The Industrial Archeology of Columbus, Ga 1829-1865 (Part 1)

The Industrial Archeology of Columbus - 1828 - 1865 (Part 1)

Contributed by Historic Columbus

Textile production had its roots planted in Georgia soon after the American Revolution, when Eli Whitney, in collaboration with Catharine Green, invented the cotton gin in Chatham County in 1793. The cotton gin transformed cotton into a marketable commodity and turbo-charged the industry in the 19th century. The industry spread throughout the New England states over the next several decades. In 1814, Boston investors opened the first planned textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, which introduced the power loom. Now, factories could process raw cotton into cloth in one factory.

City Mills

The creation of mill towns, with housing for workers, became popular in the north and spread into southern communities as well. Georgians began to invest in building textile mills in the 1810s. These were small, water powered cotton factories established along the fall line, a strip of land across the piedmont from Columbus to Augusta where rapids provided sufficient waterpower to operate the mills.

City Mills

The Georgia legislature established Columbus in 1828 specifically as a “trading town” at the head of navigation of the Chattahoochee River. Crossing the fall line at Columbus, the river drops 125 feet within 2.5 miles and produces a potential energy of at least 66,000 horsepower. This hydropower attracted entrepreneurs, investment capital, and laborers to Columbus. Those individuals and their contributions were also instrumental in the planning, building, education, and entertainment that has shaped Columbus since its founding.

The first industry to harness the river, City Mills (a grist mill) began operating before the end of 1828. This was the year Columbus was established, and the initial dam constructed on the Chattahoochee River would begin powering the new mill. The surviving structures at this site include the Flour Mill (1890) with some of its original power transmission and grinding equipment installed from 1890 to 1903; the warehouse (1890 & 1914); abutments of the rubble masonry dam (1904- 1907, 10-foot head); and the remains and turbines of the Columbus Railroad Company powerhouse (1894-1896), the city’s first central-station hydroelectric plant.

In 1832, construction started on the first local textile mill, Clapp’s Factory, at a site (now Oliver Dam) three miles north of the town. A small dam between an island and the eastern bank powered a yarn mill, a tannery, and a grist mill. Workers lived in the surrounding village. The company reorganized and rebuilt after the war but went bankrupt in 1885. The abandoned, wooden structure, erected in 1866 and built by master builder and former enslaved laborer Horace King, burned in 1910. In 1925, the property on which the Clapp’s Factory Cemetery is located was purchased by the Georgia Power Co. from the Clapp family. Oliver Dam was built north of the cemetery in 1955. The dam now covers the old mill site; however, the area south of the dam remains the site of the operatives’ cemetery

During the 1840s, the political and economic leadership of Columbus sought to establish industries within the town. The city council sold nineteen riverfront lots that would run from what eventually became the Eagle & Phenix Mill to the Muscogee Mill (now TSYS/ Global Payments) for a nominal price to John H. Howard and Josephus Echols, provided they furnish waterpower to all the lots. They constructed a dam (at the present 14th Street bridge) and the Coweta Falls Factory began operating in 1844. In 1846, John G. Winter, one of the richest men in Columbus, and William Brooks launched the Variety Mills, which manufactured textiles, sawed lumber, and ground wheat and corn. Winter also operated the Rock Island Paper Mill just north of the city on the Alabama side of the river. In 1847, the Georgia legislature passed an act to encourage industrial development. Three years later, Georgia had 50 cotton and woolen mills producing coarse wool and cotton duck.

Pictured is the letterhead of Muscogee Manufacturing Company. The mills produced textiles such as cottonade, a heavy, coarse cotton fabric often used in work clothes. Muscogee Manufacturing was established by the Swift family, owners of the Swift Mills; SG

A decade later, six mills (both textile and grist) lined the head race below the dam in Columbus.

Underscoring the community’s commitment to manufacturing was the impressive public ceremony in 1847 when construction began on the Howard Factory. In early 1849, the Columbus Enquirer observed: “All that is wanting to make our city not only the Lowell of the South but of the United States is capital, and that is rapidly tending towards it.” More investment came that year with William H. Young, a New Yorker, who had noted the river’s energy in 1827 even before the city existed. After making a fortune as a merchant in Florida, Young returned to begin the Eagle Mill in 1850. It quickly became the city’s most successful mill. In 1860, the Eagle absorbed the faltering Howard Factory making the combined operation one of the largest textile factories in the South.

Urban slavery thrived in Columbus, and many enslaved people were apprenticed to local butchers, carpenters, masons, and tailors. The 1860 census reveals that enslaved people made up 36 percent of the city’s population, approximately 3,265 people. While the movements and activities of the 165 free Blacks in Muscogee County, as in other areas of the South, were severely limited, the antebellum South was not a segregated society. Blacks and whites participated together in many of their daily activities, though never as equals. Columbus was one of the Confederacy’s most important centers of industry, and Columbus’ enslaved population played a central role in our town’s economic life. An incredible amount of raw material was needed for the textile mills to meet production needs, so it was given to those enslaved to plant and harvest this cash crop. These large estates could be found on the outskirts of town and in the surrounding counties.

By 1860, Columbus (Muscogee County) ranked second only to Richmond in southern textile production. In addition, its paper mill, furniture factory, cotton gin manufacturer, and iron foundries made Columbus a rather diversified industrial city. During the Civil War, Columbus supplied the Confederacy with textile products, gun carriages, cannon and shot, Indian rubber cloth, tents, military caps and uniforms, steam engines, and gun boats.. By 1862, the Eagle mill ran two twelvehour shifts, and its daily production included 1,500 yards of cotton duck for tents, 2,000 yards of heavy gray tweed for uniforms, and $1,500 worth of other cotton materials and thread. Each week the Eagle Mill also turned out 1,000 yards of India rubber cloth and 1,800 pounds of rope. The Confederate government consumed about three-fourths of the Eagle’s goods.

Photo courtesy of Judith Grant. Columbus, GA.

On April 17, 1865, eight days after Robert E. Lee surrendered, General James H. Wilson’s troops burned every industry in Columbus except the grist mills. Liberated people who were formerly enslaved were oftentimes skilled craftspeople and artisans, but instead of working their trades, they were often forced into tenant farming.. While the mills used some African Americans to haul cotton bales and perform other menial tasks, these workers were not allowed to become operatives, and many remained unemployed.

The newspaper, at the time, constantly urged the freedmen to go back to the country. With the mills in ashes, hundreds of white factory workers formed a destitute group within the city. The newspaper, however, saw this group differently than the freed Blacks, calling them the whites the “deserving” and “virtuous” poor. They received relief from the federal government, the state, the city, and private individuals. In addition to those funds, they subsisted by cleaning burned bricks, doing menial jobs, and a lot of fishing. The presence of these unemployed workers added a sense of urgency to the rebuilding of the mills. Columbus didn’t wait fifteen years for industrialization. It became one of the first “New South’’ cities, and its industrial success inspired other Southern towns to imitate it.

City Mills

City Mills Today

To access the full history visit www.historiccolumbus. com/blog and ALL of Historic Columbus’ History and Preservation Spotlights. As well as Tuesdays With Justin here: Historic Columbus (GA) - YouTube