Butts County GaArchives News.....Ocmulgee Mills March 25, 1897 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Don Bankston http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00024.html#0005864 April 24, 2005, 10:53 am Jackson Argus - March 25, 1897 March 25, 1897 MANY THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TO BE INVESTED IN OCMULGEE RIVER WATER POWER BY CAPITALISTS At Ocmulgee Mills, four miles east of Flovilla, and at Smith’s Mills, one mile above, on the Ocmulgee river is water power sufficient to employ two million dollars of capital and thousands of operatives At each point a first-class custom mill for grinding grain is the only improvements. Prior to the war Mr. C. A. Nutting had in operation a magnificent cotton mill at the Ocmulgee Mills, from which he accumulated a fortune. The Federal army in its march to the sea destroyed the factory. Since then these magnificent waterfalls have stood almost idle for want of transportation facilities. Had the southern railway followed the course of the river when it was built there is no telling what manufacturing interest would have been put in operation near this, but other influences at work diverted the road from the river toward Indian Spring and Jackson Since then all efforts to build up manufactories at the river have been unsuccessful an account of the distance from railway. But now it seems that the time has come for this objection to be removed. For sometime the editor of Headlight-Home-Seeker has been working to get a branch road built out to the river, and we are glad to announce will succeed, unless some intervention unlooked for should occur. In a short time when the weather breaks up engineers will be put on a survey from both Flovilla and Williams’ Station to the river and a track four miles long will be built from the most practical point. This track will be built for the joint benefit and to take in both of those great water powers and also to reach what is known as “rocky hill” where there are thousands of tons of small rock suited for ballast. Parties of capitalists have recently investigated the power at each place, and express a willingness to fully develop both of them when they are made accessible. Other parties have agreed with the owners in making them accessible and the forty or fifty thousand dollars to be spent this spring and summer is only the pioneer to the future great developments. It is expected that the grain mills at the two points will grind from two to three thousand bushels of grain, in transit, daily when this track is laid. Other improvements which we are not at liberty yet to mention are agreed upon and we hope by the time the warm spring weather opens up to see this work in progress and another great advance in our industrial progress under headway. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/butts/newspapers/ocmulgee636gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 3.1 Kb