Technology such as the cotton ginand the steel plow made cottonproduction more efficient. ● How doyou think this technology affected theTexas economy?

COTTON GROWTH IN TEXAS Spanish missionarieswere the first to grow cotton in Texas. As earlyas 1745, one San Antonio mission produced several thousandpounds per year. Anglo American colonists beganplanting cotton in 1821. By the end of the century Texanswere growing more than 3.5 million bales of cotton onover 7 million acres of land. Today, cotton continues tobe a major crop in Texas. Annual production has averaged4.45 million bales since 1986. Most years, Texas leadsthe nation in cotton production, growing one-fourth of thecotton in the United States. ● Why do you think cottonhas continued to be one of Texas’s main cash crops?

In about 1882 the Cannel CoalCompany began operating coalmines along the Rio Grande in WebbCounty. The Rio Grande and EaglePass Railway was built to transportthe coal. ● In what ways do you thinkthe coal mines and railroad changedthe county?

LOGGING INDUSTRY In the early years of theTexas logging industry, loggers cut trees and removedthem by hand. Animals or early steam machines helpedhaul the logs out. Loggers worked in dangerous conditionsfor long hours and little pay. Today machinery canperform most logging tasks. A feller buncher attachesgrabbing devices to the tree, cuts the tree at the base,and lowers the tree to the ground. A grapple skidderhas a long arm that attaches to the tree and hauls itout of the woods. A processor removes the branches,cuts off the top of the tree, and cuts the logs to thedesired length. A log loader loads the trees onto trucks.● What do you think were

Many industrial workers wereemployed by the railroads. The crewof this roundhouse helped turn thetrains and repaired the locomotives.

In 1870 Texas industries employedtwice as many children as women.

From the Civil War to the end of the century lumbering and flour and grist milling were the leading industries, except that cottonseed crushing supplanted flour and grist milling in second rank, according to the census of 1900. The rise of the cottonseed oil industry beginning with a small mill at High Hill in Fayette County in 1867 was the most significant development of the period. By 1900 this industry had climbed to second rank among Texas industries with $14,005,324 value of products, and it has remained among the leading Texas industries in each succeeding census. There was a rapid expansion of building materials manufacture and also of railroad construction and repair work. In 1891 the first permanent cotton mill was established at Dallas, and several others were constructed before the end of the century. There had been an earlier flurry of cotton and woolen mill building, growing primarily out of the dire need for fabrics during the Civil War, but these older mills disappeared prior to 1900. The Bastrop Cotton Mill was in operation in 1867 with 1,100 spindles, and there were cotton mills during this early period at Hempstead, Waco, Houston, Tyler, and Gonzales, while one at New Braunfels produced both cottons and woolens. Between thirty and forty corporations were formed to manufacture cotton and woolen goods, but most of them never were in operation. The most successful woolen mill prior to 1900 was the Slayden-Kirksey mill at Waco, which began about 1885 producing both cloth and men's suits. It operated successfully for more than a decade. During the 1880s and 1890s there was also considerable development of the iron industry, with blast furnaces at Rusk and New Birmingham in Cherokee County and at Jefferson in Marion County. One of these was state-owned and operated by prison labor. This industry declined later because of lack of a coal adaptable to the production of coke. Several small meat packing plants were established, though it was not until 1901 that the first two large plants were built at Fort Worth.

Clara H. Lewis and John R. Stockton, "MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dzm01), accessed March 27, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY. Iron ore deposits in Texas were first exploited commercially in the time when charcoal furnaces were profitable. Ores in Texas were used as early as 1855 at the Nash Furnace, believed to have been located in northwestern Marion County. Perhaps a score of furnaces were in operation at one time or another turning out iron for use in the manufacture of household articles and farm implements. One plant was operated by the Confederate government to make gun barrels (see GUN MANUFACTURING DURING THE CIVIL WAR). In the 1870s and 1880s the East Texas iron industry boomed. The Kelly Furnace operated near Jefferson in Marion County in 1870 and was sold in 1882 to Marshall Wheel and Foundry Company, which changed its name to Loo Ellen. Iron production continued there until 1886, but by 1888 the plant had been dismantled. A furnace known as the Old Alcalde, at New Birmingham, was built by the state and operated as part of the stateprison system early in the 1880s. Privately owned furnaces, including the Tassie Bell at New Birmingham and the Star and Crescent at Rusk, operated in the 1880s and 1890s. The Lone Star Furnace at Jefferson operated from 1891 until about 1910, before being closed and abandoned like most other furnaces. In spite of all this activity, by the time iron production virtually ceased in Texas in 1910, less than 700,000 long tons of ore had been used and less than 300,000 short tons of pig iron produced.

Wayne Gard and Diana J. Kleiner, "IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRY," Handbook of Texas Online(http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dki01), accessed March 27, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

Forest workers rest beside the fruits of their labor: yards of cut and stacked logs, ready to be

transported to the sawmill. Photo courtesy of Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin, East Texas Collection (DI_01282).