 Before the Civil War, the Jarrell's farm was one of the half-million cotton farms in the South that collectively produced two-thirds of the world's cotton.Like many small planters, the Jarrell family benefited from the development of the cotton gin in 1793 by Eli Whitney, which made it practical to cultivate heavily seeded, short-staple cotton even in hilly, inland areas of Georgia.John Fitz Jarrell built the first permanent structure on the site in 1847.