Grayson County TXGenWeb
 


Sherman Democrat
Bi-Centennial Edition

HARDWICKE-ETTER
The founders and early employees of Hardwicke-Etter, the Sherman manufacturer of ginning equipment, gathered for this photo about 1910. 
On the bottom row from left to right are Frank Waring, Gene Wyndelts, J.E. Jamison and J. Wyndelts. 
On the top row are James Biggs, Joe F. Etter, Charles Savage, Leslie Etter, Earl Crookshanks and Curl Cameron.

Sherman Democrat
August 13, 1939

Complete Gin Machinery Is Made Here
Company Develops from Retail Hardware Store to Manufacturing
Move in 1908 Marked Beginning of Development
Twelve Buildings Housing Plant have 200,000 Square Feet of Space

Over a 39-year-period the Hardwick-Etter company of Sherman has made steady growth, consolidating it gains so as to show but few setbacks in business.
One of the largest makers of cotton ginning equipment in the world, a line of manufacture ordinarily entailing much seasonal labor, the industry has yet been conducted with the greatest regard for the men who make its products.
The company was started as a hardware store at 109 South Travis, the location now occupied by the Scheurer Brothers hardware store.  Joe F. Etter, now president of the firm, and George Hardwick, who died several years ago, were organizers of the firm in 1900.

IMPORTANT MOVE

In 1908 the hardware retail business was sold and the wholesale firm was moved to the present site, and manufacturing was introduced.  The plant now covers an area equal to more than two square blocks on North Montgomery street, from Houston north to Pecan, and its 12 building contain more than 200,000 square feet of floor space.  There are several other material sheds on the property.
May 1, 1934 the company announced its retirement pension plan to provide a life annuity for retiring employees.  This plan continued in effect until it was superseded by the federal social security plan.
Later in 1934, however, the company offered employees its division of earnings plan, developed by Mr. Etter, by which 20 per cent of net earnings is being divided among employees at the end of the year.  This plan continues in force.  The company has agreed to dip into its own funds to make up payments to the employees in the event of no net profits.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

Mr. Etter advised employees that this was not to be considered as a philanthropic move but simply good business, since employees in all departments, who contribute to the earnings and success of the company, are happier and more efficient and interested if they have a share of the earnings as well as their wages.
For many years the company, with John Streun as chief engineer, had manufactured special cleaning and bur extracting systems, before in 1929 it began its manufacture of entire ginning machinery outfits.  The first complete gin was sold in 1931.
Under the leadership of Mr. Streun, a designing of unusual ability and with an intimate and practical knowledge of the history, development and practice of ginning, the engineers combined advanced knowledge of gin systems in the new machinery.
Raw material for the machinery moves naturally through wide connecting doors from one building to another, all on one floor, until it becomes finished machines.

WIDELY DISTRIBUTED

The machinery equipment for manufacturing – the big steel shears, benders, presses and welders – is modern in type, and much of it is designed by the company’s own engineers and manufactured in its own shops.
All the company’s manufacturing processes are concentrated in Sherman, where because of unusual shop facilities, low property costs and modern factory types of inexpensive buildings, along with correspondingly low overhead costs, they are able to manufacture most economically and offer to their customers correspondingly attractive values.


Hardwicke-Etter History

Sherman History
Susan Hawkins

© 2024

If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message.