Oakdale Cotton Mills

Description

Oakdale Cotton Mills, in continuous operation in rural Jamestown since 1865, began as Logan Manufacturing Company immediately after the Civil War. Its primary backer, Cyrus P. Mendenhall, was a descendant of Jamestown’s early Quaker settler James Mendenhall. In the late 1880s, the mill’s ownership moved to the Ragsdale family, which still owns it five generations later. Oakdale’s mill village dates from the same period. Some families have lived and worked at Oakdale for multiple generations, developing a culture based on mutual trust and respect. As the mill struggles to compete with overseas products and as the number of employees dwindles, it is clear that a way of life and an industrial era are ending. Title: Oakdale book signing is Sept. 27
Author: Carol Brooks
Publisher: The Jamestown News
Date: 9/23/09
If you loved the video, you’ll want the book.
Even if you haven’t seen the video, you’ll want the book that chronicles a major industry in Jamestown.
When Mary Browning and Pat Koehler were interviewing and researching the Oakdale Cotton Mills village for a book project in 2006, they quickly realized that an oral history video would be more appropriate. The result was the 26-minute Oakdale Cotton Mills: Close Knit Neighbors, which debuted in April.
But the authors realized that they had gathered so many photographs and information that the book was still needed to tell more of the story.
The result is the 127-page pictorial Oakdale Cotton Mills, part of the Images of America series from Arcadia Publishing.
The authors will hold a book signing at Oakdale United Methodist Church, in the Fellowship Hall,
on Sept. 27, 2-5 p.m.
The church is located at 532 Oakdale Road in Jamestown, just up the street from the mill. The price of the book is $21.99, plus tax.
Copies of the DVD will also be available at the event for $10.
Oakdale Cotton Mills is the longest continuously operating textile mill in
the country. Located in Jamestown, where it began operating in 1865, its mill village was home to multiple generations of families who were associated with it.
Browning and Koehler, thinking the story of the mill and its people should be recorded, organized the Oakdale Mills Project in 2006, and the Historic Jamestown Society agreed to sponsor it. Dr. Mary Dalton, a professional filmmaker and professor at Wake Forest University, directed the film.
Hearing the memories of those who worked in the mill and lived in the village is important to understand the area’s history. This book expands the memories by showing over 200 vintage photographs with accompanying captions. The DVD and book are excellent companion pieces and can easily be considered a set.
The authors hope the book “will serve as a keepsake for the many Oakdale families represented in its pages and also as an accurate documentation of an industry that is ending its local tenure.”
The book and DVD are both available from the Historic Jamestown Society at the Mendenhall Plantation, 603 W. Main St., Jamestown, as well as at local bookstores and online.

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