Beautifully engraved certificate from the Pacolet Manufacturing Company issued no later than 1889. This historic document has an ornate border around it with a vignette of a horse with the company name on it. This item is hand signed by the Company's President (John Montgomery ) and is over 134 years old.

Certificate Vignette

By the mid-1800s, many investors flocked to Spartanburg County, South Carolina to establish textile facilities. By 1860, there were nearly 900 Spartanburg County residents employed in textile mills. Just 20 years later, that number had more than doubled, with 2,000 "operatives," as employees were called, working in 14 mills across the county. Captain John Montgomery was part of a successful venture with Pacolet Manufacturing Co. in 1884 with additional investment by Seth Milliken of Maine. Montgomery and Milliken would become linked to Spartanburg County's textile industry for generations. Montgomery started his own company, Spartan Mills, in downtown Spartanburg in 1890. Before the first mill was finished, he had started a second mill on the same property, and went on to start the Spartan Mills empire.