Mule Cotton Press, Dunham Plantation, County Road 17, Helena

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Harold K. Dunham, Previous Owners; Koberfc Thomas Duaham. Date of Erection: approximately Builder; Kobpert Thomas Dunham. Present Condition; State of Disintegration; Materials of Construction; Oak; the frame work of the press, which is composed of hand-hewn timbers (marks of the broadax still risiblejwas fastened together with wooden pegs, The shaft or screw was made Worn a solid white oak log and threaded by hand hammer and chisel. The man who fashioned it was an artist in his profession* (There is much speculation today as to how the maker was able to get the right pitch to his threads. $ome idea of the task thatft confronted M/M may be gained by imagining a smooth log 17 in diameter by nearly 141 long with threads to be cut an inch deep| in it. That was what the maker of this screw did.

Home-made soap, tallow and mutton suet were used for lubrication and prob- ably account for its excellent state of preservation* Hesistance was so little that one man could run the screw up or down, by pushing one of the slanting levers. Other Existing Records: See: Birmingham News, May 31, "ANCIENT SHELBY COUNTY COTTON PRESS -.MAY-SOME DAY. BE PLACED IS MUSEUM" By Harold.B. $uaham* He Ian a, Alabama. UL 4SS Pag S. MAPS H/\tio Additional Data:. In central Shelby County, a dozen miles north of Mont wall oa stands a gaunt .' and ragged sentinel, marking a past era in the Sooth's Ho. 1 industry - cotton; Partly rotted away, leaning preca- riously as if ready to fall, this old cotton press is pro- ably yet the best preserved of the very few left in the Southern States.

Passers-by along the old Montevallo and Sly ton road nearby, wouleL nop.QU.bt be surprised to know that Henry Ford's Bdisou Institute Museum of Dearborn Michigan was desirous of adding this olden wooden screw cotton press to its so-called Southern" collection of Southern historical pieces* Pictures of this press have been made at the special request of Dr. T, Van syning, director of the Florida institutions museum. They have also been made for the Marshall-Field Museum in Chicago, and Birmingham's Public Library.- There is no definite reason why any-one would suspect its historical value; it isn't an imposing or pretentious structure. On the contrary, it is inclined to be drab looking, but it is a relic just the same, and an interesting one, at that. Source of Material: Harold B. Dunham.

Helena, Alabama. Compiled by; Catherine floyd* Auburn, Alabama. Approved; Walter Burkhardt, District Officer H.A.B.S. Auburm Alabama. Date; #