Let us not forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, other arts will follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization. – Daniel Webster
Written by Carl Bodiford – In an 1893 essay, Frederick Jackson Turner presented his influential “Frontier Thesis.” Turner argued that the distinctive elements of American culture developed as part of the process of westward expansion. America was uniquely different from Europe because of the opportunities and challenges of settling the North American continent. In other words, we Americans are who we are because of the wide open spaces.
While opponents of American exceptionalism have leveled effective criticism of Turner’s thesis, much of his explanation of the process of westward migration remains valid. Turner argued that ranchers preceded farmers in settling frontier areas. This sequence was certainly true in the case of Brown County. The first white settlers were stockmen. Not until the 1880s did farmers begin to make their presence known. The arrival of the railroad vastly increased migration into Brown County. Most of these new arrivals were farmers from southern states who were committed to the cultivation of cotton. “King Cotton” since long before the Civil War had been viewed as the ticket to prosperity. It was these Southern “sodbusters” who had the greatest influence in transforming Brown County and causing Brownwood to become the thriving hub of commerce of west central Texas.
We are told by noted local historian T.R. Havins that the first cotton in Brown County was planted in 1869, but the 1870 Census reported only two farms in the county and zero bales of cotton ginned. Two events in the mid-1880s opened the way for farming in Brown County: an ending of the fence – cutting war and the coming of the railroad. When the Santa Fe Railroad began regular service in 1885, and the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad (Frisco) began service in 1891, cotton producers were linked to the markets essential for profitable cotton production. In the brief period between 1870 and 1900, the population of Brown County increased almost 3,000 percent from 544 to 16,019. During the same period, the number of farms increased from two to 1,396 and the zero bales ginned in 1870 had increased to 24,154 by 1903.
1904 Texas Almanac
The average annual rainfall of twenty-four to twenty-six inches was just enough to grow a successful crop. But the lure of cheap land and the beginnings of the boll weevil scourge in the deep-south states spurred farmers westward to Brown and surrounding counties with the hopes of prosperity. Since 1880, the price per pound for cotton had been generally trending upward until the Depression of 1893 when the price per pound dropped from eight to four cents. The per- pound price remained low until 1901 and by 1903 the price had reached a very lucrative ten and one half cents per pound. One commentator referred to the commodity as “white gold.” The 1904 Texas Almanac excitedly commented that:
“Cotton is almost as necessary to the human family as bread. The uses for it are constantly growing in number, and the demand is increasing more rapidly than the world’s population”
Cotton cultivation was the primary force for industrial and financial expansion and generated much of the wealth needed to build an infrastructure for a county entering a new century. In 1877, Brooke Smith built the first cotton gin in the area. By 1900, the Brown County boasted twenty – five gins (four in Brownwood), two cotton compresses and a cotton seed oil mill with storage facilities for the oil. Four wagon yards thrived by meeting the needs of area farmers and ranchers. Livelihoods were established and fortunes were made from the cotton industry. Brownwood must have been a bustling hive of activity during cotton harvest time each fall. Street buyers made deals with farmers who brought their wagons loaded with cotton. The buyers then sold one of the two exchanges in town. Brownwood became the center for the cotton trade in west central Texas. Farmers from Coleman, Eastland, Callahan and San Saba counties brought their crops to Brownwood for sale. All of this economic activity spurred real estate, banking, insurance and of course where there is money there are lawyers. And cotton prosperity also fostered shadier entrepreneurs such as gamblers, prostitutes and others who existed on the fringes of society.
Farmers Alliance Day in Brownwood, September 20, 1890
Cotton Compress Brownwood c. 1905
Making Cotton Mattresses, Brownwood 1915
The dawning of the twentieth century ushered in rapid increase in cotton cultivation in all of the cotton producing states and by 1900, Texas had become the state with the highest annual production. West Central Texas, despite low annual rainfall totals was one of the more important regions in Texas for cotton production. The Texas Almanac reported that the average number of bales produced in 245 counties reporting in 1908 was 15,867. Brown County and bordering counties easily surpassed that amount. In 1908, the high point of cotton production, Brown County ranked twenty-second among Texas counties in number of bales ginned.
- Comanche County 61,241 bales
- Taylor County 37,420 bales
- Runnels County 55,913 bales
- Callahan County 23,874 bales
- Eastland County 53,931 bales
- Mills County 23,193 bales
- Brown County 45,535 bales
- Coleman County 21,894 bales
- Coryell County 42,130 bales
- San Saba County 20,603 bales
- McCulloch County 39,253 bales
Statistics obscure the human story of the cotton boom. It was the individual farmer who performed the arduous task of growing a crop under the most difficult of circumstances. Even in the best of years, the producer received only marginal financial gain from the labor expended. The farmer was totally dependent on the uncertainties of the weather. While hard work and knowledge of crop cultivation were essential, not amount of diligence or expertise could prevent the economic disasters wrought by a frost at the wrong time, too much rain or more likely not enough moisture. For example, during the drought of 1917 – 1918 the number of bales produced in the county dropped to 6,013 and then 1,048. And foreign affairs also impacted the cotton farmer. At the beginning of World War I in August 1914, the announcement of a British naval blockade of European trade caused a panic in the cotton markets that drove the per pound price from a 1913 level of twelve cents down to five cents. Farmers in need of cash were forced to accept this low price, but the buyers and exchanges (who could afford to be patient) faired quite well when the British government later agreed to buy cotton at a ten cent level. Unfortunately, the farmer did most of the work, bore the greatest risk and garnered the least profit. As stated in From Can See to Can’t: Texas Cotton Farmers on the Southern Prairies:
[The world of the cotton farmer] …had so little margin for error, for bad luck, that when something went wrong, it almost always brought something else down with it. It was a world in which survival depended on raw courage, a courage born out of desperation, and sustained by a lack of alternatives.” P. 5
The Ryan Family Picking Cotton in Blanket, Texas.
The Gabbert Cotton Gin in Holder, Texas. (north central Brown County)
Cotton Wagon on Main Street in Brownwood
Cotton Bales in Blanket, Texas
It was an insect, however, that brought an end to the cotton boom in Brown County. In 1909, the arrival of the boll weevil signaled the decline of cotton cultivation in the area. By 1910, only 6,967 bales were processed in the county. Cotton production moved on to the South Plains where colder winters tended to prevent boll weevil infestation. While annual Brown County production of cotton spiked at the 26,382 bale mark in 1930, the general trend of production descended steadily until in 1953 the Texas Almanac reported no bales ginned in Brown County.
The end of the cotton boom was accompanied by other changes that brought new opportunities to the region. Because of diversification and innovation, agricultural business continued to contribute significantly to regional economic development. Brown County citizens courageously encountered the challenges of depression, war and after with the same resolve that their frontier forebears had shown. It is a heritage of which we current Brown County residents may justly honor and hopefully emulate. Earl Looney, one of the city pioneers who lived through the cotton boom said proudly of his home town: “You’ve often heard the suggestion that you can’t keep a good man down. Neither can you keep a good town down. You can’t and you won’t keep Brownwood down.”
