Inland Compress
Denison Cotton Compress
201 East Sears Street at Lamar Avenue

Almost as old as Denison itself, the North Texas Cotton Compress was built by the MK&T ("Katy") Railroad, which in
1876 owned three-quarters of the stock. Patrick H. Tobin (engineer on the first Katy train to reach Denison in 1872) and
E. D. Chadwick owned the other one-third. In continuous operation for more than seventy years, the compress was perhaps the best-known enterprise (other than the MK&T Railroad itself) in the northeastern part of Denison.

North Texas Cotton Compress
Founded 1876
201 East Sears Street
—Denison Compress

The compress had a capacity of one thousand bales per day, making it capable of handling the entire North Texas cotton crop. The compress had a 300-horsepower steamer operating the engine, which was driven by three boilers twenty feet in length, all made of extra iron and double-riveted. To flatten each bale of cotton, pressure of 2,400 tons was applied.
The cost of constructing the compress was well over $50,000, quite a sum in those days. The structure was 310 feet long and 80 feet wide. The walls were two feet thick, and the foundation was made of solid masonry.The compress was purchased in 1880 by the Wise-Fitzhugh Company of Paris, Texas. Aldridge Harrison served as the manager.

The area around Denison was well suited for growing cotton. Once picked, the cotton was brought to the compress, which "compressed" it, producing bales that could be shipped to manufacturers of cotton textiles and other goods. The large building stood on the north side of the 200 block of East Sears Street, along the MK&T tracks. It was located directly across from the Houston & Texas Central (Southern Pacific) Roundhouse, which occupied the south side of that block for about the same length of time.

Denison Daily News
Thursday, January 3, 1878
pg. 1

THE COTTON COMPRESS
is the most substantial of the kind in the United States, and has a reducing capacity of one inch greater than any other yet built; a pressure of 2,400 tons is brought to bear upon each bale of cotton. The building stands 310 feet long by 86 feet wide, with self-supporting roof, covered with iron. The engine, three hundred horse power, is driven by three boilers twenty feet in length, made of extra iron, double riveted. The foundation of the building is of solid masonary, with walls two feet thick, built of selected stone, with a view of eventually raising it four stories higher, the upper part to be occupied and operated as a cotton factory. Its capacity is one thousand bales per day.

Postcard
Cotton Compress
Denison, Texas
1900

"Denison Compress Company."
Robinson, Frank M., comp. Industrial Denison. [N.p.]: Means-Moore Co., [ca. 1909]. Page 9.

Hauling Cotton to Denison
Denison, Texas
1907

In 1908, the company was again purchased, this time becoming Inland Compress. Manager F. W. Wilson served for
many years. A 1909 brochure described the compress: "An immense two thousand ton cotton compress handles from fifty thousand to ninety thousand bales of cotton during the season, fifteen thousand to thirty thousand bales of it
coming in on wagons. Three gins of large capacity handle cotton in the seed."

M. A. Joy of Dallas took over operations in 1926, naming Horace Ash as manager. The company then became the Denison Compress.

In 1937, the compress had a big refurbishing. Some new structures were built on the site, but the original foundation
and part of the old structure remained intact.

The compress operated well into the 1940s. For many decades, scraps of the old structures remained at the site, which was long occupied by Denison Feed and Seed Company.

Denison History

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