The Belle Vue mill after Belle-Vue Manufacturing, 1957–1962

After 1957 the Belle Vue mill in West Hillsboro, which employed about 300 people, passed through a series of New York owners and operators, closed, and in 1962 drew a new occupant. In October 1957 the William L. Barrell Company acquired Hesslein and Company, which had owned Belle Vue Manufacturing since 1945. In 1958 a Barrell vice president said the county's valuation of the mill machinery was out of line with what Barrell had paid. On March 24, 1959 Belle-Vue Manufacturing filed articles of dissolution, and in April Barrell leased the operations to a New York firm. In May 1962 Hillsboro Mills, a subsidiary of a Massachusetts textile firm, announced it would occupy the closed plant.

The events, date by date

Every statement above comes from these dated entries in the chronology. Each links to its source.

October 1957 (transfer November 1, 1957) Hesslein and Company, owner of Hillsboro's Belle Vue mill, is acquired by the William L. Barrell Company The New York gray-goods selling agency Hesslein and Company, which had owned the Belle Vue Manufacturing Company of Hillsboro since 1945, was acquired by the William L. Barrell Company of New York, with ownership passing November 1. Belle Vue president L. E. Beard would not say how the change might affect the mill, which employed about 300 people, but expected it to bring wider selling coverage. People: L. E. Beard Place: Belle Vue mill, West HillsboroSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), October 24, 1957, p. 1

by March 1958 The William L. Barrell Company of New York owns the Belle Vue mill in Hillsboro Belle Vue Manufacturing Company, the West Hillsboro mill, was by now wholly owned by the William L. Barrell Company of New York, which had bought it a few months earlier. At the commissioners' March 17 tax equalization hearing the firm's vice president asked for a review of the county's valuation of the mill machinery, about $700,000, which he said was out of line with what Barrell had paid. People: L. E. Beard Place: Belle Vue mill, West HillsboroughSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 20, 1958, p. 1

March 24, 1959 Belle-Vue Manufacturing Company files articles of dissolution The Hillsboro company that had run the Belle Vue cotton mill filed articles of dissolution with the North Carolina Secretary of State and began liquidating, according to a notice signed by its president, L. E. Beard. People: L. E. Beard Place: Belle Vue mill, West HillsboroughSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 16, 1959, p. 7

April 4, 1959 Wellman Operating Corporation takes over operation of the Belle Vue mill A New York firm, the Wellman Operating Corporation, took over running the Belle Vue textile plant, with another New York company as sole selling agent. The William L. Barrell Company, a mill machinery firm that had bought the plant from Hesslein about two years before, kept ownership and leased out the operations; L. E. Beard stayed on as manager and the mill kept its name. People: L. E. Beard Place: Belle Vue mill, West HillsboroughSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 16, 1959, p. 1

announced May 23, 1962 The Bellevue mill changes hands and runs as Hillsboro Mills On May 23, 1962 Hillsboro Mills, Inc., a newly formed subsidiary of the Schepps brothers' textile firm of Holyoke, Massachusetts, announced that it would occupy the closed Belle Vue Manufacturing plant in Hillsboro, to make and dye fancy yarn-dyed cotton goods on three shifts, with operations to begin by July 1. The National Register nomination says the mill was sold in the 1960s to investors from the Northeast, and trade directories list it as Hillsboro Mills. Place: Bellevue Manufacturing Company, South Nash Street at Eno Street, West HillsboroughSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: Bellevue Manufacturing Company, National Register nomination (OR1745), p. 20 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 24, 1962, p. 1; The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), June 7, 1962, p. 13

Places in this storyline

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

Bellevue Mill Businesses, mills and venues · Hillsborough · 5 events here

All places and the county map →

Stewart E. Dunaway's history of the two mills George Johnston built on New Hope Creek in Orange County, the first in 1793 and the second in 1820, the earlier of which he sold to the Englishman William Robson. Self-published in 2010, 256 pages with illustrations, maps and facsimiles. Topics include gristmills in Orange County and the Blackwood, Johnston, Robinson and Robson families, so the volume serves both mill history and genealogy.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 664.72 DUNAWAY UNC Duke Durham NC Cardinal

Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave

Fleischner, Jennifer · 2003 · Broadway Books

Jennifer Fleischner's double biography of Mary Todd Lincoln and Elizabeth Keckley, the dressmaker who had been enslaved, including years in Hillsborough, before buying her freedom and becoming the First Lady's confidante. Published by Broadway Books in New York in 2003, 372 pages with illustrations and a map. Topics include enslaved women in Hillsborough and the United States, dressmakers and women's friendships in the nineteenth century.

