The new firm of Brayton and Bowers received that spring of 1819 the
following letter from Kezia’s uncle, Nehemiah Wheeler.
“Respected Friend
Israel Brayton
I recollect that sometime past thou expressed a wish to git yarn
from the South to weave. (I thought he meant south of the Mason and
Dixon line, but he didn’t. He meant South of Providence). I would
now observe that I expect to go out thair soon and will probably
start next week and any business That I can doe for my friends I am
willing to use my indevors to preform.
I shall likely be at thy farther Anthony’s next first day, if
healthy, and weather permits.
In haste I remain thy friend
Nath. Wheeler.”
Israel and probably Kezia went to the Anthony Farm that Sunday, and
Israel told his wife’s uncle that he would like to git some more yarn
to weave.
Nathaniel Wheeler brought the Georgia Cotton Manufacturing Company and
Brayton and Bowers together, and very soon in Israel’s office another
ledger was being opened to show Israel’s transactions with the Georgia
Company. This Georgia Yarn Mill, it had 1000 spindles, was built on
a fall of 18 feet of water in the Woonasquatucket River, in that
well-watered land south of Providence where grist mills and fulling
mills and saw mills and snuff mills had utilized the little streams
from the earliest days of the Colony. The Village which sprang up along
the river bank, was named for the Mill, of course, and both were called
Georgia because the cotton which came up from the South to be spun in
the mill, was grown in Georgia.
In 1822, about two years after Israel had opened his first weave book
in account with the Georgia Cotton Manufacturing Company, the mill shut
down. The stream ran dry. The mill had been run by water power, of
course.
When the rains came, and they were long in coming, the mill got going
again, but Brayton and Bowers seem to have made other plans by that
time.
The office of the factory had been in Providence, and the business with
Israel had been transacted by Samuel Nightingale, as Agent. On Jan. 1,
1821, Nightingale dunned Israel for a “small quantity of yarn” unpaid
for. The office clerk who usually signed the office letters, was named
James Shaw, but the dun was sent out personally by Nightingale, himself.
The yarn of the Georgia Factory was woven by the same people who wove
the yarn from the other factories doing business with Brayton and
Bowers, as the yarn books show. But not by all of the same people. For
the amount of Georgia yarn to be spun at any one time was not large. In
the Georgia Weave books we find mostly the names of the old settlers of
Fall River.
The ruins of the stone mill still stand beside the stream in
Georgiaville.