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Oral History Interview with Thomas R. Ellington, October 10, 1983. Interview C-0122. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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  • Abstract
    Thomas Ellington worked in the Sellers Manufacturing Company in Saxapahaw, North Carolina, for over thirty years. In this interview, he discusses the interaction between employees at the mill and Everett Jordan, the mill owner. Jordan treated the workers at his mill well and was loved and respected within his community. Ellington recounts two instances in which Jordan solved conflicts between the superintendent and the employees by firing the superintendent. He also describes how the mill employees used their own form of currency to trade for goods at the mill village store.
    Excerpts
  • Ellington resented the many duties that came with the repair jobs
  • Jordan loaned an employee fifty dollars when they met during a brief vacation
  • Jordan fired two supervisers for causing conflict with his textile mill workers
  • Everett Jordan personally mediated cases of injury, waste, and repair in his mill
  • Jordan provided employees with financial help, but he kept mill wages low
  • Learn More
  • Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
  • Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
  • Subjects
  • Jordan, B. Everett
  • Ellington, Thomas R.
  • North Carolina--Biography
  • The Southern Oral History Program transcripts presented here on Documenting the American South undergo an editorial process to remove transcription errors. Texts may differ from the original transcripts held by the Southern Historical Collection.

    Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services supported the electronic publication of this title.