Eno Mill

In the chronology

1. 1896 Allen J. Ruffin and James H. Webb Jr. found the Eno Cotton Mill Ruffin and Webb, both of old Hillsborough families, founded the Eno Cotton Mill on the north bank of the Eno west of town, chartered by special act of the General Assembly in 1896. It was the first textile mill in Hillsborough and in present-day Orange County.
2. 1897 Eno Cotton Mill begins production Yarn production started late in the year.
3. 1904 Eno Mill adds cloth weaving New looms extended operations beyond spinning yarn.
4. by 1908 Eno Methodist Church is founded in West Hillsborough Eno Methodist Church began with services upstairs in the Eno Cotton Mill's company store; in 1908 Allen Ruffin gave land in West Hillsborough and the frame church went up. It had 147 members in 1953. People: Allen Jones Ruffin
5. 1908 The Eno Methodist congregation builds its church on land given by Allen Ruffin The congregation formed for Eno Cotton Mill workers first met in an upper room of a mill building. In 1908 it moved into a simple front-gabled frame church with pointed-arch windows and a small belfry, on land Ruffin donated facing the mill across the railroad tracks. People: Allen Jones Ruffin
6. 1909 Eno Cotton Mill is enlarged and adds gingham In 1909 the Hillsborough mill was expanded again and began weaving gingham alongside chambray and plaids. Some yarn was still sold unwoven until the First World War.
7. 1915 Eno Cotton Mill rents its village houses to workers for 25 cents a week Owners Allen J. Ruffin and James H. Webb built a company village for their fast-growing workforce and in 1915 were renting the houses to employees for a quarter a week. The 1924 Sanborn map shows about 100 mill houses west and south of the mill. People: Allen Jones Ruffin
8. About 1916 Eno Cotton Mill reports 150 women among its 500 workers Reports from the years before the wartime changes count about 500 workers at Hillsborough's Eno Cotton Mill, 150 of them women and 50 children under 16, on a 60-hour week. The top average daily wage for women was $1.75 against $4.00 for men; at the smaller Bellevue mill nearby women's top average was $2.50.
9. October 1918 Eno Mill opens an influenza diet kitchen at West Hill school When influenza reached the Eno Mill district, the mill opened and paid for a diet kitchen at the West Hill school for about seven weeks, run by home demonstration agent Elizabeth Cornelius. It fed as many as 150 people a day, and the mill hired nurses for the sick.
10. 1921 J. Cheshire Webb becomes president of the Eno Cotton Mills Webb, a director of the Eno Cotton Mills since early manhood, was made president of the Hillsborough mill in 1921. He ran it until his death in 1932 and was also a director of the Rocky Mount Mills and the Bank of Orange.
11. 1929 Eno Cotton Mill installs new machinery and switches to combed yarn New machinery went in at the Eno mill in 1929, and combed yarn replaced coarse carded yarn. Broadcloth shirting and corduroy became its main products.
12. 1940s Wartime orders push the Eno Cotton Mill to about 600 workers Military demand for cloth during World War II enlarged the Eno Cotton Mill, which by the 1940s employed as many as 600 workers on three shifts.
13. 1952 Eno Mill becomes part of Cone Mills The subsidiary joined the Greensboro textile corporation.
14. 1956 Eno Mill houses are relocated Most company houses moved into nearby neighborhoods.
15. 1960s James J. Freeland develops Holiday Park with a swimming pool In the 1960s Freeland built Holiday Park northwest of town, a development with its own pool and other amenities; some of its houses were former Eno Mill village houses moved to the site. People: James John Freeland
16. August 10, 1968 Cone Mills honors Eno plant workers, most of them women, for fifty years at the mill At the Eno Plant's seventieth anniversary celebration in Hillsborough, Cone Mills recognized at least six of its 385 employees for fifty or more years of work at the mill, five of them women.
17. 1984 Eno Mill closes Textile production ended at the Hillsborough plant.
18. 1988 Gold family acquires Eno Mill The property became a business center with varied tenants.
19. June 10, 2010 The Eno Cotton Mill joins the Study List The National Register Advisory Committee placed the Eno Cotton Mill in West Hillsborough on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register.
20. September 1, 2011 The Eno Cotton Mill is listed in the National Register On September 1, 2011 the National Park Service listed the Eno Cotton Mill in Hillsborough in the National Register of Historic Places.

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