312 COTTON 
OUR FIRST COTTON MILL 
In the year 1787, Mrs. Ramage, widow of a 
South Carolina planter, realizing its greater econ- 
omy and so anticipating its financial success, 
erected a small cotton mill on James Island, near 
Charleston. Small in size and operated by horse- 
power, this was the first cotton factory erected on 
American soil, although a little later in the same 
year, another cotton factory, somewhat larger in 
capacity, was started at Beverly, Massachusetts. 
Then, years later, a second factory was built at 
Statesburg. Georgia was the second State to be- 
gin cotton : manufacturing, but it was not until 1809 
that a small factory was erected at Louisville, this 
being also operated by horse-power. Two years 
later a much larger factory was built in Wilkes 
County, this one known as the “ Bolton Factory.”’ 
This building “‘ was 60 feet by 40 feet, two stories, 
attic and basement, and was constructed of brown 
sandstone.” It was the first factory of any con- 
sequence in Georgia. 
In North Carolina no factory was built until 1818 
when one was erected in Edgecombe County, 
which “began operating with 288 spindles, em- 
ployed about 20 hands, and consumed 18,000 
pounds of cotton, or according to the weights of 
those days, about 64 bales.” 
LITTLE INTEREST IN COTTON MANUFACTURING 
While a great many cotton factories sprang up in 
the Southern States from 1800 to 1860, the South 
as a whole, cannot be said to have given manufac- 
turing very substantial encouragement. Rather it 
was discouraged—sometimes rather emphatically. 
