Old Cotton Oil Mill
Winters, Runnels County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First local industrial plant. Processed cottonseed into cake, meal, hulls, oil. Gave city a good payroll, a work whistle marking times of day, and a good aroma. Built 1909-10 by Bird, Hall and Mertz, of San Angelo. Stone for millhouse was quarried at Posey farm, on Gap Creek (southeast of city). Owned by Herman Giesecke and Associates, of Ballinger (1911-27); then by Anderson, Clayton & Co., of Houston. Mill closed in 1939 after cotton farming declined. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1962
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Winters got its first industrial plant when Bird, Hall and Mertz of San Angelo built this cottonseed oil mill in 1909-10, its millhouse walls quarried from stone at the Posey farm on Gap Creek. The mill crushed cottonseed into cake, meal, hulls, and oil, and gave the town a payroll, a work whistle that marked the day, and a distinctive aroma. It passed through the hands of Ballinger and Houston owners before closing in 1939 as cotton farming declined.
Why it matters
The cotton oil mill embodies how cotton reshaped the Southern economy, turning what was once waste seed into an industry that anchored small-town wages.
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Related people
- · Herman Giesecke
Themes & tags
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