In March 1866, The Chattahoochee Manufacturing Company was chartered for
textile manufacturing. The
cornerstone of their new plant on the river at Langdale was laid August 1,
1866. On that same day, the
cornerstone for The Alabama & Georgia Manufacturing Company plant
located further downriver at Riverview was also laid.
The manpower to drive these ventures came primarily from those who had
formerly farmed but were no longer able to effectively do so due to depleted
manpower and unsettled conditions. The opportunity for work in and wages
from the rapidly growing textile industry dramatically broadened the
economic base of the community.
These enterprises were the predecessors of what later grew into West Point
Manufacturing Company and today is known as WestPoint Stevens, and which
still remains one of the primary economic pillars of West Point.
With foresight, resourcefulness, drive and determination, the people at our
community had returned West Point and the surrounding area from the legacy
of ashes left by Colonel LaGrange. In just over a year, our efforts toward
reorganization and rebuilding had progressed to the point that West Point
was one of the first, if not the first, cities in Georgia to be relieved by
the Federal government of military control.
Source:
Variously
ascribed contributing writers to Fort Tyler history
