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plan continued in effect until it was superseded by the federal social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
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