When Lossing visited the site in 1852 he examined a small mill, owned by Daniel McCullough, that turned out cotton yarn. The yarn was used on home looms to make a rough cloth. Rocky Mount was in the path of Sherman’s march, and the McCullough cotton mill was burned and never rebuilt. – Louise Pettus
Here stands cotton-mill, the property of Daniel McCullock, operated by white hands, and devoted chiefly to the production of cotton-yarn. At this place, in the midst of a fine cotton-growing country, almost inexhaustible water-power invites capital and enterprise to seek good investment, and confer substantial benefit upon the state. Lossing further stated the above, ca. 1852
City Directories and History: “My mother, Jennie Lee McCullough was born to William Pickett McCullough and Annie Louise Gossett on January 27, 1918 at McCullough Plantation. Pickett died a year later on July 8, 1919 of typhoid fever. It was believed he caught it by drinking water from a tenant’s well. My grandmother had a one year old daughter and was pregnant with a son, William Pickett McCullough. She sold the property to Duke Power Company. Below is an image painted from a photograph she had of the home place.”
“The McCullough house was constructed in 1830. It was located at routes 21& 97 in Great Falls where the Health Center is now located. It was demolished in the 1980’s. From my research I found that Republic Cotton Mills bought the majority of the property not Duke power as I had been told. William Pickett McCullough, Jr. is buried in Heath Chapel Cemetery beside his father, William Pickett McCullough and his mother, Love (Amelia) Jones McCullough. Heath Chapel is located on route 99 in Great Falls.”
Written and submitted to R&R by Shelley Bailey – 2015
Diagram of the Great Falls: Boyd’s Survey Map – 1818
In 1849 Daniel McCullough built a cotton factory on the Catawba River near where J.P. Stevens & Company now is located in Great Falls, South Carolina. Mr. McCullough operated this mill by water power from the Catawba River. The Fingerville Mill in Spartanburg County and the Old Saluda Mill in Lexington County antedated this factory a few years.
The operators were all slaves from Mr. McCullough’s plantation, except the superintendent and heads of different departments, and the cotton used for spinning was chiefly grown on his plantation.
The yarns produced were coarse and were packed into five and ten pound bales which he peddled throughout Chester County and adjoining counties selling to merchants who sold to different families to be woven into cloth. This yarn was used for warps, the filling being spun in homes on spinning wheels.
The McCullough Mill was burned in 1865 when Sherman’s army passed through the Rocky Mount section of Chester County. Mr. McCullough died shortly after and the mill was never rebuilt. This property fell into possession of the Southern Power Company, later the Republic Cotton Mills, and today J.P. Stevens & Company, which stands a short distance from where the McCullough Mill stood.”
(Information in part from: Chester County Heritage Book, Vol. I, Edt. by Collins – Knox, Published by the Chester Co Hist. Society – Jostens Printing, 1982)
*** See the attached McCullough Mill History by Pettus
The Yorkville Enquirer of July 24, 1879 reported – “Mr. J.H. Smith, Dr. J.J. Stringfellow and Dr. W.S. Gregg recently purchased the valuable water power on the Catawba River known as McCullough’s Mill or Mount Dearborn. This was once a United States Post and some of the old government building remain. They expect to make the sight available as a manufacturing place.”
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User comments always welcome - please post at the bottom of this page.
Thank you for the information about the plantation home’s history!
This is very interesting my grandmothers father was a McCullough and they were from Williamsburg Co., South Carolina and owned some plantation. I was trying to do some research on my family history.