The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1894-01-17
ghe ggerala ana Nelrs.
INTERESTING READING.
Some Bits of the History of Cotton Culture
. in South Carolina.
From the Cotton Plant

Cotton was early sold in Charleston.
The packages in which it was pat up
varied in weight from one to thirty
pounds. In 1857 the feecy staple was
taken to the City by the Sea from
Orangeburg, Newberry, and, perhaps,
from Union, and sold at two pence a
pound to the merchants. who resold it,
mainly to the ladies to make 'patch-
work bed quilts" About the year
named two or three bags, each weigh
ing near hundred pounds of seed cot
ton, were packed in the store of Wads-
worth & Turpin by Samue! Maverick
and jeffrey, half blood Indian. This
Maverick, by the way, claimed to be
the first person that made sugar in
South Carolina. About the year 1900
he planted some ribbon cane, purchased
in the HAVANA, in his lot to the east
Of the preseat orphan house. It yield
ed 800 pounds. The cane was pounded
in a mortar and the juice boiled in iron
pots.)
These bags were sent to England as
. sample and an experiment. The
parties to whom they were sent wrote
that the article was not worth produc-
ing, as it could not be separated from
the seed.
In 1874 DR.. James Otis Prentiss
planted cotton for market near Orange
burg Court House. Eitherin that year
or the next Col. William Thomas, the
Revolutionary soldier, planted cotton
to sell at Bellville, in st. Matthew's
parish. In 1886 cultivators of this crop
appeared in several parts OF the State.
Among them was Samuel Fielder, of
Of Orangeburg. John Mayrsnt and As
bury Sylvester first grew cotton in the
high hills OF Santee in the year 179S.
A year later Cen. Wade Hampton IN
troduced the plant into Rich!and Dis
trict, gathering over GOO bags from 800
acres.
Gen. Hampton was the first man in
South Carolina to use water as the
propelling power of Whitney's cotton
gin. Fifty years ago Col. Wade Hamp-
ton wrote Whitemarsh B. Seabrook:
"When Whitney's gin was exhibited
in Georgia none but women were per-
mitted to enter the room. An ioge-
nious young mechanic at length intro
duced himself into the apartment in
woman's apparel, and, by aminute ex-
animation Of the machine, satisfied
himself that he could not only initiate
but improve on its construction by
making it more efficient. This discov-
cry was communicated to my father
by Gen. Gun, who spoke so confidently
of the capacity of this Individual that
my father was induced to visit him at
his residence in Georgia. This visit |
resulted in contract for three gins, |
applicable TO large scale Of operations |
and they were unquestionably the first |
ever driven by water power"
It has been written that Gen. Hamp-
toms gins were furnished by an inge-
nious artisan of Georgia, assisted by
William Munson, of Richland. These
gins were roughly constructed, still |!
they were models for others made in |
1901 by William Munson and James
Roatwright, of Columbia. These were
the first of the new machines of home |
manufacture. Gen. Hampton was not,
however, the first to use the Whitney |
gin in South Carolina. Capt. James
Kinkaid, OF Fairfield, put up one near
Monticello in 1895.
How to dispose of the cotton seed was
8 perplexing problem to some OF the
early spinners. It was considered
worthless and carelessly thrown OF the
ground like sawdust. The hogs ate
the seed and died. Then it was put up
in pens like shucks. The pigs got the
seed out throuG b the cracks and soon
went the way of their elders. AS a
last resort snd hoping to get rid of the
nuisance" the seed was dumped into
the creeks, but in time of low water
an odor was generated which was so
offensive as to create strong feeling of
prejudice against the further culture Of
the crop.
The fear Of "overproduction" is no
new thing. Ninety years ago an opin-
ion prevailed that the supply of cotton
would soon exceed the demand. A
planter of st. Johns, Colleton, looking
at his first crop, the produce of a few
acres, after it had been housed, ex-
claimed: "Well, well, I am done with
The cultivation of cotton! Here is
enough to make stockings for all the
people in America"
These items, Mr.. Editor and kind
reader, are taken from an essay on the
'otton plant, written two score and ten ,
years ago, by an Edisto Island planter,