It all began with this man, Daniel Pratt, who set out to build the finest cotton gin possible and to make them available, in great numbers, for a growing nation. With his exceptional skill as a carpenter and flair for mechanics, he began manufacturing gins in a small gin factory in Clinton, Georgia with Samuel Griswold.

The two formed a partnership in 1832 but the following year Daniel Pratt decided to expand west to Alabama for the growing cotton gin market. Griswold declined to go so Pratt set out with supplies for 50 cotton gins and began making them in a small blacksmith shop. Pratt moved to two different locations before purchasing a large track of land with fine water power and large lumber reserves to run his factory. He founded the town of Prattville and the rest is history..........

By 1844, the Pratt gin was widely known and acclaimed for its rugged quality. To fill the great demand for the Pratt gin, construction began in 1853 on a large factory in Prattville. This factory became the largest cotton gin manufacturing plant in the world and still holds that distinction.

In 1899 a merger of the five largest Cotton gin manufacturers became known as the Continental Gin Company. With the expertise of the different companies.... the manufacture of cotton gins progressed to a science.

Today Continental Eagle Corporation is the ancestral home of the world's largest gin manufacture and includes a complex of office buildings, research and manufacturing facilities . This Prattville plant has produced more cotton gins than any other manufacturer in the world.

In addition to its home office, Continental Eagle Corporation's primary manufacturing facility is in Prattville, Alabama, but also has a complete network of sales and service facilities located throughout the cotton producing areas of the United States and the world.

In the United States, repair parts & service offices are located in   Casa Grande, Arizona - Lubbock, Texas - Southaven, Mississippi - Fayetteville, North Carolina - Rayville, Louisiana - Visalia, California. International Sales Offices are located in Prattville, Alabama, Brussels, Belgium, and a sales and repair parts office in Narrabri, New South Wales - Australia.

Today, Continental Eagle continues to build on its rich heritage of engineering excellence. It is on our computers that many important new ginning ideas first take form... and on which the best designed ginning systems begin. The Tradition Continues...

Alabama's First Great Industrialist

Daniel Pratt was born in Temple, New Hampshire on July 20th, 1799, and raised in the rigors of a puritan home. Educated in the schools of his native state, Daniel Pratt left home at the age of 16. He was apprenticed to Mr. Putnam, a carpenter, in order to learn a trade. Financial troubles forced Putnam to mortgage his home and release young Daniel from his apprenticeship. With a small kit of tools, young Daniel worked his way to Boston and approached the captain of a sea vessel for passage to Savannah. Taken with the young man, the captain gave him free passage and loaned the young man $25.00 upon arrival in port Savannah. Daniel Pratt never forgot that generosity and later returned the loan. From Savannah Daniel moved to Milledgeville, Georgia, and worked as a carpenter. While in Milledgeville, Pratt's architectural genius came to the forefront in his design of some of the most outstanding antebellum homes in America.

In 1827 Daniel returned to New Hampshire, where the first thing he did was to seek Mr. Putnam and give him the money to pay off his mortgaged home. Two years later, Daniel Pratt went to Clinton, Georgia where he and Samuel Griswold entered into a business to manufacture cotton gins. In 1833, Daniel and his family moved to Autauga County, Alabama where he began building cotton gins in his own shop.

In 1836 Daniel Pratt purchased land on Autauga Creek which had abundant water power to operate his machinery. There he built his initial cotton gin factory, which was to bear his name for 67 years until it became Continental Gin Company. That plant is still in existence today manufacturing cotton gins and operating under the name of Continental Eagle Corporation in Prattville, Alabama. The complex of nine and a-half acres under roof is the oldest continuously used industrial buildings in Alabama and quite possibly in the South.

Daniel Pratt built a cotton mill in 1846, and for many years it was very successful. Today the old Gurney cotton mill stands on the site of Pratt's early mill. Daniel added a flour mill, grist mill and woolen mill. This mill became an experimental lab for cotton gin machinery in later years. By the year 1860, Pratt was manufacturing no less than 1500 cotton gins per year and making over $500,000 a year from his various enterprises. Through his unbounding energies, Pratt became Alabama's first millionaire.

Pratt purchased thousands of acres of land in north Alabama and was one of the first to develop coal and iron ore mines in addition to building blast furnaces in Oxmoor, near Birmingham . The Pratt ore mines were opened by his son-in-law, Henry DeBardelaben, who helped start the South and North Alabama railroad. Pratt pioneered the making of iron in Shades Valley, Alabama and Pratt City in the Birmingham area was named in his honor. When the civil war started, Pratt helped organized the "Alabama Arms Manufacturing Company" which later became the Red Mountain Iron and Coal Company in 1862.

Though born a "Yankee", Daniel Pratt loved the South. When the Civil War was approaching, a man from Robinson Springs organized a company of cavalry. Daniel Pratt generously furnished mounts, uniforms and supplies. He outfitted the "Prattville Dragoons," which became part of the Third Alabama Cavalry and later served under the command of General Joe Wheeler. The uniforms of this unit were so ornate, officers of other units would salute the Dragoon privates. Daniel Pratt also purchased hundreds of thousands of Confederate bonds to help his cause of promoting states rights.

