(upbeat music) - [Announcer] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

(light upbeat music) - [Narrator] Ah, small town life, front porches, main streets, and American flags, everything you might need for a Norman Rockwell painting.

Small communities dot the Carolinas, each with their own stories.

From Newton and China Grove in North Carolina to Clover and Heath Springs in South Carolina.

Travel along meeting the folks preserving the history of these towns while working to keep their communities vibrant places to live.

All that and more on "Trail of History."

(upbeat music) (lively music) Across the Carolinas, many small towns enjoy various festivals and unique traditions.

In Newton, they celebrate their annual Biscuit Day, hosted by the Mennel Milling Company.

- We started at eight this morning.

At 7:45, there were lines wrapped around the building.

- [Narrator] Throughout the morning, volunteers passed out hundreds of free biscuit sandwiches to the masses.

- [Robert] It's a way for us to give back to our community.

- [Narrator] Biscuit Day gave Michael Neely a chance for a bit of quality time with his daughter, Simran.

- We knew the biscuit, yearly annual Biscuit Festival was happening, and we dropped by.

- [Narrator] Beyond the flaky biscuits, attendees could learn about the flour milling process, get a Biscuit Day t-shirt, or listen to some live music.

- I think it brings the community together.

I think it's important to have these kind of events to maintain the life of the community.

- [Narrator] A community one local describes as... - Just a cute, cool little town.

- [Narrator] A cool little town that might have you feeling a little nostalgic for simpler times.

- We got a counter at the drug store where you can sit and conversate.

A friendly place where everybody speaks to one another.

- [Narrator] When not cutting hair, you are likely to find barber Phostell Rice enjoying some fresh air.

- I sit here on this bench, and I get to speak to everybody, and they speak to me.

I think that's good.

(chuckles) - [Narrator] "Often it's the business district of a small town that forms the heartbeat of the community and sometimes there's a need for a little bit of open heart surgery," says Newton Mayor Jerry Hodge.

- The city decided several years ago to reinvest in the city by upgrading its infrastructure.

And the budget for this project is over $10 million.

- [Narrator] With the work nearing completion in the business district, longtime resident Kim Lutz says she sees a difference.

- They've changed a lot since I was a child, that's for sure.

It's nice to see them revitalizing some of the buildings downtown.

- [Narrator] When traveling out of town and folks ask her about Newton, Lutz has this to say.

- Well, you probably don't know where it is, but it's near Hickory and it's near Charlotte, and Newton is just a great place to live, but I don't want to tell everybody.

I don't want it to get too crowded.

- [Narrator] Incorporated in 1853, Newton is the county seat of Catawba County.

- So the town of Newton was named for Isaac Newton Wilson.

He was one who lobbied for Newton to become a town and also then the county seat.

- [Narrator] The region around Newton started to experience a bit of growth after the Civil War, growth spurred on with the arrival of the railroad.

- Starting in 1880 was a narrow gauge railroad.

It brought lumber from the northwest from the mountains and cotton from the south.

And so that's why this area became a magnet for both the furniture and textile industry, all enabled by the railroad.

- [Narrator] At the center of town stands the old Catawba County Courthouse, built in 1924.

Today the building is home to the History Museum of Catawba County.

- [Susan] It is a beautiful building filled with just lots of stories of the past of Newton, the founding of Newton, and the growth of the area as well.

- [Narrator] The Historical Association of Catawba County operates the museum, and executive director Susan Holbrook enjoys sharing some of the courtroom's features with visitors.

- This room is very unique in that the walls are made of canvas and their ceiling's, tiles in the ceiling that are canvased because when it was built, you would not have had amplification for voices.

It bounces the sound from the front to the back so that sitting in the back row of the courtroom, you could hear what the judge was saying.

It's unique in that it has two juror's boxes, one on each side of the room.

A lot of times we'll do mock trials with the different student groups.

It's very interesting.

We use the courtroom for many different reasons, but mostly for education purposes.

- [Narrator] Beyond the courtroom, there's three floors full of exhibits relating to the county's history.

There's no admission charge to the museum, and you can visit Tuesday through Saturday.

Now, if you're a railroad enthusiast, there's another museum in Newton to visit.

Welcome to the Southeastern Narrow Gauge & Shortline Museum.

- The vision was to basically preserve the history since the railroad was such a critical component in the development of this area.

A lot of railroads were just short lines.

This one was 110 miles.

- [Narrator] Inside the restored Newton Depot, it's like stepping back to a time when rail travel was commonplace in America, a time long before the Interstate system.

