The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-11-28

with whom it is a pleasure for them to
deal. One of these favorite yarn and
warp mills is the Elm Grove Mill, of
Lincolnton, and one of these favorite
men with whom 1t is at all times a
pleasure to deal is the efficient Treas
urer and Manager of this enterprise.
The Elm Grove Cotton Mills were
built in 1886. They were erected on
the banks of the Catawba river in a
beautiful wooded dell, shaded by
elms and cedars, one mile west of Lin
colnton. The mill was originally
built chiefly by Messrs. Geo. J.. Phifer,
of Morganton, and Stephen Smith, OF
Livingston, Ala. In 1890 the Elm
Grove Cotton Mill was organized and
the property was bought by the pres
ent company. The principal stock
holders of the company are Messrs.
j. +. Reinhart, the president OF the
corporation; Mr.. II. 5. Reinhart, the
Treasurer and Manager; and Messrs
G.. L. phifer and Stephen Smith.
When Mr.. Il. S. Reinhart first as
sumed the management of the mills
it had less than 5000 spindles and was
scuffiing along in non-accumulatlve
sort of way. Dividends and profits
were, like snow-storms in May, long
time a-coming. Now the Elm Grove
Mills are equipped with 5000 splndles'
working hundred and fifty opera
tives, spinning into popular yarns,
numbers las to POS, three thousano
bales of cotton per annum ana work
ing frequently day and night IN ordef
TO keep up with the demand for THESE
yarns. This great increase IN the ca
pacity of the mills in number OF SPIN
dies. in the consumption OF the raw
material, in the number of operatives
employed in the popularity OF the
Elm Grove yarns, is a part of the at
tainments achieved by a young Lln-
coin county man in four years. Nor
was he before he went to Elm Grove an
exnerienced mill man. He had, prior
to that time, been engaged in the mer-
camille business at Iron Station in LIN
coin county. He had been a successful
merchant and cotton buyer. He had
made for himself a reputation for hon
est, upright dealings and was known
to possess those qualifications OF head
and heart that make successes in com
mercial life. He was born IN Lincoln
county and learned the value or nara
work around an honest old Dutch
home. He inherited those characteristics
of economy, conservatism and strict
integrity which have characterized the
descendants of that sturdy German ell
ement that first peopled this Piedmont
country. They are men with tenaclty-
they hold on forever-full of grit, full
of vim, and full of energy. These char
acteristics Mr. RS. Reinhart took with
him into his store house at Iron Sta
tion and they were the foundations up
on which he built in little country
village a large and prosperous busi-
ness.
He brought the same characteristics
with him when he came TO the Elm
Grove cotton mills and upon them he
has rs-establiShed the enterprise. In
a great number of instances in North
Carolina | have found that the mana
gers of the largest and best milling en-
terpFises were formerly active success
full merchants, men who have learned
the value of systematic methods, of ac-
curately kept accounts, of econom-
zeal expenditures, of untiring work.
these kind of men invariably make sue
cessful manufacturers. In the few i'm
stances where cotton mills have failed
in North Carolina, the failure has been
chiefly because the managers lacked
these characteristics. When mill
is built in order to give somebody who
has never done anything, something
10 do, or to furnish somebody employ