Daniel Pratt was very much interested in education and built the first free school in Alabama. In earlier days, school desks were placed around the wall. In Pratt's school, desks were in rows as they are today.

Today roof lines, steeples and chimneys of the Continental Eagle factory along the waters of Autuaga Creek stand in testimony to the New England heritage of Daniel Pratt. The vision of Daniel Pratt set the wheels in motion to create the steel and iron industries in Alabama. He built in Prattville a print shop, blacksmith shop, window factory, carriage factory, tin factory, foundry, textile mill, woolen mill, grist mill, a vineyard and had interests in banking. He is called "Alabama's First Great Industrialist". On May 13, 1873 Daniel Pratt died, but because of his vision the Pratt name and his accomplishments live on today. Daniel Pratt- pioneer, industrialist, architect, civic leader, and humanitarian.

The Old Alabama Town Cotton Gin

Photographs by Robin McDonald Graphic Design RMcDGD@aol.com Leeds, AL

All Old Alabama Gin Photos on this site are the Property & Copyright of Robin McDonald

THE OLD PLANTATION GINS, once commonplace across Alabama, are gone, as are the sturdy men who crewed them. Very little physical evidence of this colorful part of Alabama's past has been preserved. The rare two-stand cotton gin and press, built on the Pratt and Munger patents of the 1880's and fully restored to its original condition at Old Alabama Town in Montgomery, Alabama, may be unique.

Built in the first decade of the twentieth century by the newly formed Continental Gin Company of Prattville, this plantation gin was originally located in a once-thriving Montgomery County community known as Teasley's Mill. The Gin was one of the first fully automated or "through and through" gins, meaning that the machinery could process cotton from wagon to finished bale in one building and in one continuous process without the intervention of human hands.

After the gin became obsolete in the 1940s, it stood idle for nearly fifty years before it was dismantled and removed to Old Alabama Town by Landmarks Foundation of Montgomery in 1990. Over the next two years, the machinery was carefully restored to its original condition and reassembled in a replica of the original ginhouse. The restoration was finished in time for the bicentennial of the first patent on a cotton gin, granted to Eli Whitney in 1794.

Although the machinery was restored to running condition, this turn-of-the-century gin is not operated due to safety considerations, the necessity of a boiler to generate steam for the engine, and the fact that this simple gin cannot handle today's trash-filled, machine-picked cotton.

Tours start from the Education and Reception Center located at 301 Columbus Street, Montgomery, AL 36104
Phone: Local 334.240.4500 Fax 334.240.4519  Toll free 1.888.240.1850

 Web Site: www.oldalabamatown.com    

   Weighing cotton at the gin, c1908. To determine the weight of a load of cotton, gin operators weighed the wagon twice- once loaded with cotton, once empty.  (Courtesy of the Landmarks Foundation) 

Information taken from the Alabama Heritage magazine, with permission © 1995-2006 University of Alabama. 

A Personal Note: This Historic Project could not have been possible without the perseverance of Mr. Tommy Oliver and the support of the working craftsmen, staff and supporters of the Landmarks Foundation of Montgomery. The Cotton Gin was the beginning of many communities in the south. and without projects like the Old Alabama Town Gin, pieces of our heritage would be lost forever.

With the purchase of the Ordeman House, Landmarks Foundation and the City of Montgomery entered into a unique partnership which continues to this day. The Foundation procures property, structures and furnishings which it promptly deeds to the City; consequently, Old Alabama Town belongs to the people of Montgomery. Landmarks Foundation also researches, plans, carries out the restoration, and interprets the structures. The maintenance and operational expenses are the responsibility of the Foundation. In order to finance its endeavors, Landmarks Foundation has several sources of revenue which include the rental of office buildings along North Hull Street, tourism, membership, donations, grants, rental of facilities for organizational functions, and the Old Alabama Town Museum Store. Fundraising events now take place each spring, and the public supports them well.

Preservation activities in Old Alabama Town are only one facet of the Landmarks Foundation's focus. Tourism is an important factor with the site open for interpretive tours Monday - Saturday. Closed on Sundays and major holidays; Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Educational programs for adults and youth are primary components of the Foundation's mission, and interpreters vividly convey Alabama's 19th and early 20th century history to over 30,000 students annually through both on-site and outreach activities. A speaker's bureau features a wide variety of topics for adults and students. The publication of the Old Alabama Town Newsletter, dealing with current programs, history and architecture, disseminates information to the Foundation's membership periodically. Special events, exhibits, and summer camps for elementary age students expand the services and programs offered to the public.

Landmarks Foundation continues its dedication to preservation, restoration, education, and interpretation of 19th and early 20th century life in central Alabama at Old Alabama Town, the Southeast's most unique outdoor museum.

Web Design by Continental Graphics     Land marks information by permission