When Alexander "Boss" Gibson transferred his timber profits into cotton milling in the 1880s, he set out to re-create the mill towns of an earlier generation in New England. Marysville, named after his wife, was centred on the huge mill established there in 1885. To attract the necessary labour force and to ensure its stability, Gibson provided housing and stores. A fully planned community was thus created. The workers' row houses, located in the very shadow of the mill, were quite adequate in the beginning but deteriorated quickly once profits fell and upkeep was suspended.
Such companies promoted married men to all skilled positions, expecting them to provide the stability necessary to a permanent work force. In cotton towns, dormitory accommodation was usually provided for the large numbers of single women spindle watchers, who were more transient than their skilled male counterparts. Unionization of such groups was rendered impossible by the transiency and immaturity of most workers.
