Robert S. Munger
Robert S. Munger | |
---|---|
Born | Robert Sylvester Munger July 24, 1854 Rutersville, Texas, U.S. |
Died | April 20, 1923 Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. | (aged 68)
Occupations |
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Robert Sylvester Munger (July 24, 1854 – April 20, 1923) and his wife Mary Collett Munger (1857–1924) invented the "system cotton gin". After that achievement, Munger started and ran some of the largest gin manufacturing companies in the United States. He also developed real estate in Dallas, Texas. Munger was also a philanthropist who supported causes in the Birmingham, Alabama area.
Early life
Robert Sylvester Munger was born in Rutersville, Texas on July 24, 1854. His father, Henry Martin Munger, ran a sawmill and cotton gin there, and his boyhood included working in those enterprises. Robert later studied Latin and Law at Trinity University in Tehuacana, Texas. However his studies were interrupted when his father called him back home to run the cotton gin.[1]
System cotton gin
For a decade and a half after 1865, the end of the
The Munger System Ginning Outfit (or system gin) integrated all the ginning operation machinery, thus assuring the cotton would flow through the machines smoothly. Such system gins use air to move cotton from machine to machine.[4] Robert's motivation for his inventions included improving employee working conditions in the gin. However, the selling point for most gin owners was the accompanying cost savings while producing cotton both more speedily and of higher quality.[5]
By the 1960s, many other advances had been made in ginning machinery, but the manner in which cotton flowed through the gin machinery continued to be the Munger system.[6]
Economic Historian William H. Phillips referred to the development of system ginning as "The Munger Revolution" in cotton ginning.[7] He wrote,
[The Munger] innovations were the culmination of what geographer Charles S. Aiken has termed the"second ginning revolution", in which the privately owned plantation gins were replaced by large-scale public ginneries. This revolution, in turn, led to a major restructuring of the cotton gin industry, as the small, scattered gin factories and shops of the nineteenth century gave way to a dwindling number of large twentieth-century corporations designing and constructing entire ginning operations.[8]
Gin manufacturing
Munger approached several gin manufacturers, but they were not interested in making his system gin. As a result, in 1884, the family moved to
In 1899, the Mungers' companies merged with several of the other large U.S. gin manufacturers. Initially, Robert and Stephen were vice-presidents of the newly formed Continental Gin Company in Birmingham. The company continued to be a major gin manufacturer, and various Mungers held a large portion of the company's executive positions for the next quarter-century. The Munger family's substantial involvement ended in 1926, two years after the death of Robert and Mary Collett. At that point, a group of investors led by Ernest Woodruff of Atlanta bought a controlling interest in Continental Gin. One of Munger's sons, Eugene, stayed on in executive roles at least until 1939.[11]
Surviving examples
A few early system cotton gins survive. Examples include:
- Burton Farmers Gin, Texas Cotton Gin Museum, Burton Texas
- Georgia Museum of Agriculture & Historic Village, Tifton Georgia
- Gin Barn, Magnolia Plantation, Louisiana[12]
- Louisiana State Cotton Museum, Lake Providence Louisiana
- Old Alabama Town, Montgomery Alabama
- Piazza Gin, Frogmore Plantation Louisiana
- Plantation Agriculture Museum, Scott Arkansas
Real estate
In the early 1900s, Munger conceived and promoted Munger Place, a fifty-block subdivision in
Philanthropy
In his later years, Birmingham newspapers recognized the Mungers' extensive philanthropies. A newspaper article at the time of his death
Later life
Munger married Mary Collett of Fairfield, Texas, the daughter of Captain James Hamilton Collett of North Carolina and Margaret Ann Davis of Alabama, in 1878.[3] Robert and Mary Collett had nine children, eight of whom lived into adulthood.[15]
Munger and Mary Collett moved to Birmingham and into the Mirabeau Swanson House in the Five Points South neighborhood in 1889. In 1902, the family moved again, now outside of town to Arlington, an antebellum home that briefly had housed the headquarters of Union General James H. Wilson late in the Civil War.
