Early Cotton Gins Program Coming to Library On Aug. 8

The Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives invites you to an evening focused on the cotton stories and history of Fayette and Washington Counties. Steph Jarvis, director of the Texas Cotton Gin Museum, will share the history of the Burton Farmers Gin and talk about their exciting project to map local cotton gins. Come be part of this important effort to preserve the cotton history that is woven into our community.

The 1890 United States Agricultural Census recorded Fayette County as the fourth largest cotton producer in Texas with 88,208 acres of cotton. Along with all that cotton being grown, cotton gins were built every 5 to 8 miles apart keeping farmers from having to travel too far to gin their cotton.

Right across the border in Washington County, the Burton Farmers Gin served farmers from 1914 to 1974 and now lives on as part of the Texas Cotton Gin Museum. The biggest missions of the museum are to preserve these cotton stories and share them with present and future generations.

In line with that work, the museum maintains a database of Texas cotton gins from 1825 to the present day and is excited to begin the work to map the locations of gins in Fayette County. Ms. Jarvis, in connection with our local museum and archives staff, is hoping local citizens with knowledge of the local gins will attend and help map those sites.

Additionally, the Fayette Heritage Museum and Archives has a large collection of photographs of cotton gins that will be displayed, including some that have not yet been identified.

The program will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, August 8th in the meeting room at the rear of the Fayette Public Library at 855 S. Jefferson Street in La Grange. The entrance is along Franklin Street.