Georgia Textile Mills

The state of Georgia has a long and distinguished history of textile mills. Some famous and many not so famous mills have existed in the State. The International Cotton Exposition held in 1881, brought visitors from near and far. Central to the exposition was a building that subsequently operated as a cotton mill until the middle of the twentieth century. This exhibition and subsequent expositions in the next few years sparked the imagination of Southern investors who went home and began the revolution that made the South the leading textile manufacturing location in the United States.

The Aragon Mill, Aragon, GA, built in 1898 by the A.D. Julliard company and closed in 1979 is immortalized in a song by the Red Clay Ramblers. The mill burned in 2002.

The Banning Mill, Banning, GA  is an example of a small mill that struggled through a long and checkered history. The original mill was built in 1842 by four Bowen brothers along Snake Creek some 14 miles from Newnan, GA. A fire put them out of business. In 1885, the mill was revived.

The Roswell Mill  was open during the Civil War and provided gray uniform fabrics for the Confederate troops. General William T. Sherman burned the mill and the cloth and shipped the female workers north to prison. A monument was erected in 2000. The cruelty shown to innocent women and children at that time in Roswell and elsewhere led to years of heartbreak and ill feelings between the north and the south.

The current mill was rebuilt in 1882 and ran until 1975.