In 1846, Roger and McDonald used slave labor made bricks and started building a water-powered mill along Sweetwater Creek and on December 21, 1849, the five-story mill was in operation. McDonald and Rogers incorporated their business as Sweetwater Manufacturing Company, which made cotton, yarn and fabric. In 1858, McDonald renamed the Sweetwater Manufacturing Company as New Manchester Manufacturing Company after the center of the British textile industry, Manchester, England. By 1860, the factory produced of cotton per day, which was transformed into 120 bunches of yarn and of osnaburg.
