Fuller Earle Callaway
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Fuller Earle Callaway Sr. (July 15, 1870 – February 12, 1928) was an American
textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...
manufacturer who was regarded as one of the leading industrial magnates of the
Southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...
during the first decades of the 20th century.


Biography


Early years

Fuller E. Callaway was born in the county seat of
LaGrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaTroup County Troup County (, ) is a County (United States), county in the West Central Georgia, West Central region of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 69,426.US Census Bur ...
,
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
, on July 15, 1870, the son of a second-generation
Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...
minister,Gary N. Mock
"Fuller E. Callaway, LaGrange, GA,"
www.textilehistory.org/, 2009.
Rev. Abner Reeves Callaway. His mother, the former Sarah Jane Howard, died when Fuller was 8 years old.Kaye Lanning Minchew
"Callaway Family: Fuller Earle Callaway,"
''New Georgia Encyclopedia'' online, last update: Aug. 17, 2009.
He is a descendant of the family that founded the Callaway Plantation in
Washington, Georgia Washington is the county seat of Wilkes County, Georgia, United States. Under its original name, Heard's Fort, it was for a brief time during the American Revolutionary War the Georgia state capital. It is noteworthy as the place where the Co ...
. Entrepreneurial in spirit from his youth, at age 18 Callaway made use of $500 he had saved in addition to borrowed starting capital and launched a
dime store A variety store (also five and dime (historic), pound shop, or dollar store) is a retail store that sells general merchandise, such as apparel, auto parts, dry goods, toys, hardware, furniture, and a selection of groceries. It usually sells th ...
in his native LaGrange. He followed the
business model A business model describes how a Company, business organization creates, delivers, and captures value creation, value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-pub ...
established by F.W. Woolworth & Co. Callaway's venture proved successful. After expansion, his Callaway Department Store became the largest such firm in LaGrange and the flagship of a small regional chain.


Textile manufacturer

Callaway's success as a dry goods merchant provided him with capital of his own. In 1895 he invested in LaGrange's first modern textile manufacturing facility, Dixie Mills. Callaway later recalled:
It was like the measles in the South in those days. Every town wanted to build a cotton mill.... We did not have much of anything, but we got up a cotton mill; and auctioned off the directorships. Anybody that would take $5,000 worth of stock, we would make a director; and if a widow with a son had $2,000, we would make the son a bookkeeper.... A good many of the laborers took stock in it. We had a great many poor white people with the highest type of morality and religion. They could not produce cotton at five cents a pound against the negro; and these men began to move to town as cotton mill operatives.
Although the mill was originally run with managers brought to the South from
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, investors soon prevailed upon Callaway to take over the active management of the facility himself. The operation was put onto a sound footing, and Callaway cashed out his stock in the operation, determined to leave the textile business. This decision proved to be short-lived, however. In 1901, Callaway was a leading investor in a new facility, Unity Mills. Callaway worked as secretary-treasurer of the company, later known as Kex Plant, and continued to reinvest his profits over the subsequent two decades. He opened several other mills within a 100-mile radius of LaGrange. Callaway subsequently expanded his regional empire into other businesses, helping to launch such firms as the LaGrange National Bank, the LaGrange Savings Bank, Security Warehouse Company, the Callaway Development Company, and the Manchester Development Company. Callaway served as a Railroad Commissioner of Georgia from 1907 to 1909 (the predecessor to the Public Service Commission). For a time he was the president of the American Cotton Manufacturers Association. In 1919 Callaway was named by President
Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...
as one of 22 members of a blue ribbon Industrial Relations Committee. They met in October of that year in an attempt to negotiate broad agreement on wages and prices in the rapidly evolving post-
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
American economy, but were unsuccessful. It was an era of strikes in major industries as workers struggled for better wages and working conditions, while the economy was absorbing thousands of veterans returning to the work force.


Death and legacy

Fuller E. Callaway Sr. died on February 12, 1928, at his home,
Hills and Dales Estate Hills and Dales Estate is the home built for textile magnate Fuller Earle Callaway and his wife Ida Cason Callaway completed in 1916 in Lagrange, Georgia. The property includes the pre-Civil War Ferrell Gardens started by Nancy Ferrell in 1 ...
in
LaGrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaGeorgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
. One son, Fuller E. Callaway Jr., would later become the CEO of Callaway Mills. Callaway Plaza on the campus of the
Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public university, public research university and Institute of technology (United States), institute of technology in Atlanta, ...
is named after him. The other son, Cason Jewell Callaway, founded
Callaway Gardens Callaway Resort & Gardens is a resort complex located near Pine Mountain, Harris County, Georgia, Pine Mountain in Harris County, Georgia, from LaGrange, Georgia. The world's largest azalea garden, this destination draws over 750,000 visitors a ...
.


Footnotes


Further reading

* Helen Christine Bennett, "The Homely Wisdom of Fuller E. Callaway," ''American Magazine,'' October 1920. * Alice Hand Callaway and Forrest Clark Johnson III, ''Family Gleanings: A Collection of History and Heritage.'' LaGrange, GA: privately printed, 1997. * Arthur B. Edge, ''Fuller E. Callaway, 1870-1928, Founder of Callaway Mills.'' New York: Newcomen Society, 1954. * Donna Jean Whitley, ''Fuller E. Callaway and Textile Mill Development in LaGrange, 1895-1920.'' Ph.D. dissertation. Emory University, 1984. * Samuel Taylor Geer, "Callaways of Western Wilkes County, Georgia: Ancestors, Descendants, and Allied Families of John and Bethany Arnold Callaway." Baltimore: Gateway Press, 2007. * Buckner F. Melton Jr. and Carol Willcox Melton, "Fuller E. Callaway: Portrait of New South Citizen." Winston-Salem: Looking Glass Books, Inc., 2015. {{DEFAULTSORT:Callaway, Fuller Earle 1870 births 1928 deaths American company founders Progressive Era in the United States People from LaGrange, Georgia Callaway family