Do you remember??? Hamlet Gin & Supply

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David
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Do you remember??? Hamlet Gin & Supply

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lynnsteen
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Post by lynnsteen »

Ahh, yes. Remember that as a small boy I would be allowed from time to time to ride the family mule-drawn wagon, up from our Marlboro County farm to this location with a load of cotton to be ginned. While there, the adults might also buy some farm supplies. I was amazed at the way that big steel pipe that hung from the gin structure could just suck that cotton right up off the concrete pad where we had dumped it. And then a while later, you would be shown a steel-banded bale of what was your loose cotton, with a bag of seeds that has been extracted in the process that would eiither be returned to you, or you could opt to sell them to the gin.
Also remember the smell of that certain sweep material that was spread on the floor in those days, I presume to hold down on the dust generation in the sweeping process, But maybe there was some other purpose behind using it, I just don't know.
And when I really got lucky, I might even get a new pair of overalls, or a pair of brogans.
Those indeed were the days. Wouldn't want to go back to them though!!!!!!!!!!!
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Lynn Steen
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Wayne Fuller
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Post by Wayne Fuller »

Lynn, I also remember going to the gin with cotton. It was a busy place.
I also remember the pay master in the back room of the Gin store. Then you could go through a big sliding door into the wholesale part of the Gin from the back room also.
bandwagon
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Post by bandwagon »

I remember Hamlet Gin and I remember Hobby Cato worked there and drove his orange car...
freddie hassler
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Post by freddie hassler »

I also Remember The Hamlet Gin, Colie Milson worked there as well as his Mom,The man who ran The Gin, I think was Mrs Milson's Dad. I would go there with my step-brother Bruce Peele to buy cartons of cigarettes to sell at the Jot-Em-Down Store in Longwood Park :D
Joe Wooten
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Post by Joe Wooten »

The man who ran the Gin was Colie Coggins. Inez Milson was his daughter. Colie Coggins wife, Duce, was my grandfather Wooten's sister, thus great aunt and uncle.
lynnsteen
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Post by lynnsteen »

I also remember the Coggins name in connection with HG&S back in the time I referenced above (late 40s, early 50s). They also owned a farm down near Nebo Church where they raised peaches that my family bought every year for preserving. Relatives in my Steen family operated the farm (the Willard Steen family).
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Lynn Steen
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Bruce Osburn
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Post by Bruce Osburn »

Lynn,
You know what? I probably ate some of those peaches your kinfolk raised there in the sandhills. Well, maybe not, but I remember my aunts preserving several bushels at a time. That was way back in the early 50s and I remember them saying that they were $2-a-bushel culls from the packing houses.

I remember that there was a peach orchard on just about every sandy road in Richmond and Marlboro counties. And I can still visualize the hundreds upon hundreds of acres of peach trees on what is now Ellerbe Grove Church Road. I also remember that each large orchard had its own packing house. And those orchards in that part of the sandhills didn't have to transport their product any further than Osborne to load them into a freight car.

I have passed through that area several times in the past 20 years or so and all I saw were pine plantations where peaches once thrived. Even the packing houses have disappeared.

What do you suppose caused the demise of all those orchards?
Bruce Osburn
--We live so long as we are remembered... old German adage.
lynnsteen
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Post by lynnsteen »

Bruce,
Best I remember, the orchard I referenced on the Coggin farm across from Nebo Church was the only commercial orchard in the immediate area. And I too remember sitting around a water-filled washtub with other members of my family peeling and de-kerneling bushels of those Elberta and Georgia Belles that my mom would mostly can in jars for use though the winter, but some of the fresh ones would go to make delicious cobblers or just eating fresh. After 1953 when we moved to Hamlet, I remember an orchard on Old Laurinburg Road (right behind the used car lot that faced onto Highway 74). Even worked there a summer or two myself earning a little spending money.

At that time though, the real peach center of the Sandhills was a little further north, centered around the little town of Candor (either Montgomery or Moore County). I remember it billing itself as the "peach capital of North Carolina" or something akin to that. And like you, I have noticed that the acres and acres of orchards that I saw when I was a boy just aren't there anymore. I think a lot of peaches are still grown there just north of Ellerbe, but I doubt that they grow as many as were grown back in the 50s. Could be wrong. When I was doing my thing on the Buttercup Ice Cream truck in the late 50s, Mr. L. G. DeWitt had a major peach operation around his store that we serviced at his North State Farm in the Windblow/Norman area of Richmond County.

Why the demise of this industry? I don't know, but I suspect the answers are numerous. One might be the poor quality of the soils in that part of the country that would require huge quantities of fertilizer for peak production over extended periods. Another might be a lack of cheap labor to work the crops. Suspect the Sandhills would find it hard to compete with places like California in this regard. But the answer may be simpler, just don't know.

BTW, where is Ellerbe Grove Church Road? That name doesn't ring a bell with me.
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Lynn Steen
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Post by Bruce Osburn »

Lynn,
Ellerbe Grove Church Road lies to the west of N.C. 177. It begins at Lock Haven Road and runs south. After a couple of name changes it eventually reaches U.S. 1 at Everetts Mill pond.

I never knew the name of the road until I posted a reply to this string. But I had traveled it many times going to my granddad's house back in the 40s and 50s; he lived near its intersection with Osborne Road. (Had to do a Google search to get the names of the roads.)
Bruce Osburn
--We live so long as we are remembered... old German adage.
David
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Post by David »

1953
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