July 1, 2015 The Laurens County Advertiser 1B
An Independent Newspaper Founded in 1885 The Laurens County Advertiser South Carolina's Award-Winning Weekly Newspaper
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By Judith BrownStaff Writer
Pat Lanford was a little boy inClinton when he and his dad wereeating at Louis Thornton’s restau-rant and Silas Bailey came in,chatted a bit and asked if he couldtake the young boy to a ClintonMill’s Cavalier’s baseball game.
Lanford’s dad was a worker in themill, and obviously told theClinton Mill president it was finewith him.
“I had a great time,” Lanfordrecounted. “And when the gamewas over, Mr. Bailey brought meback to the restaurant and my dadwas there waiting on me.”Lanford’s story was one of many
memories he told recently whenhe accompanied former ClintonMills Manager Ted Davenport andRod Holmes, owner of the formerClinton Mill property, on a tour ofthe facility with a group of profes-sors and students fromPresbyterian College working ona Textile Mill Memory Project.Several PC staff and students are
working to save some of the histo-ry of the Clinton and Lydia Millcommunities with summerresearch, study, interviews anddocumentation, making use of analmost $100,000, three-year grantby the Andrew W. MellonFoundation.
“The mill is the focus becausethat’s our history and our story,and our task is to gather informa-tion and make it accessible,”Southern studies professor Dr.Kendra Hamilton said.“Accessibility is the key, and we’llbe taking advantage of the newtechnology that’s available todayto make it relevant to these tech-savvy students.”
Part of the grant will go towardrecording equipment and stipendsfor four PC Fellows already work-ing this summer on collecting anddocumenting data.
“Anita Gustafson has beendoing oral histories forever,”Hamilton said of history professorDr. Anita Gustafson, who is col-laborating on the Clinton andLydia mills project. “But the stu-dents have always had to use theirsmart phones. Now we can get theequipment we need,” and every-thing will be formatted for thebest online use and storage.
Eventually the collection ofdata will be available for the com-munity, but the target audience isacademia.
“I have a background in digitalhumanities,” Hamilton said, “andwhen academics are looking fordata relating to the economic
impact that textile mills had on acommunity, for instance, they’llbe able to pull from theseresources in Clinton and use thembecause it’s been a thoroughprocess; everything will be docu-mented for real academicresearch. Anyone will be able tosearch and see our stuff and see ifit’s useful and, if they need to, theycan then make a research trip inperson.”
Four different professors areworking with one of the four PCSummer Research Fellows on theearly stages of the project, includ-ing Gustafson with OliviaAldridge, whose interest in storycompilation and journalism ledher to the project. Also, theaterprofessor Leslie Preston is work-ing with theater major and pho-tography student Kelly Cichon.Preston hopes to compile a playbased on the Clinton Mill work-ers’ stories. Others working on theproject are Hamilton and herarchivist, Jillian Collier, andSpanish professor Dr. SharonKnight, who is working withAllison Cooke on mapping andgeocaching.
“We’re still very much on thefront end of this three-year proj-ect,” Gustafson said. “We’re buy-ing the equipment and learning touse the technology and learningabout oral history in order to bet-ter prepare for interviewing thepeople who have stories to tell.”
“The faculty is so excitedbecause everyone can see thepotential applications,” Hamilton
said. It’s not going to happen fast,“but we want to get it going, andoffer it for the community througha portal where the general publiccan encounter this data and thehistory of our town.”
Textile mill remembrances offer view of Clinton's past
Photo by Kelly CichonNURSE — NellHaggart and PCS u m m e rR e s e a r c hFellow OliviaAldridge met foran interview anda video ofHaggard’s oralhistory abouther experienceas the ClintonMill nurse. Notonly did shecare for ill orinjured employ-ees, but neigh-borhood chil-dren couldcount on aBand-Aid and akind word fromthe long-timemedical nurse.
Photo by Judith BrownVALUABLE ARCHIVES— PC junior JillianCollier explains some ofthe interesting datashe’s gathered to KellyCichon, Olivia Aldridgeand Allison Cooke. Thefour PC SummerResearch Fellows spentsome time looking overcopies of TheClothmaker, newspa-pers produced for theLydia and Clinton textilemills. One of the tasks ofthe Clinton Mills textileproject is to digitizearchives for reference bythose needing primarysources for academicwork, but Southernstudies professor Dr.Kendra Hamilton alsosees it as a way to giveback to the community.
Photo by Judith BrownQUEENS — The Clothmaker newspaper was a source ofnews related to work and lifestyle of Clinton Mills and LydiaMill, including the crowning of pool queens in 1958. TheTextile Mill Memory project will not be complete for awhile,but PC professor of Southern studies Dr. Kendra Hamiltonsaid the researchers eventually plan to share with the com-munity some of Clinton’s roots.
Photo by Judith BrownSAVING HISTORY — The PC staff and students are already exploring the open space of theClinton Mill maintenance room as former Clinton Mill employee Pat Lanford walks in. Lanford,Clinton Mill management staff Ted Davenport and property owner Rod Holmes all had differ-ent stories to tell from working there. Lanford’s included a very happy childhood living acrossthe street from the mill where his parents worked. Holmes admitted his was a very short stintin the exhausting work as a cotton blower with Lanford, and he was soon convinced to go toPC and earn a business degree.
Photo by Judith BrownEXECUTIVE SUITE — Formermanagement staff memberTed Davenport walks throughthe doorway between thepresident’s office and the con-ference room, which wereremodeled in the 1970s.Clinton Mill opened in 1896and Lydia opened a coupledecades later.
Photo by Judith BrownSKY VIEWS — The open sky view tells the story of decay in one building of the 1896-eraClinton Mill. Former mill worker and PC graduate Rod Holmes purchased the property in2009 in an attempt to save some of it from destruction. The stories of life and work within themill community will be told through the Textile Mill Memory Project. Overseen by the Southernstudies department, the three-year, $100,000 grant will result in a multi-departmental projectthat can set Presbyterian College apart from other small liberal arts colleges.
