Community Profile
Cooleemee Recalls its Textile Past While
Weaving a Fun New Future
Mill
villages, like manual typewriters, served a useful purpose in their
time. But that was then and this is now. In southern Davie County sits
the quiet little community of Cooleemee, a place left behind by
industrial technology and changing economies. The town’s name is
said to have come from a tired Indian brave who supped from the cool
waters of the Yadkin River, raised his lips heavenward at the
pleasurable taste of water and shouted “cool-a-me.” Once the
center of attention on the cutting edge of the textile revolution,
Cooleemee now dozes peacefully as the rest of the county moves on.
But while no one knows with certainty what the future holds, the
remaining hearty residents of Cooleemee are committed to ensuring that
the past is remembered with fact and affection.
The focus today is not the mill town as it is, but rather as it was.
The looms no longer run, but the memories run deep. History has always
been part of this place and so it will be.
The Cooleemee Mill Village Museum exists both to preserve and display
what life was like in bygone days. It is supported mostly by the
townspeople who fiercely adhere to their heritage just as their
ancestors did to their tasks during the mills’ heydays.
Even so, however, there is new life coming to the area in the form of
family fun instead of sweat of the brow. A new recreational river park
is being developed in the community, but it, too, will be tied to the
past. The park will be located along the edge of the Yadkin River at a
place once known as “The Bullhole,” where previous generations
labored with teams of farm animals to construct a dam that provided
electric power to run the once-flourishing textile machines.
It was 103 years ago that the Duke family of Durham came to Davie
County to purchase 3,000 acres and build their giant textile mill. The
village thrived for decades and Cooleemee was considered a textile
center in the South.
Mill employees, including children, worked 12-hour days in stifling
heat and cotton dust for low pay. The mill owners owned everything,
including homes and stores. Much of today’s generation has little
knowledge or understanding of what it was like. That’s just one
reason the museum is important to those who remain behind. If what is
left isn’t kept intact, it will soon be gone forever.
The museum is housed in the center of the village in the former
residence of the mill’s general manager, J.W. Zachary, who lived
there with his family of 12. It was once among the more elegant homes
— owned by the mill owners, of course — and still stands
distinctively atop a small hill overlooking what was once the center
of town before the mills closed.
The museum is supported with token dues paid by 1,200 members, plus
limited public grants, and serves some 3,500 visitors a year. Housed
in the museum are more than 600 photographs, an estimated 1,400
documents and 300 artifacts from the early days of the mills’
operation.
The planned River Park, just down the hill form the museum, will be an
80-acre facility to provide recreational facilities for families of
Davie and surrounding counties. It is a $3.5 million project supported
with public and private funds. It will be named the RiverPark at
Cooleemee Falls and is being constructed to preserve the natural
beauty of the falls and to help remind visitors of the importance of
the history of the neighborhood.
All this is a continuing effort of dedicated people in Davie to blend
the old with the new, and keep it all anew.
-- Ned Cline
Return
to magazine index
|
|
