BUSINESS TRENDS

BUSINESS TRENDS

By John Harvey

Last week we began a look back at some ideas for businesses that had either some success or were thought to be good ideas at the time of their inception but didn't work out.

In 1902, the Monticello Cotton Oil Company was organized and put into business within six months. Located on a lot on South Warren Street with a railroad siding, it used a process in which cotton seeds were "toasted" until the oil rose to the surface of the seed and was then drained off. The original capacity of the plant was twenty tons of oil a day.

For its time, this was quite a successful enterprise. After operating for a number of years, the mill was bought by the Southern Cotton Oil Company, who operated it for a few years before going out of business in the county. Failure of the business was due to a number of reasons, primarily, the decline of cotton in the county.

Other reasons were that mills were located in Madison, Covington, Forsyth and Macon which further reduced the availability of seed. About 1935 the mill was converted to can pimentos and in the early 1950's it was converted to can fruit brought in by the railroad from Florida. In the early 1960's it was converted into a feed mill. In the 1970's the buildings were torn down and the property converted to house lots.

Recent suggestions by the State Department of Transportation to run a commute rail line from Atlanta to Macon with the possibility of eventually extending it to Savannah, brought to mind the attempt to organize just such a line by local citizens in the early 1950'.s

Maps for the proposed line by the DOT. looked like facsimiles of the locally proposed line. The proposal known as the Southeastern Railroad would have had Monticello as the first major stop out of Atlanta, with a station in the vicinity of the present Phillips Industries plant. After a hearing before the Public Service commission in which no decision was made because incomplete plans were submitted, the proposal slowly died.

There have been a number of other ideas proposed which seemed to be good one at the time.

In the 1920's there were the cheese factories that were put into operation by farmers in the county. In the 19050's there was the milk products plant proposed by dairymen. There was also the plant for making and assembling farm machinery in the years after World War I. This was located on Madison Street.

You can be sure that there will be others, but they will need the right combination of ideas, capital, land and enthusiasm to make them work.

Additional Comments:
Transcribed by Suzanne Forte (suzanneforte@bellsouth.net) April 2005, from copies of articles contained in the Monticello News. There articles were prepared by Mr.
John Harvey and published in this newspaper during the 1970's and 1980's time frame. Some were under the title "Jasper Reflections", others "Bicentennial Bits".
Permission has been granted by Mr. Harvey for use of these very valuable and informative articles.

Copies of articles provided by Benny Hawthorne.