Home A Dunson Mills Timeline
1910
Chartered Nov. 19 by Joseph Eugene Dunson, Walker Sanford Dunson, Sanford Harris Dunson, Sanford Harris Dunson, Jr., Edgar Haygood Dunson, J.F. Ogletree, William Ellington Morgan, Ashton Hall Cary, Dr. Francis M. Ridley, Wiley Asa Reeves, Maj. John H. Barnard, P.H. Hutchinson, Francis Marion Longley, Reuben Otis Pharr and Thomas J. Thornton II.
1911
Dunson Mills built in land lot 87 of the 6th district, just east of LaGrange. T.J. Thornton II is first manager.
1912
Dunson Mills News became a regular column in the papers.
1913
Dunson Mills built Dunson School on corner of Hogansville Road and Cary Street for mill employees' children, named for Capt. Sanford Harris Dunson Sr., his portrait hung in the entrance.
1916
Dunson Kindergarten opened for mill employees' children.
1920
Dunson Mills baseball teams opened the season against local pros; all merchants closed for the game. LaGrange city limit expanded to include Dunson Mills under Mayor Sanford H. Dunson Jr. Dunson School became part of the city school system.
1922
Dunson Mills Concert Band directory was T. Altobellis, who went on later to conduct the Atlanta Band.
1922-23
Dunson Mills was enlarged and nearly doubled in size.
1925
Company offices were robbed.
1927
Dunson Mills sponsored cooking schools.
1929
Dunson Mill was listed as the largest single cotton factory in the State of Georgia. Manufacturing was mostly industrial fabrics.
1933
Dunson Mills still is largest textile plant in Troup County, with 41,000 spindles.
1935
Dunson Mills Recreation Center built (including pool, playgrounds, playing fields). New grandstands at Dunson Park were built.
1938
Dunson Mills Girls' Softball Teams. Dunson School moved to Barnard Avenue in new building. Portrait of Capt. S.H. Dunson continued to hang in building.
1942
Dunson School's old building on Hogansville Highway used as a recreation center for Soldiers during World War II.
1948
Dunson Mills Recreation Center opened.
1952
Pepperell Mills bought Dunson Mills and it became the Dunson Division of Pepperell.
1965
Pepperell merged with West Point Manufacturing Co. and the parent company became West Point-Pepperell, Dunson Division.
1967
Old Dunson School building on Hogansville Highway razed.
1970
Dunson Mills was air conditioned, and the giant windows were bricked up, by West Point-Pepperell. Manufacturing was switched from fabrics to sheeting.
1972
Dunson Mill was expanded.
1985
Parts of Dunson Park land was donated to city.
1986
City Board of Education closed Dunson School. Building was utilized for storage and maintenance. Georgia's first lady, Elizabeth Carlock Harris, a Dunson School graduate, attended closing ceremonies.
1987
Dunson Mills installed modern air-jet weaving looms.
1993
West Point-Pepperell became West Point Stevens.
1994
Dunson Park grandstands and remaining park areas donated to city of LaGrange.
2004
West Point Stevens announced imminent closing of Dunson Mills.