The Bibb Company

"The Bibb Company was founded in 1876 by Hugh Comer of Savannah and Major John F. Hanson of Macon. With $35,000 these cotton merchants set up a factory of 2500 spindles in an abandoned freight house of the Central of Georgia Railroad in East Macon. After a couple of "moderately prosperous" decades, the Bibb Company went through a period of rapid growth. In 1898, new mills were purchased in Cordele, Macon, Porterdale, and Reynolds, Georgia."
Picture above of Bibb Mill from "Images" by Clason Kyle, credited to Columbus Ledger-Enquirer Newspapers. Mr. Kyle says of this photo: "The wilderness area along the banks of the Chattahoochee north of town where generations of Columbusites had festive picnics and the traditional site of the together-in-death-rather-than-separated-in-life plunge by the Coweta maiden and her Cusseta brave lover (or was it a Cusseta maiden and her Coweta brave lover?) was changed radically when a large textile plant with twenty thousand spindles was built by Bibb Manufacturing Company. And this romantic spot vanished completely when the North Highlands Dam, the largest in the south at the time, was finished in 1902."

"Upon the death of Comer, Major Hanson became president of the Bibb Company. Shortly thereafter, he had the Company purchase land and a dam site on the Chattahoochee River, just north of Columbus in what is now Bibb City. On this site the first section of the Columbus Mill went into production in 1900 with 25,000 spindles. In 1903, the Columbus Mill added generators and water wheels; the latter powered a rope drive system which drove the mill machinery until 1954, at which time the main shaft of the system broke. (Pictured below are the sheaves for the rope drive at base of ropeway in Bibb Mill, by National Park Service, 1977.) A 1915 expansion of the mill increased the number of spindles to 48,000. In 1920, the mill was again increased in size, and the number of spindles was more than doubled to 125,000. In 1911, the one-story weave shed was completed, and the warehouse buildings were built in two stages in 1918 and 1937.

Originally the Columbus Mill made thread, but as the number of automobiles increased, the Bibb Company turned its attention to tire cord which it produced in such large quantities as "to be reckoned not in feet nor yards, but in miles." When tire manufacturers opened their own cord mills, the Columbus Mill converted to the manufacture of apparel fabrics, including print cloth. In the 1940s, wide looms were introduced and were used to manufacture backing for the tufting trade and to make sheeting for both bed sheets and pillow cases.

The significance of the Bibb Company facility in Bibb City is twofold: first, there is the massive size and considerable attractiveness of the Columbus Mill. Standing five stories high with a length of 1010 feet (about one-fifth mile) by 128 feet, this mill was claimed to be the largest "spinning room" under one roof. It was (at time of this application) the largest textile facility in the State of Georgia, and perhaps in the South. Second, the rope drive system, which was used for over a half century, provided direct motive power to the machinery through a system of ropes, shafts and pulleys. Drums and shafts from the no-longer-used system are extant in the far west end of the Columbus Mill. (Pictured above is view of Bibb Mill and North Highlands Dam from Alabama side of river, National Park Service, 1977.)

The grandiose facade on the east end of the Columbus Mill with its large, handsome clock, symbolizes the dominant role this mill has played in the surrounding community of Bibb City, as well as in the economy of Muscogee County. Of course, the town of Bibb City (incorporated in 1909) (and now in 2003, part of Columbus, Georgia) owes its existence to the Columbus Mill and the Bibb Company which owned the houses until it sold them in the 1960s."