Harriet & Henderson Cotton Mills

Brothers John Cooper and David Cooper broke ground for the Henderson Cotton Mill in 1895 and began producing cloth there in 1896. The Coopers opened a companion mill, named Harriet Cotton Mill after their mother, which began producing coarse yarns in July 1901. By 1913, two additional mill buildings had been added to the Harriet grounds, called Harriet #2 and Harriet #3. Equipment at both mills received a massive overhaul in 1939 in hopes of countering the poor economic conditions of the time. The speed of the new equipment and increased demands from supervisors began to generate new tensions between mill workers and management. It is unclear when workers at Harriet & Henderson Mills began organizing. Recollections of mill workers indicate that they had begun making the effort to unionize well before Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) representatives arrived in the Harriet Mill village in November 1942. Harriet workers organized first by forming TWUA Local 578 on 23 March 1943. Henderson followed soon thereafter, forming TWUA Local 584 on 28 June 1943. Harriet & Henderson Cotton Mills and the TWUA clashed on several occasions, including a five-week strike in 1951, a seven-week strike in 1954, and a one-day wildcat strike in August 1958. Three months later, a long-term strike broke out, which lasted from mid-November 1958 until it was officially terminated in May 1961, at which time both TWUA locals were dissolved. More than 90% of the mill employees involved in the strike never worked for Harriet & Henderson again. Beginning in 1995, Harriet & Henderson Cotton Mills, the consolidated company, operated as Harriet & Henderson Yarns, until it filed for bankruptcy in 2003 and was forced to close its doors.

From the guide to the Harriet & Henderson Cotton Mills Records, 1885-1999, (Southern Historical Collection)

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