Swepsonville: A Mill Town on the Haw River

Mills have worked this bend of the Haw River in Alamance County for generations, beginning as grist mills grinding corn and flour for surrounding farms. The place took on its modern identity in eighteen sixty-eight when industrialist George Swepson built a cotton mill here on land that had belonged to the Ruffin family, naming the community after himself.

Fire and rebuilding followed, and the mill remained the economic anchor of this small community for much of a century.

Swepsonville never grew large enough for a proper commercial district. It remains today a quiet small town along the river, carrying the name of the industrialist who put it on the map.