Morrill Orchard Company
W. T. Block wrote that “The old Fairres Farm on present-day Highway 21, where once penitentiary convicts worked as contract laborers, eventually became the huge Morrill Orchard Company in 1903, and along with Brunswick Lumber Company, had its rail head located at Brunswick Switch.” Local historical memory or tradition has little about this operation. According to H. C. Polk, Jr., his father worked at the mill located at “the Morrill Orchard” shoeing horses for the outfit. Its local planing mill made crates, baskets, and shingles in taking care of the plant's industrial needs.
Block wrote that Richard Morrill and Associates had one of the nation's largest fruit packing plants constructed at Morrill, near the Cotton Belt. The railroad spent $100,000 in building the depot, siding, and spur for the factory. The peach orchard covered 1,400 acres. The tram operations involved more than six miles of tracks.
Mill Details
Alpha Numeric Key:
CK
Owner Name
Morrill Orchard Company
Location
Morrill, about four miles south of Wells, near Brunswick Switch
County
Cherokee
Years in Operation:
8
Start Year:
1903
End Year:
1910
Decades:
1900-1909,1910-1919
Period of Operation:
1903 to 1910
Town:
Morrill, near Brunswick Switch
Company Town:
2
Peak Town Size:
Unknown
Mill Pond:
2
