Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-08-11
SOUTHERN COTTON MILLS.
How the Machinery is being Brought to the
Cotton Fields.

Mondays New York Herald contains
column and half letter dated Vicksburg,
Miss, telling of the cotton factories in the
South. The following are portion of the
facts therein related:
The statistical reports of last year show the
average annual dividend Of the principal
mills South to be %! per cent. The result
is that Eastern capital is seeking this class of
investment. Southern mills on small scale
having paid we'll, their proprietors desire to
double their capacity. Accordingly in a
great number of places new mills are being
started. At Huntsville, Ala, for instance, q
year since there was no sign of mill. Now
both cotton factory and cotton seed oil mill
are being built there The superintendent
of the cotton mill comes from Rhode Island
and invests his capital. Within the past six
months an Ohio man has started the spindles
humming at Tuscumbia, Ala, spinning yarns
direct from the seed cotton, and says he will
make twenty-five per cent on his investment
the first year. A 5000 spindle mill is being
erected at Montgomery, the capital Of the
State. The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) mills have
more orders than they can fill, and want to
double their facilities. The Selma {Ala.)
mills are success and others will shortly be
erected there. Arkansas has several success.
ful factories which have been built in the
last few years. Pine Bluff, Arkansas, has
100000 cotton mandatory movement on
foot, with more than one-half the capital
paid in. Fort Smith is building 100000
cotton seed oil mill. Capitalists have just
ol1 1ort;,o1 ;ftoo Poply for hide m
another mill there to contain SOC, 900 bricks.
Georgia, is now and probably will continue 20
be the leader in manufactures among the
Southern States. At Columbus are now the
largest cotton mills in the South. Among
the enterprises there is corporation which
has grown from one little mill of 100000
capital, in the past halfdozen years, COM
pany of five mills to-day, with a paid up
capital of 81 ,250,0OO, paying twenty per cent
Other mills have been built up around them
and are enjoying successful career. Next
to Columbus comes Augusta, with her splen-
did canal water power. In 1879 she declared
dividend Of twenty.eight per cent. on
SS00000 invested in cotton factories. What
was the result? Since that time company
has been organized there with capital of
81 900, 900 to manufacture cotton goods, with
privilege to increase it's capital to $4,000 600.
Another manufacturing company of the same
city have increased their capital from $780,
900 to S1,O00,OOO. The mills at Macon are
being enlarged. Another splendid factory is
to be built at Atlanta.
Next to Georgia comes South Carolina,
and while the former is proud Of the largest
mills in the South the latter can boast of
having the smallest cotton factory, not only
in the South, but the smallest in the United
States This manufactory, located at West
minister, S. c., is not only the smallest fac
tory in the country, but according to its re-
port, is most profitable. The capital en-
ployed is 1000 one'eafd, 200 spindles, seven
hands. This spins cotton direct from the
seed by a new process, and reports profit Of
forty per cent. Her largest and best mills
built within the past few years are paying
twenty.one and twenty-five per cent The
average dividend of all of the mills in South
Carolina is 223 per cent.
The most marked result Of this is that
within the past half year, since that report
was published, half million dollar cotton
factory has been started at Charleston, S40O,-
900 of the stock being already subscribed,
much Of it from Boston. One of the mills
built this year is at Orangeburg S. c., and re-
ports a profit of over twenty per cent. A
large manufacturing company at Columbia,
S. c., desire to double their stock-from
100000 to 100000. A we'll known firm of
Providence, r. l., are expending several mil
lion dollars in developing the grand water
power of Columbia and expect to erect sew
eral large mills on it. An extensive manu-:
featuring company has just been organized
at Sumter, S. c., and the company has or
dered improved machinery from Lowell,
Mass. Gaffney City, S. c., is a new town, yet
they have subscribed $4,000 for factory
there.