Lombard Iron Works and Supply Company

Lombard family have figured prominently in the life and development
of Augusta. Grandfather, father, son, and grandson, all bearing the
given name of George, have operated one of the outstanding
industrial companies of the city, and each in turn has contributed
to local progress and prosperity, civic advance and the public
welfare.

George O. Lombard, grandfather of the gentleman whose name heads
this review, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, but in 1869
purchased the Forest City Iron Works and Supply Company at Augusta,
Georgia, which began operating under the trade name of George O.
Lombard and Company. He started in a very small way, for this was
shortly after the end of the War Between the States, and the means
of nearly everyone had been greatly reduced and declined still
further during the disastrous ‘reconstruction period.’
Growth for a number of years was relatively restricted, but the
concern filled a genuine need in the city and therefore had the
vitality to succeed. George O. Lombard married Frances Rowley, and
their son, George R. Lombard, was born in 1856 and lived until
April 19, 1929. He became one of the outstanding businessmen in
Georgia and brought the company to major industrial leadership in
its field. In 1894 the concern had been incorporated, and in 1914
it was rechartered as the Lombard Iron Works and Supply Company. He
served as its president until his demise. George R. and Alice
Hepzibah Lombard, were the parents of George S. Lombard, born in
Augusta, February 18, 1879.

George S. Lombard received his formal and technical education in
local public schools, the Richmond County Academy; The Citadel,
Charleston, South Carolina; Georgia Institute of Technology; and
Auburn College, Alabama. He also attended Eastman Business College,
Poughkeepsie, New York, at that time one of the best of its kind in
the United States, especially favored by Southern students. He
early became identified with the Lombard Iron Works and Supply
Company, but with the rise of the automobile, he turned his
attention to this field and for twenty years represented Ford cars,
trucks and tractors, in Augusta. After the death of his father, in
1929, George S. Lombard took over the leadership of the Lombard
Iron Works and Supply Company, of which he gradually purchased
outstanding holdings, and in 1934 reincorporated as the Lombard
Iron Works and Supply Company, thereby retaining the old name. It
is hardly necessary to point out that the corporation has a large
plant which includes foundry, machine shop, boiler works and mill
supplies, and distributes machinery, supplies, tools, over an
extensive territory. Its return tubular boilers have a particularly
fine reputation.

Like his father who was one of the foremost citizens of Augusta,
George S. Lombard has long played active roles in many phases of
the city’s life and affairs.

George S. Lombard married Alice May Clark, of Springfield,
Massachusetts, a daughter of General and Mrs. Embury P. Clark, and
they are the parents of six children.

The above article was originally printed in the American
Historical Society’s The Story of Georgia, 1938, Vol. 4,
N.Y.

Forest City Foundry and Machine Works

This article was originally published in the Augusta Chronicle
in 1878 and is included in The Handbook of Augusta: A Guide.

Augusta is fast demonstrating to the world by its factories,
machine shops and manufacturing interests that it can produce
everything necessary for the successful and prosperous advance in
every branch of industry, or in other words is illustrating by its
home manufactures its independence of the old time orders from the
North and different sections of the country. Prominent among these
experiments of our home manufactures stands the firm of George R.
Lombard and Company. The firm is one of the most substantial in the
city, Mr. Lombard being a young man of business ability and one who
gives his works his strict and undivided attention. Mr. Harman
Rowley is interested financially, and he is one of the strongest
capitalists in the state. Mr. Lombard, who manages the large
foundry and machine shops on Fenwick Street, near the Augusta
Factory, although quite a young man, is thoroughly experienced
having taken charge of the works early in 1870. At that time the
works were small and not properly fitted, and only fifteen hands
were employed. They now are among the largest and best fitted in
the South, and steady employment is offered for forty hands. The
outfit is complete and each department reflects the care and
perfect order of the proprietor. Some of the finest machinery in
the South is stored in these shops, Mr. Lombard having the largest
lathe in the city for turning pulleys, locomotive drive wheels,
etc., and the finest shafting lathe in the South. Numerous lathes
for general work, planes, shaping machines, gear cutters, for
making fine factory gear, boring and slotting machines, drill
presses and other tools all go to make up the magnificent network
of machinery daily employed in turning out every description of
iron work. In connection with the foundry is one of the finest and
largest collection of patterns in the whole country.

The iron for the foundry is brought from North Georgia, and
obtained from the Cherokee Iron Company. This ore is as good and
pure as any in the world. About 3,000 pounds of casting is done
each day, and a large cupola is used when extra large castings are
to be made. The largest casting ever made in Augusta was at this
foundry, consisting of a bed plate for the hydraulic press in the
Augusta Factory, weighing 6,000 pounds. The capacity for casting is
however over 10,000 pounds.

Everything in a mechanical way for use or ornament is turned out
in the best style, from the finest, most delicate and intricate
factory work to the heaviest railroad material. Railroad and
factory work, mill work, casting for pumps and general repairs and
iron works of every description are manufactured, while the iron
fronts and fencing cast at the Forest City Foundry are particularly
fine. More saw mill work is done here than at any shops in the
South as material is furnished and all repairs made. Gin ribs and
gear never before made in this section are manufactured and many
classes of fine work hitherto ordered from Northern shops and
foundries. Messrs. Lombard & Company keep their own stock of
bar iron, thus making the filling of orders cheaper and quicker and
obviating the extra profit charged by those who order elsewhere.
Sugar rollers and kettles, and pumps for mines and general use are
among the finest castings made, and in fact, Lombard & Company
are prepared to fill orders for anything in their line. All work
for the Augusta, Langley, Graniteville and Jewels Factories and
Port Royal Railroad, the Georgia Chemical Works and all the flour
mills in Augusta, is done at Lombard’s Foundry and Machine
Works, and orders are filled for every part of the country. These
facts show the estimation in which the shops and the proprietors
are held, and it is a matter of congratulation that Augusta has
such a worthy home enterprise as Lombard’s Foundry and Machine
Works.