Cotton Industry in Shiner
Shiner, Lavaca County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Barbed wire, the railroad, and Germans and Czechs desiring to own small family farms combined to make cotton king in Lavaca County. From 1892 to 1971, cotton ginning, the cottonseed oil industry, and cotton export by rail were a vital part of Shiner’s economy. August Stephan built the city’s first cotton gin in 1892, and the Shiner Oil Mill & Manufacturing Co. began in 1896. The cotton industry peaked in the 1920s with eight cotton gins within the city limits. This site was home to four gins: Edward Fertsch Gin and Mill, August Heinsohn Gin, Rogge Gin Company and Shiner Farmers Co-Operative Gin and Mill. In 1971, Buske Gin, the city’s longest in operation, ginned the last bale of cotton in Shiner.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Barbed wire, the railroad, and German and Czech immigrants hungry for small family farms combined to make cotton king in Lavaca County. From August Stephan's first gin in 1892 through the founding of the Shiner Oil Mill in 1896, ginning, cottonseed-oil processing, and rail export drove Shiner's economy for nearly eighty years. The industry peaked in the 1920s with eight gins inside the city limits—four of them on this very site—before the last bale was ginned in 1971.
Why it matters
It captures how immigrant farmers, railroads, and cotton together built the agricultural economy of Central Texas, and how that world eventually passed away.
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Related people
- · August Stephan
Themes & tags
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