End of a way of life: Grover closes after 120 years in Lynn

(From the Tryon Daily Bulletin)

Written by by Jeff Byrd

Monday, 22 December 2008

Workers at the Tryon Hosiery Mill in the 1910s, in a picture owned by Anna Pack Conner from the collection of Pat Panther Hart. Conner said she believes the children were also workers in the plant. “I’ve had several tell me their fathers started there when they were ten or 12 years old,” she said. “They worked when they were not in school.” The plant most recently housed the yarn dying operations of Grover Industries Inc. until it closed last October, ending nearly 120 years of manufacturing history in Lynn, N.C. Conner is currently at work on a book regarding Lynn history and invites anyone with memories of these pictures or Lynn in general to contact her. Workers at Grover Industries Inc. lived by the motto, ‘You dye a little every day.’ They actually dyed a lot. At Grover’s Lynn plant, during peak production years – just a few years back in the mid-1990s – 125 employees ran a multifaceted operation putting color on about 127,000 pounds of yarn a week. These were heavier, “coarse count” yarns used mostly by customers who wove fabrics for the furniture industry. Unfortunately, that business has been declining in the United States in recent years. Just in North Carolina, 30 furniture factories have closed since 1995, according to Duke University Fuqua School of Business. In 2002, U.S. consumers’ foreign-made furniture purchases mushroomed, driving the U.S. trade deficit for residential furniture to $11.4 billion, an increase of nearly $9 billion from the previous year. Sixteen North Carolina furniture factories closed in 2003 alone. The main Grover Industries yarn plant in Grover, N.C., near Kings Mountain, once employed 250. It closed in 2001, the first year of the recession, a year which saw a large number of textile plant closings. Grover’s Lynn plant, despite cost cutting, whittling its staff down from 125 to 30, finally succumbed to the down trend last October. With Grover’s closing, the Lynn community saw the end of a manufacturing way of life that began in the 1890s when Lemuel Wilcox built a hosiery mill there to be powered by a dam on the Pacolet River. “It’s a death. It feels like a death,” said Gary Semmel, manager of Grover’s Lynn plant for the past 25 years. Semmel is still working to close down the business, showing up in the 55,000-square-foot plant every day with just his dogs and two maintenance employees. Those employees, Andy Raines and Gabriel Casas, are busy ripping out, for scrap, 1930s and 1940s vintage machinery. Over the past 70 to 80 years, thousands of hands used those machines to process millions of pounds of cottons, wools, polyesters and acrylics. For Semmel, every empty room, every quiet machine still echoes all the co-workers and all the activity, the steam rising and watercolors draining off newly dyed stacks of yarn ready for the 220-degree drying machines. The plant for a time ran 24 hours a day, as it took 4-8 hours to dye yarn, and another 4-8 hours to dry it. The operation regularly filled three warehouses, stacked floor to ceiling. Standing outside the employee entrance where, just a few years ago, dozens in the Grover family showed up to work each shift, six days a week, Semmel was wistful. “People fell in love here, got divorced here, lived,” he said. It was Lemuel Wilcox’s son, Frank, who started the dying business in Lynn. Frank Wilcox patented a process for “space dying” yarn, a technique used to give yarn a unique, multi-colored effect. While a typical skein of yarn is the same color throughout, a skein of space dyed yarn is two or more different colors that typically repeat themselves throughout the length of the yarn. Wilcox started his space dying business in the basement of his home on Howard Gap Road. After Wilcox’s death in 1941, R.A. Spooner took over, named the business Tryon Processing and moved it into the hosiery mill built by the Wilcox family 50 years earlier. The Harry family, owners of Grover, bought the business some years later. Bill McKaig’s father James B. McKaig was “a knitting man,” and served as superintendent of textiles at the Lynn plant. Bill recalled those early days, when workers – and their cows – could walk to work in Lynn. “The land next to the plant, now for sale, was a pasture,” McKaig recalled. “If you worked in the mill, you could bring your cows there during the day. We lived nearby in Ioka Hills, and you would just open your gates and the cows would go to that pasture.” At the end of the day, McKaig said it was one of his after-school chores to see that his family’s cows made their way home. Sometimes, the cattle had been let out of the Grover pasture already and he would get home to find the cows just waiting at the McKaig family gate. “On weekends, the plant would open the valve in the dam and then, on Sunday afternoons around 5 p.m., they would close it again. There would be big fish down below flapping around. People would just pick them up and get dinner,” McKaig recalled. Management allowed employees to slaughter and field dress their hogs at the plant, using the hot water there, McKaig recalled. For a while, a man whose name McKaig recalled as McMillian lived in a house in back of the mill. His job was to tend the coal-fired boilers 24 hours a day. Public Service Natural Gas took care of that in recent years. When it closed this fall, the Grover plant was using $30,000 a month of natural gas, and kept #6 oil on hand as a back-up fuel. Grover also employed operators for its wastewater treatment plant, a much harder operation to run than a municipal wastewater plant. Semmel said the bugs that ate the dyes and chemicals in Grover’s wastewater lived off salt and required a tender’s skilled care to ensure they healthily ate their way through 450,000 gallons a day. There were a lot of good people who made it