The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-04-08

as shown by the records of Richmond |
county. His will, duly attested and re-
corded, shows that he also owned sew
eral pieces of country property and some
negroes. He married Elizabeth Hill, OF
Columbia county, Georgia. He died in
1904, leaving widow and one daughter,
Margaret McCleary Holmes, who mar
ried Dr.. William Cloud. of Chester, S.
G. From this marriage there sprang the
following: Mrs. J. r. Aiken, Mrs. Samuel
Dubose, Mrs. Elias Earl( Mrs. R. B.
Boyleston Mrs. William Calhoun, Miss
E. r. Cloud-names that will be recog-
niZed as among the most prominent in
that arstocratic State. Mr.. John Hill
Of Macon. brother of Mrs. Hodgen
Holmes, was the grandfather of Mrs
Senator A. O. Bacon.
On May II, 1896, letters patent were
issued to Hodgen Holmes signed by
George Washington president; Timothy
Pickering, secretary of State, and Charles
Lee attorney general, for a new and
useful Improvement, to-wit: machin-
cry calle dthe cotton gin The improve
ment consisted of 1.-The cylinder, from
S to ii inches in diameter and feet
long, with one row of teeth to l inch,
which runs on two gudgeons," etc. It
was atested by w. Urquhart and Sea-
born Jones, both well-known citizens Of
Richmond county, prominent in the reyo-
tionary 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 possession
of Mrs. S A. Boyleston.
Hodgen Holiness having received his
early training in his fathers linen fac
tory, it is but natural that he should
hav 10
turing, and that the knowledge acquired
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 requirement. 1t is
/ equally natural that Whitney, schooled
/ in the calling of making nails for a
livelihood, should have hit upon the de-
vice of spikes driven into the cylinder
instead of teeth Or reyoling saws.
The patent office at Washington was
destroyed by fire in 1886 and all the
models andg drawings lost, including
! Whitney's. But for q certified copy OF
/ the original specification on file at the
1 United States court house in Saannah
there would be no data concerning them
in existence. The patent office authori-
ties appropriated 500 900 toward the re
covery of the originals, but failed to ob-
tain Whitney's.
But in 1S41 there was filed, insteal, ar
entirely different set of specifications
differing completely from the origina
and showing the complete working of
saw gin. The draughtsman that execut eC
the substituted copy was evidently ignor
ant of the modus operandi of the gin fo
he put the crank the brush shat
instead of the cylinder shaft.
There were tWenty-seven suits
brought by Miller and Whitney in tn
United States court al Savannah for in
, fringement of patent, in most of Whicl
they were unsuccessful. Among the de
, PENDANTS are found the familiar names il
the early history Georgia Tgnatius Few
and William Few, Arthur Fort and Johl
Powell. Holmes was not a party to an
OF the litigation although q certife,
copy OF his patent was introduced as evi
dence and what the defense mainly re
lied upon was the fact that Holmes; nc
Whitney, invented the saw gin. Whitne
: wrote from New Haven to Josiah Steb
bins, asking his depostions to the effec
that fourteen years before ''he (Whitney
J., repeatedly told him that he originall
, contemplated making a whole row @
teeth from the plate piece Of shee
:, iron Whteney writes in the same let
ter: Il have set Of the most deprave
+ Williams to combat and ! might as We
O go to hell in search of happiness as ap
+ ply to Georgia court for justice.
. ". B. Seabrook, president of til
South Carolina Agricultural Society, i
a work on cotton, published IN lS+
4 speaks of a Holmes saw gin used e
Il Capt James kincaid on Mill creek, nea
q Winston, Fairfield county, South Care
h lima in 1885 and says, ''it is reported t
have been the first saw gin used IN tina
v State" 1t is related that Holmes an
" Kincaid were fast friends, both beln
G Scotchmen by birth. On one occaslo
7 Kincaid chanced to visit Hamburg, OF
\ posite Augusta where he traded an
+ where he met Holmes. Holmes induce
y him to take his gin home with him an
, test its merits and at the same tin
v cautioning him to be careful lest tt
~ secret of the mechanism be discovere
n and utilized by others. When the 81
J. was set up in kincaids mill and teste
10 it was found to work SATISFACTORY
~ Shortly afterwards Kincaid had bushes
10 in Charleston and left the mill key wit
, his wife with the injunction to let no OF
=. enter it. On his return, to his gref
" CONSERVATION he learned that your
/ man on horseback had asked for and o.
J., tanned permission to inspect the mill az
-e had spent some time in examining TT
* machine. He realized instantly ths
,e the young man was no other than
Whitney and that the damage Wrougl
,e upon himself and his friend was IRE
,e parable.
te The old mill, and with it the gin, wa
IN destroyed in 1865 by Sherman's arm
at The shaft Of the mill was sent to Mace
d, to be exhibited at the first State Fa
held after the war and was in some We
J. lost
I'd There is q story told Of Whitneys
l. that cmanates from - lkes count
ct Georgia, and which bears striking r.
t. semblance to the foregoing In ~