First Cotton Mill in Scotland County, The Original Richmond Cotton Mill
Posted by: 
NCDaywalker
N 34° 49.225 W 079° 31.767
17S E 634487 N 3854113
Historical marker located in Laurel Hill, NC on NC 144 approx 2 miles from US 74 W at the site of the Richmond Cotton Mill.
Waymark Code: WM81NE
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 01/10/2010
Views: 3
Marker name: Richmond Cotton Mill. Marker text: First textile manufacturing plant in Scotland County, built by Charles Malloy in 1867. Powered by waterwheels, machinery is said to have come from a sunken blockade runner. Leased by Mark Morgan in 1872 and became the first of the Morgan Mills. Located here. This is the site of the first textile manufacturing plant in Scotland County. "Richmond Mill was built by Colonel Charles Malloy in 1869. The machinery was said to have been of English origin and came out of the hold of a wrecked blockade runner off the cost near Wilmington. It was turned over to Colonel Malloy as payment for grading work done by him when the railroad went through. Colonel Malloy hired as superintendent Mr. Mark Morgan, a Cumberland County man with a good deal of textile experience, and Mr. Morgan became a partner in this first county textile plant. Thus began Morgan Mills, a business which was to influence this county for more than a century." (
visit link) Across the highway is a large empoundment water known as Richmond Mill Lake.It is currently closed to public use. Water from this lake flowed through spill ways and was used to power the mills located adjacent. .
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