Outside, you can walk around several full-sized narrow gauge locomotives and rail cars, but head on over to the museum's annex and well, let's just say things get a little smaller.

- We wanted to pull more than just the history buffs, and so we actually have the Model Railroad Center where we have all these layouts that create certain scenes and the like, and they're interactive.

(model train whirs) - [Narrator] So whether you're a train enthusiast, want a deep dive into the town's history, or enjoy a good biscuit, there's just about something for everyone in Newton.

(upbeat music) Skateboarder William Stout grabs his board any chance he gets.

- [William] I grew up snowboarding actually in West Virginia and then when I moved to South Carolina, there's not much snow down here, so picked up the next best thing, which is skateboarding, and ended up falling in love with it.

- [Narrator] So much so he now owns a skateboard shop in Clover, South Carolina.

- So Textile was originated in Belmont with Matt Morgan and we decided to move it to Clover when this space came available.

I saw an opportunity, I was like, "What would, what could I provide for the town that I would want whenever I was in high school?"

So that's where we came to the idea of having the skate shop.

- [Narrator] The name Textile makes perfect sense in a town once booming with textile mills.

- [William] Everybody's happy that there's, you know, something positive that's gonna benefit the community coming into the town.

- [Narrator] Stout says time on his board has taught him perseverance in many areas of life.

- So skateboarding on a deeper level has taught me a lot of life lessons.

Just that feeling of getting knocked down a hundred times just for that opportunity just to land one trick and just that feeling, you just keep chasing it over and over and over again.

That's kind of where I found myself, you know, throughout the military and through, like, starting my first business and stuff like that, is just the relentless beatings that you take just for that one chance at success.

- [Narrator] He wants to share that lesson by creating an atmosphere of inclusiveness.

- That means the world to me.

Just knowing that there's these kids that maybe not fit into that demographic of baseball and basketball and stuff like that, and they could come and get a skateboard and then be a part of a community.

You're part of a family, a culture.

- [Narrator] Stout moved to Clover as a teenager, graduated from Clover High School in 2018, and after a few years in the military, moved back to his adopted hometown.

- So I describe Clover as small town as small town gets.

It's a town that, like, everybody knows everybody, so everybody supports everybody.

- [Narrator] While William Stout is a recent transplant to the town of Clover, residents like Dick Jackson say their roots run deep around these parts.

- Original family moved here in 1760, and we've been here ever since.

- [Narrator] He says the area started mostly as a simple crossroads.

- There was always the opportunity here for the farmers to bring their goods and trade.

- [Narrator] Like many small towns in the late 19th century, the sign that you had made it was the coming of a railroad.

Clover's tracks ran right through the center of town, and according to Clover native Ron Wallace, Clover owes its name to the railroad.

- The water stop for the steam engine was here, and clover grew up around it because they were spilling water, obviously.

And that's how that Clover got the name.

- [Narrator] With a name and regular rail service, Clover, through much of the 20th century, prospered.

- When I was young, Main Street, all the buildings were full.

We had two or three different clothing stores.

A men's store, a lady store.

- [Narrator] Jackson's family ran a grocery store in town.

- My dad and uncles bought, they were both working for a grocery here in town.

Bought that gentleman out in 1957.

- [Narrator] The driving force behind all the hustle and bustle in town was mostly thanks to one industry.

- Clover was a textile town, so most people got paid on Friday and shopped on Friday afternoon and Saturday.

- [Narrator] Like many small southern towns, Clover had several textile mills.

- My whole family worked in the cotton mills.

It was really the center part of the economy.

- [Narrator] Today, only the shell of the American Thread Mill still stands on the south side of Clover.

- [Ron] That was a huge operation, and it employed a whole lot of people from around here.

- In the early '40s, they would've had 1200 or more employees.

The south end of Clover was the mill village that was built around American Thread.

- [Narrator] The American Thread Mill closed its doors in the 1980s.

- [Ron] You know, it was just, it was devastating.

- [Narrator] The mill closures, as you might imagine, had a ripple effect all across town.

- [Justin] Ever since the mills left town, it's kind of been a depressed town.

- [Narrator] But from that decline, some, like entrepreneur Justin McFalls, saw possibilities to bring new life to several old buildings on Main Street.

- There's a lot of buildings that aren't here anymore that used to be on our main street that were just torn down because no one wanted to renovate 'em.

- [Narrator] One night, McFalls complained to his wife about the lack of restaurants in town.

- She's like, "Well, why don't you just do something about it?"

- [Narrator] So he did, purchasing two buildings right on Main Street.

