The Burton Farmers Gin was established in 1914, making it the oldest operating cotton gin not just in Texas, but in the U.S.
In the 1980s, the gin was saved from demolition, and since then the Texas Cotton Gin Museum has preserved items and artifacts that are tied to the history of the fluffy, white crop. The museum gins cotton every spring during the Annual Burton Cotton Gin Festival – one of the only times it is fully running.
A displayed Blue Bell Ice Cream tub carries two pounds of cotton seed inside of the Texas Cotton Gin Museum.
Felicity Guajardo / Texas Standard
Museum Director Steph Jarvis says its real purpose is to allow visitors from across the U.S. to learn about the ginning process.
“We literally operate for history,” Jarvis said. “We operate it to keep it running because there’s not a structure that has what this one does and is the age that it is and sitting in its original spot. So every March and April we will gin cotton.”
The cotton bales the gin produces from the festival go to museums all around Texas and sometimes out of state.
“There’s one up at Bob Bullock,” Jarvis said. “That’s the goal for them. If we can find them a home where they’re talking about the cotton story and they can be used in that way, that’s really what we like.”
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The gin has a lot of moving parts to it, most notably the 1925 Bessemer oil engine that kept it running – also known as “Lady B.”
The “Lady B” engine for the Burton Farmers Cotton Gin.
Felicity Guajardo / Texas Standard
“In 1962, the Bessemer broke down and they bought four electric motors, because it needed four to run the whole thing once the Bessemer wasn’t running,” Jarvis said. “Today, that little guy just sits down there; it’s not actually running.”
Walking inside the gin is like going back in time: You can peek inside the gin manager’s office, where all the records were kept, thanks to it being saved by the locals.
“We were really lucky that when they shut the gin down in 1974, they didn’t destroy it, because typically that’s what they would do,” Jarvis said. “But some locals kind of saved the paperwork, and we now have it all over in the museum.”
When the gin shut down, conditions for cotton demand were falling, which caused less production and profit in the area. But there are still many commercial cotton gins up and running across the state.
“I think the last number that I saw with our friends from the Cotton Ginners’ Association [is] 164 gins, I think currently operating in Texas,” Jarvis said.
That’s the point of the museum: to tell the stories about Texas cotton in struggle and in strength.
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