MUSCOGEE COUNTY, GA - HISTORY  Clapp Factory Burns March 1910

Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm

This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb
Archives by: John Mallory Land retrofit@flash.net


Table of Contents page: 
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee.htm
Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm

HISTORIC CLAPP’S FACTORY WAS BURNED TO GROUND SATURDAY AFTERNOON

Cause of the Fire Which Destroyed Three Buildings is Unknown

ORIGINAL FACTORY WAS BUILT IN 1837

The Mill Just Destroyed was Erected in 1866, by Horace King - Had
Not Been Operated for 25 Years - Owned by the Columbus Power
Company

One of the landmarks of this section and a historic relic that
joined Columbus with the past was destroyed Saturday afternoon,
when the old Clapp’s factory building, north of Columbus, was
destroyed by fire.

Just how the flames originated no one knows, for when the fire
was first discovered, about 4:30 o’clock, it was under
considerable headway.  There was of course no way to subdue it,
for the timbers were old and dry and burned very rapidly, the
flames soaring to a great height, and the building, together with
two adjoining structures, was completely destroyed.

There are three theories as to how the building was fired, and in
the last analysis all of them are guesses.  One of them is that
some one, strolling through or about the building, dropped sparks
from a pipe or cigar that kindled the blaze, another is that
children, playing near, fired the grass and the building was so
dry that it ignited from the grass fire, and the third is someone
fired it through mere wantonness, with a desire to have a big
blaze and some excitement.

The building was four stories high, with a basement, and being a
frame structure and of considerable proportions it made an
enormous blaze.  For twenty-five years the old weather-beaten
hulk had stood there and it had been predicted that it would meet
just such an end as this, although it was thought that the
chances of its collapsing were stronger than those of its being
burned.

With the burning of the main mill there also went up in smoke the
old grist mill, just to the south of it, while a brick warehouse
just to the north of the roadway, was also destroyed, only its
walls being left.  The cottages are some little distance from the
factory, which was down under the hill on the very edge of the
river, and none of them were burned.  A good many of these
cottages have been torn away or have fallen down in recent years
and only a portion of the original mill village was left.  Of the
houses left only a few were occupied, and wandering among the
quiet streets and looking into the silent, empty houses or
peering into the old church, with the Bible still open there on
the pulpit where the preacher had delivered his last sermon, one
could have well imagined some ten years ago, before the decay and
deterioration of the place had progressed to the point that it
has today, that he was wandering through the Deserted Village
made famous in poetry [by Oliver Goldsmith].

Historic Old Plant.

Clapp’s factory was one of the pioneer cotton mills in the south
and in its day and time was widely noted.  First built in 1837,
at a point on the Chattahoochee river three miles north of the
city of Columbus, at a place where the ledge of rocks forms a
natural dam, causing the current to take a percipitate [sic]
tumble, it was operated for a number of years and was then
acquired by Julius R. CLAPP, father of George M. CLAPP and
grandfather of Brainard K. CLAPP, and his associates.  Thus it
was that it acquired the title, “Clapp’s Factory,” a name that
clung to it to the day of its destruction.  It was quite an
enterprise, for in connection with it was operated a grist mill
and tannery, and there was a large village peopled by the mill
folk.  The mill made cotton cloth and was regarded as one of the
foremost of southern textile institutions in ante-bellum days.

Burned by Soldiers.

In the destruction of forty-seven million dollars worth of
property in Columbus by the federal soldiers in 1865, such a rich
prize as Clapp’s Factory of course did not escape, and like the
Eagle mills it was burned to the ground.

Destroyed in 1865, the factory was rebuilt in 1866, just one year
later, a circumstance well showing the indomitable spirit of the
south which rallied from the war and its stupendous losses with
such superb courage.  The new mill was built by Horace King, a
negro, who was locally noted as a bridge builder.  This was the
building that existed until Saturday afternoon and the factory
was operated actively until 1885. 

Closed 25 Years Ago

CLAPP and associates incorporated the “Columbus Factory” after
the war [sic - the Columbus Factory was incorporated in 1848, and
the Columbus Manufacturing Company in 1867] and the plant was
operated by that corporation.  Mr. CLAPP’s death occurred in 1877
[sic - SEP 1876], and consequently a new company, the
Chattahoochee Falls company, was organized and operated the
factory until 1885 [Sic - the Chattahoochee Falls Co. was formed
in 1885.].  The factory then closed and was never operated again.
Year after year the silent spindles and looms still kept vigal
[sic] in the old mill, awaiting the bidding of man, but the
command to resume was never given and the whole place gradually
fell into decay and dissolution.  Less than 10 years ago the
machinery on the several floors was knocked down and sold for
junk and since then the wreck of the place has been complete.
The doors have been open and the public has wandered in and out
at will.  It has been a favorite spot with parties going out into
the woods for a day’s outing, for there was facination [sic] in
the decay and ruins, and then again, at that point the
Chattahoochee river is [in] one of its wildest, most romantic
moods, the stream and cascades most charming to the eye.  Many
Columbus people felt a sincere attachment to the weather-beaten
old structure and will experience a pang of grief to know that it
has at last met the end that has so often been predicted for it.

The building was owned by the Columbus Power company, which
absorbed the Chattahoochee Falls company a number of years ago.
It was an entirely empty structure, and as it was not regarded as
of anw [sic] particular value was not insured.

[This story appears on p. 3 of Section 2 of the Columbus
Enquirer-Sun for Sunday, 20 MAR 1910, on microfilm at the W. C.
Bradley Memorial Library in Columbus, Georgia; note that Section
2 precedes Section 1 on the microfilm. Transcribed by John
Mallory Land.]