Plant of the Statesville Flour Mill Company nt Statesville, Iredell County. It is the largest flour and feed
mill in the Carolina».
Where Your Flour and
Feed Comes From
The mill «as .started in 1900 with a ca¬
pacity of 60 bairrcls of flour a day. Today
it has a capacity of 1.200 barrels, and 100
Ions of mixed feed.
THERE are two stories told
in connection with the origin
of the Statesville Flour Mills
Company. Mr.
К.
A. Sherrill, a
resident of Statesville had a large
family; four boys and four girls.
It cost a lot of money to buy cloth¬
ing and shoes for eight growing
children so Mr. Sherill. in order
to make sure that these require¬
ments were supplied, established
a mercantile business. As his chil¬
dren grew, their appetites also
grew and Mr. Sherrill was faced
with still another problem; that
of feeding his children. To pro¬
vide adequate food, he began to
think in terms of a flour mill.
The other story, and we don't
mind telling you that this is prob¬
ably the correct version, is that
Mr. Sherrill, having been reared
on a farm and through his contact
with the farmers in his mercantile
business, was impressed with the
fact that the farmers did not have
a cash market for any surplus
wheat that they might produce.
It is true that there were at the
time numerous small mills in the
state. These mills, however, were
not commercial and operated al¬
most exclusively on an exchange
basis. In other words, the farmer
brought his wheat to the mill, had
to
it ground into flour, taking it home
for the family use. This was al¬
right so far as it went, but the
farmers were producing more
wheat than they could consume
in flour and were in need of a cash
market for their surplus wheat.
With this idea in view. Mr. Sher¬
rill began to discuss the matter
with some of his Statesville
friends. He reasoned that flour
could be manufactured in North
Carolina on a commercial basis
or for sale in competition with
flour being shipped into the state
from other sections. If this could
be accomplished, it would offer,
first of all. a market for the farm¬
ers’ surplus wheat and might
also prove a profitable business
venture. Mr. Sherrill was success¬
ful in convincing his friends and in
July 1900. the first organization
of eight men was formed, subscrib¬
ing a stock of $15,000.00 A small
mill was built and put into opera¬
tion in the late fall of 1900. This
mill had a daily capacity of 60 bar¬
rels of flour and was, so far as
known, the first mill established
in the Carolinas with the idea of
competing for the flour business
in the state on a commercial basis.
Like most things new, the going
at first was not all smooth and
it was only by the hardest kind
of work and diligent effort that
the start could be secured. It was
difficult to change habits of pur¬
chasers that had existed for such a
long time. The mill, however, did
make a steady progress and was
operated to full capacity until 1906.
when it was completely destroyed
by fire. The mill was rebuilt at
its present location and the daily
capacity increased to 300 barrels.
Distribution continued to grad¬
ually increase and the plant was
added to and enlarged from time
to time. In 1920 a complete new
unit of 500 barrels daily capacity
was added. Today, the mill from
a small beginning has a total capac¬
ity of 1,200 barrels of flour daily
with wheat storage capacity of
three hundred thousand bushels.
Last year, the mill required more
than a million, five hundred thou¬
sand bushels of wheat for the pro¬
duction of flour and feed.
While it is true that the mill has
been sucessful from a standpoint
of the stockholders, the manage¬
ment feels that the greatest service
it has rendered has been to help
create a market for North Caro¬
lina grown wheat. The production
of wheat has increased enormously
in the state from those early years