- Plans for the building is to bring some restaurants, and then the upstairs we're gonna convert 'em to apartment lofts.

- [Narrator] McFalls is getting some help from the city of Clover and the town's Main Street program.

- We're working to revitalize the downtown area and bring some more businesses, make it a little bit more vibrant and attract more people to come down and explore the great things that Clover has to offer.

In the last year and a half, we've had nine businesses open, and then there's a lot more in the works development-wise.

- [Narrator] One of those new businesses, the Bull Pin.

- [Brian] We had this idea that the more stuff was needed to be brought to this area.

- [Narrator] McFalls showed Brian Ricks and his partners this space in one of the newly acquired buildings.

- Came down here, took a look at it, and was like, "Man, this is a perfect area, perfect fit for what we were wanting to do."

- [Narrator] But the old building needed a little work, looking very similar to this unrenovated space next door.

- We knew it was gonna be a huge undertaking to get it to where we wanted it to be, but we knew it was gonna be worth it in the long run.

- [Narrator] The folks at the Bull Pin know the importance of being a part of Clover's Main Street.

- When Main Street is thriving, that means the town of Clover's thriving.

The more people we bring in here means more money, more businesses, more jobs for people.

And it's just we want the town to grow.

- [Narrator] With new investments from people like McFalls and Ricks, along with public dollars spent on infrastructure downtown, Clover's future looks bright and will be ready to welcome folks for decades to come.

(upbeat music) Take a drive through Heath Springs, South Carolina.

And for some, it may seem like just another town that time forgot, but the town that doesn't have a stoplight has a few stories to tell and a few stories still being written.

- Believe it or not, we got people coming from Columbia and from Charlotte just for the pizza.

- [Narrator] That's right.

Folks driving for more than an hour to grab a slice at Heath Springs Pizzeria, the brainchild of Steve Myers.

- When you Google Heath Springs, I mean the pizzeria comes up first.

- [Narrator] Now Myers, admittedly, isn't from around these parts.

- I'm originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana.

By trade, I'm an IT guy during the day, so I'm a computer geek.

My passion has always been Italian food, and I wanted to open up a pizza restaurant.

- [Narrator] Over the last decade or so, he's been perfecting his pizza pies.

- I know what I'm doing when it comes to New York-style pizza, and it's not the water, okay?

It's the way you make your dough, the way you put the love and passion behind it.

- [Narrator] Now, it may not be the water making the difference at Heath Springs Pizzeria, but there was a time folks flocked to the area for just that, the water.

- [Kip] There's a mineral springs there, and that spring has got a lot of magnesium, and iron, and sulfur in it, and the water doesn't taste very good.

And the result of that is that people naturally think it's good for you if it tastes bad.

And so people came here, starting in the late 1700s, to get that water.

(truck whooshes) - [Narrator] To get to the springs, folks traveled the Great Wagon Road, the very road local historian Kip Carter's house has sat on for more than two centuries.

- The state architectural historian looked at this house and surveyed it, and said that he thought it was built about 1790, which was 10 years after the Battle of Hanging Rock, which was in 1780.

- [Narrator] The Battle of Hanging Rock happened just down the road from Carter's house on land now owned by the South Carolina Battleground Preservation Trust.

- There were two Battles of Hanging Rock here.

The first one's August 1st, 1780.

That was led by William Richardson Davie, who later founded the University of North Carolina and was governor of North Carolina.

- [Narrator] The second Battle of Hanging Rock, according to Carter, took place on August 8th, 1780.

- And about that time, General Gates showed up with the Southern Army and was moving down this road in front of the house toward Camden, thinking that he would have an easy time defeating that garrison there.

But Cornwallis had come up from Charleston with 2000 troops, and they met just on this side of Camden and the American troops were defeated.

- [Narrator] Fast forward about eight decades, and this area once again saw the horrors of war.

Carter says during the Civil War, a well-known Union general passed through the area.

- Of course, among the people that came here is William Tecumseh Sherman after he burned Columbia.

And he used my house here as his headquarters for the last three days of February of 1865.

- [Narrator] During the 18th and most of the 19th century, the area was known as Mineral Springs.

But around the corner, a name change was on the horizon.

- About 1889, a guy from Monroe named Benjamin Heath bought the land where the spring is.

And so they started calling it Heath Springs.

Things started growing up around here, and so they decided to incorporate the town, and they wanted to call the town Mineral Spring.

But there was already a Mineral Spring just across the line in North Carolina, and the US Post Office said that would get confusing.

So they said, "Well, let's call it Heath Springs."