all come together. Larry Conner went to work at Grover’s Lynn plant 32 years ago, right after his junior year of high school. Grover has been a family affair for Conner. His parents retired from Grover, his brother worked there until six months ago, his wife started there as Semmel’s administrative assistant in 2001 and his son got on a couple of years ago. Over his 32-year tenure, Conner rose to become supervisor of the dye house. Grover ran eight dying machines, ranging from a 2,000-lb. to a 100-lb machine. Conner said the company was good at turning around custom orders quickly. Grover’s chemical lab had 5,000 formulas on file ready to create whatever shades of color were the current fashion in furniture fabrics, Semmel said. “I just loved it,” Conner recalled. “The atmosphere. A lot of us had been there forever. It was a really good place to work.” It was only five years ago, Conner said, that Grover crews were all working seven days a week, “and were behind.” But in the last couple of years, the market for Grover’s yarn really collapsed. One blow was the fall of a major customer, Collins & Aikman Corp, primarily an automotive fabrics company which also wove some furniture fabrics. Before Collins & Aikman filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2005, Grover’s Lynn plant sold the company two million pounds of dyed yarn over a five-year period, Semmel said – “a lot of sofas.” Former Reagan budget director David Stockman, then CEO of Collins & Aikman, was facing indictment on charges of accounting fraud. Collins & Aikman was purchased by a private equity group in 2007, and just last August closed a 295,000-square-foot automotive fabric plant employing 600 in Athens, Tenn. Another major Grover customer, Doblin, merged with Circa 1801 in 2002, and became “the high end unit of home furnishings textile producer Joan Fabrics Corp.” Big orders and big seller yarns are being dyed overseas nowadays, Semmel said, not by small shops like Grover. “Years ago, we dyed a few colors for a company that wove them into strapping for Lands End luggage and brief cases,” Semmel said. “Lands End now sources the strapping – and probably everything else – from overseas.” When Grover closed, Semmel said the plant still had lots of dye lots on order, but all 100 pound lots and 400 pound lots. “We needed the big lot business to make money,” Semmel said. “We thought we were doing well to last this long. We thought others would go out before us and give us a spurt of business.” There are some silver linings in the bad economy for the U.S. textile industry, said Mike Hubbard, vice president of the National Council of Textile Organizations. But for Grover, any brighter future for American textiles did not arrive soon enough. Over time, like Grover dyes, even the memories will fade. As for Conner, and the others now unemployed, the prospects are dim at present. Conner said he doesn’t know what he is going to do next. “I’m doing a lot of hunting now,” he said. “The options are slim right now with the economy. There are no jobs. One (former employee) went to work at Carolina Yarn Processors (in Tryon). CYP picked up what little business we had left.” Grover Industries Inc.’s employees have been certified to participate in the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program by the U.S. Department of Labor. The act provides additional unemployment benefits, extended health insurance and assistance in retraining for “workers adversely affected by foreign trade.” Another program, the Workforce Investment Act, also pays for training for “displaced workers.” Employees must file for benefits at the Employment Security Office in Forest City, even if they are not interested in re-training. Conner said he has until next spring to decide if he wants to go back to school. He’d rather find a job. He has a retirement savings 401(k) account, but cannot touch that without paying steep penalties until he is 59½. That’s another 11 years. “There are not many dye houses left,” Conner said. “What I’ve done is a dinosaur now. There is nothing out there. Not many (Grover employees) are going to work.” Semmel agreed. He said only a few of his laid-off employees had applied for TAA benefits. “A lot of them are not going back to work,” Semmel said. “They can’t sell themselves right now in an employer’s market. They don’t want to be on welfare. There are not many options.” As for himself, Semmel said he hasn’t given much thought to what’s next. Right now he is occupied with shutting down the business, selling the machinery. Most of it, like the 1941 Leesoma cone winder, the 1930s skein breaker and all the color lab devices, will go for scrap. The building will be sold and could make a nice facility for offices, or college classrooms, Semmel said, “It is a pretty setting, right next to the river with mountain views.” A number of salvage buyers want the building just for its old bricks, its big boards and the 1¼" maple flooring, but Semmel is reluctant to see the Lynn landmark torn down. Certainly ideas are already percolating as to the future for the Grover plant. Polk County Agriculture Economic Development Director Lynn Sprague believes the mill could be used as a local food distribution center, and perhaps a place to begin quality lumber distribution. “Thinking out of the box,” he says, the filtration pools could be used to grow fish, and the dying machines could be used for food processing. Polk County Economic Development Director Kipp McIntyre led a delegation of North Carolina officials on a tour of the plant in October and is working to put the Lynn plant on the state’s industrial site selection network once all the old dye house equipment has been removed. Gary Semmel, Grover’s Lynn plant manager, stands next to the dye machines which put as many as 5,000 different colors on millions of pounds of yarn. The plant closed in October. (photo by Jeff Byrd)

