Butts-Newton County GaArchives News.....South River Mills November 1900
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Jackson Progress Argus November 1900
South River Mills – Snapping Shoals
An Interesting Trip to the Celebrated Snapping shoals Mills and some of the 
Interesting Things Seen.
Leaving Jackson at break of day October 29th, in company with S. B. Kinard and 
an Argus man enjoyed a trip to Snapping Shoals.
The drive was a pleasant one, only about sixteen miles and a good road.  We 
reached the Shoals about 8 o’clock where we began to make ourselves “at home” 
for the day.
 The Surroundings  - Nature was indeed generous with her gifts in the creation 
or this delightful place.  There are plenty of hills and fertile valleys, 
elevated plateau, good water and river shoals that supply gigantic power.  The 
town of Snapping Shoals is just over the line in Newton with the hills of Henry 
lifting their heads on the opposite side of the river like faithful sentinels 
over the treasure vaults of nature.
Concerning the origin of the name of this interesting little place there are 
several traditional stories, the most reasonable being as follows:  
In the days when the Red Man was the only American citizen, the beautiful limped  
waters of the Welawnee (South River) wending its course through the virgin 
forest, formed a natural pond above where the bridge now spans the river, and 
from this placid body of water the stream plunged into the shoals with a dash 
that carried with it a lively, snapping noise and so then lords of this part of 
creating looked upon  the picture and gave it a name in his own dialect that 
corresponds to “Snapping Shoals” in the vernacular of this day.
South River Mills - But the chief point of interest is the South River mills, 
owned by DeLoach & Bell , of which Mr. H. A. DeLoach is the active and efficient 
manager.  
This is the pioneer wheat mill of this section and has set the pace and led the 
procession in milling for years.   It was to see this mill and to learn 
something of its business that carried us to Snapping Shoals.
We found Mr. DeLoach busily superintending the erection of a new residence, but 
he graciously put aside his work and volunteered to chaperon us through the 
mills.  The mill is a large brick building that has weathered the storms and 
floods since 1858, nearly half a century and the massive granite foundations are 
today as good as ever and the superstructure with its 24 inch walls is seemingly 
without a crack from top to bottom.
The Power – The power is unique and immense.  Unique because there is a natural 
pond above the mill from which a race conducts the water which nature seems to 
have beneficently provided  for purposes of furnishing man with a smooth uniform 
power for grinding his grain; immense because its available power is now more 
than seven times greater than that which is utilized.  From the race the water 
comes in contact with four DeLoach turbine water wheels under the mill which are 
used for various purposes.  Another one of these wheels runs the saw mill and 
yet another one the ginnery.  The power is the best on earth, for its uniformity 
and its cheapness.
On the first floor – Here we find the roller mills, the products made ready for 
customers and the markets.
These mills are interesting but now being able to read the language of machinery 
in motion we called on Mr. DeLoach to interpret for us.  “Well” he said, 
exposing a bright cylinder in motion, here is an important part of the mill, 
this roller is 6 inches in diameter and 18 inches long.  In construction it must 
be perfect, and in being set up the work must be so accurately done as not to 
allow the variation of a thousandth part of an inch at either end.  Any 
variation would tell at once, lowering the grade of the product.  I will now 
show you the wheat in various stages of preparation.”  This was an instructive 
part of our trip.  Finally reached the finished product and Mr. DeLoach said. 
“Now here is one of the four grades of our manufacture, this is not the whitest 
grade as you will see, but do you know that this granular effect with the creamy 
caste is the highest perfection of milling?  In this flour you get a life and 
lightness and health.  Here is a flour that I will put against the fancy full 
patents of the day and carry off the blue ribbon.  The product is not so great 
here nor is it altogether as perfect a food as one of the other grades, yet many 
prefer it on account of its beautiful whiteness.  We make four grades of flour, 
and when a customer comes in with a load of grain, we (something left out) a 
corresponding grade of flour and turn him off at once unless he prefers flour 
