The beginnings of the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills can be traced to Atlanta in 1868, when
Jacob Elsas, an
immigrant of German Jewish descent who had recently arrived in Atlanta from
Cincinnati, began work in the city in the rag, paper, and hide business. Elsas soon recognized the need of his and other area businesses for cloth and paper containers to house their goods. Within two or three years Elsas had switched to the new business of manufacturing cloth and paper bags and had joined forces with fellow German Jewish immigrant Isaac May. In January 1872, the new company became known as
Elsas, May and Company. Located in the former Atlanta
slave market house, the company expanded during the 1870s; by the end of the decade, the firm consisted of a bleachery, print shop, and bag mill, and it employed between 100 and 160 workers, including women and
children.
Construction on the current site After receiving financial backing from Cincinnati banker
Lewis Seasongood, the company began construction of a new complex of buildings on the south side of the Georgia Railroad line, east of downtown. By 1881 the company had become known as the
Fulton Cotton Spinning Company, adding a bag factory to the new site in 1882. By the end of the 1880s the partnership between Jacob Elsas and Isaac May had discontinued. One part of the company evolved into the Elsas, May Paper Company and the other, led by Jacob Elsas and incorporated in 1889, became the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill Company. Within a few years it had outgrown the capacity of the existing buildings, resulting in the construction of a second mill on the Atlanta site in 1895, with more than 40,000 spindles. A third mill added 50,000 additional spindles by 1907. In addition, a neighboring village with housing for the mill workers was well established by the turn of the twentieth century. Bag plants in
New Orleans and
St. Louis were bought during the 1890s, and mills in
New York and
Dallas began operation in the early years of the twentieth century. Additional plants in
Minneapolis and
Kansas City were established during and after
World War I, and a plant in
Denver was added in 1945, at the end of
World War II. Expansion of the Atlanta plant also continued throughout the first half of the twentieth century: offices, two picker buildings, and several warehouses were constructed during these years, and the Jacob Elsas Clinic and Nursery was established in the early 1940s.
Labor strikes Despite the early prosperity of the Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills, the company was troubled by periods of labor unrest. A wage dispute resulted in a two-day strike in November 1885. A second brief strike occurred in August 1897, when white workers protested the hiring of 25 black women. The 1897 strike was settled after five days. A lengthier strike began in 1914, triggered by management's disapproval of the growing efforts among the workers to join the
United Textile Workers. Besides the issue of unionization, the strikers demanded an increase in wages, a 54-hour work week, and a decrease in the use of child labor. The strike gained national attention when the newly formed U.S.
Commission on Industrial Relations sent representatives to Atlanta to gather testimonies in March 1915. The strike ultimately failed in May 1915. == The Elsas family ==