The wagons rolled in, and mules, tractors, and trucks came and went. The lent lazily floated by and the burning cotton seed smelled strong.
Only a memory now, the gin was a hive of activity. Like all the Lafayette County gins, Abbeville‘s slowed to a crawl then stopped for good. And rusted away.
Above: The Cotton Gin at Abbeville, Mississippi, 1961. Photograph by Martin J. Dain. Below: The Gin in the End. Photograph by Marty Paterson.
John Cofield grew up in Oxford. He is the son of renowned University photographer, Jack Cofield. His grandfather, J. R. "Colonel" Cofield, was William Faulkner's personal photographer, and for decades was Ole Miss annual photographer. Four generations of the Cofield family have contributed to Oxford's pictorial history.
