The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1902-04-03

Holmes, who married DIR. Williar
Cloud, If Chester, S. q. From thi
marriage there sprang the following
Mrs. j. r.. Aiken, Mrs. Samuel Du
bose, Mrs. Elias Earle, Mrs. r.. II
Boyleston, Mrs. William Calhoun
Miss e. II. Cloud-names that will
be recognized as among the mos
prominent in that aristocratic State
Mr.. John Hill, of Macon, brother o
Mrs. Hodgen Holmes, was the grand
father of Mrs. Senator A. o. Bacon.
On May IL, 1916, letters palent wer
issued to Hod8en Holmes, signed b,
George Washington, President; Timo
thy Pickering, Secretary of State, ant
Charles Lee, Attorney General, "for 6
new and useful Improvement, to-wlt
ew machinery called the cotton GIN
The improvement consisted Of {" thu
cylinder, from TO Ia inches in diane
ter, and feet long, with one row o.
teeth to l inch, which runs on two
gudgeons," etc. 1t was attested b,
w. Urquhart and Seaborn Jones, botf
well-known citizens of Richmond
County, prominent in the Revolution
ary period, and men whose numerous
descendants stand high in the affairs
of the State TO this day. This patent is
still in existence and is in the posses.
sion of Mrs. S. A. Boyleston.
Hodgen Holmes, having received his
early training in his fathers linen fac
tory, it is but natural that he should
have acquired taste for textile man
ufacturing, AMI that the knowledge &C
quired from the manipulation of the
fiber or flax should have suggested the
idea Of the saw gin, the machine which
fulfilled the South's greatest require.
ment. 1t is equally natural that Whit
ney, schpoled III the calling of making
nails for a livelihood should have hit
upon the device of spikes driven into
the cylinder instead of teeth or reyolv-
ing saws.
The patent office at Washington was
destroyed by fire III 1886 and all the
models AMI drawings lost, including
Whitney's. But for certified copy of
The original specification on file at the
United States court house in, Savan-
nah, there would be no data concern.
ing them in existence. The patent
office authorities appropriated $780,.
600 toward the recovery of the origi-
nails, but failed to obtain Whitney's.
But in lS4l there was filed, instead,
an entirely different set of specifica-
tions, differing completely from the
original and showing the complete
workings of saw gin. The draughts-
man that executed the substituted
copy was evidently ignorant of the
modus operandi of the gin for he put
the crank OH the brush shaft instead
of the cylinder shaft.
There were twenty-seven suits
brought by Miller and Whitney in the
United States court ut Savannah for
infringement Of patent, in most of
which they were unsuccessful. Among
the defendants are found the familiar
names in the early history of Georgia,
Ignatius Few and William Few, Ar
thur Fort and John Powell. Holmes
was not party to any of the litiga.
tion, although certified copy of his
patent was introduced as evidence,
and what the defense mainly relied
upon was the fact that Holmes, not
Whitney, invented the saw gin. Whit
ney wrote from New Haven to JOSIAH
Stcbbins, asking his dispositions to the
effect that fourteen years before "he
(Whitney) repeatedly told him that he
originally contemplated making a
whole row of teeth from one plate or
piece of sheet IRON" Whitney writes
IN the same letter: "I have set of
the most depraved Williams TO combat
and l might as well go to hell in search
of happiness as apply to Georgia
court for Justice"
w. b. Seabrook, president of the
South Carolina Agricultural Society, in
work on cotton, published in 1914,
speaks of Holmes saw gin used by Cap
tain James Kincaid on Mill creek, near
Winnsboro, Fairfield County, South
Carolina, in 1906, and says "it is re-
ported to have been the first saw GIN
used in that State" 1t is related that
Holmes and Klncaid were fast friends,
both being Scotchmen by birth. On
one occasion Kincaid chanced 10 visit
Hamburg, opposite Augusta, where he
traded, and where he met Holmes.
Holmes induced him to take bis gin
home with him and test its merits and
at the same time cautlonining him to
be careful lest the secret of the me-
chanism be discovered and utilized by
others. When the gin was set up in
Kincald's mill and tested it was found
TO work satisfactorily. Shortly after
wards Kincald had business in Char
lesion and left the mill key with his
wife with the injunction to let no one
enter it. On his return, to his great
CONSERVATION, ho learned that young
man on horseback had asked for and
obtained permission TO inspect the mill
and had spent some time in examining
the new machine. He realized in
stantly that the young man was no
other than Iii Whitney and that the
damage wrought upon himself and his
friend was irreparable.
The old mill, and with it the gin, was
destroyed in 1865 by Sherman's army.
The shaft of the gin was sent to Ma.
con to be exhibited at the first State
fair held after the war, and was in
some way lost.
There Is story told of Wlitney's
gin that emanates from Wilkes Coun-
ty, Georgia, and which bears strik.
ing resemblance to the foregoing. In
1893 Phineas Miller purchased plan.
tation on Upton creek, nine miles south
cast from Washington, on which there
IN a line water power, and set up one
of the Whitney gins. Many witnesses
were attracted thither TO witness the
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