Chronology

Search and filters

Entries

1. Early twentieth century · 1900–1944

2. late September 1904
   Property or economic transaction · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough P. C. Collins buys the southern part of the future Bellevue mill site from J. W. Hooker

   Before the Bellevue company was incorporated, P. C. Collins bought the south half of the mill site near the West Hillsborough depot from J. W. Hooker; a later hand added that he acted as the mill's agent. Collins, a shareholder, passed the land to the company in 1905.

3. 1904-1929
   Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough Shepperd Strudwick heads the new Bellevue Manufacturing Company in west Hillsborough

   The Bellevue Manufacturing Company, a cotton mill in west Hillsborough, was incorporated on October 13, 1904, with Shepperd Strudwick as its president and Norfleet Webb as secretary and treasurer. Strudwick remained president until he resigned in 1929. By 1912 the mill ran 5,000 spindles and 200 looms making dress ginghams.

4. 1905 to 1907
   Construction or physical change · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough Mill engineer Richard C. Biberstein lays out the machinery for the Bellevue mill

   The new company hired Richard C. Biberstein, a Charlotte mill designer trained in Massachusetts, to plan the arrangement of its machinery; his drawings run from 1905 to 1907. Fifteen years later he designed the mill's weaving room.

5. July 9, 1907
   Publication, speech or performance · West Hillsborough The Durham Recorder hails "Progressive Hillsboro" and the mill town at its depot

   A Recorder article pointed to Hillsborough's new buildings, macadam roads and growing textile trade, and to a large mill that had raised a settlement around the depot called West Hillsboro. The authors think the mill meant was the Eno Cotton Mill, since Bellevue was not yet running.

6. by February 1909
   Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough Shepperd Strudwick is president of the Hillsboro Clay Manufacturing Company

   Besides the Bellevue mill and the Bank of Orange, Shepperd Strudwick headed the Hillsboro Clay Manufacturing Company, according to the Orange County Observer.

7. 1912
   Statistic or record · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough The Bellevue mill runs 5,000 spindles and 200 looms making dress ginghams

   Three years after it opened, the Bellevue mill had 5,000 spindles and 200 narrow looms weaving dress ginghams 27 and 32 inches wide, sold through agents in New York and New Jersey.

8. 1916
   Statistic or record · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough The Bellevue mill is also turning out cheviot cloth

   By 1916 the Bellevue mill was weaving cheviot, a rough-finished cloth, alongside its ginghams.

9. 1919 to 1926
   Construction or physical change · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough The Bellevue mill changes over from steam to electric power

   The mill was built to run belt-driven machinery from a steam engine. By 1919 it ran partly on electricity, and by the mid-1920s it had changed over completely, with individual motors on the machines and the belt-way removed.

10. 1926
    Statistic or record · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough After its 1920s additions the Bellevue mill runs 10,740 spindles and 592 looms

    The additions of the early 1920s more than doubled the mill's spindles and looms, and by 1926 the company's capital stock stood at $500,000. In 1919 it had still declared only its original $125,000.

11. 1929
    Appointment, election or service · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough Shepperd Strudwick resigns as president of Bellevue, and L. E. Beard takes over

    After twenty-five years as president, Shepperd Strudwick stepped down in 1929, the year its stock value fell from $500,000 to $419,600. L. E. Beard succeeded him and his partner Norfleet Webb as president and treasurer.

12. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

13. 1953
    Statistic or record · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough The Bellevue mill employs 355 workers on two shifts

    In 1953 the mill had 355 workers on two shifts, and the company still owned its mill village, whose houses now had indoor plumbing.

14. 1955
    Statistic or record · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough The Bellevue company's stock is worth $219,600, well under half its 1926 value

    Still listed under the Bellevue name in 1955, the company had stock valued at $219,600, with 14,712 spindles and 499 looms.

15. 1960s
    Property or economic transaction · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough The Bellevue mill changes hands and runs as Hillsboro Mills

    In the 1960s the mill was sold to investors from the Northeast, and trade directories list it as Hillsboro Mills.

16. 1960s
    Construction or physical change · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough The open court in the middle of the Bellevue mill is roofed over for storage

    For more storage, the owners roofed the space inside the U-shaped mill with open-web steel trusses running from the main mill to the weaving room and closed its east side with a new wall, removing the 1923 stair tower.

17. 1970s
    Property or economic transaction · Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West Hillsborough The former Bellevue mill is sold again and runs as Falk Fibers and Fabrics

    In the 1970s northeastern investors bought the mill again; directories list it as Falk, Fibers, and Fabrics, with a dyeing and finishing subsidiary at the same site.

Suggest a correction to an entry →

A dated event is a fact, filed on the page of the subject it belongs to: a person, a place, a theme, or a named event or history. Pages are subjects, with their own works and sources; the Place, community, or institution filter also gathers the institutions that recur in the entries without a page of their own. The page opens on the highlights; a search or any filter looks through every dated event and storyline, and each filter’s counts say how many entries choosing it would show alongside the others. A storyline is a longer history that gathers related dated events, and each storyline’s page lists its own. Counts give dated events and storylines separately. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. The correction link under the entries opens the contact form; name the entry and its date and the Friends will check the source. Suggest an event →

Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 4, 2026.