Troup Factory
Built in 1845, and adapted to cotton manufacture in 1848;
located on land lot 15 of the 4th district. This plant was built by
Robertson, Leslie and Company, a firm composed of J. L. C. Robertson, Thomas
Leslie, and a Mr. Beaman, as a gristmill in 1845, and was converted into a
cotton mill in 1848, being the second such plant in Georgia, and it
continued to operate as such for more than a half century. Troup Factory
sheetings and homespun were standards of excellence in a widespread area of
Georgia, and their use is within the memory of many present day citizens.
Charles H. Griffin was an active factor in the management of this plant in
the early nineties. It was originally located on Flat Shoals Creek on the
Columbus Road or the Georgia No. 1 Highway, but was moved to Greenville
Street in LaGrange in 1902.
The business of the plant was so great that on December 22, 1857, a railroad
was incorporated for the purpose of handling the products, which was called
the LaGrange and Troup Factory Railroad. Disturbances due to the impending
Civil War prevented its building. The name was changed after the removal of
the plant to LaGrange to that of Park Cotton Mills, and its products were
limited to yarn. This mill is now one of the things past and gone with only
a few of its walls standing to mark the spot.