✓ Held at OCPL · 973.7 FLEISCHN NC Cardinal Library of Congress UNC

History of Patterson Mill, New Hope Creek, Orange County, NC

Dunaway, Stewart E. · 2010

Stewart E. Dunaway's 2010 study of Patterson Mill, a gristmill site on New Hope Creek where Orange County meets Chatham County. The book pairs a short genealogy of the Patterson family with a close survey of what remains of the mill on land now inside Duke Forest, supported by maps, facsimile documents and illustrations across 176 pages. Self-published in a second issue dated October 10, 2010.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 664.72 DUNAWAY NC Cardinal UNC

A Generosity of Spirit: The Early History of the Research Triangle Park

Link, Albert N. · 1995 · Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina

Albert N. Link's early history of Research Triangle Park, published in 1995 by the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina. Topics include research parks, research institutes and industrial research in the state, with the park's own history at the center. 149 pages with illustrations and maps.

Chapel Hill PL NC Cardinal Library of Congress

From seed to harvest

Link, Albert N. · 2002 · Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina

Albert N. Link's history of the Research Triangle Park, the research park founded to draw on the universities at Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh, published in 2002 by the Research Triangle Foundation of North Carolina in 278 pages with illustrations. Topics include research parks, research institutes and industrial research in North Carolina and the history of the park itself.

NC Cardinal Library of Congress

Sheer Resilience : An Untold Story of A Free Community of Color in Orange County, N.C

Scarlett, Beverly A. · 2024

Beverly A. Scarlett's 2024 study of a free community of color in nineteenth-century Orange County, drawing on apprenticeship and freedmen's records among other county sources.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 306.363 SCARLETT

Show 6 more

Working for A Living

Orange County Historical Museum (N.C.) · 2024

Exhibit publication from the Orange County Historical Museum for its special exhibit on working life, shown in Hillsborough from March to December 2024 and concerned with the county's trades and industrial arts. Produced by the museum in 2024, it documents Orange County and Hillsborough history through the work people did.

✓ Held at OCPL · NC 975.656 ORANGE

The East Asian collection of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Bolick, Hsi-Chu · 2010

Hsi-Chu Bolick's 2010 account of the East Asian collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, printed as an article running from page 280 to page 292 with illustrations and portraits. Topics include East Asian libraries in Chapel Hill, library resources for East Asia, and the university's cooperation with Duke in building the collection.

UNC

The water mills of Bolin and Morgan creeks, Orange County, North Carolina

Chilton, Mark · 2008 · The author

Mark Chilton's short account of the water mills that once stood on Bolin and Morgan creeks in Orange County, prepared to accompany a talk given to the Chapel Hill Historical Society on January 27, 2008. Seven unnumbered pages with a folded plate, color illustrations and a map.

UNC

I raised my hand to volunteer : students protest in 1960s Chapel Hill.

2007 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Account of student protest in 1960s Chapel Hill, published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007 with illustrations. It draws together the civil rights movement and segregation in the town, discrimination in restaurants, academic freedom and university autonomy, protest against the Vietnam War, Students for a Democratic Society and the Black Student Movement on campus.

UNC

Making Carrboro home : user alteration of company space

Lachenman, Sara Regan · 2005

Sara Regan Lachenman's 2005 thesis on how the people living in Carrboro's company built housing altered it to suit themselves. It takes up domestic architecture, working class housing and the social side of the textile industry in the town, with 158 pages of text and illustrations.

UNC

The treatment of African American girls in progressive era North Carolina's juvenile justice system (1890-1930)

Brice, Tanya Smith · 2003

Tanya Smith Brice studies how North Carolina's juvenile justice system treated African American girls between 1890 and 1930, naming among its institutions the North Carolina Industrial School for Negro Girls at Efland in Orange County. Health and hygiene, juvenile delinquency and the state's social conditions are among its subjects. A 2003 typescript of 89 leaves with a bibliography on the closing pages.

UNC