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Jacob Elsas and the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mill

Jacob Elsas and the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mill is a Georgia historical marker in in Atlanta., Fulton County, dedicated 2023.

At the Carroll Street gate of Fulton Cotton Mill Lofts, 170 Boulevard SE, in Atlanta.

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Born in 1842, Jacob Elsas settled in Ohio in 1861 from Württemberg during a wave of European-Jewish immigration. In 1865, Elsas moved to Cartersville, Georgia, opening a trading store. Recognizing a shortage in manufactured bags, Elsas relocated to Atlanta, establishing what became Fulton Bag & Cotton Mills. The Atlanta-based mill offered millworkers housing and welfare services. Unlike his contemporaries, Elsas employed both Black men and women, leading to the Strike of 1897, when White workers demanded Elsas fire twenty Black women. A strike in 1914-1915 over working conditions was one of the longest in US history and brought national scrutiny to Southern labor practices. Jacob Elsas helped establish the Georgia Institute of Technology and Grady Hospital. He died in 1932 and was buried in Oakland Cemetery. All operations at this location permanently ceased in 1981.

TodayHistorical map

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1831 · Georgia. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1838 · Georgia (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1842 · Georgia. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1845 · Georgia (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1874 · Military Operations of the Atlanta Campaign. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Georgia, 1842, covering the location of Jacob Elsas and the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mill, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Georgia, 1842, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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This historical marker is part of the Georgia Historical Marker Program and was erected by the Georgia Historical Society. Marker texts and locations come from the Society's own marker database.

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