Orange County Indexed · Worked research guide
Bellevue Manufacturing Company in West Hillsborough
A business can begin before its factory opens, change operators without moving, or move while keeping its name. Follow the organization and the property separately, then connect them through dated evidence.
Features used in this guide: Places · Maps · Historical records
Ask: When was the Bellevue Manufacturing Company organized, and when did its mill begin operating? Open the Bellevue Mill site page. Its entries give the company's incorporation on October 13, 1904; newspaper reports of a knitting mill going up late in 1904, with its engine first fired on July 7, 1905; and survey dates of about 1909 for the main mill building. Record these as different milestones rather than choosing one unexplained founding date.
Record Bellevue, Belle-Vue, Belle Vue, Bellevue Knitting Mill, and the full company name, together with South Nash Street and West Hillsborough. Note later owners and operators as you meet them; the page names several, from Hesslein and Company in 1945 to Flynt Fabrics and Finishing, which closed the mill in 2000. Search each name separately. Keep the mill distinct from the nearby Eno Cotton Mill, even when a source discusses both, and from BelleVue, a Hillsborough house with its own site page.
Follow the dated entries to their sources. Begin with company formation, land purchases, construction, and operation. For each milestone, identify the evidence: a deed, charter, newspaper report, directory, or later history. A planned opening or a machinery order is not proof that production had started. At Bellevue the engine was fired in July 1905, but a tank failure the next week delayed the start of operations.
| Date | The company | The building | Source cited in the index |
|---|---|---|---|
| Late September 1904 | P. C. Collins buys the south half of the future mill site | National Register nomination (OR1745) | |
| October 13, 1904 | Incorporated, with Shepperd Strudwick as president | National Register nomination, p. 15 | |
| November 1904 | Knitting mill under construction west of town | Orange County Observer, November 24, 1904, p. 2 | |
| July 7, 1905 | Engine fired for the first time; a tank failure delays the start | Orange County Observer, July 13, 1905, p. 3 | |
| About 1909 | Main mill building dated about 1909 | National Register nomination; Hillsborough Architectural Survey | |
| 1912 | 5,000 spindles and 200 looms making ginghams | National Register nomination, p. 15 |
Use the page's Surveys and maps of the area, National Register files, and Historic sites, markers, and maps sections to investigate the physical site. Record the date of each map or photograph and what it shows. Check historical street names, lot descriptions, and neighboring buildings before treating a modern address as a continuous identifier. On a downtown street, repeat this process property by property.
Look for evidence about workers, products, transport, and housing as well as officers and owners. Company reports and advertisements tell you what the business wanted readers to know; worker accounts and other records may answer different questions. A claim about employment or wages needs a dated source and a clear scope.
A useful first conclusion is that the company's incorporation in October 1904, the first firing of its engine in July 1905, and the main mill building that the surveys date to about 1909 are separate stages. The National Register nomination notes that missing newspaper issues made the opening hard to date and suggests "possibly 1909"; the 1904 and 1905 newspaper reports the index cites point earlier. Establishing when production began, whether 1909 marks an enlargement or a rebuilding, and how ownership changed requires following the individual citations.
Make a timeline with separate columns for the business and the building. Use the page's Start at OCPL books for town histories and architectural surveys, then ask the Local History Liaison about directories, photographs, and records not available online.
