Oil City Iron Works
Corsicana, Navarro County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This modern plant grew from the small machine shop and foundry started on this site in 1866 by John Winship (1826-86) to make parts for his cotton gin. He sold the operation in 1886 to businessmen Joseph Huey (1827-1904), James Garitty (1842-1925), and J. E. Whiteselle (1851-1915), who named it the Corsicana Manufacturing Company. In 1898, the factory was leased to William Clarkson (1858-1941), a South Carolina native who came to Texas after the Civil War. He renamed it the Oil City Iron Works, because this area was then in the midst of an oil boom. He bought the company in 1908 and became president after it was incorporated in 1921. In addition to parts for cotton gins, the plant began making castings for the oil and building industries. It was converted to defense production during World War II (1941-45). When the importance of cotton declined here after the war, Oil City Iron Works diversified its operation to provide castings for the oil field, road building, farm machinery, and other industries. In 1960 it pioneered in certain uses of ductile iron and today supplies major companies around the United States. With a workforce of 325, the plant now ranks among the three largest employers in Navarro County and in the top ten per cent of the nation's foundries. (1970)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
What became one of Navarro County's largest employers began in 1866 as John Winship's modest machine shop and foundry, built to make parts for his cotton gin. New owners renamed it the Corsicana Manufacturing Company, and in 1898 South Carolinian William Clarkson leased and rechristened it the Oil City Iron Works, riding the region's booming oil rush. Over the decades the plant cast parts for cotton gins, oil fields, and road building, retooled for defense work in World War II, and pioneered new uses of ductile iron.
Why it matters
The foundry's evolution from cotton-gin parts to oil-field castings mirrors the industrial transformation of Texas itself, from a cotton economy into an oil-and-manufacturing powerhouse.
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Related people
- · John Winship
- · William Clarkson
- · James Garitty
Themes & tags
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