Texas Almanac, 1952-1953 Page: 237
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TEXAS MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES. 237
facturing plant in Texas Was the little water-
powered grist mill at San Jose Mission, built
notn long after the founding of the mission in
1720.
Grist mills were widely established during
the AnglGAmerican colonial period. Meat-
packing plants were established before the
War Between the States at Rockport, Victo-
ria, Fulton and other South Texas towns.
Growth of the small, localized food manufac-
turing industries (corn meal and flour, meat
products, syrup) was steady after the war.
Ice manufacturing sprang up rapidly in the
latter part of the century, as did cottonseed
processing which had begun with the building
of the first cottonseed crushing mill at High
Hill, Fayette County, in 1867. Its develop-
ment into an industry producing fine edible
oils, stock feeds and a hundred or more by-
products has been one of the most interesting
in Texas industrial history.
The Texas food industries passed a mile-
stone in 1900 withthe building of the state's
first two big packing plants at Fort Worth.
While there had been a number of small pack-
ing plants, this marked the beginning of a
major manufacturing and marketing opera-
tion in the nation's largest beef-cattle state.
Beginning in the 1920's with construction
of poultry packing plants at Taylor, Lubbock
and other points, the poultry-raising i adustry
of Texas was given an increased comercial
market. The egg-breaking and other egg-
processing industries have added to this
market.
Another milestone in the development of
food industries was passed in the 1920's with
the building at Sulphur Springs, Schulenburg,
Marshall, Denison and Sherman of large com-
mercial dairy plants, opening a big market
for milk.
At about the same time the development of
the Panhandle Turkestan (Red Turkey)
wheat growing area brought big industry to
the hitherto highly localized flour-milling
industry that had started with the little grist
mill at San Jose Mission two centuries pre-
viously. The big flour-mill industry and the
growing urban population caused the baking
industry, which had been purely local, to
develop into a big manufacturing process.
A still later development has been the ex-
pansion of the canning, pickling and preserv-
ing industry to big-scale operations and the
introduction of the quick-freeze process for
the preservation of fruits, vegetables, shrimp
and other food products. The great increase
in commercial production of fruits and vege-
tables in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Win-
ter Garden, Corpus Christi area and East
Texas caused this expansion of the canning
industries.
An industry that is significantly illustrative
of Texas industrial progress because of its
wealth of raw materials is the plant of the
Corn Products Corporation at Corpus Christi,
built in 1949. It utilizes grain sorghums in
production of dextrose sugar starches and
other products, which hitherto have been
made exclusively from corn. Grain sorghums
have much the same qualities as corn but
only in recent years has standardized and
consistent quality production justified the
establishment of a big industry.
The production of Mexican-style foods has
attained considerable, volume in Texas. While
the Bureau of the Census does not give sta-
tistics separately on this line of foods, it
undoubtedly runs into many millions of dol-
lars in value annually, and Texas probably
is the first-ranking state.
The rapid trend of Texas agriculture awayfrom the one-crop cotton system is diverting
acres to wheat, vegetables and other crops
that supply materials for the food-processing
industries. (See p. 246.)
COTTON AND WOOLEN MILLS
There were about fifty-two textile mills
spinning and weaving cotton and wool in
Texas early in 1951. Some of the cotton-
processing plants were at Hillsboro, Itasca,
West, Gonzales, New Braunfels, Post, Dallas,
Houston, Sherman, Denison, El Paso, Cuero,
McKinney, San Marcos. Waco, Bonham, Bren-
ham and Waxahachie. Widely distributed,
most of them were in the Blackland Cotton
Belt. Characteristically, they are usually in
towns and small cities.
Forty-eight textile mills were located in
Texas in 1947, producing $29,133,000 of "value
added by manufacture.' Number of produc-
tion workers increased from 7,079 in 1939 to
7,745 In 1947. This was the smallest increase
among Texas' larger industrial groups.
Throughout a long period of popular agita-
tion for accelerated ndustrial development,
the cotton mill Was looked upon as Texas'
greatest opportunity for rapid industrializa-
tion. Cotton production had increased rapid-
ly; exports to foreign lands were enormous.
It seemed logical to early advocates of indus-
trialization that the abundance of raw mate-
rial would be a loadstone to pull the industry
to Texas.
But the great industrial migration was from
New England to the southeastern states.
They had sufficient regional production of
cotton to meet the nation's demands for tex-
tiles. The western end of the Cotton Belt
with its easy access to world markets through
the Gulf ports proved to be the logical ex-
porting area. There was a flurry of mill
building during the 1880's and 1890's and
again just prior to World War I. Several
mills were built during the boom of the
1920's and several more during the 1930's.
These mills have usually been successful fi-
nancially, but the earlier anticipated great
expansion of the cotton-mill industry has
never developed. Today Texas mills consume
only 4 to 7 per cent of the cotton grown in
this state.
In recent years there has been considerable
development of industries closely allied with
textile manufacture, including hosiery and
other knit goods, and fur-felt hats.
Because Texas has long been the first-
ranking wool-producing state, there has been
parallel anticipation of a great woolen mill
development but the industry today consists
of wool-processing plants at New Braunfels,
Eldorado, San Marcos, Brownwood and Hous-
ton. Only a negligible percentage of the large
Texas wool production of about 55,000,000
pounds annually is processed in this state
and practically none of the annual mohair
production of about 15,000,000 pounds. Most
of the Texas wool and mohair goes to New
England and Middle Atlantic States for manu-
facture. However, a significant development
early in 1951 was the completion at New
Braunfels of Texas' first fully integrated
worsted factory by the Pioneer Worsted Mills.
This does not mean that there will not be a
future development of these industries. Engi-
neering surveys have shown the practicability,
of a large industry in Texas and shifting
world and domestic trade currents may en-
courage future expansion. (See p. 246.)
CLOTHING MANUFACTURE
One of the most rapidly developing Texas
industries is the manufacture of clothing,
covering a wide range from work clothes toDALWASN ACAPULCO CAFE Spealg in Fine M*:
1501 McKINNEY AT FIELD-PHONE RA-0351 phere of Old Mexico.
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Texas Almanac, 1952-1953, book, 1951; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117137/m1/239/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.