directed by Virginians

The Charlottesville Woolen Mills was conceived, financed, and directed primarily by Virginians. In fact, the individuals underwriting the enterprise were mainly those whose activity in Charlottesville commerce and merchandizing antedated the war and whose prominence in financial circles continued to grow in the years following. Of the four men named with Marchant in the charter as organizers of the company, three were definitely local people. One of these was Shreve. A second, B. C. Flannagan, had extensive business connections in the vicinity and during the war had also run a cotton and woolen mill near Charlottesville. W. W. Flannagan had similar commercial interests. The fourth, J. W. Payne, cannot be identified. Of the other six men on the first board of directors, five were members of prominent Albemarle families.
--Harry Poindexter