And so the town of Heath Springs was founded in about 1890 and grew into a sizable little community.

- [Narrator] When the Great Depression crippled the nation during the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration selected Heath Springs for a project.

- It was a big deal.

You know, there were no jobs to be had.

- [Narrator] Once again, the area's water played an essential role.

Welcome to the Spring Stevens Fish Hatchery, located on Hanging Rock Creek.

Retired hatchery manager William Catoe says originally they supplied fish to private farm ponds.

- We raised bluegill, shellcracker, and then largemouth bass.

- [Narrator] Catoe worked at the hatchery for 40 years, and in the 1970s saw it through a major overhaul.

- They started rebuilding it, and made the dams wider, and changed the ponds.

And instead of having 10 ponds, we had four big ponds and four little ponds.

- [Narrator] The South Carolina Department of Natural Resources operates a total of five fish hatcheries.

Spring Stevens Hatchery manager, Sterling Brumbaugh, says, "The fish raised here are now only used to stock public lakes and rivers in the state."

- Fishermen harvest the fish, we're able to restock, you know, more numbers help increase the population.

Also, populations that might be lacking, we're able to help boost those populations through growing fish at this fish hatchery.

Hanging Rock Creek, that's our main water source.

We use this water source to fill our production ponds.

These production ponds are used for mainly two species of fish, that being redbreast sunfish and striped bass.

(water rushing) I really take pride in what I do.

Being able to go out and supply a resource for fishermen and recreational users really means a lot.

And for that to be a part of Heath Springs, I think it amplifies the town.

- [Narrator] Located along Flat Rock Road, the Spring Stevens Fish Hatchery serves as a landmark for those traveling to Heath Springs.

It's just north of the Hanging Rock Battlefield and near the actual rock formation known as Hanging Rock.

It's open to the public, but sorry, no fishing.

(gentle music) (truck rumbling) Back in town, longtime residents say things are changing.

- You know, it's growing.

It's growing.

It's different than it used to be.

- The town is, you know, starting to revive now.

A lot of the stores downtown have now got things in 'em, so we're starting to make a pretty good comeback here.

- [Narrator] And part of that comeback, of course, Heath Springs Pizzeria, where owner Steve Myers gets a little emotional when asked what it means to be a part of this small town.

- It's humbling, very humbling.

I'm a passionate guy.

I love people, especially people that do you right, you know?

But to see that they care for you and what you've done for them.

And I love this little town.

I wanna see this town to be like one of them little Hallmark Channel towns, right?

Where Hallmark comes in and says, "Hey, let's do a movie here," right?

That's my passion.

That's my goal.

(gentle music continues) - [Narrator] Drive North up Highway 29 in North Carolina from Kannapolis towards Salisbury, and about halfway there, you'll find yourself in the town of China Grove.

- China Grove was to me the perfect place to grow up.

Good-hearted people, give you the shirt off their back.

- [Narrator] It's a town in the midst of a renaissance as regional growth means the secret is out about this one sleepy town.

- China Grove is growing.

It's traffic problems already.

- [Narrator] Officially incorporated in 1889, it's believed the first European settlers arrived in the area around 1710.

- People were here long before China Grove existed.

- [Narrator] Largely an agricultural area, China Grove served as the center of all the action.

- [Evin] Predominantly, this is where you would come to sell your wares that you either made or that you grew.

- [Narrator] Originally it was known as Savits Mill, then Lutherville.

And it wouldn't be until the middle of the 1800s with the coming of a railroad before the town got its third and final name.

- Supposedly the name comes from the chinaberry trees that were planted by the railroad.

- [Narrator] The railroad helped the town prosper, but it was a single cash crop that helped the town flourish.

- Without cotton, there would not have been the first cotton farms, which created the town.

There would not have been the major cotton mill that was here that employed most of the town.

(gentle music continues) - [Narrator] There's one landmark in town that stands out on North Main Street, the China Grove Roller Mill, brought in the latest in milling technology when it opened in 1903.

- [Evin] For the longest time, if you needed wheat, a flour or corn mill, you took it to your local grist mill.

And every community had its own tiny little grist mill.

Roller mills replaced all of those overnight.

A roller mill can come in and do the work of like 12 grist mills.

- [Narrator] At the height of production, workers churned out over 800 pounds of flour an hour, along with other products.

- We were making flour, we was making corn meal.

We made all kinds of animal feed.

The work was hard.

There's nothing modern in here, but most of the stuff is sturdy enough that it's, it lasted a long time.

- [Narrator] A long time indeed.

