The Industrial
Archeology of Columbus 1828 - 1865 (Part ii) Contributed by Historic Columbus
n the fall of 1865, the Freedmen’s Bureau became active in Imuch administering the land program in Georgia and returned African American labor to the fields, mediating a
contract-labor system between white landowners and their Black workers, many of whom they formerly enslaved. Field work—once the province of entire Black families—was transformed as the freedwomen withdrew their labor and their children’s labor to the household. Both children and adults began to take advantage of educational opportunities, usually offered by teachers from the North. Some formerly enslaved individuals and families were flocking to towns, where they encountered overcrowding
and a shortage of food. A large number of Black Georgians fell prey to epidemic diseases. Meanwhile, on farms and plantations that had depended on enslaved labor, harvests were small, with poor planning and miserable weather further diminishing them. From the 1870s to the 1950s, thousands of rural African Americans migrated to Columbus to build a better life. The town still desperately needed a revival of its many industries. The iron foundries recovered first. Men who had learned iron working during the war continued in the business. In 1860, the city had only two foundries; by 1870, it had eight. The Columbus Iron Works, the largest iron producer, manufactured a full range of small cast iron items, but their most important products came from the expertise gained during the war. They made a large variety of steam engines and even steamboats. After several unsuccessful attempts, it helped to manufacture an ice machine in 1872. By the 1880s, the Iron Works manufactured these machines in large numbers and sold them to ice houses, dairies, and hospitals. By the early 1870s, Columbus factories and shops manufactured rope, jute bagging, cottonseed oil, carriages, furniture, and cigars. Bricks and lager beer were produced across the river in Girard. Unique for a medium-sized southern city was the extensive chemical laboratory of J.S. Pemberton. He LocaL
employed chemists and pharmacists who distilled a whole range of pharmaceuticals, patent medicines, hair restorers, perfumes, paints, photographic chemicals, and a great variety of sparkling soda water (such as French Wine of Coca which evolved into Coca-Cola when he moved to Atlanta in 1880). Columbus’ chief industry was, of course, the textile mills – which had all been burned during the war.. Clapp’s Factory resumed first, as early as December 1865. In 1867 and 1868, two of Columbus’ most significant textile mills would be formed – The Eagle & Phenix and Muscogee Manufacturing Company. During the 1870s, textile manufacturing expanded more rapidly in Columbus than in any other southern city, even though only two companies occupied the Columbus riverfront sites. Muscogee Manufacturing Company (1867) utilized one lot, while the Eagle and Phenix (1866) --the South’s largest mill in the late l870s--eventually controlled the other eighteen lots. In 1997, plans for the international headquarters of TSYS were developed for the Muscogee Mills site. TSYS worked diligently with local, state, and federal preservation groups to develop a plan respecting the history of the area. The new campus would incorporate a stabilized Mott House (later destroyed by fire in 2014) and elements of the Carnegie Library into a new plaza area on the river. A new parking structure similar in architectural design to one of the former mill buildings was also constructed. The city and Historic Columbus partnered to move and save four historic structures that would be impacted by the campus. This move became known as the 1998 Parade of Homes. William H. Young, with the help of N.J. Bussey and young G. Gunby Jordan, reestablished what had been the Eagle mill. Quite appropriately, they added the name phoenix, the mythical Egyptian bird which rose from its own ashes. Mill No. l (10,000 spindles and 135 looms) of the
reorganized Eagle and Phenix Manufacturing Company began operating in 1868. During the 1870s the company expanded more rapidly than any other southern textile firm, adding Mill No. 2 (15,000 spindles and 350 looms) in 1871 and Mill No. 3 (20,000 spindles and 800 looms) in 1878. 18
By 1880, the Eagle and Phenix led the South in the value of its textile product ($1,500,000). Visitors to Columbus, especially during the 1881 Atlanta Exposition, marveled at the company’s size and diversified products (144 different
styles of cotton and woolen goods). Mill owners financed and built housing for workers, the archetypical “mill town.”. Some owners also began to provide schools, entertainment, and churches. Entertainment throughout the latter half of the 1800s included a yearly picnic hosted for mill workers where the Eagle and Phenix Brass Band played for the crowd. These picnics were a very big deal at the time. The tactics of offering housing, savings, schools and churches were seen by business leaders as a way to keep families committed to working for the mills, but also offered some stability. However, the work hours were long, the job monotonous, noisy and dangerous, and mill owners held tight control over the mill workers’ lives. In 1880, Eagle and Phenix employed 213 children, 555 men, and 917 women.
In 1896, the mill went into receivership and was purchased by G. Gunby Jordan. One of Mr. Jordan’s investors was W. C. Bradley. In 1915, W. C. Bradley became president and APR I L-MAY 2022
