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Soulé Steam Feed Works is a historic business founded in Meridian, Mississippi in 1891 by George Soulé. The complex was listed as a contributing property to Union Station Historic District, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 under the Meridian Multiple Resource Area (MRA). It was listed as a Mississippi Landmark in 2003. The business, known for its many patented innovations in steam engine technology, reached its height around the turn of the century, producing products that were sold around the world. In 2003, the Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum obtained the lease to the complex and has operated there since. The city holds an annual Soulé Live Steam Festival at the complex attracting thousands of people from around the nation. ==George Soulé== George Wilberforce Soulé, founder of Soulé Steam Feed Works, was born in Buffalo, New York in 1849. He was a descendant of another George Soule who came to America on the Mayflower. At the age of one, he and his father, Isaac, moved to Wisconsin. When young George was 20 years old, his father died, and he decided to leave the family farm and pursue his own livelihood. Despite having obtained less than one year of formal education, he served as a school teacher for one three-month term before heading south to end up in Morton, Mississippi, in 1875. He had originally missed a ship to Cuba, but stayed at several businesses in Morton and Shubuta, Mississippi, before moving his operations to Meridian in 1879. Businesses operated by Soulé upon entering Meridian included a turpentine company, a lumber company, a cotton gin, and a manufacturer's representative.〔 Before he moved to Meridian, he was involved in a railroad accident in March 1876 in which he lost his left leg and four toes of his right foot.〔 Soulé founded two other companies before Steam Feed Works, the Southern Standard Cotton Press Company and the Progress Manufacturing Company.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Fact Sheet )〕 Short of money after his railroad accident, he decided to build his own cotton press for his fledgling cotton gin. The invention was simpler and less expensive than those on the market and attracted wide attention. Soulé called his invention the Southern Standard Cotton Press and founded the company around this machine. In 1881, two years after he moved the business to Meridian, the company sold 750 cotton presses all over the South.〔 In 1886, Soulé sold the Southern Standard Press after founding Progress Manufacturing in 1894, and invented the Ideal Hay-Press for use in the new company.〔 This new business was located on 5th Street between 26th and 27th Avenues and grew to include a foundry and machine shop. Looking to invent more, he turned over active management to Progress Manufacturing in 1888 and began working on a small rotary engine.〔 He sold Progress Manufacturing in 1891 and established Steam Feed Works. The business was incorporated in 1893.〔 In total, Soulé patented over 40 items during his lifetime,〔 including the Success Cotton Seed Huller and an improved version of the sugar mill.〔 In 1902, when the new Steam Feed Works had become well-established, Soulé found a country home in Santa Rosa County, Florida. He began to turn much of the company over to his son, Clyde, and spent more of his time in Florida, before returning to Meridian in 1917, where he stayed until his death on December 21, 1922. During his life he had two wives – Olivia Sherman Warren in 1873 and Constance Gara in 1907, two years after his former wife's death – and nine children.〔 One of his grand children, also named George Soulé, was an influential R&B songwriter in the 1960s and 70s. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Soulé Steam Feed Works」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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