| |
| BISHOP
GIN & ICE HOUSE - BISHOP TX
pst mrk JULY 1910 |
| Editor’s
Note: Will
and Karla Beauchamp of Tuleta, Texas
both descend from ancestors who planted cotton. Will’s
father also taught Texas history in nearby Pettus, Texas. The apple doesn’t fall
from the tree and Will discovered early on that he had inherited the history gene.
In
Mr. Beauchamp’s own words: “I started out collecting antique bottles in my youth
in the Tuleta / Beeville
area of South Texas. My father teaching
history just fueled my desire to collect historical items, especially from South
Texas. I then started collecting cotton gin postcards. Almost every town
in Texas had at least one cotton gin and many had several. Before and after
the Civil War many Southerners migrated to Texas.
The families were so big that most farms were self-sufficient. Many cotton farmers
who knew nothing else found that cotton didn't grow very
well in some regions.
About five years ago I caught the bridge craze. The story of the old Texas
bridges is similar to the fate of the gins. Almost all of them are gone now
and it's a history that some of us want to save. I thought that by sharing my
collection with Texas Escapes’ readers, it would
reach a much larger audience than it would stuck away and only seen by a few.”
|
 |
| "Have
been told there were 3 cotton gins in Collinsville at one time. My anscestors
came from GA about the 1850s-1860s and grew cotton here. Was told my grandfather
as a boy won the county fair cotton picking contest. He left home when of age
as cotton farming wasn't for him and he was the only boy with 7 sisters!"
- William
Beauchamp. |
| NOCONA
MILL & GIN CO. - NOCONA,
TX post mark 1923 but card is a style used about 1910 | |
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