Robert S. Munger

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Robert Sylvester Munger (1854-1923), along with his wife Mary (1857-1924) invented the 'system' cotton gin. Robert became an executive in some of the largest gin manufacturing companies in the United States. He was also a philanthropist supporting numerous causes in the Birmingham, Alabama area.

Early life[edit]

Robert Munger's father, Henry, ran a sawmill and cotton gin in Rutersville, Texas. Robert's boyhood tasks included working alongside his father's slaves in the sawmill and cotton gin. Robert 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]

Mary Collett, was from Fairfield, Texas. Mary and Robert courted in 1877 and married in 1878.[2]

System cotton gin[edit]

The “Munger System Ginning Outfit” or “system gin” integrated all the machines in a ginning operation, assuring cotton would flow through them smoothly. System gins used air to move cotton from machine to machine.[3] The Mungers’ invention can be compared to Oliver Evans’s invention a century earlier to move grain through a flour mill. Robert’s main motivation for the invention was to improve working conditions in the gin, however the selling point for most gin owners was that it produced cotton both faster and with better quality.[4]

Between the Civil War and 1880, a number of new features became widely used for ginning. These included steam power instead of animal power, an automatic feeder to assure the gin stand ran smoothly, a condenser to make the clean cotton coming out of the gin easier to handle, and indoor presses so cotton no longer had to be carried across the gin yard to be baled.[5] In 1879, Robert and Mary Munger invented the system ginning while running Robert’s father’s gin in Rutersville. They then moved to Mexia, Texas, built a system gin, and obtained patents.[6] The US Census Department did not keep statistics on system gins, but assuming ginning operations with multiple gin stands were system gins, then approximately half of all ginning operations had system gins by 1905.[7]. By the 1960s, many advances had been made in the machinery, but the manner in which cotton flowed through continued to be the Munger system.[8]

Economic Historian William H Phillips referred to the development of system ginning as "the Munger revolution" in cotton ginning. [9] About it, he wrote that "[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."[10]

Gin manufacturing[edit]

Robert approached several gin manufacturers, but they were not interested in manufacturing his system gin. So, in 1884, the family moved to Dallas, where he and Mary proceeded to build their own factory. In 1887, other investors joined them under the name Munger Improved Cotton Machine Manufacturing Company. Robert and Mary’s children, as well as Robert’s brother Ennis, held executive roles, and the company’s sales increased rapidly west of the Mississippi River. Robert and Mary moved to Birmingham, Alabama to establish a factory there, while Robert’s brother Stephen I. Munger, stays as president of the Dallas operation. With additional investors, the Birmingham Factory becomes the Northington-Munger-Pratt Company, and becomes the largest producer of cotton ginning machinery east of the Mississippi.[11]

In 1899, Munger’s companies merged with several of the other largest gin manufacturers in the United States. Initially, Robert and Stephen were vice-presidents of the newly formed Continental Gin Company. The company continues to be a major gin manufacturer and various Mungers hold a large portion of its 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. At that point, a group of investors led by Ernest Woodruff of Atlanta buy a controlling interest. Nevertheless, one of Robert and Mary’s sons, Eugene, stayed on in executive roles at least until 1939.[12]

Later life[edit]

When Robert and Mary first moved to Birmingham, they lived in the Mirabeau Swanson House. In 1902, the family moved further away from town to Arlington, a former plantation house which once hosted Union General James H. Wilson. As hobbies, Robert enjoyed bicycling. Although there is no evidence Mary participated in bicycling, each of the children learned to ride by the age of two. The family purchased its first automobile in 1902 after moving to Birmingham, and often traveled by automobile.[13]

One of the family's other investments was Munger Place, a planned community in one of the first suburbs of Dallas. Portions of the community were listed on the National Register of Historic Places as Swiss Avenue Historic District in 1974 and Munger Place Historic District in 1978.

