Personal Connection to Pacolet Mills
My personal connection to Pacolet Mills will strike some people as strange considering these memories.
I never worked in the mill and never actually went into one of the mills more than two or three times. I never lived in the mill village after I was four years old. However, most of my life until I was about 19 years old involved living in proximity to the village and I was involved in almost daily contact with the people and the town.
I do have a strong family history of working in the mill. My maternal grandfather, Tillman Fowler, started working in the Pacolet Mill when he was only 6 years old. He worked there for 59 years until he retired in 1955. To the best of my knowledge, he holds the record as being employed by Pacolet Mills for the longest time. My maternal grandmother, Mattie Brown Fowler also worked in the mill her entire life until she retired about 1957. Her father, Ben Brown, also worked in the Pacolet Mill for many years starting about 1909.
My paternal grandparents, Ransom and Laura Russell Teaster, moved from the North Carolina mountains into the upstate of South Carolina about 1905. Ransom and some of his children worked in mills in different towns until settling in the Pacolet area about 1915. Ransom retired from Pacolet Mills about 1940. Ransom made several trips back into the mountains, on behalf of the company, to recruit new families to work in the mill.
My father, Fred (Doog) Teaster and my mom, Marie Fowler Teaster, worked in Pacolet Mills before the start of World War II. They left when the war started to move to Charleston, SC so that my Dad could work in the Charleston Naval Shipyard. I had numerous aunts, uncles and cousins that worked in the mill over the years.
If you are interested you can read about my work biography at Career.
This web site has been started as a public service to share the story of Pacolet.