Lindale Mill History

In 1896 Massachusetts Mills opened a new mill in Lindale, Georgia. The mill produced 1/7 of all textiles in Georgia. 1,393 people were employed by the mill in 1903. In 1926, the mill was sold to West Point Pepperell, giving the community and the school the name, Pepperell. At the time the country was in the middle of a debate on child labor. Children as young as twelve (some say nine) were working the same weaving and spinning machines as adults were and at the same conditions that the adults were. Many people thought that the children should not be working at the conditions that they were.

In 1933 a few mill employees built a wooden star lined with lights to hang between the two smoke stacks at Christmas, starting an annual tradition in Lindale. The Lindale Star has been hung between the two smoke stacks every year during the holidays. The mill was closed in 2002 and sold to Greenwood Mills. The closing occurred due to modernization and machine driven methods, dealing a blow to the economy of the Lindale community. The new owners allowed the star to still hang between the two smoke stacks during the holidays since it was such a big part of Lindale's history. The mill has since been sold once more to its current owners, a family from Chattanooga, Tennessee. The new owners are not in favor of the star to continue hanging between the smoke stacks, believing it represents a liability to them. The star is now hung on top of Eden Mountain in Lindale to continue the tradition. The mill is slowly being torn down and cleaned up. One of the three story structures has been torn down to sell the valuable century old brick and timber. Several other of the structures are either falling in or already lay in ruins. [wikipedia]

Photos taken by Lewis Wickes Hine in the early 1900s and made available through Georgia Backroads publisher Dan Roper as 'Children of the Loom'. Brown's Guide to Georgia.