of Macon.

The merchants set up their first factory for yarn production in a freight warehouse formerly used by the Central of Georgia Railway. Comer served as president and Major Hanson as secretary and treasurer. In 1878 they acquired their second mill by purchasing a former cotton factory, Macon Manufacturing Company.

Company Growth

By 1895 the Bibb Manufacturing Company employed 700 workers and consumed 20,000 bales of cotton annually. By 1898 it had acquired additional Georgia mills: Macon Knitting Company, Taylor Manufacturing near Reynolds, the Cordele Manufacturing Company, and two already established mills at Porterdale.

In 1900 Comer died, and Major Hanson succeeded him as president. That year Bibb Manufacturing purchased a dam site on the Chattahoochee River near Columbus from the Columbus Power Company. A new mill was built called theColumbus Mill; the surrounding community was named "Bibb City." In time this facility would become the largest cotton mill in the country. Another new factory opened in 1905, the Payne Mill, located in Vineville. It would be the last outside acquisition made by Bibb Manufacturing for thirty-two years. Hanson served as president until 1908. During his years with Bibb, he was also named head of both the Central of Georgia Railway and the Ocean Steamship Company.

Major Hanson was succeeded by G. Gunby Jordan of Columbus. By 1911 Bibb Manufacturing advertised itself as "one of the largest and most important enterprises in the South." At that point Bibb owned nine factories in Georgia, four of which were located in Macon. E. T. Comer, the younger brother of Hugh Comer,