DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Green Machinery Co., Inc. in Hale County. Now, every now and then you come across a name that the land itself seems to remember. George Emmett Green is one of those names.
Born in 1875, Green was the kind of man who didn't just understand machines — he thought in them. He mastered water well development. He worked as a pattern maker and draftsman in pump factories.
He even operated a plant of his own back in his native Missouri. By the time he loaded up his wife Salome — she was a Rich before she married him — and their children and pointed himself toward Texas in 1909, George Green had been studying the puzzle of water and power for a long, long time. And South Plains agriculture had a puzzle waiting for him.
See, folks out here knew the land was fertile. They could feel it. But for a long while, irrigation had been considered the missing ingredient — the key factor that would enable this rich country to produce foodstuffs and fibers for millions of consumers.
The water was the question. Could you get to it? Could you get enough of it?
In 1911, Green set out to answer that question. He dug Hale County's test irrigation well on the J.H. Slaton farm.
And what came up out of that ground? One thousand, four hundred gallons of water per minute. A commercial yield.
Deep water, right there under the South Plains. That well won him fame, and it earned every bit of it. But George Green wasn't the kind of man to stop at famous.
Once the deep water was found, he tackled the related problems. How do you move all that water efficiently? How do you put it to work?
In 1915, he invented the hollow-shaft, right-angle gear drive for irrigation pumps — a device that made it possible to use automotive-type engines for irrigation power. That's a mouthful, but here's what it meant: farmers could now use the kinds of engines they already knew, already had, to run their irrigation rigs. And Green had a goal behind all of it — commercial pumps at moderate prices.
He established this factory in 1911, and he drove irrigation well installation costs down to a figure that farmers could actually afford. Not a figure that sounded good on paper. A figure a working man could meet.
George Emmett Green passed in 1960. But the business he built? His descendants still own it.
Still operate it. Right there in Hale County, where a man from Missouri once put a drill in the ground and pulled up the future.
What the marker says
Founded by George Emmett Green (1875-1960), whose work revolutionized Texas agriculture. Mechanically-gifted, Green mastered water well development, worked as pattern maker and draftsman in pump factories, and operated a plant of his own in his native Missouri before moving here in 1909 with his wife Salome (Rich) and their children. In 1911 he dug Hale County's test irrigation well on the J.H. Slaton farm, reaching a commercial yield of 1400 gallons of water per minute. This won him fame, as irrigation had long been considered the missing ingredient in South Plains agriculture -- the key factor that would enable this fertile area to produce foodstuffs and fibers to supply millions of consumers. Once deep water was found, Green tackled related problems and invented (1915) the hollow-shaft, right-angle gear drive for irrigation pumps, which made it possible to use automotive-type engines for irrigation power. With a goal of commercial pumps at moderate prices, Green established this factory in 1911, and reduced irrigation well installation costs to a figure that farmers could afford. His descendants still own and operate the business. (1974)