There were a number of wool cording mills and factories in the local area. One known as the Fant Factory and sometimes as the Florence Factory, was established in 1858 on the southwest corner of Court and Alabama Streets. Its proprietors were Charles W. Fant, Samuel Porter, George Washington Foster and Benjamin Franklin Foster. The two Fosters were brothers. Fant was married to Louisa Foster, daughter of George Washington Foster. The Fosters were planters and manufacturers, owning a number of mills throughout several North Alabama counties. The woolen factory was housed in a building that had been erected during the 1820's by Ezra Webb for his store and warehouse. The firm also built a structure over the public spring between South Court and Pine Streets for supplying water to the steam-driven machinery. Their invasion of a public water source proved to be unpopular with the citizens. This was corrected when the Memphis and Charleston Railroad announced their plans to build a depot near the south end of Court Street which would require water from this source. Thus cut off from their water supply, the Fant Factory closed its doors in 1859. Their abandoned building was used as a Confederate hospital following the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862. It was eventually torn down in 1895 to make way for the Greater Saint Paul's African Methodist Episcopal Church which was located for many years on this downtown intersection known as "Fant Corner."
In the spring of 1845 James Martin and Levi Cassity acquired the Johnson Wool Carding Mill. This early wool factory located on Cox Creek near Mars Hill, was established about 1834 by William P. Johnson. Martin and Cassity made it a part of their textile complex on Cypress Creek. In April, 1845 they ran an advertisement advising that persons bringing cotton and wool from south of the river would be allowed to cross the Florence Bridge "free of charge."
The Darby, Benham, Company Cotton Factory on Little Cypress Creek near Zip City also had equipment for carding wool. A number of women and girls were employed as weavers. One was Clarissa Adeline Fowler, daughter of Lorenzo Fowler, the nearby miller. Clarissa became the bride of Joseph C. Terrill on November 6, 1860. Another weaver was Margaret Wood, daughter of Samuel Wood. Martha Burks and Sarah Gillum were seamstresses.
George M. Bretherick's Wool Mill was located on Bretherick Creek about two miles from the Lauderdale Cotton Factory on the Shoal Creek near Happy Holow. This was the former site of the J.C.F. Wilson Saw Mill. Bretherick carded wool here for seven cents per pound, or if the customer preferred, he extracted one/fifth of the total pounds carded as a toll. Bretherick, native of England, was a former foreman at the Derby, Benham, Company Textile Mill on Little Cypress Creek.
The best known, and perhaps the largest of its kind in the area, was the Cow Pen Factory, located on Cow Pen Creek near Green Hill it was founded in 1850. In 1860 its proprietors were Isaac and Samuel Milner, Judge William Basil Wood, and John Wren. At one time or another Dr. James W. Stewart of Florence and John Spinks Kennedy of the Green Hill Kennedys were associated with this mill. Raw wool was procured from Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky. Sixty-eight men and 16 women were employed in 1860 to produce 117,600 yards of cloth using 45,000 pounds of wool and a raw material. This factory produced Confederate uniforms during the early years of the Civil War. It was burned by the Federal Army in the spring of 1863.
A number of small family-owned wool carding mills were located throughout the county. They were generally attached to a gristmill so as to use the same water-powered machinery. One such wool carding and gristmill was operated by John Scruggs McDonald in the Brandon Factory community on Little Cypress Creek during the 1870's. McDonald's brother, Thomas Anderson McDonald, operated a blacksmith shop which was a part of the same complex.
Practically every creek with any sizable flow passing over the slightest fall line had its gristmills. Mills in areas where they were no creeks used horse power for grinding corn and flour. The 1850 census listed a total of 25 gristmills in the county. Their owners usually enjoyed a certain amount of prosperity and influence in the community.
Sherwood White's Grist Mill on Second Creek in East Lauderdale County was one of the earliest. On April 21, 1825, Judge John McKinley advertised that his overshot gristmill was for sale. It was located on Sweetwater Creek near the intersection of Sweetwater Avenue and the present Patton Street. Ferdinald Sannoner's 1852 map of Florence shows Patrick Andrew's Mill on Sweetwater Creek near the present crossing of Veterans Drive. Patrick and his wife Mary purchased a large acreage extending all the way from the mouth of Sweetwater Creek to just south of the Huntsville Road. Andrews was the proprietor of the Florence Hotel.
Clopper's Grist and Saw Mills were on Cypress Creek about three miles from Florence. This firm is credited with producing the lumber for many of the early homes in Florence. In 1825 the assignees of William Schlatter advertised the sale of these mills together with 400 acres of adjoining land. This later became the site for the Cypress or Globe Cotton Mills.
Early sawmills were dependent upon waterpower as well as much physical labor. Often slaves were hired out to the local proprietors. On September 3, 1830, Wallace and Musselman advertised any quantity of sawed lumber for delivery into Florence from their sawmill on Soal Creek "at low prices and on long credit." Fifteen saw mills were listed in Lauderdale County at the time of the 1850 census.
James Sample became a wealthy man by producing bricks in early Florence. This operation, too employed "hired" slaves as well as indentured servants. Tom Brandon, a slave of James Irvine, and Randle Campbell, who belonged to Hugh Campbell, was brick makers. One of the indentured workers was the younger brother of the infamous Natchez Trace outlaw John A. Murrell.
The 1850 census lists several tanneries in the county. The largest of these was in Rawhide, which is now the town of Cloverdale. Ruins in this area indicate that Native American wee tanning hides here before the coming of the white settlers. Jonathan Paulk established his tannery here in the 1850's. These tanneries at Cloverdale were among the targets of a federal raid in 1863.
Hugh Simpson's Tan Yard was located on the old Waterloo Road near the present campus of the University of North Alabama. This operation was purchased in 1850 by a firm known as Stewart and Walston. Dr. James W. Stewart was a well-known physician. His home was on the hill near the present Dixie Avenue overlooking what is now Wildwood Park Drive near North Florence. Watson is believed to have been one of the sons of Turner Walston, an early settler in the Oakland community.
There were a number of foundries and machine shop sin the area at the beginning of the Civil War. The Wright and Rice Foundry was located at the present site of the Mars Hill Church of Christ on Cox Creek about four miles from downtown Florence. Erected in 1835 by William P. Johnson, it was purchased in 1853 by James Wright and William T. Rice. Thirty men were employed in 1860. Steam engines, saw mills, cotton gins, farm implements and industrial machinery for local textile mills were manufactured as well as various assortments of forgoings and castings. This foundry was rapidly converted into a defense plant during the Civil War, producing shells and munitions for various types of weapons. For this reason, its destruction was one of the primary missions of an invading Federal task force in May 1863.
Another early iron furnace associated with this area was the Wayne County Iron Works located just across the state line in Tennessee. Built in 1833 by Samuel Vanilier, it produced pig iron and castings that were hauled by wagons to the river port in Florence. It also supplied iron for several of the local gun factories in Lauderdale County. This operation closed down about 1837.
There wee a number of early gun factories in the county, mainly around Green Hill. The best known of these was owned by David Kennedy and his son Hiram. Jacob "Drummer Jake" Stutts of Green Hill shipped his long rifles by boat on the Tennessee River. Other smaller shops were the McDonalds, Keys, Richardsons, Davidsons, Myricks, and Higgins. Alexander Higgins later moved his small gun factory and blacksmith shop to Waterloo.
These early factories, foundries and mills made up the basic economic structure of the county. Most of them were destroyed during the terrible Civil War. However, as the South began to recover, a number were rebuilt as other new plants moved in as part of the East Florence Boon during the 1880's and 1890's.
