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**daveray84** · 06-22-2009, 08:05 PM

Re: Mississippi Manufacturing Company

Hey Will,

Good stuff. There's an interesting article on the Bankston Mill in J. P. Coleman's book Choctaw Chronicles. Gary Pierce and I rode over to Bankston one summer day and tried to find any traces of the old mill or even the old town. Didn't find much, butit was fun nonetheless. Did this stuff come from the National Archives or is this down in Jackson?

**Mississippian** · 06-25-2009, 06:43 AM

Re: Mississippi Manufacturing Company

Dave,

This came from the NA. The Choctaw factory was the main supplier for the C.S. Depot at Jackson, and it seems that after Jackson fell to the Federals, most of the equipment and people from that Depot ended up setting up shop at Demopolis AL. Choctaw might have also provided goods to the smaller C.S. Depot at Enterprise MS, which is just south of Meridian.

Will MacDonald

**daveray84** · 07-03-2009, 12:44 AM

Re: Mississippi Manufacturing Company

Will,

The Mississippi Manufacturing Company was an interesting company, to be sure. It operated with very little slave labor. If I'm not mistaken, the only slaves employed operated the boilers. It was pretty much a traditional "mill town" type of operation, only stuck in an isolated spot in rural north central MS. The steam engine that ran the mill came from Providence, RI. Here's an interesting article on Mississippi cotton mills:

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http://theusgenweb.org/ms/webster/cottonmills1.html

**daveray84** · 01-11-2010, 02:18 PM

Re: Mississippi Manufacturing Company

Will,

Anything new on the Mississippi Manufacturing Company? What do we know about the depot at Enterpise? Are there any surviving articles of clothing or shoes or what-have-you known to have been issued by the Jackson or Enterprise depots? I assume the bushels of wheat didn't survive...:)

**Mississippian** · 01-12-2010, 08:32 AM

Re: Mississippi Manufacturing Company

The old Gentleman who owned the J.D. Combs shoes passed away recently, and his daughter (my GF's cousin) is a little less willing to show them off. But I'm working on getting some pics in the next few weeks.

Will MacDonald

**Mississippian** · 02-22-2010, 04:43 AM

Re: Mississippi Manufacturing Company

I was digging around on the old FGLHA board and found this newspaper quote. The "Choctaw Factory" mentioned is the MMC. Much thanks to Ms. Betts for posting it all those years ago.

MOBILE REGISTER AND ADVERTISER, May 17, 1864, p. 2, c. 2
[From an Occasional Correspondent.]
Columbus, Miss., May 14, 1864
. . . Since I wrote you have received the statement which I promised you from the indefatigable Quartermaster here, Major W. J. Anderson, formerly of your city.
During the past seventeen months he has furnished the army with 51,000 jackets, 50,000 pairs pants, 7,191 coats, 1,859 overcoats, 27,440 shirts, 15,278 pairs drawers, 20,415 hats and caps, 51,277 pairs boots and shoes, 23,220 pounds cooking utensils, 3,000 tents, 3,700 blankets; and within this period he was frequently out of material, and on several occasions operations were necessarily stopped for one to three weeks.
A large portion of the material for jackets, pants and coats was furnished by the Choctaw factory, from which he is now receiving monthly about 18,000 yards of jeans and linsey. Most of the shirting goods was woven by ladies in the country for Sherman & Ramsay of this place, who were under contract to furnish the goods. The hats and caps were manufactured in this place by Hale & Sykes, and the skillets and ovens by Hale & Murdock, and Major Anderson will be able to supply all of these latter articles that may be required in the Department of Alabama and Mississippi and East Louisiana. Messrs. Sherman & Ramsay have until very recently supplied about 6,000 yards shirtings monthly and more than two-thirds of the shoes were manufactured in Lowndes, Oktibbeha, and Choctaw counties, of which from 2,500 to 3,000 pairs are received monthly.
Cooped up as he is, away off here in Northwest Mississippi, Major Anderson has accomplished wonders, and it shows what an energetic business man can and may accomplish, as well as what our country (and even a limited portion of it) can supply. The foregoing figures will no doubt astonish you and your readers, and I give them in order that other parts of the Confederacy and the army may be encouraged and that other officers may be incited to deserve the mead as Major Anderson does, of "well done good and faithful servant." More anon. Rip Van Winkle."

Will MacDonald

**daveray84** · 02-22-2010, 11:37 AM

Re: Mississippi Manufacturing Company

Very interesting stuff!

"more than two-thirds of the shoes were manufactured in Lowndes, Oktibbeha, and Choctaw counties, of which from 2,500 to 3,000 pairs are received monthly."

So, there must have been sources for shoes other than MMC in east Mississippi at this time, or do you think the MMC was sub-contracting?

Columbus, MS was pretty well packed with military goods at this time. The Ordnance department for the state of MS was located there in 1864.