1970 Football Team Preseason Press

October 11, 2008 Gathering at Keith's

 

Third Grade Class Picture

 

 

These are class pictures from our Third Grade Annual.

Elementary Staff

 

This is a picture of the Elemetary School Teachers in our 2nd grade annual. How many can you remember?

Hangouts From The Past

 

I think The Willows (in the valley) was probably about gone by the time the class of 71 started cruising, but Missildine's soda fountain was certainly enjoyed by many.

Business From The Past

 

How many remember the Tryon Bank and Trust Company? I believe it was bought (merged?) with North Carolina National Bank - which became NCNB, which became Nations Bank, which became Bank of America.

Back Entrance

 

How many of you remember this area, just outside the auditorium and the band room. The playground is just to the right and down the hill.

Two Superintendents

 

The Class of 71 had two School Superintendents. In today's time, this is pretty remarkable because the average tenure for a school superintendent is 3 to 5 years. The first superintendent was W.S. Hamilton.

Do You Remember?

The 1959 playground - swings, merry-go-round, see-saw, and monkey bars.

The 'Old Gym', which was just recently torn down, is to the left.

John Cowan's pasture is at the top (sometimes cows would get out).
















Oak Hall Hotel around 1958. It's hard to believe such a grand Hotel once graced downtown Tryon. The Hotel was torn down in the 70's to make way for condominiums.














Valhalla Hand Weavers once flourished in the valley and was widely know throughout the state.



The old Valley Courts Restaurant in 1961. This was torn down and a new restaurant built in it's place - which is now the Youth Center. Valley Courts also had a Putt Putt golf course and a swimming pool.

The Littlest Majorette

This is from the 1960 - 61 school year (2nd grade) and the classmate in this picture (the little one) is Mary Welborn.

In The Beginning For The Class of '71

September 1959 was the beginning. Here are pictures from the first two years at Tryon Elementary School. The picture at the top is for the group that joins the class in the 4th grade.

