I've lately been attempting to find historical records about the spot where I live (an unincorporated rural area) without success, but have found some interesting facts about the nearest town a few miles away. This reflects back on earlier threads here about working conditions/wages in "3rd world" factories and is about a town in the US that 100 years ago was owned by a company, and lives of the residents controlled by one man like a personal fiefdom. Attached is a PDF I formatted from the original Harper's Magazine article from 1902.
The original article at Google.
Amongst the facts, all children younger than 12 in the family of a worker were required to go to school, which is of course a good thing. But according to
this, all children 12 and over were required to work in the mill-- and employees weren't allowed to own dogs because "The Captain" didn't like them.
And a few more tidbits:
http://www.textilehistory.org/EllisonAdgerSmyth.html
http://www.archive.org/stream/cu3192...59617_djvu.txt
http://www.thejournalonline.com/cont...&MemberID=1499