Mott

Mott. . , Randolph Lawler Mott , Randolph and Mary Jeter Mott's first Columbus residence burned in 1856, leading to their purchase of the Calhoun-Griffin House for $20,000. The sale included all of the furnishings, household goods, wagons, carriages, and the livestock., As a Columbus investor during the 1850s, Mott became the primary owner of the Rock Island Paper Mill and the Palace (grist) Mill. He was also a major stockholder in the City Gas Company and the Coweta Falls Factory. He invested in the Muscogee railroad that gave Columbus its first rail link to the rest of the state, and then became a director in 1855., As the secessional crisis grew, Mott identified himself more and more as a Unionist, but never as an abolitionist. A large minority of white southerners opposed secession, but most of them supported the Confederacy after secession. Mott was one of the exceptions. He spoke out in favor of the Union during the war, flew an American flag inside his cupola, and boasted that his house never left the Union., When General James Wilson's Union army captured Columbus on Easter Sunday, April 16, 1865, Mott invited General Wilson to make the Union headquarters in his mansion. The next day the Federals burned most local industries, but they spared Mott's Palace Mills and its adjacent cotton warehouse. According to General Wilson, this warehouse was later burned by Nathan Bedford Forrest's troops who were trailing Wilson's army., Mott was involved in providing education for the former slaves. He was active within the Freedmen's Bureau and became a trustee of the Claflin School, the city's first school for blacks., Mott was also appointed as a trustee of the state insane asylum. While attending its board meeting in Atlanta on July 20, 1881 Mott was absent-mindedly crossing the train yard and was struck and killed by a moving train., His obituaries contained praise from his former political rivals. His funeral procession stopped at the St. John's AME Church and, with its bells tolling, the members came outside to pay their final respects to this complicated man., Despite his diversified career, he is mainly remembered because of this mansion where the Union sympathizer entertained the Yankee General.