Pulaski County GaArchives History .....Hawkinsville Manufacturing 1935
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 July 28, 2004, 11:40 pm

MANUFACTURING INTERESTS

   Hawkinsville early caught the manufacturing and industrial spirit that
developed in the South after the Civil War. The South's advantages of cheap fuel
and labor and saving of transportation has been appropriated to her own
benefits, instead of sending raw materials east and paying higher prices for
manufactured articles.

   Among the first of our industries, the Tannery, on Tan-yard Branch, was
operated before and during the Civil War, and was reopened in 1885 and operated
several years.

   In 1882, a brick-yard, owned by Henley and Jeter, was launched,

p. 108

proving a splendid investment. In after years it was owned and operated by
Snowden Brothers of South Carolina.

   One of the most important manufacturing enterprises of Hawkinsville was the
Lathrop Oil Mill and Ginnery Co., organized in 1882. Mr. W. N. Parsons, manager,
added a refinery and other new and improved machinery to the mill. At that time
it was one of the best equipped plants in the South. The output of oil per
season was from fifteen to sixteen thousand gallons.

   Mr. Parsons distributed among the farmers each year for cotton seed about
$6,400.00, and about $1,200.00 among the wood haulers.

   This company also had a splendidly equipped ginnery with a capacity of thirty
bales per day. They also manufactured a number of superior brands of guano-the
Reliance, Pulaski Cotton Grower, Mixture No. 1, and Potash Acid-which became
quite popular with the farmers. This enterprise had the financial support of
Col. C. T. Lathrop, Col. G. W. Jordan, J. D. Stetson, Major J. H. Pate, W. A.
Jeter, and others.

   Also in 1.882 the first cotton compress, located in the Old Rock Warehouse,
and later in the building known now as the Union Warehouse, served its day.

   In 1882 the first artesian well, on the corner of Commerce and Lumpkin
Streets, was completed. While not a manufacturing project, it can be classed as
one of the town's outstanding achievements from the viewpoint of the health of
the city.

   Hawkinsville, in 1882, still maintained her standing as a cotton market and
trading .center, growers bringing their cotton from surrounding counties. Each
of our cotton warehouses, the Old Rock, operated by Dr. W. N. Fleetwood and Mr.
S. B. Lawson; the Lone Star, by D. G. McCormick and T. H. Bridges, and what is
now Merritt & Anderson Bros. Co., by C. M. Bozeman & Sons, and later by R. W.
Anderson. Each had a camp house and wagon yard where in the fall and winter
farmers for fifty miles away would spend the night. These were prosperous days
in Pulaski County when "King Cotton" reigned and scattered with a lavish hand
wealth among our citizens. On the streets in the business section could be seen
the four- and six-mule teams of Captain Coffee, Colonel Lamar, Captain Anderson,
Mr. William Moore, Mr. S. W. Brown, Mr. J. P. Brown, Mr. Exom Philips, Mr. H. B.
Ware, Mr. J. F. McDonald, Mr. Henry Anderson, and others.

GINNERIES

   Pulaski being a cotton center, gins have been an asset, and always the most
modern and well-equipped gins at that period have been maintained. At the
present four modern and up-to-date plants are

p. 109

installed here: A. T. Cochran & Son, Bembry & Hadden, Daniels & Martin, and E.
F. Way, whose gin and warehouse in an old, old setting, is even now a landmark.
The building is known as the Old Rock Warehouse. It was built long before the
War Between the States, and was constructed of native rocks and mortar. The
rocks were brought on flat boats from a point several miles above, on the river,
and then hauled from the landing in ox-carts to the building location. It was
built by Allen Tooke, of historic Hayneville in Houston County, a man of
extensive farming and manufacturing interests.

   In 1888 one of the outstanding establishments was the manufacturing plant of
L. B. Wilcox & Co., placing upon the market carriages, buggies and wagons of
expert construction, and located near the river, where at that time boats were
plying the Ocmulgee on regular schedule. There was also a harness shop, operated
by J. C. Bean.



Additional Comments:
Extracted from 


"HISTORY OF PULASKI COUNTY GEORGIA"

OFFICIAL HISTORY

COMPILED BY THE HAWKINSVILLE CHAPTER
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
PRESS OF WALTER W. BROWN PUBLISHING COMPANY
ATLANTA, GEORGIA

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