Philanthropy[edit]

In his later years, a major Birmingham newspaper lauded Robert as a philanthropist. An article at the time of his death listed several Birmingham area institutions which he was a major contributor: YMCA, Birmingham–Southern College, Highlands Methodist Church, and Walker Memorial Church. The newspaper emphasized his contribution to African-American institutions, specifically Central Alabama College and Miles Memorial College. It reported “There isn’t a negro church in Birmingham to which he has not contributed.” The article also mentions donations to the Houston YMCA and “the suffering people of Europe”.[14]

Robert's philanthropy also included several Universities.[15]

Other[edit]

In September of 2018, Munger was inducted into the Alabama Men’s Hall of Fame.[16][15] 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. It’s 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 of activity and concern.”

Photographer Sally Mann devoted a chapter of her memoir, Hold Still, to Robert and Mary Munger.[17] The book arose as a companion to the 2011 Harvard University Massey Lectures in the History of American Civilization, which Mann also wrote and delivered.[18][19] The book was a 2015 National Book Award Finalist.[20]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Mann, Sally (2016). Hold still : a memoir with photographs. Little, Brown and Company. pp. 305, 309, 312–314. ISBN 978-0-316-24775-7.
  2. ^ Mann, Sally (2016). Hold still : a memoir with photographs. Little, Brown and Company. pp. 314–317. ISBN 978-0-316-24775-7.
  3. ^ Aiken, Charles S. (April 1973). "The Evolution of Cotton Ginning in the Southeastern United States". Geographical Review. 63 (2): 205.
  4. ^ Mann, Sally (2016). Hold still : a memoir with photographs. Little, Brown and Company. p. 318. ISBN 978-0-316-24775-7.
  5. ^ Edward Atkinson (June 1, 1880). "Report on the Cotton Manufacturers of the United States". In Department of Interior, Census Office. Report on the Manufacturers of the United States at the Tenth Census. Government Printing Office. pp. 937–984.
  6. ^ Mann, Sally (2016). Hold still : a memoir with photographs. Little, Brown and Company. pp. 314–317. ISBN 978-0-316-24775-7.
  7. ^ Aiken, Charles S. (April 1973). "The Evolution of Cotton Ginning in the Southeastern United States". Geographical Review. 63 (2): 209.
  8. ^ Aiken, Charles S. (April 1973). "The Evolution of Cotton Ginning in the Southeastern United States". Geographical Review. 63 (2): 205–206.
  9. ^ Phillips, William (1994). "Making a Business of It: The Evolution of Southern Cotton Gin Patenting, 1831-1890". Agricultural History. 68 (2): 88, 90.
  10. ^ Phillips, William (1994). "Making a Business of It: The Evolution of Southern Cotton Gin Patenting, 1831-1890". Agricultural History. 68 (2): 85–86.
  11. ^ Sulzby, James (1952). Continental Gin Company and its Fifty-two Years of Service. Birmingham, Alabama: Birmingham Publishing Co. pp. 26, 29, 31, 55–56.
  12. ^ Sulzby, James (1952). Continental Gin Company and its Fifty-two Years of Service. Birmingham, Alabama: Birmingham Publishing Co. pp. 37–67, 86.
  13. ^ Mann, Sally (2016). Hold still : a memoir with photographs. Little, Brown and Company. pp. 330–342. ISBN 978-0-316-24775-7.
  14. ^ "Philanthropist Dies Following Illness". Birmingham (Alabama) News. April 20, 1923. pp. 1–2.
  15. ^ a b "Robert Sylvester Munger". Alabama Men's Hall of Fame. Samford University. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  16. ^ Garrison, Greg. "Alabama Men's Hall of Fame inducts former slave turned preacher". AL.com. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  17. ^ Mann, Sally (2015). "Chapter 17: The Munger System". Hold still : a memoir with photographs. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-24776-4.
  18. ^ Mann, Sally (2015). "Prologue". Hold still : a memoir with photographs. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0-316-24776-4.
  19. ^ Kennedy, Randy (May 13, 2015). "Sally Mann on Her History, Frame by Frame". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  20. ^ Begley, Sarah (October 14, 2015). "Here Are the Finalists for the 2015 National Book Awards". Time Magazine. Retrieved 9 October 2018.

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