**Roger Hansen** · 11-19-2011, 09:49 PM

Re: Mississippi Manufacturing Company

From the family history of T J Stanford:

Thomas Jefferson Stanford was one of the original partners in the "Mississippi Manufacturing Company" that established the first textile mill in Mississippi in 1847. Most of the following information is taken from the reasearch entitled "A Study of Cotton Mills and the Industrial Revolution" by Strickland Narvell: "Colonel James M. Wesson [whose wife was Emily Stanford, Thomas J. Stanford's sister] was associated with a textile firm in Columbus, Georgia. In 1847, Wesson decided to build a cotton and woolen mill in the back country of northern Mississippi. In January 1847 he, together with David L. Booker, John P. Nance, Richard Ector, and Thomas J. Stanford, all Columbus, Georgia businessmen, organized and chartered the "Mississippi Manufacturing Company" and, before the end of the year, began moving machinery and equipment to a site on the west side of McCurtain's Creek, a tributary to the Big Black River in Choctaw County, Mississippi. There, they established the town of Bankston.
"It was difficult at the time to find native white workers for industrial work, and thus several experienced mill families were imported from Georgia to do the skilled work. The use of Negro slaves was thought to be too expensive, but a few were employed to operate the steam engine and perform other unpleasant assignments. The eighty-horsepower engine actually provided too much power for the textile mill, and the enterprising Colonel Wesson added a flour mill and a gristmill to the textile equipment to utilize the surplus power.
"The Bankston textile mill began operations in December 1848 with twelve workers. It...quickly expanded to include a tannery, a shoe factory, a machine shop, along with other enterprises. By June 1849, the textile mill operated 500 cotton spindles and spun 300 pounds of cotton into yarn and thread daily. During the first few years, the mill operated at a financial loss in the production of cloth but made a small profit on cotton yarn. During this period, Colonel Wesson left the looms idle and concentrated on the production of yarn and thread, along with his other enterprises such as the milling of corn and wheat, until conditions improved in the cloth market.
"By 1855, the difficult years were over and the manufacturing company began to make substantial profits; reporting that year a net profit of $22,000 on a capitalization of $60,000. Over the next three years or by 1858, Historian John Hebron Moore noted that the company's "investment in cotton and woolen machinery alone had reached the sum of $80,000, and an additional $15,500 of the firm's capital was represented by such assets as a gristmill, a flour mill, and numerous buildings comprising the company-owned village of Bankston."
"The critical period came two years later with the nationwide panic of 1857. The Bankston manufacturing company not only survived but prospered during the panic; and then for several years in succession, it paid annual dividends of 37 percent while building up a large reserve fund. In addition to the investors, some eighty-five workers enjoyed the prosperity. While wages were low, the company provided housing and made sure the workers were supplied with products of its several enterprises, shoes, cloth, meat, and flour.
"The Bankston cotton mill became famous as it continued to grow and prosper. By 1860, it had expanded to operate 1,000 cotton spindles, 500 wool spindles, and 20 power looms; indeed, it operated the latest in textile machinery and was regarded as the forerunner in modern cotton manufacturing in the state. Except for the few slaves employed to operate the steam engine, the workers were white; Colonel Wesson, however, recognized that slaves were capable, but he "believed that hired whites were less expensive than either bought or hired slaves." T J Stanford was listed in several places as a tinsmith, so it is assumed he brought this metal craft to the business also.
"The Civil War, unfortunately, was to destroy all of Mississippi's few textile mills. But, because of its isolated location, the Bankston mill survived longer than the others in the state. However, on December 30, 1864, a Federal foraging party, under the command of General Benjamin H. Grierson, raided Bankston and burned the cotton and wool mill, the shoe factory, and the flour mill.
"Much of Bankston was a legitimate military target, for its mills were producing 1,000 yards of cloth and 150 pairs of shoes daily for military purposes. But unfortunately, the foraging party did not restrict its activities to legitimate targets; it not only destroyed the 5,000 yards of cloth, 10,000 pounds of wool, 125 bales of cotton on hand but, in addition, destroyed 10,000 pounds of flour and took the farm animals, horses, cows, pigs, and chickens, leaving the town's people hard pressed to escape starvation.
"Soon after his mill was destroyed by fire, Colonel Wesson set out to establish another. Before the war was over, he and two associates, W. H. Hallam and James Hamilton, selected a wilderness site about forty miles south of Jackson, and in March 1865 the site was incorporated as the town of Wesson. Three years later, the construction of a cotton mill, the Mississippi Manufacturing Company, and seventy-five houses for workers was completed. It was Mississippi's first large mill village; and replacing a wilderness, it was built out of necessity to provide housing for the influx of workers from nearby farms and towns, rather than for the paternalistic reasons later associated with company-owned mill villages in the South.
"The Wesson mill was to become Mississippi's most famous postwar manufacturing plant of any type. Unfortunately, however, abusive practices during the Radical Reconstruction era created major financial problems for Colonel Wesson, and he was forced to step aside before the mill reached its summit. Early in 1871, Mississippi Manufacturing Company went into bankruptcy and receivership, and on February 23, 1871, the company was sold by the receivers to Captain William Oliver and John T. Hardy, New Orleans businessmen. After paying all of his debts, Colonel Wesson, the father of the Mississippi cotton textile industry, quietly retired to nearby Bogue Chitto. Earlier that year, his wife had died, and it is likely, some believe, that her death may have influenced his decision to sell out and retire."
The Bankston mills were located ten miles south of Greensboro, Mississippi. Despite periodic reports of large profits by the Mississippi Manufacturing Company, the firm was barely able to meet expenses in the early years, failing to post a profit until 1855. During this lean period it is probalble that Thomas and William Stanford left the firm. We know that William ultimately returned to Columbus, Muscogee, Georgia. Thomas, it appears, moved westward to Yalobusha County, Mississippi (probably to the town of Grenada, which, prior to 1870, was part of Yalobusha County) and later to Carroll County, Mississippi. Thomas J. Stanford organized Stanford's Mississppi Battery in Yalobusha County in 1861; was in the Army of Tennessee and was killed in action at Reasca, Georgia on May 15, 1864. His body taken to the Marietta, Georgia hospitals, where his brother Frank was a surgeon, and was interred in the Confederate Cemetery there.

Roger Hansen

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