Fire!

CHAPTER III
THE CHARLOTTESVILLE WOOLEN MILLS IN THE NEW SOUTH
1882-1914

The outlook was bright for the stockholders of the Charlottesville Woolen Mills as they strolled from their annual meeting on the afternoon of January 10, 1882. The troubles of the last ten years seemed over. The company which they had planted with care in 1868 had finally taken root, and they looked forward to harvesting the fruits of their labor. The depression of the seventies had ended; the last Federal troops had long since departed. And if such prophets of the New South as Henry Grady and Francis W. Dawson could be believed, the mill stood poised to march on into an era of unprecedented prosperity.
Before dawn the next day, this rosy picture was abruptly shattered. At about midnight, the dreaded call of "Fire!" rudely broke into the peaceful slumber of the small village near the mill. Flames licked at the third floor windows and quickly spread throughout the main building before they could be extinguished. All of the valuable machinery and a large part of partly processed cloth were consumed by the fire, leaving only the blackened hulk of the building to greet the morning sun.--Harry Poindexter