The Gullett Gin
Company
THE FOLLOWING HAS BEEN COPIED FROM 1910 NEWSPAPER
Just outside of the southern edge of the corporate limits of Amite is located the immense Plant of the Gullett Gin Company. This Company is well known throughout the entire South, as it manufactures a line of Cotton Ginning Machinery, ranking as one of the highest class and the seeds of whose reputation were first planted throughout the Cotton Belt over sixty years ago.
The Plant is the finest, largest and most modern of any in the country, devoted exclusively to the manufacture of Cotton Ginning Machinery. It is located on the main line of the Illinois Central Railroad, having its own Railroad and Express office, called Gullets, and which is but one mile south of the Amite City Station.
At this plant, there are shops for each department: Wood-working, Saw-making, Machine, Blacksmith, Sheet-iron, Paint and Finishing Shops, as also a large Foundry. All of them are operated by electricity from one large central powerhouse. Every shop is provided with the best of modern tools, many of which have been designed especially for the company.
The plant is equipped with standpipe and a complete water works system on a larger scale than is usual in a town of several thousand inhabitants.
There are two warehouses, which, with the loading sheds adjoining, have a floor space of over 70,000 square feet all on car level.
The whole plant is of brick, steel and glass, thoroughly modern and covers nearly twenty-five acres. Switch tracks are run through the yards and warehouses by means of which the incoming materials can be unloaded cheaply and outgoing machinery can be placed in cars without damage, exposure or unnecessary handling.
Adjoining the plant is located the company’s saw-mill and lumber yards. All lumber is cut from the company’s own lands, and a stock sufficient for two years ahead is kept on hand, thus insuring at all times an adequate supply of the best grades of seasoned stuff. This valuable adjunct to its facilities is possessed by the Gullett Gin Company alone of all the companies engaged in the business, and it enables this company to use in its machines a grade of lumber its competitors cannot obtain.
The business carried on by the Gullett Gin Company was founded in 1849 by Benjamin David Gullett, who first manufactured his Cotton Gins at Aberdeen, Miss., and delivered them as far west as Texas, and east to Georgia, by means of teams. The present Factory site was located at Gullett in 1869. Having been in business for so many years, much of the company’s skilled labor are men who have had a life long experience in the manufacture of cotton ginning machinery.
Such facilities and equipment coupled with this possession of an organization of men graduated from the best of all schools--experience--is evidently the secret of the success of this old and highly respected company.
The
executive officers are John H. Hanna, president and Albert Baldwin, Jr., vice
president, both of