The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-23
PIERCE COUNTY's CAPITAL.
ONE OF SOUTH GEoRGIA's MOST EN-
TERPRISING TOWNS.

Col. J. II. Estill's Impressions Dur
ing n Trip to Pierce-The Black
shear Manufa curing Co. and the
A. p. BrantIey Co. an Enterprise
without n Duplicate-The Brant-
ley Interests a Power in That Sec
Georgia Brains and Thrift All
Through Lower Georgia.
One of the most enterprising towns of
South Georgia is Blackshear. Col. J.
H. Estill on his return from Screyen
county Wednesday, spent day at his
desk and went to Pierce county Thurs
day. He returned yesterday greatly
impressed with what he saw.
Rushing by the town of Blackshear
in the county of Pierce on a Plant
System train, the traveller may catch
sight, if he is on the lookout said Col
Estill, 'of a number of large stores
and manufacturing buildings. He does
not see all that is to be seen, how
ever, unless his visual powers are more
than the normal. Beyond the trees is
manufacturing plant, which probably
has not its duplicate. 1t is that of the
Blackshear Manufacturing Company
an adjunct to the business of the A. P.
Brantley Company. Were the stores of
this firm in a large city, or in one tall
building, it would be called depart
ment store, for there is everything to
be had in it from a needle to a steam
engine. A customer can be clothed and
fed, and furnished with all the tools
and utensils with which to start in
life, and make it successful. In con-
nection with this business is CONNER
clal and cotton departments, that have
their ramifications throughout this
country and in Europe. Cotton is
bought not only in the bale, but in the
seed, and it is all black seed cotton.
TWenty-seven gins, which excepting a
few parts, were made in the machine
shops belonging to the plant, clean the
cotton from the seed, and the output
tnlS season is placed at 5000 bags or
Dales. Railroad tracks run beside the
gin building, and the seed cotton is
taken out of the cars through pipes to
the cotton room above the ginning
room, where it is fed automatically
INTO the gins below. The cleaned cot
ton is then baled by the use of hydrau-
nc presses, and the seeds conveyed to
the warehouse, whence they go to the
oil mill, where the oil is extracted. The
reslduum cake or oil is then sent
through tubes to the fertilizer factory.
rms is but brief outline" said
Col. Estill, of the process of utilizing.
almost in the fields where it is grown
al the products of the great plant
that presents gold in every bale. IT
would take columns of type to describe
IN detail the extent of the machinery
and the many processes by which such
great results are accomplished. 1t is
machinery, system, brains and capital
working together to make, save and
utilize the product of the farms of
South Georgia.
The Blackshear Fertilizer Company.
which has its own acid chambers and
other machinery, uses the cotton seed
With phosphate rock, kainit and other
material in the manufacture of ferti-
lizerS. In addition to the buildings re-
ferred to, there is the electric plant
house; the water works and fire appa-
ratuS DEPARTMENT, reservoirs and wa
ter mains, warehouses, railways, etc,
making an immense plant. The phos-
plate rock comes by rail from Florida,
the kainit is imported from Germany
through Savannah and Brunswick, and
the pyrites from the iron mines of
Pennsylvania; the cotton seed meal,
the Sulphuric acid are manufactured,
! and the fertilizers. however, are COM
pounded by the plant. In addition to
the several stores and the cotton and
fertilizer plants, the Bank of Black
shear is owned and managed by the
Messrs. Brantley, and is the financial
institution of the town, and also
i i s1f,, TO-
business connections with the princi-
pal banks of the world.
Taken in its entirety" Col. Estill
said, there is nothing like the Messrs.
Brantley's enterprises to be found in
Georgia, and possibly in no other state.
The Blackshear Fertilizer Company,
the Blackshear Bank and the A. P
Brantley Company are composed of
Messrs. A. P, B. D. and John F.
Brantley, and possibly other members
of the family, of which Congressman
Brantley is one. If any doubling
Thomas" thinks that Georgia is not
the Empire State and that Lower Geor-
gia is not the Empire of the Empire
State. he should travel over it, and he
will see, as I have seen. in every place
just such evidences of Georgia's brains
and thrift, though upon different lines,
as that which makes Blackshear and
the people of Pierce county reasonably
happy, prosperous and contented.
at was the closing day of the Pierce
County Superior Court. presided over
by that able jurist and fine specimen
of Georgia manhood. Judge Benet, that
/ was in Blackshear," Col. Estill add
ed, land ! had the pleasure of meet
ing all the Court House officers and
merchants and nearly every prominent
farmer in the county. 1t is, of course,
impossible to give the names of several
hundred gentlemen and thank them
for the courtesies. Like all other
places that I have visited, my recep-
ton was cordial in the extreme. The
Morning News has been the favorite
newspaper of the people of Pierce coun-
ty ever since it has been county, and
among the Oldest are the Brantleys,
the Stricklands, Purdoms, McMillans.
Harpers, Johnsons, Youmans, Smiths
and many other old families whose
names l cannot recall. l am enjoying
my outing very much, and if am not
successful in securing the governor
ship, 1 shall have had many enjoyable
days among the good people of the
state"