Daily AncestorGinner
A ginner ran a cotton gin, the machine that pulled cotton fiber away from its seeds, or owned and operated the gin house.
After Eli Whitney's 1793 gin, cotton could be cleaned of seed quickly, and gins sprang up across the cotton South. Farmers hauled seed cotton to the gin, and the ginner turned it into lint pressed into bales.
Ginning was seasonal work, busiest in autumn. A ginner in the census may also farm or run a mill the rest of the year.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1900 to 1940 census
R. L. Hays, 45, Ginner, Cotton gin
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Daily Ancestor. "Ginner." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/ginner. Last checked 2026-10-01.