The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-07-07
WHO INVENTED THE COTTON GIN +?

WHO INVENTED THE COTTON GIN 2
A Rival Claim Which Disrobes the Name
OF Whitney of Its Glory.
Editor Columbia Register:
have been spending some time of late
ia a community eight or ten miles South
west of Winnsboro in Fairfield County,
and in one of the families which l have
visited story has been told me which I
think should be given to the public.
Since hearing this story I have been
gathering facts to prove its authenticity,
and can assure the reader that, as it is
here given, it has, at least, the virtue of
being true. 1t is surprise to many that
it has not been given publicity through
the press long before this.
! To Eli Whitney has indisputably been
accorded the honor o. inventing the cot
ton gin. So far as I can learn this claim
has never been publicly disputed. The
whole world has unhesitatingly taken
part in doing honor to the once penniless
student who has ever enjoyed the credit
OF having given to it one of the most
useful pieces of machinery in modern in.
vention. A glittering monument per-
petuates his fame, and if I have been
correctly informed the Whitney family
still enjoys royalty on their progenitor's
Yankee shrewdness. The world will
doubtless not stop to listen to an account
which will detract anything from the
fame of the great inventor, and Heaven
forbid that should tiuge its brightness
if it has been honestly won, but in these
days of research and inquiry things will
turn up which demand and gain our at.
tention.
During my stay in Fairfield I have
spent several weeks in the house of Cap
tain Thomas Anderson, who now owns
the old ancestral home of the Kincaid
family, one of the most prominent and
wealthy families of the State in ante bel.
lum days, and of which family Captain
Anderson is q member. His mother, a
daughter of MIR. Kincaid, is one of the
two surviving children, now over 70 years
of age, and from her lips have the &C.
count here given, which she in turn had
received from her parents. Mr.. Kincaid
WIS a Scotchman by birth, and in his
frequent visits to Hamburg, opposite
Augusta, Ga, on business, he met Mr..
Holmes, mechanic by trade and one of
his same country-a Scotchman. A mu-
tual attachmentsprung up between them,
being of the same nationality, and MIR.
Holmes taking Mr.. Kincaid into his con-
fdence showed him machine which he
had constructed somewhat on the prin-
ciple of wool burrer, which be believed
would separate cotton seed from the lint.
bIr. KiDcaid was we'll pleased with the
appearance of the new machine, and told
his friend as there was no way of testing
it in Hamburg without detection he
would take it with him to Fairfield,
where he had water power at his COM
mand, and where satisfactory trial
could be made. To this proposition Mr..
Holmes agreed, and accompanied his
friend to bis home in Fairfield County,
near Little River.
After q short while the two Scotch
friends put up the rudely-constructed gin
in the mill house of Mr.. Kincaid, which
was on Mill Creek, about ten miles from
Winnsboro. To their great satisfaction
it worked we'll, and thought of future
competence accruing from the sale of
rights of so useful machine rushed over
the mind of the poor Scotch mechanic.
1t was tried again. The cotton was
cleaned from the seed-it was success
and the greatest care now was to pro-
teet the invention or discovery from be-
ing stolen. Mr.. Holmes remarked that
young man from Georgia, Whitney by
name, had visited his shops in Hamburg
and repeatedly endeavored to see his ma
chine-had even bribed colored work.
man employed in Hamburg to tell him
something about it. But 80 far up in the
unsettled backwoods of South Carolina
they considered the little rude cotton gin
safe.
Soon after testing the machine Mr..
Kincaid went on trip to Charleston,
which, of course, at that day, was made
by private conveyance. During his alb
sence young man rode up to his gate in
Fairfield and asked Mrs. Kincaid very
politely to allow him the pleasure of see-
ing MI. Kincaid's new piece of machine
ry. The request was made in such q
courteous manner that it was granted,
aud going down to the mill the young
Ian spent nearly whole day in exam.
ining the gin and taking a model of it.
This done he returned the mill key and
set out for home.
When Mr.. Kincaid returned from the
city, among other things, his wife told
him very polite young man had been
there to look at his gin. "You didn't
allow him to see it, did you ?" he said.
"Yes," replied his lady. Raising his
hands and almost sinking in despair, he
exclaimed: "s1y wife, you have ruined
me and my friend" He knew that
Whitney had endeavored in every way to
gain access to the new machine of Mr..
Holmes, and, as he justly suspicioned
and afterwards found out, had taken ad-
vantage of his absence from home and
thus gained his end.
As consequence of Mr.. Whitney's
visit, be soon took out his patent for the
celebrated cotton gin. Mr.. Holmes at
once resolved to enter suit against him,
but being poor, was unable to employ
counsel without some money in advance.
For long time he still hoped to regain
his rightEto the valuable patent. but,
from poverty and other cares, he was
finally forced to abandon his claim to
what was justly his.
Now story like the above, coming out
after so many years, may seem too trans.
parent to receive much credit, but the
reader will please remember that the
story is by no means new one. 1t has
been carefully handed down through the
members of Mr.. Kincaid's family, two of
whom still survive; but it has never be-
fore, as / can learn, been given to the
public through the press. The simple
fact that the members of the Kincaid
| family and estate remember the story so
we'll from the lips of their father, who
considered his prospects of a huge for.