Stone Mountain schoolgirls in feed sack dresses circa 1935.
The old Rogersville flour mill on crockett street.
An unidentified worker at the McDonald’s Mill.
Stone Mountain schoolgirls in feed sack dresses circa 1935.
The old Rogersville flour mill on crockett street.
An unidentified worker at the McDonald’s Mill.
Not so very long ago old timers loafed the day away down on the town square in Rogersville. Underneath the centuries’ old trees, these men sat on benches, whittled cedar, chewed tobacco, laughed, talked, and sometimes argued about the good old days.
Everybody seemed to have a wonderful time back then. One Saturday afternoon regular bench warmers, Reverend Theodore Russell, Perry Smith, Luther Hurd, and Duff Manis got into a quarrel about which one was raised the poorest. Preacher Russell started it when he said, “We were so poor, Mama used to take in washing……..and we kept it.”
Duff wasn’t about to be out done he chimed in, “You all were lucky, one time my brother swallered a nickel and I followed him around 3 days with a stick, that’s how poor we were.
Perry chuckled a little and replied “Why you all was rich compared to us. We was so poor, I didn’t have a stitch of clothes till I was 6 years old. On my sixth birthday Mama brought me a hat so I could look out the window.”
Luther listened thoughtfully to all these tall tales and then replied “Speaking of clothes my Granny wore feedsack bloomers. I’m not lying like you all. She bent over in the garden one day and her dress flew up. There was a big chicken across the hind end of her underwear. It said Horton Feed and Seed across the bottom of it. I will never forget that.”
Well that changed the topic of the whole conversation the old men spent the entire afternoon reminiscing about feed sack clothing. Indeed feed sacks have played an important role in the lives of many Hawkins County folks as far back as the late 1800’s. Our ancestors knew the importance of recycling long before it was the politically correct thing to do.
But they did it out of necessity. The first feed sacks just had a brand name printed on them. Then textile companies began to create the sacks in bold colors and bright prints.
In the 1920’s manufacturers even started printing patterns on the feed sacks. During the Great Depression multi-colored cotton sacks were used to hold livestock feed, flour, grain, sugar and salt. But the cotton containers were almost as important as the contents.
These sacks could be turned into table cloths, aprons quilts, dish cloths, pillow cases, sheets, and diapers, slip covers, under wear, curtains dresses, dolls and men’s shirts. Just about anything imaginable. By 1942 there were 35 textile mills making feed sacks for public use.
In this time frame 30 million yards of cotton were used to make these sacks in the United States. Many area mills and feed stores carried the coveted bags including, Livesay, McDonald, Kirkpatrick, and Shanks Mills.
Also the Rogersville Flour mill and Horton Feed and Seed. The yardage on feed sack cloth varied. A five pound bag was about 15 by 19 inches; a100 lb. feed sack was about 40 by 54 inches.
It usually took three sacks to make a dress or a man’s shirt. It took four big feed sacks to make a bed sheet or a quilt lining. At one time feed sacks were so popular that newspapers and magazines offered patterns for turning sacks into clothing.
For many years ladies hand stitched the cloth into a variety of things until the Singer pedal sewing machine came along. After World War II paper sacks became more economical and the old time feed sack became obsolete. Today flour and feed sacks bearing the original advertising are very collectible.
Feed sacks seem to bring to mind memories of home, hearth and recollections of a bygone era.
Bertie Wallace of Surgoinsville remembers “My father and mother raised nine children and we were never ashamed of wearing feed sack clothing. Of course we were never told there was anything wrong with it. Yes we were poor but so was everybody else and we just didn’t notice it. I’m 90 years old now and I don’t wear homemade clothes anymore. I enjoy shopping at the mall like everybody else. But every now and then I go into my hope chest and take out the little feed sack flower print dress my mother made me the first year I went to Maxwell Academy. Then the memories of those precious childhood days come flooding back. I can see those flour sack sheets blowing in the mountain breezes as if it were yesterday. I used to have a little plaque that hung in my laundry room. It said ‘Thank God for the feed sacks; they have a tale to tell; while other folks go naked; we’re dressing very well.’ I don’t know what we would have done without them.”
So you see the fact that Luther’s Grandmother wore feed sack bloomers wasn’t an unusual statement at all and I’m sure this story caused you to recall a time when life was simpler. Remembering the old time feed sack, another dropped stitch in Hawkins County’s history.
Rodney Ferrell is the former Hawkins County Historian and the author of three books on local history and culture. He has also written numerous newspaper articles and can be reached at stonypoint67@yahoo.com
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.
Check your email for details.
Invalid password or account does not exist
Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.
An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account.
Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.
A receipt was sent to your email.