Textile and Banking Pioneer

Site of the home of William H. Young (1807- 1894), a native of the State of New York who migrated to Georgia at the age of 17. Visiting the site of Columbus a year before the city was established, he made his way through the dense forest to the banks of the Chattahoochee River, watched the mass of wildly tumbling waters of the country's furthest-South waterfalls, and envisioned a great textile industry for Columbus. He was the leading spirit in the organization, and building, on that site in 1851, of the Eagle Mill, predecessor of the Eagle & Phenix Mills, textile manufacturers. He was president of the company for a period and also served as its secretary-treasurer. During the War Between the States, he served as Fiscal Agent for the Confederate States of America and equipped with his own funds a cavalry unit of which his son, Alfred I. Young, was captain. Mr. Young was one of the organizers of The Bank of Columbus, in 1856, and was its president. He was one of the organizers of The Georgia Home Insurance Company, of which he was a director.