Part Five: High Cotton
George and Floyd Messer, noted steam engine enthusiasts, also ran a wheat-threshing operation that annually toured northwest Georgia and southeast Tennessee. Floyd Messer built the engine seen here, as well as several others that operated in the area. Pictured, c. 1940, from left to right, are George Messer, Floyd Messer, three unknown threshers, and Dave Lane.
Photo Courtesy of June Edmondson
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Wheat and wheat threshing was a much more common site on 19th-century and early-20thcentury northwest Georgia farms. Threshing wheat by hand was an arduous and labor-intensive task that provided the incentive for itinerant wheat threshers to offer their services to local farmers. In this scene, a wagon carries barrels of gasoline, which runs the tractor’s engine, which in turn propels the thresher. The photograph was taken on Morgan Valley Road near Rockmart in Bartow County, c. 1910.
Photo Courtesy of Georgia Department of Archives and History
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By 1890, cotton had truly become king in northwest Georgia, replacing corn as the dominant cash crop. By 1929, less than 20 percent of all farms in the region were planted in corn. Cotton production also encouraged tenancy as more than half of all farms in the area were operated by tenants after 1900—the highest rate in all southern Appalachia. Photographed here, c. 1912, is the Howard family and their neighbors picking cotton in a field near Smyrna Church, near Chatsworth.
Photo Courtesy of Georgia Department of Archives and History.
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The hustle and bustle of northwest Georgia cotton markets is unmistakable in this 1900 photograph of a cotton auction on unpaved Hamilton Street in Dalton, Georgia. Only Rome’s “Cotton Block” in Floyd County could rival the intensity of the trading seen here. Most of the bales were brought in by local sharecroppers who sought to make at least one-third of the total profit from the annual sale. When this photograph was taken, cotton was bringing around 20¢ per pound.
Photo Courtesy of Georgia Department of Archives and History.
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A c. 1905 photograph shows downtown Acworth, then a mere village on the border between Cobb and Bartow Counties. Like most towns in northwest Georgia, Acworth’s cotton block was on the main thoroughfare, making it easier for farmers to bring their annual fall harvest. Note the wide, unpaved streets and numerous mule teams.
Photo Courtesy of Bradley Putnam.
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By the 1930s, the candlewick and tufted bedspread industry of northwest Georgia was one of the most extensive employers of rural women in the Southeast. Historically, the home-craft had been practiced in many areas, including North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee. A report published by the U.S. Department of Labor in 1935 clearly saw its economic potential to the region and asked for better coordination of the industry so as to benefit the women workers. Shown is a c. 1934 photograph by Doris Ulmann and John Jacob Niles.
Photo Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia Collection, cat003.
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Shown is the spread sorting and folding room at the LaRose Bedspread Company in Dalton, Georgia, during the 1930s.
Photo Courtesy of Dr. Tom Deaton.
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During the 1930s, the federal government gave 50 pounds of cotton and 10 yards of fabric ticking to enterprising individuals needing additional income. Home economist from the Farm Security Administration then taught these individuals how to make mattresses that could be sold locally. This photograph was taken in 1939 by Polk County home economist Zell Ryan Hemphill.
Photo Courtesy of Georgia Department of Archives and History.
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The Dixie Highway Association was incorporated in 1915 and the group was influenced by area business leaders who sought to connect northwest Georgia to the rest of the nation. By 1927, the route from Detroit to Miami was fully completed, making the road one of the most highly traveled in the United States. Along this popular thoroughfare sprung up motels, gas stations, and souvenir stands targeting motoring tourists. In northwest Georgia, roadside stands sold hand-tufted chenille bedspreads featuring colorful peacock designs. Soon, this section of the U.S. highway became known as “Peacock Alley” and the bedspread industry, with the help of local investors and new manufacturing techniques, later developed into the multi-million-dollar carpet industry. This photograph, taken in June 1940 in Bartow County, shows the handiwork of J.A. Greene of Adairsville.
Photo Courtesy of Georgia Department of Archives and History.
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The interior of Westcott Hosiery Mills located on North Hamilton Street is shown in this c. 1930s photograph. G. Lamar Westcott established the business in 1917, and it operated there until the 1930s. Real Silk of Indianapolis bought the plant in 1928 and Lamar, his brother Fred, and Bob McCamy started a tufted bedspread company called Cabin Craft.
Photo Courtesy of Georgia Department of Archives and History
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Shown is the interior of the needle-punch room for bedspreads, c. 1941, at the Cabin Craft Bedspread Company located on East Morris Street in Dalton. Each worker sat in front of a large embroidery hoop and dewed patterns stamped on the bedspread fabric. The tufted spread used in Gone with the Wind was a needle-punch product made at Cabin Craft.
Photo Courtesy of Georgia Department of Archives and History.
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