Graham Salt Works
Graham, Young County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Saline residue found along the banks of Salt Creek attracted settlers to this area in the 1850s. The first person to undertake commercial production of salt here was Martin V. Bowers, who arrived in the area prior to the Civil War. A farmer and local politician, he later sold his business to A. B. Gant and moved to Parker County. Gant, a Confederate veteran, operated the salt works until 1871, when he was elected to the Texas Legislature. He sold the operation to Gustavus A. (1836-1906) and Edwin S. (1831-1899) Graham, brothers who had come to Texas with the Texas Emigration and Land Company. The Grahams improved the salt works by adding new equipment in 1872. With a capacity of producing 2,500 pounds of salt per day, the Graham salt works was in operation for only two years. The salt, sold to merchants in nearby towns, cost more to transport than to produce, and the operation was discontinued. Although short in duration, the Graham Salt Works played a vital role in local development. The Graham brothers donated land for a town, named for their family, as well as for Oak Grove Cemetery, where both brothers were later buried. (1987)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Saline seeps along Salt Creek drew settlers here in the 1850s, and Martin Bowers began the first commercial salt-making before selling to Confederate veteran A. B. Gant. In 1871 the brothers Gustavus and Edwin Graham bought the works and re-equipped it to produce up to 2,500 pounds of salt a day, though it ran only two years because hauling the salt to market cost more than making it. Brief as it was, the enterprise seeded a town: the Grahams gave land for the community that bears their name and for the cemetery where both are buried.
Why it matters
The salt works shows how a scarce frontier necessity could jump-start settlement, turning a short-lived industry into the foundation of a permanent Texas town.
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Related people
- · Gustavus A. Graham
- · Edwin S. Graham
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cattle Raisers Association Oak
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Under this oak near Graham in February 1877, forty cattlemen banded together to form the Cattle Raisers Association of Texas, choosing their first officers on the open range. In an era of unbranded strays, rustling, and the great trail drives, the group organized ranchers to protect their herds and their interests. By 1936 the association counted some 2,500 members.
Ryus Store Building
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In 1879, after fire destroyed his frame store, druggist Joseph E. Ryus rebuilt on the same Graham lot in locally fired brick — a statement of permanence in a young frontier county seat. The room above his drugstore became Judge Andrew P. McCormick's first federal district courtroom that same year, before the court decamped for Abilene. Since 1892 the Knights of Pythias have kept their lodge hall on the upper floor, giving the building an unbroken civic life for over a century.
Standpipe Mountain
Graham, TX
The western peak of the twin Belknap Range mountains, Standpipe Mountain lay within land the Graham brothers bought in 1872 as they founded the town that bears their name and set to developing its resources. E. S. Graham even prospected the mountain for silver in the 1890s. It took its name in 1907 when the city built a water tank on its crest, and after World War I it was given to the city as Victory Park.
Bryson
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Henry E. Bryson, a Civil War veteran turned farmer and stockman, raised the first log cabin here in 1878, and a post office followed in 1882 to serve a growing cotton- and grain-growing district. The Rock Island Railroad arrived in 1902, but it was oil that made the town's name: the first well came in 1925, and from a gasoline plant in the 1920s to a refinery that ran until 1954, Bryson billed itself as Jack County's petroleum capital.