About this book from the Preface: The original idea for this history was to write about the first cotton factory in Alexander County that was built before the Civil War. This was the Alspaugh Mill at the present Liledoun on the Lower Little River. The Alspaugh ledger or account book is available giving detailed information about the mill until it was sold in 1895. The author realized that six cotton mills and three hosiery mills were built in Alexander County, and all have ceased operation and are now just history. There is a nylon mill built in 1948 and currently operated by the Schneider family. It was decided to write a history of the mills in Alexander County. The source materials for the research were the Alspaugh ledger books, deeds, mortgages, and corporations found in the Alexander County Register of Deeds office, as well as the law suits, bankruptcies and estate papers in the Alexander County Clerk of Court office and the population schedules of the U.S. Census. Interviews were conducted with individuals who worked in the mills, with descendants of the owners, and with a former mill owner. On writing the history of Alexander County Cotton Mills, there was a case of "cotton mill fever," and it was decided to include some history of the early mills in North Carolina. The source records of the early cotton mills which will be shown in the bibliography were histories by various authors. The main source used was a 36-page special edition on cotton mills in North Carolina published in 1895 by the Raleigh News and Observer. My thanks to the individuals who furnished information on the Alexander Cotton mills. They were: C.K. Sherrill, Mrs. Wade Campbell, Bud Brown, Mrs. Fred Brown, Lloyd Jolly, Mrs. Charlie Benbow, and Mrs. Gail White. The typing was done by Mildred Miller and Nancy Coley.