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Roswell King
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Roswell King
Roswell King (May 3, 1765 – February 15, 1844) was an American businessman, planter, slave owner, and industrialist. Together with his son, Barrington King, he founded Roswell Manufacturing Company in the Georgia Piedmont, establishing a cotton mill and industrial complex. They co-founded the town of Roswell, Georgia, inviting friends to be part of its and the mill's development in the 1830s. Roswell's family originally hailed from Delaware but later moved to Connecticut where they were among the first residents of New Haven and later Windsor. As a teen, Roswell participated in the American Revolutionary War as part of the naval resistance before moving to Georgia's low country.
King was born in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1765, the son of Timothy King, a weaver and Revolutionary naval commander, and Sarah (née Fitch) King.[citation needed] At the age of fifteen in 1780, he moved to Darien, Georgia, in the Low Country and started working.[citation needed] His early professional life included jobs as a surveyor in Glynn County and Justice of the Peace in McIntosh County.[citation needed]
King eventually became manager of Major Pierce Butler's rice and cotton plantations on Butler and St. Simons islands, Georgia, where he worked until 1820. The plantations covered hundreds of acres on each island. A total of 500 slaves worked and lived on the two plantations. King also owned a plantation and numerous slaves to work it in Darien, where he became a bank manager.
In the 1830s, King moved his family from the coast to the Piedmont area around Vickery Creek (referred to as Cedar Creek at the time), the area of the future town of Roswell. King had identified this as a good area for the construction of a cotton mill. He had the idea to combine cotton production and cotton processing at the same location. The invention of the cotton gin had made cultivation of short-staple cotton profitable in the uplands of the South. King invited planter friends James Stephens Bulloch and Archibald Smith to join him in the new enterprise.
When he moved, King transported 36 enslaved African Americans with him from his plantation and bought another 42 slaves in Darien to work on constructing the mill, infrastructure and other buildings at the new complex. The slaves likely built much of his house(s) as well. They brought Gee Chee culture from the coast to the Piedmont area.
King dammed the creek to power a cotton mill, which became fully operational by the latter half of the decade. The mill was incorporated as the Roswell Manufacturing Company by an act of the Georgia General Assembly on December 11, 1839. His son Barrington King served as the company president. Other people named in the act included John Dunwoody and James Stephens Bulloch, friends who he had invited to participate in the company and community. King was known as a master of efficiency and jack of all trades having found much success in farming, banking, and finally manufacturing in the mostly agrarian South.
After living in temporary homes for his first years in the area, Roswell King (who was recently widowed) moved into Primrose Cottage in 1839 along with his recently widowed daughter Eliza King Hand and her children. He died on February 15, 1844.
He was buried in what is now referred to as Founders' Cemetery on Sloan Street in Roswell, just to the north of the original location of the mill. Some of his personal "servants" (enslaved African Americans) were buried near him in unmarked graves.
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Roswell King
Roswell King (May 3, 1765 – February 15, 1844) was an American businessman, planter, slave owner, and industrialist. Together with his son, Barrington King, he founded Roswell Manufacturing Company in the Georgia Piedmont, establishing a cotton mill and industrial complex. They co-founded the town of Roswell, Georgia, inviting friends to be part of its and the mill's development in the 1830s. Roswell's family originally hailed from Delaware but later moved to Connecticut where they were among the first residents of New Haven and later Windsor. As a teen, Roswell participated in the American Revolutionary War as part of the naval resistance before moving to Georgia's low country.
King was born in Windsor, Connecticut, in 1765, the son of Timothy King, a weaver and Revolutionary naval commander, and Sarah (née Fitch) King.[citation needed] At the age of fifteen in 1780, he moved to Darien, Georgia, in the Low Country and started working.[citation needed] His early professional life included jobs as a surveyor in Glynn County and Justice of the Peace in McIntosh County.[citation needed]
King eventually became manager of Major Pierce Butler's rice and cotton plantations on Butler and St. Simons islands, Georgia, where he worked until 1820. The plantations covered hundreds of acres on each island. A total of 500 slaves worked and lived on the two plantations. King also owned a plantation and numerous slaves to work it in Darien, where he became a bank manager.
In the 1830s, King moved his family from the coast to the Piedmont area around Vickery Creek (referred to as Cedar Creek at the time), the area of the future town of Roswell. King had identified this as a good area for the construction of a cotton mill. He had the idea to combine cotton production and cotton processing at the same location. The invention of the cotton gin had made cultivation of short-staple cotton profitable in the uplands of the South. King invited planter friends James Stephens Bulloch and Archibald Smith to join him in the new enterprise.
When he moved, King transported 36 enslaved African Americans with him from his plantation and bought another 42 slaves in Darien to work on constructing the mill, infrastructure and other buildings at the new complex. The slaves likely built much of his house(s) as well. They brought Gee Chee culture from the coast to the Piedmont area.
King dammed the creek to power a cotton mill, which became fully operational by the latter half of the decade. The mill was incorporated as the Roswell Manufacturing Company by an act of the Georgia General Assembly on December 11, 1839. His son Barrington King served as the company president. Other people named in the act included John Dunwoody and James Stephens Bulloch, friends who he had invited to participate in the company and community. King was known as a master of efficiency and jack of all trades having found much success in farming, banking, and finally manufacturing in the mostly agrarian South.
After living in temporary homes for his first years in the area, Roswell King (who was recently widowed) moved into Primrose Cottage in 1839 along with his recently widowed daughter Eliza King Hand and her children. He died on February 15, 1844.
He was buried in what is now referred to as Founders' Cemetery on Sloan Street in Roswell, just to the north of the original location of the mill. Some of his personal "servants" (enslaved African Americans) were buried near him in unmarked graves.
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