In W.C. Bryant’s excellent book Hot and His Boys, about the storied career of J.E. “Hot” O’Brien and the success of the athletic programs in Tallassee during the 1940s and 1950s, there is a wonderful line that aptly describes the role of Mount Vernon Mills in the Tallassee community.

Bryant calls the mill, which was in operation here from 1844 until 2006 (with the exception of the Civil War years, when it served many other purposes), a “benevolent dictator.”

Michael Bird is an assistant professor of music at Faulkner University in Montgomery.

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