From its founding in 1825 and into the twentieth century, Carroll County has been a place of both farms and factories. The textile and apparel industries sparked the region’s economy and shaped its history, society, and culture. The first cotton spinning mill appeared in Carroll County in 1847, followed by larger cotton factories in the late nineteenth century, hosiery mills in the early twentieth century, and finally the rise of the apparel industry, particularly in the years after WWII.