These were the top songs in September 1959:

"The Three Bells" by The Browns

"Sleep Walk" by Santo & Johnny

"Mack the Knife" by Bobby Darin

God and education

Written by by Joey Millwood

Monday, 22 September 2008

Down the winding Tryon lane that is Markham Road, Good Shepherd Episcopal Church can be seen off to one side across a kudzu-filled valley. The small church, white with a red door, sits perched at the corner of Markham Road and Jackson Street. It's steeped with rich history that dates back 100 years. The church recently celebrated that history. But what a lot of the community may not know is that there are two histories associated with the church. One is the Episcopal church story and the other is a constantly repeating theme of education. There's no way to discuss the church without intertwining education throughout the history. Good Shepherd  was started as a mission school. For church purposes, it was primarily a chapel, current pastor Walter Bryan said. Services were held on Sunday morning. Known initially as the Tryon Industrial Colored School, the building was opened in 1908. The original building, however, sat a few yards away from the current building where oak trees stand today. It was built by Edmond Embury. The first teacher and principal for the school was Scotland Harris. Harris taught the kids mathematics and construction, his granddaughter and church member Beryl Dade said, and his wife, Mary, taught languages and home economics. Harris remained principal of the school until 1918. In 1922, Rev. Samuel Radway and his family came to the Episcopal mission school. Radway and his wife ushered in the second phase of education. In 1940, the Tryon Colored School, which was the public school at the time for black children, burned down. "(The Good Shepherd school) was the only building in the area big enough to house the students," Dade said. So from 1940-1943, Good Shepherd was the home of public schooling for African American children. The big change for the church, however, came in 1955. It was determined that the original building needed to be replaced. The bishop and others in the church searched for a new building. What they found was an unused building on the Green River Plantation owned by Col. Franklin Coxe. The chapel had been used by slaves on his plantation. It was known as St. Andrew's Chapel. The congregation tried unsuccessfully many times to find out who owned the chapel. Finally, they went over to the plantation one final time and Coxe was on site and they were able to obtain the chapel. The building was cut into four pieces, placed on trucks and then moved to Markham Road. Although there has been lots of construction around the building that made the winding trip down Markham in 1955, much of the building is still the same. The pews and side windows in the church remain. The only things in the sanctuary that weren't part of the original St. Andrews chapel are the altar rails, the altar and a wooden cross. The original Good Shepherd building was torn down. In the 1960s, the church and school began to undergo some changes. The Community Kindergarten program was created, and Sarah Shields incorporated the Reading Is Fundamental program, which is now in most public schools. Also in the 1960s, the congregation in the church began to change, becoming integrated. In the early 60s, the congregation was 100 percent African American, Bryan said, while today it's 20 percent African-American and 80 percent Caucasian. While it is now integrated, the church's original African-American population is one of the reasons it survived, Bryan said. In a town with the population size of Tryon, two Episcopal churches don't generally exist, he said. "The reason why this one survived is because of segregation," he said. Bryan left Tryon in 1965 and returned to pastor the church in 2003. The final education phase for the church was the Homework Center that began in 1994-1995. Dade, who had just retired as a public school teacher, developed the program. In the afternoons, a Polk County bus stops in front of Good Shepherd and children file out, heading into the church to do homework and study. Education was the main purpose of the church's original creation, and that's what makes its history so important, Dade said. "It's very important," she said. "At the time, it was the education beginnings for the blacks in Tryon." Just as the church and its educational history can't be separated, neither can Dade's personal history and the church and school. "Really, I've been here every year of my life," she said. Her grandfather was Scotland Harris, her godfather was Samuel Radway and her mother, Helen Harris Hannon, taught at the school. Pastor Bryan said he doesn't take the church's history lightly. "It's certainly humbling," he said. "You want to make certain the church survives under your watch and I think we're on the right track." The church currently has 80 members.

THS Class of '71 Party on October 11

You are invited to

Tryon High School Class of 1971

(& bordering years)

 

3rd Annual Reunion

 

Where:                Keith & Paula Henson's Lake House

                             508E Lakeshore Drive (About ¼ mile past Tea House on Right)

 

 

When:                 Saturday Evening, October 11; Starting at 6:30 pm

                             (We're sorry for the shorter notice this year)

                            

Bring:                  Any hors d'oeuvres/drinks you want   to drink – we'll have ice,         paper    products, &  utensils.          

                             Spouses are welcome.   Pictures, year books,     stories, cameras & video recorders are also recommended.

 

Dress:                 Comfortable – We suggest that you bring a sweater – like last year, it gets cooler when the sun goes down.

 

Please spread the word to other classmates.