from his own grain in which case we mill it for him and give him back his own 
product.  You will observe that our flour is put up in paper bags.  To be sure 
there is an objection to this as  if for instance the bags should get wet.  But 
this is more than offset  the advantages.  When you get your cloth bag dirty 
outside it is more or less filthy inside, no so with paper bags; insects go 
through your cloth bags, but not so with paper.  Then flour is a great absorbent 
of impurities, and to this  tendency the cloth is no restraint but the paper is.
“You hear considerable complaint about weevils getting into the wheat, my advice 
to the farmer is to bring his crop of wheat to mill with the exception of that 
which he wishes for planting, have it ground and put up into paper bags.  We 
furnish thee bags to our customers at cost, which is only 12 ½  cents per barrel 
and this will keep the flour absolutely fresh and sweet for a year.  This, it 
seems to me, is good sense and prudence” grade his wheat and load him up with 
(sentence stops)
Spouting Floor – Leaving the first floor we ascend the stairs to what is called 
the spouting floor.  This is interesting because of the air of mystery which 
pervades itl.  Spouts in all directions and all shapes busy carrying their 
freight from process to another.  But all covered over leaving you to guess what 
they are doing and how they do it.    With your curiosity now well aroused we 
ascent still another flight of stairs and reach the separating room  Here we 
find many screens, sifters and what-nots separating the foreign substance from 
the wheat, separating the various products, “Here” said Mr. DeLoach is some of 
the stuff that we get out of the wheat before grinding it.  This is pure rash.  
Now, here is another grade of trash that is taken out by another machine, and 
here is another grade in which you see what appears to be some wheat, but 
examine this handful and you will find not a live grain of it in the lot, and 
for that matter you wouldn’t find a perfect grain in any ten bushels of it.  We 
get this stuff out of the wheat before we grind if it takes a fourth of it.  The 
people as a rule, appreciate it and have shown their appreciation in a 
substantial manner.
In response to inquiries we learned that the machinery for this mill was made as 
a special order by one of the most celebrated wheat mill concern in America and, 
although Mr. DeLoach is himself a millwright with a life time experience he 
secured the services of one of the foreman at the factory to come south and put 
up the machinery.  This required seven weeks and after it was tested 
improvements suggested themselves and this expert was again brought south and 
spent six weeks further in perfecting the machinery.  When he had finished he 
assured Mr. DeLoach that this was, perhaps, the model mill of the south.
Mr. H. A. DeLoach – Mr. H. A. DeLoach looks like a miller, talks like a miller, 
acts like a miller and he is a miller and a gentleman.  One of the things that 
amuses me, said Mr. DeLoach is that a lot of people have sized me up as a 
yankee.  I was born and raised in Wire Grass Georgia and my father and 
grandfather were Georgians.
But if you want to find a genius in milling and a man with the snap and vim to 
do the right thing at the right time and in the right way you can find all in 
the person of Mr. DeLoach.
After gong through and seeing the interesting and instructive sights of the mill 
and its surroundings we were invited by our host to go home with him for dinner, 
where we met his estimable wife and her mother, Mrs. Dr. Thomas.  Such a family, 
happy, intelligent and rich with the graces that adorn the human character 
partly explain Mr. DeLoach success.  A man who couldn’t succeed with such 
inspiration ought to be drummed out of Georgia into Mexico or some other seaport 
town.
In the afternoon we bade him adieu to the shoals with its chard of people and 
things, but carrying with us the happiest recollections.
I am glad I came out here today, said Mr. Kinard, I feel instructed and wiser, I 
am glad to know that there is such a mill in or section as the Snapping Shoals 
mills.
And I can say the same.

Jackson Progress Argus – Week  of November 2, 1900



Additional Comments:
Note:  In this article there are several sentences and  paragraphs which end 
abruptly as though there are some missing few words needed to finish the 
sentence.  When changing from one column to another it sometimes picks up in the 
middle of  a sentence.  There is not anything left out, it is typed as printed 
in newspaper
Article includes a photo of Mr. H. A. DeLoach and Snapping Shoals.

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