Dr. A. R. Kilpatrick describes the cotton grown in Sicily Island in the early to mid-1800s:
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| Black Seeds from Cotton |
Up to about 1810, the 'black seed' cotton was the only kind raised here, or, in fact, any where in our country.
A person could not pick more than one hundred pounds of the 'black seed' cotton; it grew very large on the rich lands, and the bolls were apt to rot before opening; and besides all, the yield of lint was very small to the amount of gross weight.
The common way of planting them was in checkers, or hills, about four feet one way, and a foot and a half or two feet the other, and even then the limbs would interlock.
After this date, the Tennessee 'green seed' came into use, even though it was harder to pick than the 'black seed', and also harder to gin on the roller, or saw gin either, it was more productive. The cotton grown on the rich bluff lands of Sicily Island was as good an any in the world.
In early times it was a very common, in fact, the prevailing practice, for heads of families to make the children all assemble around the fireplace at night; and each one had his task to do of picking out the seeds of the cotton for the purpose of getting it to spin, as this kind was much better to spin than that which ran through the roller gin, or even the saw gin of more moderate date. The usual task for a lad to pick, between supper and bed-time, was as much as could be crammed into a pint tin cup. One old gentleman showed me his blackened and cracked thumbnails, and assured me that it was caused from picking seeds out of cotton when a boy.
In the spring and summer of 1851, the cut-worms were very bad on Sicily Island. Mr. Clark in one week, with ten of his workers, picked up and scratched out of the ground, thirty-six thousand cut-worms, as he counted each worker's pickings himself. The manager on Dr. Henry J. Peck's place said he picked forty three of these worms himself from under one single cotton stalk in the month of June.
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| Peck Road, 2011 - Cotton was once grown on both sides of this road |
Mules were often used by cotton planters as work animals
In the early settlement of this country the bulk of the property consisted in neat cattle, as can be ascertained by inquiry, or reference to the records of the Probate Court, where this species of property occupies the pages very prominently.
Mules were not numerous in the parish until the 1830s. The Lovelaces had two mules as early as 1812-1813. At this time the planters prefer them as work animals.
In 1837, the charbonne appeared on Sicily Island and killed sixteen horses and two mules of Dr. Nuttall, and two mules of Dr. Peck's. A few years after that, some mules and cattle of Gayoso Lovelace were killed by it; and a man, in skinning an ox, got the disease in his eye, which produced violent local inflammation. His scalp and face were immensely swollen, and his eye was entirely destroyed.
Cotton Gins
Before the invention
of the saw gin, the people used the little roller gin,
consisting of two upright pieces in which two horizontal cylinders were fixed and
turned by a crank, which was worked by hand, or by means of a strap and paddle moved by the foot. Mr.
Elias Carter built the first Rolling Gin in Sicily Island in the early 1800s. It required two hands to attend them, or sometimes three; one to turn the crank, one to feed, and one to stand behind with a sack or basket and pull away the lint. (from Dr. Kilpatrick in De Bow's Review, vol 12)
In 1807, the first saw gin and gin house were built by Edward Lovelace. Edward and his brother Richard got out the house timbers and did most of the work in framing, covering, etc., which was a great deal of trouble as they had only few oxen and three yokes to haul the timbers, and lacked many other things. At that time, iron cost a great deal. They used some of the iron bars found on Battleground Plantation that were from the French and Indian battle fought there. Most of the nails used on the gin were wrought out on an anvil.
They were nearly two years building the house and getting the machinery completed. Shadrack Taylor made the running gear and the wood work of the gin-stand; while James Wright made the saws and all the iron work. This gin had fifty saws, and every part of it was made there on the ground by these two workmen. There was great joy and rejoicing when it was all completed and set in motion. This gin stood for many years and ginned for all the country around. Cotton was taken to it from Catahoula and Boeuf prairies by boat, even as late as 1835. It was the only gin in the country that was kept in constant repair.
In 1810, the cotton book of Lovelace shows that the entire crop of the country around was only two hundred forty-three bales; in 1811, two hundred forty-nine bales; in 1812, two hundred thirty-one bales. After that, their ginnings diminished, owing to other gins being erected. They furnished their customers with bagging, rope and twine, and often shipped the cotton in their own name, rendering an account of the proceeds to the owner. (from Sicily Island: A Partial History, compiled by Mickie Smith, reference cited: Ibid., pp. 634-635)
The original Lovelace gin was destroyed by fire in 1829. Another gin built in the same location was operational in 1835. Betty Peck Shaffer of Sicily Island, a descendant of the Lovelace family, said a brick structure marks the site of the original gin just south of Sicily Island High School. Her great-great grandfather, W. S. Peck, bought the property from John Lovelace after the Civil War. The Peck family owns the land today and each new generation of Pecks is instructed not to remove the old brick structure because of its significance as the old gin site and as a property line.
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