There is another way in which unsolicited outside capital frequently has lodged in the Southern mills. The conditions under which this would come about are well described by a banker now in Richmond and formerly the president of the Chamber of Commerce in Raleigh, North Carolina; "Usually the people who made the spirit for cotton mills in this way (through appeals to town pride and by town rivalry) were those least able to participate financially. Many mills started without sufficient capital and never did have enough till they failed in the hands of the original promoters and were bought up by other people, those who had been responsible for the enterprise losing out entirely."[338] Thus as far back as 1882 Colonel Walter S. Gordon, one of the projectors of the Georgia Pacific Railroad, purchased the Stansbury Cotton Mills, Carrollton, Mississippi, which cost originally $210,000. "The Georgia Pacific Railroad", says the notice of the purchase, "will run almost by its doors, and will give competition in freights."[339] Evidently here was a mill which was commenced by local effort and had declined until it could be bought at a lower figure than its cost and held out the prospect of becoming profitable by the coming of new transportation facilities.
The Kessler Mill, the third built at Salisbury, North Carolina, offers a case in point. The first mill built in the place was a produce of the most whole-hearted local support centering about community pride; the second mill was an outgrowth of the success of the first, and was advantaged by the spirit aroused by the first mill, not too far spent. The Kessler Mill was organized by a faction which split off from the projectors of the first enterprise; local capital already seriously depleted was not quick in offering because of lack of interest in the project.[340] Under these circumstances the mill ran an indifferent course until taken over by a large manufacturer of a nearby town, who could command outside capital.[341]
A mulatto started a cotton mill at Concord in the same State; no white people of the place took shares; the negroes all over the State who subscribed were allowed to pay in little instalments. The operatives were negroes. The promoter was faithful to the enterprise, but came to be heavily in debt, foreclosure followed on ill success, and the mill passed to the hands of the same capitalist who took over the Kessler Mill of Salisbury.[342]