Today I got the first scan of a clipping from Rosetta’s scrapbook posted. An obituary for Mrs. J. A. Brigman. I took some time to search around Ancestry.com and Familysearch.org to determine her given name. I believe she was Lina Lillie Poplin of Lilesville, Anson Co., NC. and was married to James Archie Brigman. Based on the 1910 census he was born abt 1907 in Bennettsvile Twp, Marlboro Co., SC. By 1930 both their families were living in Wolf Pitt Twp, Hannah Pickett Village, East Rockingham, Richmond Co., NC. I imagine they were finding work in the cotton mill.
A University of NC project called “Documenting the American South” has some interesting history about Hannah Pickett Village that would have affected this family. According to the article, in the early 1930s there was a period of unrest in the Carolina textile mills. A violent strike in Gastonia, NC in 1929 eventually affected the workers in Rockingham, NC and led to a strike in 1931. The owner shut down “the Little Hanna Pickett” in retaliation and it took the Governor’s intervention to eventually get things settled between the workers and the owner.
Many of my family and friends’ families were textile workers. I think the history and the whole concept of the mill villages is fascinating.