Tues, April 16
Dean Weldon, a good friend from Oak Harbor, moved to Forney, TX several years ago. When she saw that we were going to be in the Dallas area, she invited us to come visit and spend the night at her place. Today, we drove over to Dean’s home. How great it was to have this low key time together that also included a delicious steak dinner. We had such an enjoyable time catching up and reminiscing. Dean shared more about her hiking experiences along the Camino in France and Spain. It was amazing to hear of the vast variety of people walking the Camino, and their motivations for doing so. Dean went on to share with us her recent bike trip experience in Italy. Now that was something that piqued our interest to consider doing, or one similar. Always a delight catching up with Dean!
I loved some of the art pieces Dean had displayed in her home.
We ended the evening playing several games of SEQUENCE.
Wednesday morning Barry and I woke up to a wonderful sausage quiche that Dean made. I commented on how nice and flaky the crust was, so she let me in on her secret.
After breakfast we got ready and all headed to Greenville, TX to the Audie Murphy & American Cotton Museum. It wasn’t a large museum, but very well done.
The entrance near the road greeted us with the larger than life statue of Audie. I found the quotes used at this monument to be so powerful. They need to be restated today!
So just who was Audie Murphy??
Approaching the museum entrance I saw this double-sided heart. Loved it!
INSIDE the Museum
Life in the 19th century – 1st some interesting exhibits
Upon entering there was a display of various barbed wire. Who knew there was such a variety in the 19th century, or thought about the person who created it.
HOW Today’s COWBOY HAT Came to Be
Fred Ende’s branding iron is pictured below. Ende was a German immigrant who came to Greenville about 1857. He became one of Greenvilles’ most civic-minded citizens. His house is the oldest standing house in the city. It was moved to the grounds of this museum in 1996.
As a retired teacher I had to include this exhibit!
This cannon ball safe was pretty cool to see.
THE STORY OF COTTON AND GREENVILLE, TEXAS
GREENVILLE, TEXAS – HUNT COUNTY – BUILT BY COTTON
Cotton is one of the world’s oldest and most amazing natural products. It is the ONLY crop in the U.S. that produces both food and fiber. It’s hard to imagine life without cotton. After all, we all love our jeans, soft wash cloths, towels, t-shirts, etc. I had no idea that cotton is also used in things from explosives to fertilizer, drugs, and cosmetics.
The arrival of the railroads in 1880 opened Hunt County to farming and businesses to a grand scale. The fields were white with cotton. Cotton gins appeared throughout. Greenville’s cotton compress became the largest in the world. This cotton was so highly regarded by spinners in Europe that growers shipped cotton here from many miles away just to get the Greenville marking!
Mr. W.R. Wilson was the biggest and probably the only cotton broker in Greenville. From 1930 thru 1980 he operated out of a 3-room office similar to the one here in the museum. All the furniture (above) was from his actual office (minus the safe).
Wilson’s house (also moved to the museum grounds)
Wilson learned the cotton brokerage business as a young man from his uncle who was well established in the Houston area. Wilson bought directly from the cotton farmer. His warehouse could store several thousand bales of cotton at a time. There were other cotton buyers in Greenville, but Wilson was a member of the Houston, Dallas, Memphis and NY Cotton Exchanges which qualified him as a broker.
Each bale had to be classed which told them the tinsel strength of the fiber, the staple or length of the fiber, and the color and type. A sample from each bale was then sent to the buyer to see and feel the quality first hand, and would act as the guarantee that the entire matching bale’s quality would match. Some went within the U.S., but most of the cotton was shipped overseas to China, Japan, Germany, Italy and France.
Horse Driven Gin Model:
Dean grew up here in Greenville. Dean’s grandfather was a cotton farmer, and her mother starting working in the fields at the age of 5 Wow! When I reacted like that, Dean replied matter-of-factly, “Well, if you didn’t have servants, you had children to help do the work.” She went on to say that her grandmother made a child-sized picking sack from feed sacks. That’s what her mom used while she was little. Click here for more on children picking cotton. I don’t think most of us these days realize how blessed we are.
Read below for the inspiration to the creation of the nursery rhyme and wind-up pop-up toy “Pop Goes the Weasel.”
I had no idea that the entire cotton plant is useful, especially the cottonseed. I’ve heard of cottonseed oil, but never really thought any more of it since I don’t buy it – i.e. Wesson’s Cottonseed Oil. Below are some steps of processing the plant to yield things other than the bales of cotton.
- Cotton boll – The cotton plant blooms about 2 months after planting. When the blossom die, tiny green pods called cotton bolls form. The boll is shaped like a tiny football and turns brown as it ripens. The cotton boll is ready to pick when it splits open into 4 or 5 sections called locks which contain the fiber and the seeds.
- Cotton Picker’s Account Book – Used by a local farmer in the years 1917-1918 to record planting and ginning information.
- Miniature Bales of Cotton – Used to advertise the ginning capabilities of local cotton gins. These miniature bales were processed at a local gin in the early 1950s.
- Picker Lap – After bales are opened at the textile mill, the fiber is blended, cleaned and formed into picker laps, which are about 18 inches think and 45 inches wide.
The picker lap moves to the carding machines where the fiber is cleaned and combed to make it straight and flat. The fiber is then formed into slivers. The two cotton cards (pictured below) show how people carded cotton before modern machines did the job. (Reminds me of dog combs.)
Roving – After being drawn thinner, slivers of fiber are fed into a roving frame for twisting and pulling into smaller strands.
