This area was one of Georgia’s earliest experiences in advanced water-powered industrialization, technologically unsurpassed in the U.S. Archaeological remains of five mills, ranging from large textile factories to small grist mills, exist within a one mile section of the river. The post office for the thriving environs was Webbville in 1832, later Newton Factory in 1846, with a population of 600 by 1860. Sherman’s march through Newton County in 1864, the flood of 1881, and other economic forces shortened the post-bellum prosperity of this remarkable development.