Lagrange Mills
Built in 1888, and located on land lots 108 and 109 of the
6th district. The LaGrange Oil and Manufacturing Company was chartered on
August 6, 1883, and its incorporators numbered most of the business and
professional men of the little town of LaGrange: L. J. Render, A. N.
Davenport, J. M. Barnard, J. G. Truitt, J. P. Thornton, H. C. Butler, W. O.
Tuggle, S. P. Smith, F. M. Longley, M. L. Fleming, J. C. Forbes, T. J.
Harwell, H. H. Cary, E. D. Williams, G. A. Speer, Henry Banks, W. V. Gray,
A. R. Phillips, T. H. Whitaker, Louis Mayer, J. G. Whitfield, E. R.
Bradfield, I. F. Cox, J. R. Broome, James Ellis, T. S. Bradfield, A. P.
Jones, Enoch Callaway, J. T. Perry, J. W. Harrison, F. M. Ridley, W. C.
Yancey, and T. C. Crenshaw.
This plant was erected for the extraction of cotton seed oil, but also
operated a large public ginnery. In 1888, the charter was amended so as to
include the manufacture of cotton textiles in addition to the oil plant, and
the name was changed to LaGrange Mills. The building of the cotton mill
plant was a great event in Troup County; the first giant Corliss engine, the
curious machines for cotton manipulation, the first electric dynamo for the
lighting of the mill, the monumental smokestack, were a succession of
marvels to the curious bystanders of that day.
In March of 1890, the charter was again amended so as to permit the LaGrange
Mills to construct electric pole lines in the city and to furnish current
for the same. There immediately followed the construction of an arc circuit
for lighting the city streets, to which was added an incandescent circuit of
direct current for the benefit of mercantile establishments. These lines
were extended to furnish lights for the Southern and the LaGrange Female
colleges in the same year. The use of meters was unknown and the rate was a
flat fifty cents per month for each sixteen candle power light. Lighting for
residences was not yet accomplished.
The prosperity of LaGrange Mills induced the Consolidated Cotton Duck
Corporation to make the stockholders a very tempting offer, which was
accepted on November 28, 1905. In 1913, this corporation in turn sold to
Lockwood, Green and Company of Boston, who changed the name to International
Cotton Mills, LaGrange Mills Division, the corporate name shared by
Canadian, New England and the southern plants owned by them. In the
regrouping of the above-named plants, the name was again changed to the New
England Southern Mills, LaGrange Mills Division.
The financial collapse of the owners and the pressure from the creditor
banks of Boston and New York forced the sale of their southern properties,
and again LaGrange Mills became the property of local stockholders, and was
renamed LaGrange Calumet Mills, and in the year 1932 became a unit of the
Callaway Mills in the consolidation of the various corporations under that
name. But in the minds, thoughts and speech of the old employees, it is
named "The Old Mill." The names of John M. Barnard, manager;
George W. Murphy, superintendent; George Mitchell, electrician, will always
be associated with the success in the operation of this mill.
Among the superintendents of this plant under the various owners are noted
the following names: George W. Murphy, William Reid, John Turnipseed, Eugene
Stevens, W. H. Dickinson, John A. Baugh, afterwards manager; Forest B.
Gardner, and B. W. Robinson.
Troup County
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