Organized by Southern, Western, and Northeastern capitalists and chartered by the state of Indiana on 15 February 1848, the Cannelton Cotton Mills, known shortly thereafter as the Indiana Cotton Mills, was promoted as a challenge to New England's cotton mills and an experiment in inter-regional cooperation. The town of Cannelton, founded in 1835, was thought to be situated atop vast fields of bituminous coal. With inexpensive fuel to power the mill's machinery, inexpensive transportation costs provided by Ohio River steamers, and proximity to southern cotton fields, the Indiana Mills were said to possess all the resources necessary to rival the established mills in Lowell, Massachusetts. The organizers made two serious miscalculations, however. The coal seams, which were thought to be inexhaustible, proved to be extremely shallow and within 10 years were nearly depleted. Also, the amount of capital required to construct and furnish the mil! with machinery was seriously underestimated. Although such oversights soon forced the original organizers to sell the mill, It eventually achieved sound financial footing and during the decade when southern and western interests attempted to create an atmosphere of political accommodation based on sectional interests, the mill stood as proof of industrial cooperation for mutual benefit. . Indiana Cotton Mills became one of the largest producers of cotton sheeting in the West. Production began on 7 January 1851 and expanded gradually. During the first month 7000 yards of 36heavy sheeting was produced1 by the end of two years the mill produced twice that amount per day. The company consumed $100,000 worth of cotton annually, or 10% of the cotton shipped to the upper Mississippi. The principal product of the mill throughout its early history was cotton sheeting, although a cotton batting factory was added to the rear of the plant in 1853. Under various trade names: �Cannelton Sheeting, Great Western Sheeting, and �Hoosier Sheeting, a plain brown muslin was produced which sold along the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi Rivers and as far south as Memphis and New Orleans. . In 1954, the Indiana Cotton Mills was purchased by the Bemis Bag Company and discontinued textile production. Today these buildings are preserved as affordable housing, the Cotton Mill Apartments, at 310 Washington St.