1. Lesson 20: A New Industrial Economy 1870-1910
You can make money if you can find a need.
Hank Avery, Texas businessman

2. Lesson 20 Notes Industry Develops Slowly in Texas
It takes a while for Texas to develop modern manufacturing of products for a number of reasons:
- Texas is a frontier state
- Transportation in Texas was slow and expensive
- Texas lacked the valuable raw materials used to manufacture goods

3. Railroads Lead to Industry:
The railroad systems developed rapidly after the Civil War solving most of the transportation issues in Texas.
Railroads allowed raw materials to be shipped quickly and inexpensively to factories in Texas.
The refrigerated railroad car allowed Texas beef to be shipped far away without spoiling so less cattle drives were needed saving expenses for the ranchers. This development expanded the cattle business throughout the state.
The wood needed for railroad crossties, depot buildings, coach cars, and fuel for the train greatly expanded the lumber business in Texas.
The coal industry developed in Texas when trains started using more coal as fuel.
The industrialization of Texas was made possible through the expansion of the railroad system throughout our state.

4. _____ industry
_____ industry
Railroad
Industry
_____ industry
____ industry

5. Cotton Processing Industries Arise:
Texas cotton farming expands with the growth of the railroads.
With the move to cotton farming, people didn’t have as much time to make their own clothes, furniture and leather goods. The clothing industry in Texas grew dramatically.
Inventions of the cotton compress machine allowed for cotton to be shipped faster and cheaper.
Cotton by-products also lead to industrial growth. By 1900 cottonseed oil manufacturing had become the world’s largest Texas industry after lumber.
(Many of our foods today are made with cottonseed oil!)

6. Other Industries Grow:
Store bought items led to the increased growth in the manufacturing industry in Texas. Clothing, leather, and furniture were not the only mass manufactured items in the state.
Food items were beginning to be made and sold to consumers in large quantities. Flour and grist milling became a top-ranking industry in the state.
The beef industry increased with the use of refrigerated cattle cars allowing for beef to be transported across the state and country. Beef by-products (hides, bones, tallow) were soon processed and sold as well.

7. Texas Market Centers Develop
Large cities formed with the development of the manufacturing industries in Texas. Cities such as Dallas, Houston, Galveston, Fort Worth, and San Antonio became the largest in the state by 1900.

8. Lumber, Texas’s First Great Industry
Before farms, ranches, settlers and towns developed in Texas, the state was a huge forest full of trees and natural resources. As settlements developed, people began cutting down the forest areas and establishing towns.
Sawmills sprung up rapidly with the advancement of towns across the state. The first saw mill consisted of a single blade held in a frame and was powered by water or animals.
Eventually, the need for lumber quickly led to the advancement of the sawmill. Steam powered machines and circular saws were invented allowing lumber to be processed more quickly and cheaply.
The railroad industry also impacted the lumber industry. The railroad used much lumber in their operation and transported lumber for use in other industries developing across the state.
The cities of Beaumont and Orange become the important sawmill centers of our state.

9. The Rise of “Company Towns”
John Henry Kirby, (Prince of the Pines) created the Kirby Lumber Company in 1901 and helped make the lumber industry one of the leading industries in Texas. His company controlled more that 300,000 acres of land in East Texas and operated more than 14 sawmills.
Some lumber companies were so large that they established their own communities known as “company towns”. The employees would live there, work there, shop there, go to church there and have dances and community events together.
Company towns seemed exciting and the place to go if you were tired of the isolated farm life. However there were some disadvantages to “company towns”. The company controlled just about every aspect of your life – the prices of items in town, the house you rent and the money you earned at your job. Many companies didn’t even pay you cash for your wages at your job. They paid you in company “scrip” which was worthless outside of the “company town”.

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11. Coal Production in Texas
Unlike other coal producing states in the northeastern Unites States, Texas lacked large quantities of iron ore and high grade coal. Because of the lack of iron ore and high quality coal, Texas did not have much of a coal industry until the 1870s.
The railroad switched from burning wood to burning coal as fuel for the trains. The quality of the coal didn’t matter when you were burning it and it lasted longer as fuel for the train.
The town of Thurber, Texas (west of Fort Worth) became the state’s leading coal manufacturing towns.
The environment suffered greatly because of the coal mining in Texas. The coal miners used a technique called strip mining to extract the coal leaving behind giant rocky scars to the landscape of Texas.