Munger believed in the importance of exercise for all, among other things teaching his children to ride bicycles at very young ages.[16]
Munger's fascination with wheels for transportation attracted him to automobiles when autos began replacing the horse and buggy. The family purchased its first automobile soon after moving to Birmingham and often traveled by car.
After playing 18 holes of golf on April 7, 1923, Munger became ill with pneumonia.[citation needed] He died on April 20, 1923.[14]
Other
Historian Dr. Carolyn Green Satterfield included three chapters on the Munger family in Arlington, Birmingham's Historic House, which she edited for The Arlington Historical Association in 2010.[20]
In September 2018, Munger was inducted into the Alabama Men's Hall of Fame.[21][22] The Alabama Men's Hall of Fame was established by an act of the Alabama state legislature in 1987 to parallel the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame. Its mission is "to recognize those men native to or identified most closely with the State of Alabama who have made significant contributions on a state, national, or international scale within their professional field."[23]
References
- ^
Satterfield, Carolyn Greene. (2010). Arlington, Birmingham's Historic House. Birmingham Alabama: Arlington Historical Association. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-4507-3638-1.
- JSTOR 213411.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-316-24775-7.
- ^ Atkinson, Edward (June 1, 1880). "Report on the Cotton Manufacturers of the United States". In Department of Interior, Census Office (ed.). Report on the Manufacturers of the United States at the Tenth Census. Government Printing Office. pp. 937–984.
- ISBN 978-0-316-24775-7.
- JSTOR 213411.
- ^ Phillips, William (1994). "Making a Business of It: The Evolution of Southern Cotton Gin Patenting, 1831–1890". Agricultural History. 68 (2): 88, 90.
- ^ Phillips, William (1994). "Making a Business of It: The Evolution of Southern Cotton Gin Patenting, 1831–1890". Agricultural History. 68 (2): 85–86.
- ^ "Funeral Services Over R. S. Munger Set For Saturday". The Birmingham News. April 20, 1923. p. 2. Retrieved July 28, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Sulzby, James (1952). Continental Gin Company and its Fifty-two Years of Service. Birmingham, Alabama: Birmingham Publishing Co. pp. 26, 29, 31, 55–56.
- ^ Sulzby, James (1952). Continental Gin Company and its Fifty-Two Years of Service. Birmingham, Alabama: Birmingham Publishing Co. pp. 37–67, 86.
- ^ Cultural Resources, Southeast Region, National Park Service (2004). Historic Structure Report: Gin Barn, Magnolia Plantation, Cane River Creole National Historical Park (PDF). Cultural Resources, Southeast Region, National Park Service. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Swiss Avenue Report (PDF). Department of Urban Planning, City of Dallas Texas. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 4, 2018. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
- ^ a b "Philanthropist Dies Of Pneumonia Following Illness Of Only Few Days". The Birmingham News. April 20, 1923. p. 1. Retrieved July 28, 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^
Satterfield, Carolyn Greene. (2010). Arlington, Birmingham's Historic House. Birmingham Alabama: Arlington Historical Association. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-4507-3638-1.
- ^ Burkhardt, Ann McCorquodale.; Bowsher, Alice Meriwether. (November 1982), "Town Within a City: The Five Points South Neighborhood 1880–1930", The Journal of the Birmingham Historical Society, 7 (3&4): 72
- ISBN 978-0-316-24775-7.
- ^ Munger, Rose McDavid. (1975). Family History of Munger-McNutt-Collett. pp. 17–18, 33.
- ISBN 978-1-4507-3638-1.
- ^
Satterfield, Carolyn Greene. (2010). Arlington, Birmingham's Historic House. Birmingham Alabama: Arlington Historical Association. ISBN 978-1-4507-3638-1.
- ^ Garrison, Greg. "Alabama Men's Hall of Fame inducts former slave turned preacher". AL.com. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
- ^ "Robert Sylvester Munger". Alabama Men's Hall of Fame. Samford University. Retrieved October 8, 2018.
- ^ "Alabama Men's Hall of Fame". Alabama Men's Hall of Fame. Samford University. Retrieved October 8, 2018.