Cotton gins in Cass County
Cotton gins helped to make cotton the chief crop in Cass County for nearly a hundred years, and most of the people depended, directly or indirectly, upon cotton for their main source of income.
Some of the early settlers had spinning wheels on which they spun thread from cotton fibers and wove it into cloth. Within a few years, factory made cloth replaced the homespun type, but cotton crops and gins continued their strong influence upon the economy for a long, long time.
Farmers planted acres of cotton seed in rows each spring as soon as the ground became warm enough to permit germination. They cultivated the plants until the cotton was ready for harvest in the late summer or early fall. Then it was handpicked from the dry burrs on the stalks, put into a big cloth sack until it became full enough to be weighed and emptied into a wagon. When the wagon had twelve or fifteen hundred pounds of the white, fluffy seed cotton, the farmer took it to a gin, usually in the same community, because horse or mule teams had difficulty pulling the loaded wagons over the rough roads and hills.
Cotton gins are machines that separate cotton fibers (also called lint) from the seed and press the lint cotton into bales weighing an average of 500 pounds for transportation to factories.
EH Whitney is given credit for inventing the first cotton gin in 1793 although recently found records show others may have actually preceded Whitney’s invention. His cotton gin consisted of two wooden rollers fixed into a frame and revolved in contact. Various types of gins have been introduced since Whitney invented his, but all of them use the same principle as the Whitney gin. The modern gins with electrical and jet powered operations are much faster and more inclusive. Primitive gins produced about five pounds of lint cotton per day. Modern gins produce thousands of pounds daily.
Cass County gins kept pace with improvements and when the last gin in this county ceased operations in the year 1966, its production compared favorably with gins in other counties and states. Mr. Walter Draper at Queen City owned and operated that gin from 1926 until 1966.
Allen Cox built and operated the first gin in Cass County about 1838. It was a horse or mule drawn type on the Cox farm a few miles east of present-day Hughes Springs.
Another early type, the water gin, was operated by means of a large water wheel that generated power for the machinery. Harrison Fuller owned and operated a water gin. He dammed up a large pond on the upper reaches of a tributary of Flat Creek. (The tributary later was named Mill Creek, also the community.) From the pond Mr. Fuller dug a ditch a mile long on the edge of a hill to get enough elevation for a waterfall to run a water wheel that generated power for his gin and gristmill. Mr. Fuller operated this “one-stand” gin for many years, ginning two bales of cotton per day. As the demand for ginning grew, the water wheel was discarded and an upright steam engine that could gin three times as much cotton was installed. This gin was operated until Mr. Fuller’s death in 1898 and the estate was divided. The boiler and gin stand were sold to Mr. Pillie Perser who moved them to his farm and continued to operate them for years.
Cleophus Hammock, who came to Cass County during reconstruction days after the Civil War, owned and operated a horse drawn gin in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The structure for Mr. Hammock’s first gin was built approximately ten feet above ground. The cotton gin stand was located on this floor, and the seed cotton was also stored on this same floor. On the ground below, machinery generated the power for operation. This machinery consisted of a long horizontal strip of wood or metal turning or moving in circular fashion around an axis (fulcrum), and a line-shaft (a bar that transmits power). A team of two horses or mules hitched to each end of the long horizontal strip were driven around and around to move the strip in the circular manner. This generated the power that was transmitted by the line-shaft to the gin stand and the press.
During the process of ginning, seed cotton was poured from a large basket into a hopper above the gin stand. A man at the hopper (a container) fed the cotton by hand into the saws — being careful not to touch the saws lest he mangle his arms. The large baskets were made of thin strips of plaited wood. Mrs. Annie Humphrey of Linden recalls filling baskets for her father Mr. Hammock, during the last year of operation when she was very young.
Improved types of gins replaced most the primitive ones. First came the steam-operated models, later the gas, electric, and diesel. Hand feeding and other manual operations were eliminated.
Improvements made on the gin belonging to the late W. E. Draper furnish interesting information, typical of the progress made by modern gins in Cass County. He began operating in 1926 on a four-stand Munger with 70 saws and a 6-cylinder engine powered by steam. He ginned 35 to 40 bales a day on that gin. In 1935, Mr. Draper changed to a Hardwick-Etter stand with SO saws, and from the 6-cylinder steam engine to a Leroy engine powered by natural gas. He could gin 50 to 60 bales per day.
In 1942, Mr. Draper installed four Mitchell cleaning feeders, and a 15-foot drier to dry the cotton. Six years later (in 1948) he installed a 14-foot burr machine for removal of cotton burrs which came with cotton that had been harvested with mechanical pickers. He also changed to an 8-cylinder engine but continued to operate with natural gas. Seed scales were added for weighing the seed removed from the cotton.
During the early 1950’s a machine that removed sticks and green leaves was added. Seed sterilizers were put into operation to eradicate Pink Boll worms. Special additions in the early 1960’s included two moss-lint cleaners and a 22 foot drier. After cotton was dried and ginned, the lint was carried through the most-lint cleaner for removing any trash that remained. A green boll and rock catcher machine prevented bolls and rocks from going into the gin stands. Automatic scales for weighing seed replaced the old type scales. Electric motors operated much of the extra machinery. Six electric motors were required to pull the two moss-lint cleaners.
During the forty years that Mr. Draper operated, he ginned cotton from a large area that included Cass, Bowie and Marion counties in Texas, and the adjoining or nearby states of Arkansas and Louisiana. In 1966, he ginned more than 2,000 bales, however that was much less than he ginned in 1955 which was 4,345 bales using his 90-saw stand. The decreased number of bales in 1966 was caused by the decreased acreage of cotton on farms.