Plantation Cotton Gin
The Coats Cotton Museum is one of the few of its kind in the United States. Phone calls and emails inquiring about our cotton museum began shortly after we built it in 2005.
The complete story of cotton from planting seeds to finished products can be found in our museum. A vintage loom, spinning wheel, a weigh horse and encased tiny boll weevil along with a mop to put poison on the cotton plants to kill the destructive boll weevils are only a few of the items on display in the cotton museum.
According to the 1911 NC Business Directory there were forty-two cotton gins in Harnett County. Nine of them were in our Coats Grove Township.
Do you recognize any of the following 1911 names listed as owners from the Grove area: Ennis and Norris, Benjamin Franklin Johnson, D.S. Bayles, D. Turlington, S.C Neighbors, W.R. Sorrell, B.F. Parrish, L.L. Turlington and Sandy Adams?
Let’s play a guessing game as to where the gins might have been located. Note -I said guessing but some of them we know for certain of the locations.
The Ennis-Norris gin was in Bailey’s Crossroads area and was owned by Willis Norris and A.D. Ennis. Museum volunteer Becky Ennis Adams is a descendant of one of those owners. Mack Hudson later operated the Grove Cotton gin at the crossroads.
My granddaddy B. F. Johnson’s gin was located on Johnson Road behind the current houses of Terry Johnson and Glen and Allison Frye.
My dad, Jonah C. Johnson, Sr., operated it and closed both the gin and sawmill after cotton was not as profitable due to boll weevil infestation and tobacco was quickly replacing cotton as the more reliable source of money.
It is interesting to note that sawmills were often near a cotton gin because scrap products from the sawmill could provide energy sources for the engines.
D.S. Bayles of Coats also was listed as the operator of a cotton gin. Could this have been located near the current intersection of Highway 27 and Bill Avery Rd.? The Bayles family once owned considerable property in that area.
Likely D. Turlington was “Debro” Turlington whose descendants -Stewart, Carl and Edward Turlington- later operated a gin near the current site of Coats Erwin Middle School.
William Richardson Sorrell’s gin was in the vicinity where Turlington and Red Hill Church Roads intersect. W.R. Sorrell’s sister Ella Sorrell married Sylvester Neighbors who also owned one of the nine gins as did the husband of his second sister, Laura Frances Sorrell, who was married to L.L. Turlington. The location of these two gins is in question.
Barty B.F. Parrish operated a gin in Coats. Some have noted he purchased the Wiggins gin after Mr. Wiggins had been killed while trying to correct a mechanical failure at the gin. This gin is remembered by the late Dan Stewart as having been on the site of our Coats Museums. It seemed fitting to have a cotton museum on that site. I might note that a gin could be relocated to a different site if so desired.
The last ginner listed in the 1911 NC Business Directory was Sandy Adams who was possibly from the Barclaysville area. No additional info could be located.
In my next column I will discuss the impact the tiny boll weevil had on cotton growers in our area.
The Coats Cotton Museum is one of the few of its kind in the United States. Phone calls and emails inquiring about our cotton museum began shortly after we built it in 2005.
The complete story of cotton from planting seeds to finished products can be found in our museum. A vintage loom, spinning wheel, a weigh horse and encased tiny boll weevil along with a mop to put poison on the cotton plants to kill the destructive boll weevils are only a few of the items on display in the cotton museum.
According to the 1911 NC Business Directory there were forty-two cotton gins in Harnett County. Nine of them were in our Coats Grove Township.
Do you recognize any of the following 1911 names listed as owners from the Grove area: Ennis and Norris, Benjamin Franklin Johnson, D.S. Bayles, D. Turlington, S.C Neighbors, W.R. Sorrell, B.F. Parrish, L.L. Turlington and Sandy Adams?
Let’s play a guessing game as to where the gins might have been located. Note -I said guessing but some of them we know for certain of the locations.
The Ennis-Norris gin was in Bailey’s Crossroads area and was owned by Willis Norris and A.D. Ennis. Museum volunteer Becky Ennis Adams is a descendant of one of those owners. Mack Hudson later operated the Grove Cotton gin at the crossroads.
My granddaddy B. F. Johnson’s gin was located on Johnson Road behind the current houses of Terry Johnson and Glen and Allison Frye.
My dad, Jonah C. Johnson, Sr., operated it and closed both the gin and sawmill after cotton was not as profitable due to boll weevil infestation and tobacco was quickly replacing cotton as the more reliable source of money.
It is interesting to note that sawmills were often near a cotton gin because scrap products from the sawmill could provide energy sources for the engines.
D.S. Bayles of Coats also was listed as the operator of a cotton gin. Could this have been located near the current intersection of Highway 27 and Bill Avery Rd.? The Bayles family once owned considerable property in that area.
Likely D. Turlington was “Debro” Turlington whose descendants -Stewart, Carl and Edward Turlington- later operated a gin near the current site of Coats Erwin Middle School.
William Richardson Sorrell’s gin was in the vicinity where Turlington and Red Hill Church Roads intersect. W.R. Sorrell’s sister Ella Sorrell married Sylvester Neighbors who also owned one of the nine gins as did the husband of his second sister, Laura Frances Sorrell, who was married to L.L. Turlington. The location of these two gins is in question.
Barty B.F. Parrish operated a gin in Coats. Some have noted he purchased the Wiggins gin after Mr. Wiggins had been killed while trying to correct a mechanical failure at the gin. This gin is remembered by the late Dan Stewart as having been on the site of our Coats Museums. It seemed fitting to have a cotton museum on that site. I might note that a gin could be relocated to a different site if so desired.
The last ginner listed in the 1911 NC Business Directory was Sandy Adams who was possibly from the Barclaysville area. No additional info could be located.
In my next column I will discuss the impact the tiny boll weevil had on cotton growers in our area.
