Chambers-Lee-Randolph County AlArchives History .....RiverView Alabama - History August 27, 2005
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Gerald K. McGinty, Sr. http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00021.html#0005198 August 27, 2005, 7:40 am

Book Title: Our McGinty Family In America


RiverView, Alabama - History

After the Civil War, when most of the south was in shambles, this area received 
some good news.  A cotton mill was going to be built both at Campbell's 
gristmill and Trammell's mill further up the river. Confederate money was 
worthless, but a few men were fortunate enough to have the financial means to 
invest in these new mills.  The Huguley family was one of the primary 
investor.  It is said that, during the war, they had considerable warehoused 
cotton in their possession and were able to sell and ship it to British buyers 
before it was conscripted by the North. During the war, cotton prices soared to 
over $1.00 lb. The Huguleys were said to be from northeast GA and SC and were 
familiarwith the potential that cotton factories held. In 1853, George and Amos 
Huguley had already purchased 1,920 acres of land from Milton M. Marcus for 
$17,000. In 1865, they purchased an additional 143 acres from James Campbell 
for $2,430, which included three small islands in the Chattahoochee River.  
Part of this land was in AL and part in GA and is the site where the current 
Riverdale mill was built. Because of the nice view of the river from the high 
bluff, the town was named RiverView (originally spelled this way). 

Prior to the coming of these textile mills, this entire area of AL was strictly 
agricultural and cotton was the most important crop. There were several 
gristmills for grinding corn and wheat, cotton gins and sawmills all using 
waterpower from the river and creeks to turn the mill wheels. After the war, 
when these large textile mills were built, the economy quickly converted to 
textile manufacturing as the chief industry and major employer. RiverView had 
one of the first large mills, named the Alabama-Georgia Manufacturing Co. The 
plant was given this name because it actually spanned the state line, with part 
of the plant in AL and the other in GA. The plant was four stories high, 50 
feet wide and 250 feet long. Manufacturing of course fabrics such as osanburg 
and single filling duck began here in 1866. Osanburg is an unbleached cotton 
cloth that was heavy and course.  It was used for goods such as farmers 
clothing, overalls, sacking and bagging. Single filling duck was also a course 
fabric used for such things as tents, awnings, boat sails, tarpaulins and belts 
for machinery. 

One of the old timers, D. W. "Uncle Dan" Simms, who arrived in RiverView in 
1879, gives an excellent picture of life there around 1880, when my 
grandfather, Wiley P. McGinty, Sr., who also lived there, was fifteen years 
old. He remembers that the RiverView of 1880 had no school in the village, "But 
there was a little schoolhouse at the cross-roads (McGinty), where the railroad 
crosses the dirt road.  This school was operated only three months in the 
year.  After the public funds were exhausted, parents would pay one dollar a 
month for each child.  There were very few families that could afford to pay 
this tuition." 

By 1880, the population in RiverView was about 175 with most of the people in 
town living on mill property and working in the mill (note that most of our 
early McGintys, prior to the mill being built, were farmers in the outlying 
areas around RiverView). Exceptions were older people and children under seven 
years of age. The mill used only waterpower from the river.  There was no 
electricity, and it operated sixty-six hours per week.  There was no fire 
sprinkler system.  Water was kept in large barrels in each room in case of 
fire. The floors were made from pine boards and were full of splinters. Some of 
the children went barefooted, so the foreman carried a sharp pocketknife to 
extract splinters fromtheir feet. Children were paid around $.60 cents a day 
for the menial jobs that they could fill such as sweeping. Top pay, for the 
more skilled weavers, etc. might be $6.50 per week.  A colored man brought the 
drinking water in cedar buckets to the workers from a spring. Everyone drank 
from the same dipper. It would take the "water man" about three hours to make 
his rounds.  The "hands" would get pretty thirsty, especially during the hot 
summer months. Cotton and other supplies for the mill were brought in from West 
Point, originally by large mule drawn wagons (drays). Manufactured cloth goods 
were then returned to West Point on the same wagon (the railroad was extended 
to the plant at a later date). West Point was the major city and shipping 
center for the entire area. Workers would go to West Point (seven miles away) 
on Saturday afternoon after they got out of work at 4:00pm.  They would 
purchase their dry goods and groceries, then carry their supplies home in their 
arms and across their backs.  On Saturday afternoon and night, the road would 
be filled with friendly, happy, congenial people that knew little about the 
outside world.  Columbus, GA was thirty miles away, an all day trip, and seemed 
like a faraway country. 

The main forms of entertainment were swimming, fishing, marbles, town ball, 
fox and hounds, hunting and square dancing.  Sometimes an entertainer would 
come to the village with something like a magic show.  In 1880, there were no 
bicycles, no gasoline automobiles, no telephones, no short dresses, no bare 
legs, no powder and paint, no boy-and-girl going out at night alone, no girl's 
smoking, no bobbed hair and no "mixed" swimming pools.  No young man stayed at 
his girl's house after nine o'clock.  None of the girls wore silk stockings; 
they were all cotton.  

There were no cold drinks and no "bought bread".  The farmers raised their own 
wheat and the flour was very dark, but very good.  Lighting was from kerosene 
lamps and water from a well.  People raised much of their own meat and 
poultry.  Eggs sold at three dozen for twenty-five cents, butter was .10 to .12 
cents per pound, and bacon was .04 to .05 cents per pound.  Coffee sold for .10 
cents per pound, it came in bulk, green, and the housewives would parch and 
grind it.  Flour was $4.00 per barrel.  The women and girls made their own 
clothes or had help from the village dressmaker." Life was simple but good.

NOTE:  The last McGinty family living in River View, Chambers Co., is that of 
Douglas Clairfield McGinty, b. October 2, 1922. My brother and fellow 
researcher, Philip "Phil" McGinty, and I visited him in June 2003.  He is the 
son of William Grover McGinty and Era Waller McGinty and the grandson of 
William Levin McGinty.  Doug is a young eighty-year-old and his memory is 
excellent.  He worked in the local mill for eighteen years. Later, he repaired 
watches and for forty-five years, operated a television repair business, 
McGinty TV Repair.  He can tell one interesting story after another about the 
old days in RiverView. His daughter, Teresa Ann McGinty Williams and her 
husband, Denny live with Doug at 1205 California St. in RiverView.

There is also an excellent RiverView historical website at: 
http://www.rval.org/synapse/center/homepage_public.cfm?website=rval.org

Submitted by Gerald K. McGinty, Sr., from his book, "Our McGinty Family in 
America," August, 2005, (http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00021.html#0005198).



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