Burton: Texas Cotton Gin Museum

Small brick building named Texas Cotton Gin Museum

Texas Cotton Gin Museum (Larry D. Moore CC BY-SA 3.0.)

Multi-level industrial building that served as a cotton gin

Burton Farmers Gin (Larry D. Moore CC BY-SA 3.0.)

Men picking cotton in a field

Pickers in a cotton field (Hardin Simmons University Library)

Road through a cotton field with a truck and a scale on a tripod holding a bag of cotton and two men weighing the sack

Weighing cotton in the field (Hardin Simmons University Library)

Group of men standing on different levels of a building used as a cotton gin. Horse-drawn cart in the foreground

Horse and buggy near cotton gin in Williamson County (Williamson Museum)

German farmers demonstrated that slavery did not increase the yield or value of a crop. In fact, some historians believe non-slave owning cotton farmers received 1-2 cents more per pound than slave-holding farmers.

The cotton boom in Burton – a small agricultural community established by German families – came after the Civil War. Following the practices of German farmers who grew “free cotton” before the war, many of Burton’s families made their living in cotton.

As railroad expansion helped cotton become one of Texas’s cash crops, thousands of cotton gins were built across the state. The oldest functioning gin is here, in Burton. Built in 1914, the structure now houses the Texas Cotton Gin Museum, where visitors learn about the crop’s impact on the state’s economy, and even have the chance to pick some for themselves. 

Texas Cotton Gin Museum

  • Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
  • Admission: None. Guided tours: Adults: $6, Students: $4
  • 307 N. Main St., Burton, TX
  • 979-289-3378
  • Visit Website
  • National Register of Historic Places
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