Ira Sanborn

Ira Sanborn, a native of Concord, New Hampshire, was Decatur County’s first industrialist. Born in 1799, he came to Apalachicola, Florida about 1830 and later resettled in Quincy, Florida, where he married Susan Woodson. In 1833 they moved to Decatur County and settled on Attapulgus Creek. Using waterpower, he operated a gristmill, sawmill, tanning, cigar and shoe factories. In 1856 he opened Estahatchee Mills, which made a cotton and wool fabric called kersey. Sanborn died on a business trip to Boston in 1865 and was buried in Concord. The Estahatchee Mills buildings were razed in 1870, and today only the mill races and the outline of the pond levee remain.

Faceville, Georgia · United States