share with othcrs, who
will come in and aid in the starting cotton
factory.
Hero is q good opportunity for our people to
bencft our town and county, by in
crcasing its trade and population. Will thoy
do it? If three or four merchants and like
number of planters will join with this firm,
tho formor can exchange goods for seed cotton
and tho latter can grow it, and then tho
factory will be supplied with advantage to Che
stockholders rs we'll as to the community.
Money, it is true, is scarce, but this very
scarcity operates to reduce largely tho cost
of machinery. This condition of things will
not continue. The country will prosper, and
has already begun to prosper. Tho price Of
yarn will advance. Capital will increase.
We have surely reached tho lowest step in
prices. Bacon and dry goods are lower than
over known to our oldest inhabitants, and the
future must see riso. Then with machinery
bought at low figures, this enterprise, paying
from the outset, will yield annually large
profits.
There is no place in tho county moro favor
ably located for cotton spinning than tho one
referred to. It is on tho main road to North
Carolina, and nearly oil the thread spun car
be sold at tho door of tho factory, for it is
we'll known that nine tenths of tho thread
sold in Walhalla goes to tho adjoining
counties OF North Carolina. What 10 mol
sold at Walhalla or tho factory can find a
market BY railroad, which is near by. Be
sides, the combination Of tho wool cards
factory and grist mill will tend to enlarge
tho business of all those industries. MGR
bringing seed cotton, will also bring thci
wool, corn, &c., and the profits of each busi-
| ness will be enhanced.
These small factories will yet bo tho lif