Wool, next to cotton, is perhaps the most important of all textile fibers. Like most of their contemporaries, the Shakers of South Union, Kentucky, recognized the ease with which wool fibers were spun into yarn and the advantages of sturdy wool clothing. South Union’s textile industry grew from a simple carding mill to a full-fledged woolen factory with a 240-spindle spinning jack and 4 power looms. From its genesis in 1815 to its abrupt demised in 1868, the sect’s woolen industry provides a paradigm for the study of the United States’ textile industrialization.