Southerland’s Gins in Cookville, Texas

The picture of this old Cookville Gin was taken in 1915. It is the J. O. Southerland Gin in Cookville, Texas. It was located south of the railroad next to a section of houses where the men who worked at the gin lived. The man on the top left is James (Jim) Oliver Southerland Sr., and next to him on the right is his brother Mark Fayette Southerland, who ran the gin press. Below them is Clyde Keith the bookkeeper.

Jim Southerland bought half interest in this gin in 1908 from Will Traylor, and at Traylor’s death the Traylor family gave their father’s interest to Jim Southerland to settle some of Traylor’s debts.

In 1916, the gin burned to the ground. Then Jim Southerland and Whitt Johnson bought out a gin, just north of the Leonberger’s home in Cookville. Johnson later sold his interest to Jim Southerland.

Jim operated that gin until the late 1920’s and sold it to the Oil Mill. He continued to operate the gin for them until his health began to fail. The Oil Mill removed the machinery and tore down the old building.

Jim Southerland also owned and operated a gin in the Yancy Community about the same time. It was located just East of the Pleasant Grove Baptist Church.

Jim bought this gin from Garland Godsey. He and Dave Wootten operated the gin until an arsonist burned it in the early 1930’s.

Jim Southerland’s father, Elihu Southerland, owned one of the first horse-drawn gins in Titus County. It was located 1 1/2 miles South of Cookville and about 100 yards North of Elihu Southerland’s Homestead, and on the west side of F. M. 1000. It was built in the late 1880’s, or early 1890’s and continued operation until Elihu’s death in 1906. It was operated by Elihu, his sons and a sons-in-law.

This gin, like some others in the county, had “boiler troubles.” About 1900, while Elihu Southerland and the workers were at the house eating dinner, the boiler blew up. It was hurled some 100 yards from the gin eastward across the road, according to Mrs. Gus Thompson’s interview with Lynch Harper, Lynch Harper Files.

Born 1836 in Marshall County, Alabama, Elihu Southerland came to Texas through the Port of Jefferson in 1850’s with his brothers Polk and Jacanais, along with John W. Bynum. All initially settled in Upshur County. In 1860 they moved to Titus County. That same year Elihu married Rebecca Bynum, the daughter of John Bynum and homesteaded 160 acres of land two miles near Cookville, says Traylor Russell’s, History of Titus County, Texas.