Cotton Mill "The
most well known mill here was the Denison Cotton Mill at 701 West Rice
that closed its doors in 1977, then burned to the ground in a
spectacular fire in 1983. The Cotton Mill was incorporated Aug. 5,
1905, with W.B. Munson as president.
It was hailed as one of the largest of its kind west of the Mississippi and encompassed 152,000 square feet of manufacturing space. The mill began in Denison much earlier. At a cost of $500,000, it was said to be running by Jan. 1, 1891, in a “Glimpses of Denison” booklet published in 1890 by the Denison Board of Trade. During 1937 the mill produced 4.2 million yards of cotton duck material ranging from 19 to 72 inches wide. The cloth was marketed throughout the United States under the brands of Great Mallard, Dreadnaught and Pacific Ducks. About 225 people were employed there in 1939.- - - Donna Hunt, "Denison Has a Mill Town History," Herald Democrat, 6 January 2015 The Dallas Morning News August 17, 1887 DENISON DOINGS
Projecting a Cotton Mill
701 W. Rice Street The
Denison Cotton Mill was built in 1890 on the south edge of Denison and
was the largest cotton mill west of the Mississippi River.
Cotton was grown, picked,
and hauled
to the cotton mill. The mill was owned by The Denison Cotton
Manufacturing Company with officers: J.M. Ford, President; Elias
Milliken of Augusta, ME, Vice-President; P.E. Fairbanks, Secretary
& Treasurer; M.F. Foster, Manager. (The Sunday Gazetteer, Nov. 9, 1890, pg.4)
San Antonio Express Wednesday, September 3, 1893 pg. 5 P.E. Fairbanks Dies at Brownsville Brownsville, Tex., Sept. 2 - Philip E. Fairbank [sic], 72, prominent in railroad circles, died here suddenly late last night from heart failure. He was formerly comptroller for the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, secretary and treasurer of the Denver & Northwestern and superintendent of the Newfoundland Railway of St. John's, Newfoundland. The body was taken to Kansas City for interment. 
Denison Cotton Mill 1891 Dallas Times Herald
2 March 1890 DENISON COTTON MILL Denison, Tex., Feb 20 -- The directors of the Denison Manufacturing Company have awarded the construction of the cotton mill to W. C. Green of Chicago. The contractor will remove a steam brick making plant worth $20,000 from Kansas, and work will begin on the foundation in about 30 days. The mill will be a brick, four stories and basement, three hundred feet long, one hundred wide, and cost with machinery, about $500,000. 
early postcard Cotton Mill Denison, Texas The
structure was of brick with stone trimmings, 300' long x 100' wide, and
four stories plus a basement in height. On either end was a tower
five stories high; in addition a six story high tower was built on the
back of the building for the elevator. There was an extension to
the main building, designed for a "picker house", one story and
basement in height, covering 64x70 feet of ground space. (shown in the
left of the above photograph). In addition to the main building,
there were the repair shop, a two-story building and the boiler
room housing 8 boilers, one-story high. The smoke stack rose 170
feet.
The main building had 650 windows, 6x10', On the premises was a well with a capacity of 200,000 gallons per day. Six hundred incandescent electric lights lit the building and was heated by a hot air heating system. For protection again fire, 1,650 automatic sprinklers were placed throughout the building. In order to accommodate the work force, 150 houses were built for them to live in. The building was expected to be completed by December 1, 1890, after which the machinery would be placed inside the building. It was expected that the work of operating would being early spring 1891. Eventually an office and warehouse would be built. (The Sunday Gazetteer, Nov. 9, 1890, pg.4) 
If you find any of
Grayson County, TXGenWeb links inoperable,
|