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COTTONCOTTON
IN TEXAS
Production, Gins, Scales and Cotton-Related Articles |
Long
before oil, cattle, and timber, cotton was the Texas economy. Only ten years after
Moses Austin received his first grant of land, cotton made up $353,000 of the
$500,000 of exports that year.
When Southerners moved to Texas, they
planted what they knew - cotton. During the Civil War it was Texas cotton moved
to Mexico down the "cotton road" that provided the only lifeline to the Confederacy.
After the civil war former slaves became free sharecroppers - but the crop still
remained cotton.
From .31 per pound in 1865 to only .05 per pound in
1898, cotton prices ruled the Texas economy.
By 1910 half of everything
planted in Texas was cotton. By 1928 they had figured out how to irrigate the
Panhandle and 17,000,000 more acres were planted.
Here are personal stories
of cotton picking and images of artifacts of the cotton industry in Texas. Cotton
Gins, harvesters, scales, boll burners, and warehouses. Cotton festivals, "first
bale" celebrations and cotton "as art" in murals and architectural details.
© John Troesser
3-1-04 |
Featured Cotton Articles |
The
Boll Weevil by Archie P. McDonald
Tex Ritter sang this lament decades
ago:
“Oh, the boll weevil is a little black bug, come from Mexico they say,
come all the way to Texas, just looking for a place to stay, just looking for
a home, just looking for a home.” And the weevil, actually a beetle, found it,
much to the chagrin of East Texas cotton growers.Cotton
Picking by Mike CoxRafting
Cotton from Bastrop to Matagorda by Mike CoxBaled
in a Bale by Mike Cox
No ginning story can top the occasional tale of a
body in a bale.Bagdad
by Mike Cox
Cotton, the economic life blood of Texas and the Confederacy,
soon made its way to Bagdad by riverboat, ship or ox-drawn wagons. From the Mexican
port, it could be shipped to Britain and other European markets.
Napoleon
Bonaparte Wiess by W. T. Block
Steamboat Captain and Confederate Soldier.
The epics of William and Napoleon Wiess, which contributed to the cotton
steamboat history of East Texas.
Cotton
Farming in Verhalen, TexasWaxahachie:
Where Cotton Reigned King (book review) Our
Buick Pickup Truck by George Lester
We had cotton plants growing on either
side of the BuickCotton
Days in Flomot | | IMAGES |
Cotton
Gins
The
Cotton Pickin’ Theater by Bob Bowman 7-29-12
At
Point, a small town of some 700 souls in northern Rains county..., a sturdy old
gin has found a new life as an entertainment venue that draws crowds from all
over East Texas and performers like Mark Chestnut, Pee Wee Walker, and Gary Busey...
A
cotton gin gets a new life by Bob Bowman
6-14-09
Thanks
to the Depot Museum at Henderson, a cotton gin has now taken its place among other
relics of the pastCotton
Gins in Texas: Series Six 4-19-12Cotton
Gins in Texas: Series Five Cotton
Gins in Texas: Series FourCotton
Gins in Texas: Series ThreeCotton
Gins in Texas: Series Two
Cotton
Gins in Texas: Series One
AftonAmherst
Closed Gin, Scale House, Burner & Mural 8-5-11Ammannsville
old cotton ginBagby
Gin and Crew, 1912Belmont
GinBledsoeBurton
Cotton GinCoble
Switch - Gin Skeleton & Scale House 8-3-10Cofferville
Cotton Gin & Scale House 7-26-10Denver
City 4-28-10Dime
Box old cotton gin Draw
6-12-10Earth
Cotton GinsEaster
4-9-11EchoEl
Oso Old Cotton GinEmhouse
3-28-13Enloe
- Round Bale Gin 2-21-12EstacadoFieldton
8-3-10Finney
1-27-11 Friendship
GinFunston
Cotton Gin
Gainesville
Cotton GinGillett
4-16-11GoodlettGoreeGrassland
6-14-10Hamilton
Old Cotton GinHigginbotham
1-18-13 Inadale
Gin Ira's
GinJonesville
- Murray Gin
8-12-11Levelland
Old Cotton Gin 8-4-10
LorenzoLubbock
2-11-11 Luckenbach
old cotton gin MapleNolanNoodle
Old GinOaksOlton
8-21-11O'Quinn
1-21-10 OttoWhat
is left of the cotton gin in OddsPettit
8-11-11 Point
(no photo)Posey
6-14-10 PrincetonRalls
Cotton GinRobstownRosebud
cotton ginSanta
RosaShiro
old cotton ginSodville
Farmers Gin CoTam
Anne - Old Cotton Gin & Scale House 9-12-10The
Tarzan GinTurkey
1-9-11 Walburg
old ginWestbrook
1-6-10WillamarWilmeth
Cotton Artifacts -
Cotton Boll & Cotton ScaleEldorado
- Cotton Scale 3-20-12 EstacadoClaude
- Cotton ScaleExum
- Cotton Scale & Scale House
7-22-10 Lehman
- Cotton Scale 7-15-10Plainview
- Cotton Boll 5-11-10Ralls
- Cotton Boll 9-18-09
Cotton Fair
Texas
Cotton Palace, circa 1909
Cotton Fields
MackayNew
SwedenOdemSpunky
Flat School surrounded by young cotton Vattmann
- School house, church and cotton field An
oil well being drilled in the middle of a cotton field
Cotton
Oil Mills
Itasca
Cotton Oil Mill, 1932
Cotton
Production Chapman
Ranch - Cotton picker in action, compactor and cotton bale.
Cotton Scenes Cotton
Scenes in Texas: Series Five 9-14-10Cotton
Scenes in Texas: Series FourCotton
Scenes in Texas: ThreeCotton
Scenes in Texas: TwoCotton
Scenes in Texas
AbileneColorado
County - First Cotton Bale
8-28-12Houston
Cotton Scenes 8-1-12New
Boston street sceneMarshall
- "Hauling Cotton to Market"Rockdale
post office mural
Cotton
Trucks & Wagons
BallingerBremondSealyThalia
Cotton Weigh Stations
CalvertRayland
5-8-10Westbrook
1-6-10
CartoonsCotton
Pickin' 9-8-10 |
 | Waxahachie:
Where Cotton Reigned King
by
Kelly McMichael Stott
Photographs Courtesy of The Ellis County Historical
Museum
Arcadia Publishing's The Making of America Series. December 2002 |
| |
| | Cotton
gin in oil, by Boyer Gonzales, Jr., c. 1937.
Anyone knowing the location,
please Email jbaker1@suddenlink.net.
- James and Kimel Baker |
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