Speaking of old mills of the mid 19th century, in nearby Roswell, Georgia, was the Roswell Mill.
Roswell Mill was owned by the founder of Roswell, Georgia, Roswell King. He was a New Englander, Connecticut, I think. Roswell was looking for a good spot to have a mill near a good river and selected an area on the north bank of the Chattahoochee River in Cobb County.* And in an area where he could probably get cheap labor. Thus, he founded Roswell. And he invited his family members and good friends to become the city’s first elite** of the town.
When Sherman began his swath of destruction through Georgia his men were destroying mills in their path, unless they were foreign owned – then they would honor them as not Southern owned, therefore, they got to stay in business. Roswell King made a Frenchman temporarily president and of Roswell Mills. When Sherman’s officers were inspecting the mills they were making Confederate uniforms and other items to aid the Confederate war effort.
The 400 or so Roswell Mill Workers, mostly women were arrested as traitors and sent to northern states to work in the mills.
The picture above, Adeline Bagley, is a distant relative of Anna who was a Roswell Mill worker. She lived 1825-1910. It is a sad war story. Adeline was arrested in 1864 by Sherman’s men and transported with hundreds other to Chicago to work in a mill or factory. At the time her husband Pvt. J. Buice was in the war. When he returned, he waited for years, then assumed she had died, remarried. She returned, on foot, in 1869. Her husband already had a family. As far as I know she spent the rest of her life alone. War is Hell.
*Now Roswell, Georgia, is no longer in Cobb County. It has been re-mapped to be in Fulton County.
** One elite family in town produced Martha Bulloch, who was the mother of President Theodore Roosevelt.
4 comments:
What a sad story! I remember reading about mill workers and other private citizens contributing to "the cause" being arrested and incarcerated up north during the war, including children. War is indeed hell.
This is off topic, but maybe somewhat relevent. There are a lot of interesting stories about foreign owned businesses in rural Georgia in the 1800's and early 1900's.
For instance, in my neck of the woods, there is a little unincorporated area of Decatur Co. known as Amsterdam. It's near the teaming metropolis of Attapulgus. Anyway, Amsterdam got its name by way of who owned the majority of the land in the area. It was Queen Julianna of the Netherlands who owned the area's tobacco plantations.
And there was also her tobacco rival in nearby Quincy, FL, a Polish prince who lived in the area and was buried in Quincy when he died.
Who woulda thunk it?
Button,
I didn't know about the foreign royalty-owned plantations in your old stomping groounds.
It would make some interesting history book reading if the two countries the Neatherlands and Poland settled their competition the "old fashion way" with swords and hatchets or whatever.
I need to make a note of that so I can remember that... I have lousy retention.
Yes, War is Hell.
It reminds me of a in a Little Lulu comic would time Tubby and his boy gang was having a difference with Little Lulu and her girl gang and one side says, "This means War!"
And the little tot neighbor next door, Alvin, I think his name was, while digging in his sandbox says to no in in particular, "War is Heck."
Are they the ones that got hauled off to Louisville?
....another gloorious moment for Sherman....
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