The Bell Factory, pictured in 1885, - this factory, located at the three forks of the Flint River, was the first cotton mill in Alabama. Children, denied the pleasures of childhood, education, and good health, toiled in this Dickensesque sweatshop for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, for the wages of slavery....my Grandfather supervised activities in a mill, but was upset by the conditions there and opened his own factory, producing mops.......he always remembered the "Mills" and, until his death, supported Boy's Town and was always a friend to children....