In 1905 when Hugh McRae began his new company (Rockingham Power Co.) He was quoted as saying that his new company would be the ‘The great emancipator’ of the region, causing industrialization and prosperity all the way to the coast.”

He began chartering his new firm to build and operate not only power projects but also railways, turnpikes, mills, farms and resorts. The general manager of Rockingham Power Co. William H. Browne said that with “this new form of energy (electrical power) although in it’s infancy, would remove all discomforts, drudgery, and dirt from homes and plants.”

With all this promotion, talk, and advertising it brought in New York financiers and investors who just about invaded the small communities of Lilesville and Wadesboro. Investors in the Rockingham area were all interested in building new industries and developing new products while making old ones more economical, by using this new electrical power.

The building of the dam required engineers, construction companies, and of course laborers, materials and equipment. Mules and steam engines would work side by side at the site as gasoline engines were in their infant stages.

In charge of the overall construction of the dam was Federal Construction Co. but there were subcontractors like W.R. Bonsal and O.L. McCloud who had their office in Hamlet at the time. They would supply stone and sand dug from their quarry around Lilesville. This is the same company you see on Hwy. 74 west of the river bridge today.

All ages and races of people were hired including Swedes, Italians, whites and blacks. Some of these workers began their jobs as waterboys, working their way up, while others were finished carpenters, cement workers, steel and iron workers as well as muleskinners.

As transportation was very limited during the day most workers had to live on site. All types of shanties were built of rough pine slabs and tar paper while others used tents to live in. Why the camp site looked like a mining camp out of the old west.

Of course, there was no electricity on site, but one reporter wrote that “every night he could hear popular music through the medium of Victrola and Edison talking machines.”

With the work on the dam being so dangerous, and with very little safety rules in place, it took a, let’s just say, a special breed of workman to do the job. Why most of these men were as tough as nails and twice as ornery. Why it won’t nothing for a workman to work all day and stay up half the night drinking, gambling and messing with their ‘wimmin’. All this frolicking around would take place just outside the camp but sometimes it spread within the camp. Law and order were firmly enforced around the camps by company paid security officers like Orville F. Aderholt.

Mr. Aderholt was born in Lincoln Co. in 1874 and along with other security officers was hired by the company to do whatever it took to maintain order on and just off the construction site. Seems when officer Aderholt spoke everyone listened. Yes-sir, to back up his words he packed two forty-four pistols,

one on each side with a full belt of ammo. He was a fearless man and ruled over the camp with an iron hand.

Aderholt and his men patrolled the camp twenty-four hours a day. Each morning the security officers were handed a list of who didn’t show up for work. They would then go to each shanty till they found the person and roust him out or even roughing them up if they resisted. Aderholt or his men weren’t above shooting someone and there was even a cemetery or boot hill named after Aderholt. Mr. Aderholt stayed on site for a little over a year and then became police chief in Gastonia N.C. He was later killed June 7th, 1929, during the great union textile strikes and over 6,000 people attended his funeral.

Records were not accurately kept, but over the years of building the dam many people were killed or badly injured not just with the construction work but on the outskirts of these camps. At least two people fell off the dam and drowned. Several more lives were lost as a swirling flood took away a portion of the dam. At least one person was killed in a duel while even more were stabbed, shot or beat-up as a result of gambling, liquor or women. A trainee and his trainer also killed because of an out-of-control steam hoist.

To get most building materials to the dam site a five-mile railroad spur was built from the main line at Pee Dee station to Blewett Falls. Materials were also hauled in by mule and wagon on the Richmond Co. side of the river. You also must keep in mind there was no bridge across the Pee Dee unless you went all the way to Cheraw S.C. The only way to cross the river by road was at Wall’s Ferry just down the river from the dam site.

Several local men gave their accounts of working on the dam. They were Henry Garris and Ike London, the latter being a former editor of the Post Dispatch in Rockingham.

According to Mr. Garris workers would rent shanties made of rough pine and covered with roofing paper. For .50 cents extra a month a female cook was provided. It wasn’t uncommon for a laborer with a cook to be tardy or refuse to work at all. He also said that “Scarcely a night passed that the camp did not ring with gunfire.”

Mr. London was a foreman and muleskinner. He and his men worked over a hundred mules as snatch teams to pull stumps and two wheelers to move the logs. They were charged with cleaning out stumps and digging the canal where the powerhouse would be located.

The definition of a mule skinner is a professional mule driver whose sole purpose is to keep the mule moving. The term ‘skinner’ is slang for someone who might ‘skin’ or out smart a mule. You know them mules have a characteristic of being a little stubborn so outsmarting them to make them move takes skill and determination.

While the canal was being dug there was a story about an older mule by the name of Methuselah. This mule was way past his prime, but it seemed all the other mules would follow him no matter where he went. It was said that Methuselah, not even harnessed or hooked to equipment, would make every round the other mules did while digging the canal. He kept the other mules so calm that that he was well taken care of and did his part in building the dam.

Liquor was forbidden on the jobsite, but it found its way in anyway. One muleskinner even sewed a goat skin together, took the straw out of his mule’s collar and replaced it with the goat bladder. A cork was

placed on top to fill it with liquor and a cork at the bottom to drain it. I imagine that he kept well hydrated, don’t you.

In part #3 we will see how Mr. McRae and his group of investors lost control of the dam project.

J.A. Bolton is author of “Just Passing Time,” co-author of “Just Passing Time Together,” “Southern Freied: Down-Home Stories,” and just released his new book “Sit-A-Spell” all of which can be purchased on Amazon or bought locally. Contact him at ja@jabolton.com