“Dinner to Whole Village,” from the Monroe Journal, August 15, 1916,
Monroe, N.C.
Annual Picnic at
Icemorelee Was an Event of This Kind…Management Set Up the Town in Royal
Style—Big Dinner, Ice Cream and Lemonade on Tap All Day—Fine Speech by Mr.
Abernethy and Contests in the Afternoon—The Icemorelee Band
Any onlooker at the community day at Icemorelee last
Saturday must have felt a pride in such a community, a community where working
conditions are the best, where a highly energetic mill management takes a broad
view of industry, the interrelation of labor and capital, where mutual interests
and respect find their finest exemplification, in short, a community where the
industrial life in the South is at its very best. The occasion was the annual
picnic with the mill gives the village. The picnic was held in the mill park
which is always open for the recreation of the people.
It was some dinner! Two thousand rolls, 144 spring chickens,
14 boiled hams, and a dessert served in the shape of 2,000 ice cream cones, and
two big lemonade fountains flowing freely all day long. And to keep things
lively, a crack-a-jack brass band, the peculiar pride of the village, giving
rattling good music all day. That Icemorelee band is a wonder, anyway. There
are 30 pieces and every one of them is the hands of a neat and handsomely
uniformed young man who holds a good job in the mill. And their leader, Mr.
D.W. Green, knows his business and does it. The band boys are a natty young set
who are acquiring their musical skill in the way that all the best things of
life are secured—by constant practice and hard work. They practice and keep on
practicing in their well-fitted hall over the mill company’s offices. So when
they are called upon to play on public occasions they can deliver the goods.
Along with the workers and their families a number of the
officers and stockholders of the company were guests at the dinner. President
W.S. Lee and General Manager Chas. Iceman were everywhere on the grounds seeing
that everything went right and that all were looked after. They were as happy
as any of the children gathered there. The only missing figure was Mr. Bob
Iceman, who was sick that day. Had he been there he would have been frisking
about with the energy of a dynamo and making folks eat long after they had had
enough. The mill company appropriated $500 for the dinner, and it was served on
two long tables presided over by pretty young ladies arrayed in spotless white
with the neatest little linen caps adorning their pretty heads after the style
of the trained nurse. Mrs. Charles Iceman and a number of her friends graced
the occasion also and partook of the dinner. Among those present from Monroe
were Messrs. R.A. Morrow, J.H. Lee, Dr. J.M. Belk and Mr. T.P. Dillon.
A big cool pavilion had been erected for the band and for
the speaker of the day. After several selections by the band, Rev. J.E.
Abernethy delivered a fine address on how to get the best out of life. He
showed that work was the prime essential, but work performed under good
conditions. It helps, he said, to keep the character clean if the body is
clean, and clean and wholesome conditions under which to work contribute to
clean living and good workmanship like clean clothes on the body. He
complimented the people and the management of the mill on having such
comfortable working conditions, such clean and wholesome living conditions, not
only in the mill, but in the village.
After the speech, dinner was announced and the crowd was not
slow in partaking thereof. After the tables had been reduced, Mr. C.C. Earnhart
and his assistants served the cream from the huge freezers of coolness. The
heat of the day made this part of the program especially inviting.
The afternoon was devoted to games, contests and social
enjoyment. The machinery of the mill rested that day and the people enjoyed
themselves. It was a happy occasion, and nothing whatever was left undone to
make the day’s cup of happiness over in old-fashioned Methodist full measure.
In the contests of the afternoon the following young men won
the prizes, $3 each: John Davis, E.T. Brewer and Carl Helms.
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For information on Icemorlee Cotton Mills, see http://monroenc.blogspot.com/2012/08/mills.html
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