WILLIAM H. YOUNG

The Father of Cotton Manufacturing   In The South

William H. Young, a native-born New York Yankee and a one-time resident of Twiggs County has been called the Father of Cotton Manufacturing in the South.  Young wound up in Columbus, Georgia, where he established the “Eagle Mills,” the first successful cotton mill in the South.

William Young was born in New York City on January 22, 1807.   His father, James Young, was a cabinet maker of Scotch descent.  His mother, Christina Ridabock, was a daughter of German emigrants.  William grew up on Chambers Street in New York.  With a respectable business and literary education, Young began his journey south to Georgia.  In the early 1820s, the town of Marion in Twiggs County was the destination of those seeking a fortune in the rapidly expanding state of Georgia.  Marion was known as somewhat of a border-town until the state of Georgia acquired more land on the west side of the Ocmulgee River in 1823.   

Young took a position as a clerk in Ira Peck’s store in Marion in the spring of 1824.  He remained in Peck’s employment for a year until Edward B. Young, William’s elder brother, came down from New York. The brothers formed the partnership of Young and Young.  The business, a moderately successful proprietorship, closed after nine years of operation. Marion, although located in what would become the center of the state, couldn’t keep up with its neighbors, Macon and Hawkinsville, both of which fronted on the Ocmulgee River.  Edward removed to Eufala, Alabama, where he became a successful businessman on his own.  Edward founded the Eufala National Bank, and was elected its first president, a position which he held until his death.  

William returned home to New York.  He found an excellent position as a salesman and collector for a large jobbing house, which paid him an astronomical annual salary of ten thousand dollars.  A year later, a recession caused the failure of the New York jobbing houses and cut short his five-year contract.    Young decided it was time to return to the South, where he had been successful.

Young moved to the Gulf Coast town of Apalachicola, Florida in 1839.  Young formed a  prosperous partnership with Dr. Henry Lockhart in the commission business.   After ending a decade-long partnership with Dr. Lockhart, Young remained in Florida for five more years.  Young, who had then accumulated a large fortune, began to dream of building his own manufacturing business.

Young chose the city of Columbus, Georgia as the place where he would realize his dream. Young had been there before, three decades earlier while on a tour of the Indian country.  He remembered a spot on the Chattahoochee River where the river bluffs were high, totally devoid of swampy land.  The spot was the upper navigable limits of the river.  Here the river fell over the rocks with a spray thrown so high, one could see a rainbow in it.   Unlimited water power and a countryside favorable for the cultivation of cotton made this the place where he would build his mill.  Young has tried to interest others in joining him in business in Columbus.  They refused, but Young would not let go of his dream.  He thought, “One day when I have the money, I want to build a mill here.”

Eagle Cotton Mills, Columbus, Georgia 

The choice water lots in Columbus were owned by the Water Lot Company.  When Young arrived in Columbus, there were a variety of mills on these lots.  Young purchased a lot.  He convinced eleven investors to purchase half of the stock of his new company, The Eagle Mill.  Despite the hard times during the Civil War, the mill remained prosperous.  The Eagle Mill purchased all of the remaining lots of the Water Lot Company and the assets of the bankrupt Howard Manufacturing Company, its mill and precious water privileges.  Young was able to purchase the lots and buildings of several other failed and burned businesses along the river.  Eagle Mills was able to acquire all of the original lots, except the lot of the Muscogee Manufacturing Company, a minor competitor.

Federal troops destroyed all of the factories in Columbus during the Civil War and the last forty thousand bales of cotton in the city.  The loss to the Eagle Company alone was estimated at nearly one million dollars.    The company stockholders hired Young to salvage what he could from the ruins of the burned mill.  Young was able to return twice the original investment of each stockholder.  The remains of the company were sold at a public sale.  The Eagle & Phoenix Manufacturing Company was organized by Young.  The mill became instantaneously successful.  A second mill was begun in 1869. It opened in 1871.  A third mill, as large as the first two combined, was put in full operation by 1879.  The three mills, with forty-six thousand spindles, were the largest in the South.  

The city of Columbus, which was a wilderness fifty years earlier when Young made his first visit to the area, was a thriving city.  By the beginning of the Twentieth Century, Columbus had thirty thousand citizens.  The Eagle Mills processed sixteen thousand bales of cotton per year, slightly less than the amount produced by Laurens County.  Eighteen hundred people worked in the mill.  The workers and their families made up twenty percent of the city’s population.  The daily payroll was estimated at five thousand dollars.  

William Young had a dream.   Thirty years of dreaming came true.   Young’s business skills and good luck led him to the pinnacle of the business world of the South, the new post-war South.  His Eagle and Phoenix Manufacturing Company was known far and wide as the largest and most successful cotton manufacturing.  In the days when cotton was king, Young was the "King of the Cotton Mills."