Farmers Union Gin Company
120 Grove St., San Marcos, TXFor about 50 years, cotton was a mainstay of the Hays County economy. Central to the industry was the Farmers Union Gin Company of San Marcos. It was housed in a utilitarian building made handsome with Victorian string courses, arched windows, and polychrome decoration.
In 1908, five area farmers bought five acres of land on the MKT line. They convinced Oscar Calvin Smith, Sr., whose father had owned a gin in nearby Waelder, to organize a local facility. In 1909 the property was conveyed to the Farmers Union Gin Company, which was in full and prosperous operation by that summer in an iron building already on the site.
A fire in 1910 destroyed the metal structure but spared the Murray-Corliss Steam Engine that ran until 1966 and is now in an Alamo, Texas, Steam Engine Museum. Oscar Smith rebuilt in 1910-1911 in brick on a scale three times the size ot the earlier structure that allowed three bales to be ginned at once. The gin's location in the heart of town and near the cotton buyer's yard and cotton seed mill ensured its success. It was the hub of a highly efficient and modernized complex that saw the raw material and by-products fully processed and shipped in a smooth series of operations. In addition to the extensive ginning operation, the Farmers Union Company sold out-of-state coal to residents. A further company diversification was the construction of junked Model T parts of early motorized chassis for cotton transport.
Smith eventually bought out the original investors and continued the business in 1931 as 0.C. Smith and Company. He was a city councilman and mayor. His son Max was in the Texas Legislature and was elected Hays County judge. Another son, Edwin, ran the gin from 1948-1966. Calvin and Gwendolyn, the other children, distinguished themselves in the field of education.
With the decline of cotton production, the gin became quieter and was the last in Hays County to close, in 1966. The building is being rehabilitated as an eating place, appropriately named the Farmers Union Company Restaurant.
Bibliography
Kathleen M. Morris. "The Farmers Union Gin Company:, an unpublished monograph on file at the San Marcos Public Library. A full bibliography is appended to this monograph.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.