Things really changed in 1880 when the railroad arrived.
Farmers could now ship their cotton to Galveston and then overseas to England where textile mills bought large amounts of it. Within a decade, Greenville was exporting around $ 1 million worth of cotton each year, making it a key economic hub for the region.
By the early 1900s, the cotton business was booming.
Greenville even called itself the“ Cotton Capital of the World.” A big reason for that was the Greenville cotton compress, one of the largest facilities of its kind inland. It set world records in 1911 and 1912 for how many cotton bales it could process.
At its peak, the compress handled more than 2,000 bales in a single 10-hour day. The city’ s population grew quickly and it became an important stop along the railroad.
As cotton grew, so did local businesses. Stores selling goods and farm supplies opened to support farmers and residents, helping the economy grow even more.
Farming itself was also changing. New machinery made work easier and faster. In 1881, K. L. Lowenstein started a business in Greenville that supplied cotton gin and mill equipment and by the 1890s, he was well known across North Texas.
Cotton started to decline in the mid-1900s but its impact is still part of Greenville today. The Audie Murphy / American Cotton Museum helps preserve that history and historical markers around the city highlight its past.
Today, Greenville’ s economy is more diverse. But cotton played a big role in turning it into a growing city connected to markets across the country and around the world.
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