Cotton Mill Herstory

Women played an important role in founding the Cotton Mill in 1910.

At MillHouse, we're thrilled to build on the amazing foundation these pioneering women put in place.

The Texas Cotton Mill Company originated September 21, 1910. Original Board of Directors: J. Perry Burrus, First President and largest stockholder, Thomas B. Wilson, Louis Alfred Scott, William B. Newsome, George Wilcox, James Rowland Gough, Elbert W. Kirkpatrick,  Stephen D. Heard, Mary Elizabeth Crane Boyd, and three others.

McKinney's Cotton Mill is unique due to the substantial number of women investors. The original stockholder list (42) included four prominent women.

Most notable of the women stockholders, McKinney's Mary Elizabeth Boyd served as one of the original directors.

1. *Mary Elizabeth Crane Boyd (held 200 shares worth $10k)
2. *Willie Emma Proctor Marshall -- stockholder and independent businesswoman, owned a millinery shop on 102 West Virginia Street over a dry goods shop (building now numbers 110) -- (10 shares worth $500)
3. *Mary Martha (Minnie) Houston Nelson - leader in McKinney Methodist church and Women’s Missionary Society (10 shares worth $500)
4. *Sallie Blevins (10 shares worth $500)
5. *Mrs. M.F. Matthews (10 shares worth $500)
6. Mrs. E. E. King, wife of minister of First Baptist Church - not original stockholder
7. W.C. Newsome’s widow -- not original stockholder

* Designated feme sole or sole owner --  Texas law allowing women to own property.

Mary Elizabeth Crane Boyd, Founding Director and Stockholder

In 1895, Mary joined McKinney’s oldest women’s organization, the Owl Club. After her husband's death in 1906, Mary continued her work as a moneylender, and took on a larger role in civic affairs. She sold land to the city for a new city hall, and donated $3000 in 1914 to furnish the new city high school, which is named after her, McKinney Boyd.

A bit more data about McKinney's Cotton Mill...

1914 Texas Bureau of Labor Statistics 1st report on McKinney's Cotton Mill:

• Employees worked an 11-hour day and 60-hour week. 
• 150 male employees averaged $1.30/day. 
• 60 female employees averaged $1.20/day. [Note: Most women millworkers received $.85/day or less.]
• $1.00 was the minimum daily wage.

No Child Labor

McKinney's textile mill restricted child labor, verified by Lewis Hines on behalf of the National Child Labor Committee in October 1914. He found no one under 15 in the workforce (see photo above).

Cotton Mill process:

Cotton bolls are cleaned by combing and carding. Cotton fibers are twisted so that yarn can be spun, dyed, and woven into cloth. Picking season: August-November. Mill running at capacity by October. 

Jobs in the Cotton Mill:

• Picker cleans the cotton and organizes it into continuous, even sheets.
• Carder feeds cotton sheets into carding machines with sharp metal teeth to tear apart the cotton to remove remaining dirt and debris, and create sliver, a loosely compacted rope.
• Spinner operates machines with spindles to convert fibers into thread wound tightly onto bobbins.
• Doffer replaces thread-filled bobbins filled with empty ones.
• Spooler operates machines that combine the thread from ten to fifteen different bobbins.
• Weaver prepares the yarn for the loom in a process that varies from simple to elaborate, depending on the design of the cloth.
• Fixer repairs machines. 

Sources:

• McKinney History - Cotton Mill
• National Registry of Historic Places 
• Interweaving History: The Texas Textile Mill and McKinney, Texas, 1903-1968 Deborah Katheryn Kilgore.
• Textile Manufacturing.
• Cotton Industry Jobs
• Work in a Textile Mill.