J. E. Price (a Cotton Buyer and an Independent) built the Gin. He was Vance Hamilton's step father. Vance was married to Billie Jo Snider. Vance was the first Gin Manager at Ron. G.B. Wiley remembers that Harlan and Jessie Trammell were bookkeepers in the early 40's when the Gin was first built.
In a year or two Paymaster Gin Co. bought the Gin, they continued to run it until it burned in 1959. Paymaster did not rebuild, Chickasha Cotton Oil Co. bought it and built it back. It was all steel construction with the latest equipment, had 5 stands, with lint cleaner and dryers. This was the best at that time. Roland Kromer was ginner at that time. The night the Gin burned, Joe Crow was an employee. He and his wife, Alice stayed all night watching to make sure another fire did not break out.
There were 8 Cotton Gins in Harmon County at that time. Ron had plenty of cotton trailers and housing for Bole Pullers.
In 1963 a hail storm came from the Southwest late in the evening, it went across, came back over with much larger hail, baseball size, the hail stones broke out east windows in our house. A hundred plus windows out of the Gin and many out of the school. We gathered baseball size hail and put them in the freezer to show people. The windows were all repaired.
In 1965 came a tornado, it had been a blustery, windy, stormy day. My family went to Hobart that evening for a Baseball Game. It was our son, Jim's, last Senior High ballgame. Kenneth Smith was listening to the radio telling about the storm and that tornadoes were spotted close to Gould. Coming back from the ballgame we were in blinding rain and constant lightening. A Semi-truck was turned over on the curve going to Granite. When we got within a mile east of Ron we knew something tragic had happened. Rural Electric Workers and Police met us and told us everything was completely destroyed except our house which sustained small damage, Joe Crow's home was heavily damaged. They had us to follow them as they had to clear out electric wires, tin, poles and all kinds of debris in order for us to get to the house. Joe, Alice and girls were in our cellar. Jack Harris had been getting water at the Gin and barely got to the cellar in time. They said it felt like it was going to suck them out of the cellar, the pressure was so strong. We didn't have electricity or water for several days. You could barely find a place to step for all the debris and destruction.
Several days later Kenneth Smith, Supt. Of Gould School brought the Junior and Senior High boys out and they worked all day picking up and moving destruction. That was truly appreciated.
We weren't sure Chickasha Co. would build back. But, we also knew we ginned lots of cotton in our area. Chickasha did build back and had it running by harvest time that year.
When my husband, Troy, passed away in 1968, Joe Crow was the new Gin Manager. The Gin later closed in 1972.
Gin Managers at Ron Gin were:
Vance Hamilton
Doug Burgess
Darrell Brookman
Troy Leathers
Joe Crow
