T. C. Frost Wool Warehouse

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Thomas C. Frost came into this world in 1833, and by the time he left it in 1903, he had been a Texas Ranger, a Confederate soldier, and something else entirely, something nobody quite saw coming.

In the 1870s, he set himself up in the mercantile business, and part of that enterprise was buying wool. Buying wool from producers all across the state of Texas. Now, you might wonder what a man does with that much wool.

Well, he stored it. Right here on this site, in warehouses he built for exactly that purpose. And here is where the story gets interesting.

Frost wasn't just stacking fleece and hoping for the best. He was waiting. Holding that wool until the market price climbed to where it ought to be.

And because he could do that, because he had the space and the patience, the wool producers he worked with didn't have to sell low. They didn't have to take whatever the market was offering on a bad day. They could afford to wait too.

That kind of arrangement had a way of building up an industry, and the marker says precisely that. It built up the wool industry. Now, somewhere along the way, Frost started doing something else for those same customers.

Acting as a banker. Keeping their money, extending them credit, doing the things a bank does. And once that started, it had a pull to it.

Gradually, he gave up his other businesses, one by one, until what he had left was something altogether different from a wool warehouse. What he had left was the Frost National Bank. A Texas Ranger, a soldier, a wool man, and then a banker.

Some men spend a whole life looking for what they're supposed to do. Thomas C. Frost just kept finding the next thing, and the next thing turned out to be the one that lasted.

What the marker says

A former Texas Ranger and confederate soldier, Thomas C. Frost (1833-1903) began wool commission business as part of his mercantile enterprise in the 1870s. He purchased wool from producers throughout the state and stored it in warehouses on this site until prices increased. His storage facilities enabled wool producers to avoid selling their crops when the market was low, thus building up the industry. Frost gradually began to act as a banker for his customers and eventually gave up his other businesses to create the Frost National Bank.