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<br /> ORANGE COUNTY LOCAL LANDMARK APPLICATION DAVIS FARM COTTON GIN AND PRESS
<br /> screw were pushed by men in a circle around the press (Photos 7-8). The pressed bales were
<br /> removed through door panels that opened outward at the bottom (Photos 7-9).
<br /> Integrity Statement:
<br /> Overall, the Davis Farm Cotton Gin and Press building retains strong integrity. It is in its original
<br /> location, never having been moved. It retains it setting as part of a little-disturbed nineteenth-to-
<br /> twentieth-century Orange County farmstead, where it played an important role in the economic
<br /> activities of the farm. Despite the fact that the log section of building is somewhat deteriorated,
<br /> the design, materials, and workmanship of the Davis Cotton Gin and Press building retain a
<br /> remarkable degree of integrity. The building retains its strong association with the farm of which
<br /> it was a part, having remained in the ownership of the Davis family throughout its history until
<br /> 2020. Because of all the factors stated above, the building retains the feeling of a late-nineteenth-
<br /> century cotton gin and press representative of those that once served the cotton-growing farmers
<br /> of Orange County.
<br /> 7. 141STORICAL OVERVIEW
<br /> Pro e Histor
<br /> The Davis Farm was in the ownership of the Davis family from at least 1882 until 2020----138
<br /> years. family history claims that the Davis (earlier Davies) family occupied and farmed over one
<br /> hundred acres in Orange County beginning prior to the Civil War.' However, the earliest public
<br /> records of the family in Orange County date from 1880, when fifty-two-year-old Henry (Tames
<br /> Henry) Davis and his family were recorded in the U.S. census. Born around 1828, Henry Davis
<br /> was a farmer with a wife, Josephine, age forty-one, and five children—Mary, Flora, Wilson,
<br /> Robert, and Walker—ranging in age from twenty-one down to nine.z
<br /> The Agricultural Schedule for the 1880 census provides information on the character of the
<br /> Davis Farm at that time. Of the farm's total acres, 100 were in woodlands and thirty-five were
<br /> improved. Crops grown on those improved, or cultivated, acres were typical for Orange County
<br /> during that period and included Indian corn (fifteen acres), wheat (sixteen acres) and both Irish
<br /> and sweet potatoes. Neither cotton nor tobacco was grown. In 1879, the acres cultivated on the
<br /> Davis Farm yielded 225 bushels of Indian corn, 120 bushels of wheat, eleven bushels of Irish
<br /> potatoes, and thirty bushels of sweet potatoes. The Davises had three horses, one milk cow,
<br /> seven other cows, fourteen swine, and thirty-five poultry—fifteen listed as "barnyard" and
<br /> twenty listed as "other." The poultry produced twenty dozen eggs. The milk cow produced
<br /> twenty-five pounds of butter. During 1879, Henry Davis paid out $20 in farm wages. Looking at
<br /> the farm as a whole, the buildings and fences were valued at $600, the implements and
<br /> machinery were valued at$20, and the livestock was valued at$175. The value of all the farm
<br /> products was reported as being $240.3
<br /> 'Charles W. Davis Jr.,Typed information on the Davis Hormeplace, April 24, 1991.
<br /> z Tenth Census of the United States, Population Schedule, 1880,Chapel Hill Township, Orange County,North
<br /> Carolina.
<br /> s Tenth Census of the United States, �lgricarltan•e Schedule, 1880, Chapel Hill Township,Orange County,North
<br /> Carolina.
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