Brazos Manufacturing Company, C. S. A.
Historical marker location:Established in 1863 on a Brazos River tributary. Intended to make flour and cloth of cotton and wool. Chartered by 9th Texas Legislature in all-out effort to supply the goods necessary to Confederate victory in the Civil War. Up to now Texas had not had factories because she could more economically trade agricultural products for manufactured goods. Wartime imports, however, were limited to small shipments run in through Federal coastal blockades.
To finance its purchases of machinery, materials and labor, Brazos Manufacturing Company received cotton from Texas planters, especially in this area.
Subscription of a bale of cotton gave a planter the right to export one bale for his own benefit. Since neither factory nor farm had any other way to pay running expenses than by cotton sales, much cotton was donated to the corporation.
This corporation met the fate of many chartered by Texas during the Civil War: paper mills, bridge and ferry companies, iron works, railroads, foundries, cotton cards plants and others. Although Brazos Manufacturing Company did help to clothe army and civilians, its production was small and was achieved too late in the war.