8. Yarn – In the spinning frame, roving is further twisted and
drawn into yarn, which is then wound on spools for
weaving. By this time the cotton fiber is stretched so thin
that the yarn is as fine as thread.
9. (not pictured). CLOTH – A large number of cotton fabrics are
produced today, such as cotton knit (first made by machines in the
late 1500’s!
* Cotton knits are soft and absorbent. (T-shirts to bed sheets)
* Denim – used by Columbus for sails on the Santa Maria, cotton
denim is of course the favorite for jeans.
* Terry cloth – This all-cotton fabric was first made by machines
in 1851 and later won a medal from Queen Victoria. It is
used for towels, robes, and sportswear.
* Corduroy – The French called this fabric “the cloth of kings.”
Warm and washable this fabric was used for winter
clothing, couch coverings, and draperies.
* Seersucker – This was the first “no-iron” fabric. It has a woven-
in crinkle. It is used for summer clothing, bedspreads,
and curtains.
I loved a seersucker pants and top outfit that I had in junior high or
high school. Well, at least until my dad used so much starch to get
those “damn wrinkles” out! I cried. He felt horrible. Mom thought
the puckers might come back when washed again. They didn’t.
10. Cottonseed from the Gin – What it looks like as it comes
from the gin. The fuzzy fibers on the seeds are called
“linters”.
11. Removing Cottonseed Linters – Linters are removed at the
oil mill. This sample was run through a gin one time to
remove the cotton lint.
12. This sample was run through a second time.
13. Cracking Cottonseed Hulls – After all lint has been
removed, the cottonseed hulls are cracked to remove the
seeds. The dark parts are the hulls and the lighter parts
are the seeds.
14. Cottonseed Hulls Without Seeds – This is the next step in
the milling process. The hulls are used to make animal
feed, fertilizer and oil well drilling mud. They also become
an ingredient in synthetic rubber, plastics and petroleum
refining.
15. Lint from the Cottonseed – The lint that was removed
from the cottonseed is used in a large number of products
including writing paper and US dollar bills, hospital
bandages, candle wicks, rugs, mops, and upholstery. The
dissolved pulp from linters is used to make plastics,
photography film, explosives, fingernail polish, cosmetics,
paint, toothpaste, and ice cream! Hmmm…explosives to
ice cream!
16. Ground Cottonseed – The cottonseed is ground up in
preparation for its use in many different products.
17. Animal Protein Cakes – Sample animal protein cakes are
made from ground up cottonseed.
18. Seed Meats – This sample of cottonseed meats, taken
from the crushed seeds, were steamed and rolled. The
cottonseed oil is removed with the use of chemicals.
19. Cottonseed Oil (crude) – This shows what cottonseed oil looks like
prior to being refined. Depending on the refining process, the
finished oil can be used for drugs and insecticides.
20. Cottonseed Oil (refined) – This sample has been refined to remove
impurities to make it lighter in color. It can then be used in a variety
of foods as a preservative, a main ingredient or to cook foods, such
as potato chips.
Wesson Cottonseed Oil is an example of cottonseed processed to be purchased by consumers to take home to cook with and use. (Not one I ever use.)
Get to Know Audie Murphy
Audie Murphy grew up on a sharecroppers’s farm here. He did not start school till he was nine due to a lack of transportation and the remoteness of the Murphy’s home from schools, as well as being needed to work on the cotton farm. Audie was one of 12 children, and when his dad up and left, Audie dropped out of school (5th grade) to make money picking cotton and help his mom raise his brothers and sisters. He actually worked multiple jobs. When Audie was 16, his mother died, and he had to watch his brothers and sisters go to an orphanage or to relatives. He knew he had to get away. Audie’s older sister helped manipulate his birth certificate to make him 18 before he really was. This allowed him to enlist in Army.
The time Audie spent hunting and recreational shooting growing up provided priceless experience for obtaining remarkable marksmanship skills. His marksmanship was second nature enabling him to stay calm and accurate under the stress of being in the US Army Infantry Division during WWII. His skills, combined with his moral being, and loyalty to his unit members and the importance of fighting for freedom and democracy is why he became the most decorated soldier in all of WWII!
Great history refresher with the map and timeline combo below. :). Click on the picture to expand to read beginning at the bottom left corner block (#1)
Audie became an action figure!
Audie Murphy was asked to play himself in the Hollywood movie “To Hell and Back”. It became the biggest hit for Universal Studios for that time. Audie was in a total of 39 additional films including “The Red Badge of Courage”,and “Night Passage” w/James Stewart.
Audie Murphy also wrote a number of songs!
Audie Murphy was killed in a plane crash.
On May 28, 1971, Murphy was killed in a private plane crash northwest of Roanoke, Virginia. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. His grave marker has the incorrect birth year of 1924. He was born in 1925.
I remember our guide at Arlington National Cemetery pointed out a marker for the most decorated soldier of WWII, so I took a picture. I had no idea who the person was…till now. I think I also took the picture since my dad was in the army and was in during WWII and the Korean War.
The headstones of Medal of Honor recipients buried at Arlington National Cemetery are normally decorated in gold leaf. Murphy previously requested that his stone remain plain and inconspicuous, like that of an ordinary soldier. ]His gravesite is the cemetery’s second most-visited gravesite after President John F. Kennedy, so a specific walkway was created to protect the grounds and the gravesites nearby. (Just as they have recently done with the Honorable Ruth Bader Ginsberg (Supreme Court Justice).
Afterwards, Dean showed us around Greenville as she pointed out places pertinent to her family including where she used to live. It was an enjoyable day. Thank you, Dean for letting us know about this museum, and going with us. 🙂
Awesome thank you for sharing