The China Grove Roller Mill operated for nine decades before closing in 1994.

Today it's operated by the Rowan Museum and is open for tours.

While the China Grove Roller Mill represented a technological change for the community, a few miles north stands another structure.

One built for a different kind of change, the kind that changes lives.

This is the Neely School.

- [Marice] It's very warm and inviting, and you feel a sense of history when you walk into it.

You feel a sense of purpose.

- [Narrator] From 1908 to 1948, that purpose was providing a space for an estimated 1300 students to learn their ABCs and one, two, threes in the one-room schoolhouse off Neelytown Road.

- Out in the county, there was little opportunity for any student.

- [Narrator] And there were even less opportunities if you were African American during the era of segregation.

- Essentially, if you were a Black child and your family wanted you to attend school, you had to travel a long distance.

- [Narrator] But that wasn't good enough for Rowan County farmer Julius Neely and his wife Katie.

The couple valued education and wanted better for their own children.

According to their great-granddaughter, Marice Grissom, it was a conversation between Julius and a missionary from Ghana that sparked the idea for the school.

- Reverend Aggrey was telling Great-Granddad about the wonderful educational leaps that they were making in Ghana.

And he encouraged Granddad to construct a school for his family and his community as well.

- [Narrator] With the seed now planted, Neely met with the local superintendent, asking for help in starting a school for African Americans.

- The superintendent agreed that he would provide a teacher and some early books if great-granddad would provide the building.

- [Narrator] Grissom's mother, Mary Neely Grissom, attended.

- They started us there.

That was our school and we enjoyed it.

That's where we had to go from there, walking all the way down to where they put the school down there.

- [Narrator] The Neely School closed in 1948, and for more than a half a century, nature took over.

The school basically disappeared into the woods, and memories of the students who once attended.

"All but forgotten," Grissom says, "the school was rediscovered after a chance comment at a family reunion."

- We were completely amazed that this building existed and no one knew about it.

- [Narrator] In need of restoration, Grissom says the family committed to saving the building.

They decided the best option was to move it from the woods.

Today, the school that Julius and Katie built now sits where their house once stood.

The building has been restored and serves as a museum.

- Great-Grandfather and his wife, they knew the importance of education and appreciated it probably more than anyone else.

- [Narrator] Grissom says the generational impact is the real testament to her great-grandparents' vision, saying the school instilled a value for education in the students, who in turn instilled it in their own children and grandchildren.

- [Marice] We have people who have gotten every level of education from bachelor's degrees all the way up to master's and doctorates, PhDs, MDs, the whole gamut.

And none of that likely would've been possible without this one-room schoolhouse.

(light upbeat music) - [Narrator] Like many small town residents, folks in China Grove feel a sense of nostalgia for how things used to be.

- 60 years ago, we had a Belks in China Grove.

- [Narrator] But Miller admits China Grove is a little different these days.

- In the past five or so years, five to 10 years, it's different.

We now have a brewery.

- [Narrator] Finding that new brewery on North Main Street isn't that difficult.

Just look for the custom black-and-white mural on the outside of what was once a car repair shop.

Head inside the Grove Cartel Brewing Company, and you'll find bartenders pouring pints of golden ales and hoppy IPAs concocted by brewer Jonathan Woodward - Grove Cartel Brewing Company is the name of the brewery.

So now everybody that comes in becomes part of the Cartel family.

Even in small town, people like craft beer.

I mean, so they're gonna travel to one of these towns to go drink it, and we saw a void and decided to try to fill it.

And it's paid dividends.

- [Narrator] Beyond the beer, Woodward, who grew up right here in China Grove, recognizes running the brewery in his hometown is quite the privilege.

- If we didn't have our loyal everyday guys that come in here, we wouldn't have a business.

The bonus is we attract people from out of town that get to see how great our town is that probably wouldn't come here otherwise.

- [Narrator] For much the 20th century, textiles were the primary employer in town.

But when the mills closed, China Grove hit an economic speed bump.

But Woodward says things are looking up.

- I would say that the town is flourishing at this point.

We're hoping to, at some level, be a catalyst for that.

- [Narrator] So next time you're in Rowan County, you might stop and explore the once sleepy little town of China Grove.

Wherever you travel, each place gives you an opportunity to explore the culture, architecture, and people that give that community its unique character.

From one-room schoolhouses, historic main streets, fish hatcheries, and a new generation of entrepreneurs trying to make their way in the world.

You just never know what you might find with a visit to a small town.

Thank you for watching this episode of "Trail of History."

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music) - [Announcer] A production of PBS Charlotte.