DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about the Postex Cotton Mill in Garza County. Now settle in, because this one's got ambition written all over it. The kind of ambition that turns a patch of West Texas into something the whole world would eventually come knocking on.
It starts with a man named C. W. Post — yes, that Post, the one behind Post Cereals — who established this mill in 1912.
And Post wasn't just a cereal man. The marker calls him a philanthropist, and this mill was part of something bigger he was dreamin' up: diversified income for Garza County farmers, and prosperity for the town of Post itself. That was the vision.
Now hold onto that word — diversified — because what Post built here wasn't your ordinary cotton operation. This mill was one of the first in the world to process cotton from its raw state all the way to a finished product. Under one roof, or close enough to it: a cotton gin, a bleachery, spinning rooms, weaving rooms, sewing rooms.
The whole journey, start to finish. When it opened up, it was running ten thousand spindles and four hundred and eighty broadlooms, with about two hundred and fifty workers keeping it all humming. The textiles that came rolling out carried the "Garza" brand, and that name moved through markets for many a year.
Then 1956 brought an expansion program, and after that the mill shifted to working on consignment — meaning companies from around the world were sending their business straight to a little cotton town in West Texas. C. W.
Post dreamed of prosperity reaching out from this place, and somewhere along the way, the world reached back.
What the marker says
Established 1912 by C. W. Post, creator of Post Cereals and a philanthropist. Mill was a part of Post's dream of diversified income for Garza County farmers and prosperity for town of Post. Mill--one of world's first to process cotton from raw state to finished product--had cotton gin and bleachery plus spinning, weaving and sewing rooms. At first it had 10,000 spindles and 480 broadlooms, employing about 250 workers. "Garza" brand textiles were marketed many years. Since expansion program in 1956, mill works on consignment to companies around the world. (1967)