Site of Ezell-McLeroy Cotton Gin

Duane's take

The official marker is my guide here; this is Duane, and I'm tellin' it straight from the record. Now, if you want a story about roots and resilience, about fire and rebuilding and the slow, steady rhythm of cotton country, pull up a chair, because Johnson County's got one for you. It starts back in 1867, when John Ezell packed up his family and left Alabama for Texas.

John was born in 1857, so he was just a boy when they made that journey; a kid setting boots down on new ground, settling onto a farm near what would one day be a place worth remembering. He'd grow into that land. He'd build something on it.

By the 1890s, cotton was taking hold all across Johnson County. The crops were spreading, the harvests were mounting, and the need for cotton gins had become (the marker's word, and it's a good one) acute. So in 1896, John Ezell did what a man does when the land is asking something of him.

He built a cotton gin, right there on his property, situated halfway between the communities of Alvarado and Cahill. Right in the middle of things. And it worked.

It grew into a major business in rural Johnson County. Then 1899 arrived, and the fire came with it. That cotton gin, with its wooden siding, burned.

Gone. Just like that. But here's where the story turns on you.

Ezell didn't quit. Before the 1900 season even began, he had rebuilt, and he'd installed new equipment while he was at it. Cotton production kept expanding in the area, and John Ezell kept pace with it; a successful gin owner, a farmer, a man who'd watched his work burn and built it back anyway.

The gin carried his name until 1917, when J. Otto McLeroy, Sr. took over operations. McLeroy was born in 1883, and when he stepped in, that gin became known as the McLeroy Gin.

It sat in a good spot for business; Alvarado had two rail lines intersecting right there in town, drawing cotton buyers in from the surrounding country, with tracks running toward the major markets in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Waco. The gin hummed right along through the 1920s and into the 1930s. But time has a way of closing things down.

The McLeroy Gin finally shut its doors in 1948. And then, in 1953, the building itself burned, destroying the remnants of a once-thriving business. That's the marker's phrase, and it carries some weight: the remnants of a once-thriving business.

Two fires bookending a half-century of work. The first one couldn't stop it. The second one just closed the chapter.

John Ezell, who brought his family out of Alabama as a ten-year-old boy and spent his life building something from Johnson County soil, lived until 1933. He never saw the final fire. Maybe that's just as well.

Out here on the road between Alvarado and Cahill, the gin is gone, the building is gone, but the marker stands, and now you know what stood here.

What the marker says

John Ezell (1857-1933) and his family moved from Alabama to Texas in 1867 and settled on a farm near here. The growth of cotton crops increased in Johnson County by the 1890s, and the need for more cotton gins became acute. In 1896 Ezell built a cotton gin on his land located halfway between the communities of Alvarado and Cahill; it became a major business in rural Johnson County. Although the cotton gin with its wooden siding was destroyed in an 1899 fire, Ezell rebuilt before the 1900 season began and installed new equipment. Cotton production continued to expand in the area and Ezell became a successful gin owner and farmer. J. Otto McLeroy, Sr. (1883-1966) took over operations at the gin in 1917, and it became known as the McLeroy Gin. Cotton buyers were attracted to Alvarado by two rail lines that intersected there, bound for major cotton markets in Dallas, Fort Worth and Waco. The McLeroy Gin continued to operate through the 1920s and 1930s, and finally closed in 1948. The building housing the cotton gin burned in 1953, destroying the remnants of a once-thriving business. (1997)