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No restrictions. Open for research.

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 J. M. Odell Manufacturing Company Records #4371-z, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Microfilm of Account book, 1899-1901.

Provenance

Received from Louise Harris of Bynum, N.C., for microfilming in 1983 and from Lawrence F. London of Chapel Hill, N.C., in June 2002 (Acc. 99278).

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.

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.

• Account books--North Carolina.
• Bynum (N.C.)--Commerce--History.
• Chatham County (N.C.)--Economic conditions.
• Company stores--North Carolina--History.
• Concord (N.C.)--Commerce--History.
• Concord National Bank (Concord, N.C.).
• J.M. Odell Manufacturing Company.
• Textile industry--North Carolina--History.
• Textile workers--North Carolina--History.

• Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007), Series H. Piedmont Industrialization, Interviews H-60 through H-105, Bynum, N.C.;
• Chatham County Miscellaneous Account Books (#2909).

John Milton Odell, a cotton manufacturer from Concord, N.C., bought a cotton spinning mill in Bynum, N.C., in 1886. J. M. Odell Manufacturing Company of Chatham County, N.C., was incorporated in 1887 by an act of the North Carolina General Assembly which declared that "J. M. Odell, W. R. Odell of Cabarrus County N.C., and W. H. Ragan and J. A. Odell of Guilford County N.C. their successors and associates are hereby created a body politic and corporate under the name of "J. M. Odell Manufacturing Co" of Chatham County N.C. with a capital stock of thirty thousand ($30,000) dollars... ." The company was authorized to manufacture and sell cotton goods and woolen goods, to erect and operate grist mills and saw mills, and to "buy and sell and deal in goods wares and merchandise of every kind and description, at its will and pleasure." As part of the J. M. Odell Company, the Bynum mill sold much of its yarn to Odell weaving plants in Concord.

The Bynum mill had been built in 1872 by Luther and Carney Bynum on their farm on the Haw River. With capital from neighboring farmers George Thompson and E. W. Atwater, and from Pittsboro merchant William L. London, the Bynums incorporated the mill as the Bynum Manufacturing Company. To accommodate workers, the Bynums built a mill village, including a church and a company store. By 1900, the village housed 28 families, most of whom came from farms in Chatham County. When the Bynums were no longer financially able to carry on the spinning business, they sold the mill to J. M. Odell. The Bynums served as mill superintendents until 1902.

For more information about the Bynum mill and the J. M. Odell Manufacturing Company, see Douglas DeNatale, "Traditional Culture and Community in a Piedmont Textile Mill Village," M.A. thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1980; and Gary Richard Freeze, "Master Mill Man: John Milton Odell and Industrial Development in Concord, North Carolina," M.A. thesis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1980.

The collection includes three record books of J. M. Odell Manufacturing Company. The earliest, 1887-1916, contains a copy of the act of incorporation, the by-laws, and the minutes of stockholders' meetings, including the reports of the secretary and treasurer and statements of the company's financial condition. The second continues with minutes of stockholders' and directors' meetings, 1917-1933.

The third volume contains accounts, 1899-1901, of the company's Bynum, N.C., mill and company store. The mill's accounts with suppliers, customers, and mill workers, and with the Concord National Bank and the J. M. Odell Company in Concord, N.C., are included.

Microfilm (M-4371/1).