The New International Encyclopædia/Columbus (Georgia)

COLUM′BUS. A city and county-seat of Muscogee County, Georgia, 135 miles southwest of Atlanta, at the head of navigation on the Chattahoochee River and on the Central of Georgia, the Southern, and the Seaboard Air Line railroads (Map: Georgia, B 3). The city, from its important manufactures called the ‘Lowell of the South,’ is the centre of a fertile agricultural region, and has vast water-power, the river having at that place a fall of 120 feet in three miles. The trade with adjoining States is extensive. Columbus receives annually 150,000 bales of cotton, and its manufactures of cotton goods are correspondingly large. It has also foundries and machine-shops, cottonseed-oil mills, refineries, barrel-factories, etc. There is a public library, besides one, the Eagle and Phenix, for mill operatives. The government is administered under a charter of 1890 by a mayor, elected for two years, and a city council whose members are elected on a general ticket. The executive has the power of appointment only in standing committees; all other officials are chosen by the council. Population, in 1890, 17,303; in 1900, 17,604.

Columbus was laid out in 1828 and incorporated in 1829. During the Civil War it was an important Confederate depot of supplies and was only surpassed by Richmond in the quantity of manufactured articles furnished to the Confederate Army. It was captured by Federal forces April 16, 1865.