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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. 
