Restrictions to Access

Use of audio materials may require production of listening copies.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Mary Anne McDonald Collection of Orange Factory Oral History Materials #4381, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mary Anne McDonald, Chapel Hill, N.C., in May 1983 (Acc. 84008).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Laura O'Keefe, March 1985

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Anne Wells and Andrew Crook, August 2019; Dawne Howard Lucas, August 2021

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Handicraft--North Carolina.
• McDonald, Mary Anne.
• Mid-Atlantic Archaeological Research, inc.
• Midwives--North Carolina--History.
• North Carolina--Religion--20th century.
• Obstetrics--North Carolina--History.
• Oral history.
• Orange Factory (N.C.)--Social conditions.
• Orange Factory (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Quilting--North Carolina.
• Recreation--North Carolina.
• Textile factories--North Carolina--History--20th century.
• Textile workers--Health and hygiene--North Carolina.
• Textile workers--North Carolina--History--20th century.

The textile mill of Orange Factory, eight miles north of Durham, N.C., was built in 1852 on the Little River. It changed names several times as it changed owners, becoming the Willard Manufacturing Company sometime after the Civil War, the Little River Manufacturing Company in 1906, and the Laura Cotton Mill in 1916, a name it kept until it closed in 1938 at the height of the Depression. The population of the mill village, which retained the name of Orange Factory, dwindled then, but a number of its residents opted to stay there, either commuting to Roxboro where the mill's owners operated a larger facility, or trying to find other work.

In 1978, the city of Durham announced intentions to increase its water supply by constructing a dam and reservoir on the Little River, which would eradicate Orange Factory. The people of the village, linked by both blood ties and a strong sense of community, banded together to form the Orange Factory Preservation Society. Their efforts succeeded in a nomination for the inclusion of Orange Factory on the National Register of Historic Places. In accordance with that nomination, the engineering company hired to build the dam financed an archeological investigation of the area, and a social and economic historical study which included oral history interviews with Orange Factory inhabitants. However, findings were not considered sufficiently "historically significant." In late 1983, Orange Factory's people were moved to other homes, and construction of the dam began.

The Mary Anne McDonald Collection of Orange Factory Oral History Materials consists of oral history interviews, supporting documentation, and photographs created and compiled by Mary Anne McDonald, a graduate student in folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. McDonald, who was hired by Mid-Atlantic Archeological Research Inc., of Delaware, conducted the interviews in April and May of 1983. McDonald interviewed five men and six women from Orange Factory, N.C., whose dates of birth ranged from 1892 to 1921, all of whom had worked in the Orange Factory mill. Topics discussed in the interviews include physical layout of the mill and its surroundings; relations with co-workers and supervisors; local health care; midwifery; recreational activities, including hunting, fishing, dancing, and crafts such as quilting; religion; and the 1983 closing of the mill and why many people chose to remain in Orange Factory instead of going elsewhere. Oral histories are on audiocassette. Supporting documentation found in the collection consists of transcripts, reports, a topical index to the interviews, and supplemental materials compiled by McDonald during the course of the project. The collection also contains copy prints of photographs belonging to the interviewees, mostly taken between 1945 and 1964. Images depict various people and buildings in Orange Factory. Photographic formats include black and white photographic prints, color slides, and corresponding contact sheets.

• Audiocassettes (C-4381/1-21)
• P-4381/1-103