COTTON GINS – A DANGEROUS BUSINESS
Monroe Oil & Fertilizer Company and Cotton Gin – Two Tragedies
In 1908 a fire destroyed the entire business and took the life of a Mr. Studdard who was the night watchman. In 1931 Billy Kelly, an 11-year-old who lived nearby, sneaked away from home and was killed in a screw-type seed conveyer while playing on site.
Ike R. Stone – Gratis Cotton Gin Tragedy
Mr. Stone “had some interest” in the Gratis Cotton Gin and sustained fatal injuries when his overalls were caught in the cotton gin machine as he was trying to clean it out. Unable to stop the flow of blood from the lacerations, even the best doctors in Monroe could not save him.
BRADLEY BROTHER’S GIN – GRATIS
In August of 1934, the first bale of the cotton season for the Bradley Brother’s Gin was being ginned, and while Mr. Oscar Bradley and his niece, Mrs. Sam (Effie) Bradley stood near the steam powered boiler, a defective flue blew out, and both were horribly scalded. Both succumbed to their injuries at the General Hospital in Athens, Georgia. Effie’s husband, Sam, could not bear to operate the gin after losing his wife and brother in the accident. Other relatives took over the operation of the gin until it burned sometime in the late 1960’s.
PICTURED: Oscar Bradley (who died in the accident) and his wife, Genie Sims Bradley