Taylor County, Texas
February 1997 Photograghs

Empty cotton trailors parked directly opposite the main entrance into the Rose Hill Cemetery at Merkel, Texas. The gin is right beside the railroad track. In the past practically every community in Taylor County had at least one gin maybe two. Today hand labor has been eliminated and weed chopping is nominal due to use of chemicals. Facts and fiqures

Waiting to be weighed, Abilene, Texas 1903

Chopping cotton: Thinning and weeding cotton and was often done in July and it was "hot" in Taylor County. There would be cold water in a canvas sack hanging in the shade at the end of the row and the water would stay pretty cool. Sometimes the kids would cool off after a day's work in a muddy tank. [Johnson grass is a weed]

Pulling cotton: During the depression the family would arrive at the field when it was still dark and observe the sunrise frosty mornings and work until until the wagon was full. Usually the cotton boll was pulled during mid September to December and this was a family event. The cotton picker's body would hurt all over especially the children fingers would get sore. The head of the household usually had gloves and was responsible for weighing the tote sacks /feed sacks that the children filled before dumping the cotton into the trailer which was pulled by a pickup truck or tractor. Pulling cotton was done around Bradshaw leaving the burr and this was much faster than picking cotton.

Weighing: Every afternoon the head of the family would take the cotton to the Bradshaw gin where the trailer would be weighed full and then empty and calculations made.  At the gin a vacuum apparatus sucked the cotton up. Hulls and seeds were removed and the cotton compressed into a bale of cotton held together by metal bands and transported to a larger center.

Bale: The family's aim was to pick a bale, 2000lbs, per day. A boy could pick 200lbs, a girl 150 lbs. $1.50/100lbs. Some fields were picked over three times during a season.

The Linear Air Park at Dyess AFB, 6,117 acres, six miles SW of Abilene has a static display of thirty aircraft from WW2 to the present on display along Arnold Blvd. Open during daylight hours. Stop at the main entrance for a visitors pass. Home of the Air Combat Command 7th Wing. History. Currently flies B-1B Lancers and C-130H Hercules.

Grassbur, Taylor Co. TX. Between Bradshaw and Bluff Creek on FM 1066. The rugged scrub-cedars are indigenous to West Texas.

Graham Lake is located near the NE corner of the league in south Taylor County, south of Lemons Gap. Locals fish here. Will and Annie Graham use to live near here. Often the lake is dry in the summer.

Photo credits. © Olwyn Whitehouse 1997