Historic Tuscaloosa's Memory Of The Week: Rosenau Hosiery Mills

Editor's Note: As part of an ongoing partnership with our friends at Historic Tuscaloosa, Patch will be bringing you a quick piece of local history each week provided by those working hard to preserve the memories of our community.

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Today's installment of Historic Tuscaloosa's Memory of the Week takes us back just after the turn of the 20th century to the Rosedale area of south Tuscaloosa.

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In a time before child labor laws, The Rosenau Hosiery Mill opened in Tuscaloosa's Socktown community on March 1, 1901, and employed 200 men and women to produce hosiery and socks.

By 1919, the company had expanded its operations by opening mills in nearby Cottondale and Northport.

The Tuscaloosa Area Virtual Museum says David Rosenau's company, Tuscaloosa Mills, was organized in 1897 with a capital investment of $150,000 and bought its Cottondale factory at auction for $43,400.

Despite the worrisome age of some of its employees by today's standards, the company was still a trailblazer in another respect, according to Historic Tuscaloosa's Event & Digital Media Coordinator Sarah-Katherine Helms, who explained that the hosiery mill was the only factory in Tuscaloosa that employed women.

"Families with two or more children over 16 years of age will find our mills a splendid place for the children to make good money and help out the family expenses," a 1919 job advertisement says. "The work is light, clean and pleasant. You are always out of the weather. Our mills are well-heated in cold weather and are cool and well-ventilated in summer. The work is permanent and pays good wages."

Helms did say children as young as 10 could be employed, however, there existed a company rule requiring these young employees to attend school for at least three months each school year until they turned 12.

One interesting story Helms shared reflected on one story from the mill after child labor restrictions were tightened, resulting in inspectors coming around to see if any child was working.

Helms cited the Tuscaloosa Area Virtual Museum in saying that if these inspectors did show up to the factory, the supervisors "would hide its child in bins of socks until it was safe to come out."

The Tuscaloosa mill offered employees company houses, which were furnished with running water and electricity. This location also offered a "first-class" boarding house less than half a block from the mill just for women and young girls, who were taken care of by the landlady "Mrs. Johnson."

For its Cottondale operations, which later burned down after reportedly being struck by lightning, the company houses were also provided with large garden spots and the business was proud of its "bountiful supply of fine water."

What's more, Cottondale was marketed to prospective employees as being situated in an open range, thus allowing employees to have chickens, hogs, cows and other stock.

Indeed, operations in Cottondale sat on 2,000 acres, boasting 15,000 spindles and 450 looms to manufacture mostly Caledonia outing flannels, according to the Tuscaloosa Area Virtual Museum.

It also offered four churches, two school buildings and numerous dwelling houses to those employed at the mill.

"Cottondale has exceptionally good schools and churches," the 1919 job advertisement says. "Rent and living expenses here are very cheap. Good boarding places will be secured in private families for girls coming alone. The mill building is a large brick building, [with] plenty of light and ventilation and well heated. You will like to live and work here."

Rosenau's Northport location was its newest in 1919 and was described as "practically new, well lighted, ventilated and heated," with all new machinery.

Additionally, the company touted the work in this mill as being "very high grade," going on to say that the mill's female employees of all ages, with some training, "should be able to make from 2 to 3 dollars a day."

Helms said the Tuscaloosa factory also burned down in 1924, meeting the same fate as the company's Cottondale operations in the years prior.

In another photo provided by Historic Tuscaloosa, a snapshot from the 1904 Tuscaloosa Board of Trade booklet shows one of the earliest automobiles to be photographed in Tuscaloosa.

Indeed, according to historian Ben A. Green's 1949 anthology "A History of Tuscaloosa, Alabama 1816-1949," the first car in Tuscaloosa was a 1900 Locomobile steamer owned by none other than David Rosenau.

However, Helms said the model in the picture above appears to be closer to a 1904 model than a 1900 model Locomobile.

Click here to learn more about our friends at Historic Tuscaloosa and be on the lookout for the next installment of our Memory of the Week.

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