THE OAKDALE COTTON MILLS PROJECT
The Oakdale Cotton Mills Project began in 2006 with recognition that the
life histories of employees of the Oakdale Cotton Mills of Jamestown should be
collected and recorded.
This cotton spinning mill has been in continuous operation since the summer of
1865, and continues today, but only in a small way and with an uncertain
future. The project has recorded on film the memories of mill employees and
their families, and will soon release a 26 minute DVD, Oakdale Cotton Mills: Close-Knit Neighbors, to complete the
major goal of the project.
An addition, a printed pictorial history of the mill will be published by
Arcadia Press in 2009. All of the photos, interview transcripts, memorabilia,
surveys, documents, and other miscellaneous data collected as part of the
project, will be archived at Mendenhall Plantation.
The Historic Jamestown Society is the sponsor for the project, which was
originated by Patricia Koehler and Mary Browning. Glenn Deck, the Societys
vice president, chairs the project committee. The Society helped to fund it and
grants were also obtained from other sources. Filming was done under the
direction of Mary M. Dalton, Ph. D., Associate Professor and Director of
Undergraduate Studies, Dept. of Communications, Wake Forest University.
Oakdale Cotton Mills has been most generous in allowing access to its plant,
its employees and to its business archives of old record books, advertising
materials, and photographs.
Click on www.youtube.com/watch?v=9byR7z6Bswo
to see a short preview of the 30-minute Oakdale Cotton Mills documentary
produced by Mary Dalton.
Click on the links below for some old pictures of Oakdale Mill.
Mendenhall
Plantation - 603 W
Main St - Jamestown, NC 27282