Dissertation Information for Donna Jean Whitley NAME: - Donna Jean Whitley
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- Emory University (USA) (1984)
ADVISORS: - Dan T. Carter
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - None
MPACT Status: Incomplete - Inspected
Title: FULLER E. CALLAWAY AND TEXTILE MILL DEVELOPMENT IN LAGRANGE, 1895-1920 (SOUTH, INDUSTRIALIZATION, PATERNALISM; GEORGIA)
Abstract: This dissertation provides a biographical sketch of Fuller Earle Callaway, Sr., whose mercantile and business career greatly influenced the development of LaGrange, Georgia. Born in Georgia in 1870 as the seventh child of the Rev. Abner and Sarah Jane Howard Callaway, Fuller Earle Callaway, Sr. spent much of his childhood and youth in the rural areas outside LaGrange. At twelve years of age he moved into town with relatives and began work as a clerk in a store. At eighteen he opened his own mercantile establishment, which soon developed into LaGrange's first "department store."
In 1899 Callaway and other LaGrange businessmen joined together to sponsor the town's first modern textile mill, encouraged by the prospects of jobs and new customers the mill represented. During the next twenty-five years Callaway was the central figure in founding and managing four other textile mills in LaGrange. At the same time he built and designed a substantial industrial community to house the workers in the new plants. Combining a sharp business sense with a feeling of responsibility for the improvement of community conditions, Callaway sponsored numerous philanthropical organizations and projects in LaGrange, the goal of which was to give workers new opportunities at the same time they kept mill employees happy and productive.
But the process of industrialization in LaGrange was not always easy. From the beginning there was a strain between the old townspeople and the new industrial workers and managers. From time to time this strain grew into open conflict over economic and political questions. In spite of Callaway's emphasis on cooperation, there was in reality a period of much conflict in LaGrange during the industrialization process. At two points the survival of a united LaGrange was seriously in doubt, first as plans were undertaken for a separate incorporation for industrial areas and secondly as a national labor union attempted to organize textile employees.
At Callaway's death in 1928 LaGrange was in the midst of these changes, due in large measure to his initiatives in industrialization. Their continuation by his family resulted in a more industrialized LaGrange.
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MPACT Scores for Donna Jean Whitley A = 0
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calculated 2008-06-03 09:42:05
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