12. Mine workers in Thurber protested long hours and harsh working conditions. The man on the ground in front is demonstrating the position in which miners had to work much of the time. Photo Courtesy of Thurber Historical Association

13. Other Mineral Industries:
Quarries in Burnet County turned out millions of pounds of granite. Salt, copper and limestone were also mined in Texas.
Grand Saline (East Texas) became the center for salt mining in Texas
Culberson County had layers and layers of copper deposits.
The oil and natural gas industry would eventually be discovered and become the state’s largest and most profitable industry of the time period.

14. Growth of Industrial Towns:
Transportation advancements lead to the development of industries and the growth of towns across the state.
Many towns grew up around industries such as Waco and Fort Worth – they were in the middle of the cattle industry. Beaumont and Orange developed alongside the lumber industry and Galveston and Houston developed because of their location near the Gulf of Mexico and shipping channels.
Other towns grew up around the railroad such as Dallas. There was a major railroad connection between a couple of railroad lines in the city.
Industrialization of the cities and growth within the cities led to more and more people leaving the farm life and small towns to work in the new manufacturing business in the state.

15. Double Bubble Map
industrial
worker
farm
worker

16. Use these words to fill in your Double Bubble Map
Long hours
Seasonal work
Urban
Rural
Typically male
U.S. labor force
Wage earner
Unpredictable income
Hard work

17. Double Bubble Map industrial worker farm worker long hours urban rural
hard
work
typically
male
unpredictable
income
seasonal
work
wage
earner
U.S. labor
force

18. Earning Money in Texas Industries
Industry growth in Texas created a new class of wage earners – workers paid by the day, week or month. This was greatly different than most Texans were used to earning. Most Texans earned a living by farming so they didn’t get paid until harvest season. The consistent wage earning appealed to many people – especially, the children/grandchildren of the sharecroppers and tenant farmers who had no hope of getting out of the cycle of poverty.

19. Changes in Work and Lifestyles
Towns grow as a result of industries and manufacturing developing across Texas. Young people in the rural areas of Texas flocked to the cities to find a job in the manufacturing industries. Children even worked in the factories across the state. In fact, more children worked in factories than women. The independence and freedom of a urban lifestyle appealed to many people because it seemed exciting compared to rural life. However, urban workers in the manufacturing industries worked just as many hours as the farmers. They would work up to 12 hours a day, 6 days a week in the factories while the farmers worked similar hours (sun-up to sundown, nearly every day of the week). However, urban factory workers were wage earners – paid often (daily, weekly or monthly) compared to once a year with a farmer. Urban workers had more freedom as to where to work, live, spend money or free time than farmers ever did.

20. Hardships for Industrial Workers
There were disadvantages to working in the factories and mills. Many times, workers were exposed to dangerous working conditions that were harmful to their health. Industrial accidents were common place. If you were injured on the job, you wouldn’t have any money until you were able to go back to work. There was no workers’ compensation like we have today. You would be responsible for paying for any equipment you damaged in your accident at work so you could end up being injured and paying for the unsafe equipment that caused your accident.

21. The Growth of Unions and Industrial Conflict
The larger the corporation or factory grew, the more power it had over it’s employees. As the working conditions continued to get worse, labor unions were formed. A labor union gave workers a better way of getting changes made to their working environment and improving their safety standards. The nation’s largest labor union was the Knights of Labor and was the first to become powerful in Texas. It was organized in Philadelphia in 1869 and appeared in Texas in The Knights of Labor invited everyone to join their Union – Women, African-Americans, Anglo Americans, Tejanos, farmers and factory workers. The only ones that were prohibited from joining were professional groups such as bankers, lawyers etc.

22. The Knights of Labor held the first successful strike in Texas when it went against railroad tycoon Jay Gould in It was called when the Gould’s Texas & Pacific Railway cut the workers’ wages and promised to punish anyone who participated in the strike. A second strike between the same two groups would end in violence. The state militia had to be sent in to restore order between the groups.
Other groups in Texas also went on strike throughout the next few years. Cowhands in Tascosa, granite cutters and coal miners in Thurber, Texas all formed unions and went on strike at some point. Eventually, the Texas Federation of Labor was formed which worked to establish an 8 hour workday and improve working conditions.

23. Minorities in Texas Industries
African Americans like Anglo Americans left the farm to work in factories in the city. Both groups typically received the same amount of pay but African Americans had poorer job choices. Only the Knights of Labor admitted African Americans to join their labor unions. Discrimination also excited between Mexican Americans as well. In fact, they formed their own mutalistas or union groups. Many European immigrants also moved to Texas during this time period to work in the factories and manufacturing industries across the state.

24. company town Diboll Fostoria Lumber Lumber industry Company store
commissary
Homes owned & rented by company
scrip
company
town
Company failed
social
Coal industry
stores
Low pay
controlling
scrip
lumber industry
restrictive
Kirbyville
Thurber