Copied from Subsoldier and Democrat (Corinth, Miss.), S. G. Barr, editor, May 13, 1881.

One of the most important industries of the State is Bay Springs Factory situated in Tishomingo County and owned by Col. John M. Nelson.  It is situated about 25 miles south of Iuka and 20 miles east of Booneville.  It runs about 800 spindles, makes yarns, cotton rope, etc., also a wool-carding machine, a cotton gin, a saw and grist mill, all attached and run by water power.  There is, perhaps, no other water power in the state to equal it.  It has a sufficient head for 2,000 spindles and 40 looms and is never failing.  The stream is about 160 feet wide with a solid rock bottom and solid rock banks about 30 feet high.  It is in a cotton section.

The Bay Springs Factory is just at its beginning.  The time is near at hand when it will be one of the largest manufacturing enterprises of the South.  There is no citizen in the South more capable of demonstrating that she can be made a cotton manufacturing, as well as a cotton-growing state, than Col. Nelson.

Source:  Nabors, S. M.  History of Old Tishomingo County 1832-1940.

Contributed by Tishomingo County Historical & Genealogical Society.