DUANE
Duane's take
The way the official marker tells it, here's the story of the Pioneer Cotton Seed Oil Mill in Grayson County. Now, most towns are lucky to be known for one thing. Sherman, Texas got known for two — and one of them reached all the way to Europe.
Sometime between 1871 and 1879, a man named John Clement Tassey created the Sherman Cotton Oil Company right here on this ground. Started modest enough, the way most big things do — frame buildings, nothing that would catch your eye. But Tassey had ambitions that those wooden walls were never going to be able to hold.
By 1891, a permanent building went up. And when I say permanent, I want you to understand what that meant to these people. The engine room had a white marble slab floor.
Oak paneled walls. A red brick fireplace of English design. And a carved oak staircase.
In a cotton seed oil mill. Out on the Texas prairie. That right there tells you something about how serious John Clement Tassey was taking all of this.
The new facility could handle a peak capacity of over four hundred tons of cotton seed a day. Four hundred tons. And by 1893 — just two years after that permanent building rose from the ground — geography textbooks were calling it the largest cotton seed oil mill in the world.
The Texas Almanac of 1904 said the same. This wasn't local bragging. This was in the books.
Oil from this Sherman plant went to ports throughout the world. All of it flowing out of one city in North Texas. And somewhere across the Atlantic, folks knew Tassey not by his given name but as Mr.
Sherman. And when they thought of Sherman, they thought of it as the city where the oil comes from. Tassey was also a pioneer in something that would eventually end up in kitchens everywhere.
In 1902, the company added a preparation of cotton seed oil for cooking to its production — one of the early uses of cotton seed for edible purposes. The seed that farmers once didn't know what to do with was now headed to dinner tables. But here's the thing about building the largest operation of its kind in the world — everybody notices.
Smaller mills began competing for the available seed. And that competition had teeth. By 1903, the plant closed.
Not from scandal, not from fire — it simply could not secure sufficient cotton seed to operate economically. The world's biggest mill, brought low by supply. It didn't stay quiet forever.
In 1913 the operation was reorganized and reopened as the Interstate Cotton Oil Refining Company. And that original permanent building — the one with the marble floors and the English fireplace and the carved oak staircase — it's still standing, facing Pecan Street, now a part of the modern Sherman plant. John Clement Tassey built something here that put a Texas town on the lips of traders in European ports.
Some things, once they're built that well, just don't entirely go away.
What the marker says
Here the Sherman Cotton Oil Company was created by John Clement Tassey between 1871-1879, to become, at one time, largest of its kind in the world. Company was at first housed in frame buildings. In 1891 a permanent building was erected; spacious engine room contained white marble slab floor, oak paneled walls, red brick fireplace of English design, and a carved oak staircase. The new facility had a peak capacity of over 400 tons of cotton seed a day. By 1893, was called "largest cotton seed oil mill in the world" in geography textbooks; Texas "Almanac," 1904. Oil from this plant went to ports throughout the world. Tassey was known in Europe as "Mr. Sherman," and Sherman as the city "where the oil comes from." A pioneer in use of cotton seed for edible purposes; in 1902 a preparation of cotton seed oil for cooking was added to company's production. Smaller mills began competing for available seed; by 1903 plant closed because of inability to secure sufficient cotton seed to operate economically. It was reorganized and reopened in 1913 as the Interstate Cotton Oil Refining company. The original permanent building, facing Pecan Street, is now a part of this modern Sherman plant. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967 Incise in base: Erected by Anderson, Clayton & Co. Foods Division