Industrial+Progress

=** ﻿Industrial Progress **= ====** James B. Duke moved to Charlotte and started a new industry. After 1904, Duke buiit dams across the Catawba River and to generate electricity. Duke originally sold the power to nearby textile mills. James W. Cannon, who was Duke's first big customer, built a new town, Kannapolis, in 1906 to take advantage of the situation. The North Carolina Piedmont benefited from the hydroelectricity made by Duke Power Co. Most of the industrial growth was concentrated in tobacco, textiles, and furniture.Gaston County became the center of the textile industry by the 1920s. **====