The business, known for its many patented innovations in steam engine technology, reached its height around the turn of the 20th century, producing products that were sold around the world.

The museum hosts an annual Soulé Live Steam Festival at the complex attracting thousands of people from around the nation.

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.

[5] 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.

[5] 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.

Looking to invent more, he turned over active management to Progress Manufacturing in 1888 and began working on a small rotary engine.

[1] In total, Soulé patented over 40 items during his lifetime,[6] including the Success Cotton Seed Huller and an improved version of the sugar mill.

[1] 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.

[citation needed] Soulé Steam Feed Works was originally located at the corner of 25th Avenue and 5th Street.

After the building was devastated by fire, George Soulé bought it and turned it into a machine shop, assembly area, and office for the up-and-coming business, which would later relocate there.

[7] In October 1907 when the second building was built, Soulé employed 23 people in the foundry department and 23 machinists, making 46 total employees.

Employees were paid an average of 50 to 70 cents per hour – the highest paying jobs in Meridian at the time – and the foreman and supervisors would receive a weekly cash stipend of $7–9.

[7] Other countries in which the engine was sold include South Africa, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, the Philippines, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand, Peru, Venezuela, and Colombia.

[9] A Watts-Campbell Corliss steam engine, built in 1905, had been offered to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., but they already had one, so it was given to the Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum and installed during that year.

[11] Alabama Art Casting has held annual molten iron pours at Soule until recent years.