81R9081 MMS-D
 
  By: Kolkhorst H.C.R. No. 71
 
 
 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
         WHEREAS, The State of Texas has customarily recognized a
  variety of official state symbols as tangible representations of
  the state's historical and cultural heritage; and
         WHEREAS, The Burton Cotton Gin & Museum, in Burton,
  Washington County, is home to what is believed to be the only
  restored gin of its time period in the United States that remains in
  its original building, on its original site, and that operates with
  equipment that was in the facility when the gin closed; beyond its
  uniqueness, this plant represents a significant chapter in Texas
  agricultural and economic history; and
         WHEREAS, First grown in Texas by Spanish missionaries, cotton
  became an important source of income in the state in the 19th
  century and has remained a significant part of the state's economy;
  Texas has led the nation in cotton production in almost every year
  since 1880, and the state's annual cotton harvest today constitutes
  approximately a quarter of all the cotton raised in the United
  States; the largest cash crop in Texas, cotton has been designated
  the official State Fiber and Fabric; and
         WHEREAS, Beginning in the 1870s, cotton culture in Texas
  expanded dramatically: between 1869 and 1879, the number of bales
  produced in the state rose from approximately 350,000 to more than
  800,000, and by 1900 the number of bales reached more than 3.5
  million; this soaring volume placed a heavy strain on the existing
  gins and their mode of operation; even if steam engines were used
  instead of animals to power the gin machinery, manual labor was
  still needed to shift the cotton from one operation to another, and
  as cotton harvests increased, impatient farmers were forced to wait
  in ever longer lines at the gin; and
         WHEREAS, To cope with the upsurge in production, Robert S.
  Munger, of Mexia, devised a radically new process that became known
  as system ginning; over the period from 1883 to 1892, he created
  pneumatic technology that would move the cotton in a continuous
  manner, directly from the wagon to the gin stand and then to the
  baling press; modern-day cotton gins still use the process that he
  pioneered; and
         WHEREAS, Though highly successful, Mr. Munger's technology
  was too expensive for a single individual to install, and so local
  farmers would establish associations to build system gins; in 1913,
  a group of Burton agriculturists, most of them German Texans,
  incorporated to construct and operate the Burton Farmers Gin;
  designed by the Lummus Cotton Gin Company, the gin relied on Mr.
  Munger's pneumatic system, together with special air-blast
  equipment to doff lint from the gin saws; and
         WHEREAS, During the 1920s, the mechanization of cotton
  harvesting necessitated the addition of still further machinery at
  the Burton gin, in order to remove the increased volume of trash
  from the seed cotton; the total power requirement then exceeded the
  capacity of the gin's original steam engine, and the latter was thus
  supplanted in 1925 by a Bessemer Type IV diesel engine with 125
  horsepower; after that engine failed in 1963, it was replaced by an
  electric motor, though the diesel engine was repaired and kept as a
  standby power source; and
         WHEREAS, The Burton Farmers Gin operated from 1914 to 1974,
  by which time cotton production in the area had almost wholly given
  way to the raising of livestock; efforts by local citizens to
  preserve the gin and return it to its 1930s condition began in 1986;
  as part of the initial phase, the complete gin records, which
  chronicle cotton production and sales by area farmers as well as the
  history of the physical plant, were indexed and archived; later,
  staff from the Smithsonian Institution assisted with the
  restoration of the gin's Bessemer engine, the "Lady B," which is
  considered to be "the largest operating internal combustion engine
  of [its] vintage in the southern United States," and one of the
  "few, if [indeed there are] any, engines of this age and horsepower
  in operation outside of a museum"; and
         WHEREAS, Today, the Burton Farmers Gin constitutes the main
  structure in the nine-acre complex known as the Burton Cotton Gin &
  Museum; the gin itself is open for tours year-round and is activated
  twice a year, during the Cotton Gin Festival in April and the First
  Bale Celebration in October; listed on the National Register of
  Historic Places, the Burton Farmers Gin has also been designated a
  Texas Historic Landmark by the Texas Historical Commission and a
  National Historic Engineering Landmark by the American Society of
  Mechanical Engineers; and
         WHEREAS, A key element of the cotton industry, gins were once
  a fixture in countless rural Texas communities and a fundamental
  part of their local economy; today, the Burton Cotton Gin & Museum
  evokes that earlier time and offers a rare window into a critical
  technological advance, one that continues to benefit the Lone Star
  State; now, therefore, be it
         RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas
  hereby designate the Burton Cotton Gin & Museum as the official
  Cotton Gin Museum of Texas.