User:Ryan-thacker

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The Noble Brothers Foundry

James Noble and his six sons built the foundry around 1847. The brothers ordered a lathe from Pennsylvania around the same time. This massive lathe was brought by boat to Mobile, Mississippi. Here the lathe was loaded onto a river boat and sent up stream on the Coosa River. At that time, the Coosa had a waterfall, were the lath was unpacked and hauled by horse and cart to the foundry at first and Broad Street in Rome. The foundry manufactured steam boat engines, furnances, and locomotives. In 1857 the foundry completed the first locomotive built for the Rome Railroad, this was the first built below Richmond. In 1861 the production of the foundry changed from locomotives to cannons and war materials for the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis exempted the brothers from fighting, saying he had enough men to fight but not enough to make cannons. This keot the brothers off the battlefield and possiably saved their lives. The brothers also built a rifle factory, which burned down before production ever started. General William T. Sherman and his troops occupied Rome from May to November of 1864 during the Atlanta Campaign. Uncle Billy's troops used sledgehammers to dismantle the lathe with little success. The marks of the hammers are still visiable today. As the troops left Rome, they burned the foundry down with the lathe inside it. The lathe was not harmed and was used in production untill the 1960's. The Noble Brothers played a major role in rebuilding Rome after the Civil War. The brothers and their foundry were key people in the making of Rome's Clock Tower.