Mornings on Maple Street

a collection of articles, stories, photographs, the Lewis Hine Project, and much more by Joe Manning

  • About Joe Manning
  • North Adams, Massachusetts
    • NORTH ADAMS ARTICLES
    • North Adams Photos
    • North Adams Books
    • NORTH ADAMS TOURS AND PRESENTATIONS
  • Articles, Stories & Poems
    • NORTH ADAMS ARTICLES
    • DINERS, CAFES & SMALL TOWNS
    • BASEBALL, MUSIC, RADIO & MORE
    • PERSONAL STORIES & COMMENTARY
    • Poems
    • 25 WORDS OR LESS
  • Lewis Hine Project
  • Old Photos Project
  • OLD NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
  • Photo Gallery
  • BOOKS & CDs
You are here: Home / LEWIS HINE PROJECT / Catherine Young & Family, Chapter Two: Tifton Cotton Mills

Catherine Young & Family, Chapter Two: Tifton Cotton Mills

Henry Harding Tift, owner of Tifton Cotton Mills. Courtesy of Coastal Plain Experiment Station.
Henry Harding Tift, owner of Tifton Cotton Mills. Courtesy of Coastal Plain Experiment Station.

In order to understand the plight of the Young family, it is important to learn more about Tifton Cotton Mills and the child labor situation at the time.

According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, Henry Harding Tift was born in Mystic, Connecticut, on March 16, 1841. After graduating from Greenwich (Conn.) Academy in 1859, he apprenticed as a machinist and worked as a steamship engineer on a shipping line between New York and the Gulf Coast. In 1870, he became general manager of a manufacturing company in Albany, Georgia, which was owned by his uncles, Nelson and Asa Tift.

Several years later, he bought a large tract of land in Berrien County, Georgia, and built a saw mill and a village for his workers. He eventually expanded his operations to include the manufacture of turpentine and barrels. The development of the railroad eventually resulted in his village becoming a boom town. In 1872, the village was incorporated as Tifton. In 1900, he established Tifton Cotton Mills; and five years later, Tifton became the seat of newly formed Tift County. He died on February 4, 1922, and is buried in Mystic.

 

Old postcard courtesy of John Johnson.
Old postcard courtesy of John Johnson.

 

Former Tifton Cotton Mills. Photo by John Johnson, spring of 2011.
Former Tifton Cotton Mills. Photo by John Johnson, spring of 2011.

 

From Google Maps (2011), location of former Tifton Cotton Mills (red "A"),
From Google Maps (2011), location of former Tifton Cotton Mills (red “A”),

According to John Johnson, curator of Agrirama Museum in Tifton, company-built, single-story duplex houses for the workers were located on Goff St, 2nd St, Rt 82, Ship St, Armour St, Robin St, Quince St, Jay Flowers Rd, Sunnybrook Ave, and Shady Ln (in circled area). They were torn down in the 1990s. The mill, currently vacant, is located at 900 Avondale Avenue. The Tift family sold it in 1928. The most recent owner was Avondale Mills.

Atlanta Constitution, September 26, 1901.
Atlanta Constitution, September 26, 1901.

Chapter Three: Child labor in Georgia, followed by the story of the Young family

Filed Under: LEWIS HINE PROJECT

This website, and all of its contents, except where noted, is copyrighted by, and is the sole property of Joe Manning (aka Joseph H. Manning), of Florence, Massachusetts. None of the contents of this website may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including copying, recording, downloading, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Joe Manning, or his rightful heirs or assignees.

Contact Joe

joe@sevensteeples.com

Search

Copyright © 2023 All rights reserved. Mornings on Maple Street joe@sevensteeples.com

Website development by: Brainspiral Technologies Log in