DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm going to give it to you straight. The Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company had a plan — and brother, it was a plan with a capital P. In 1900, they laid out the town of Taft right on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad line.
Now, this wasn't just some settlers stumbling onto good land and puttin' up a fence. The company directors had an intention: present Taft and the surrounding farms as a model community. A showpiece.
Something shiny enough to catch the eye of Northern investors all the way up the map. By 1904, a post office and a company commissary had opened up near the rail line, and before long other businesses and homes were rising nearby. The bones of a real town.
But the company wasn't done dreaming. To really sell the place — to show what a farmer or rancher could do with their products once the harvest came in — they planned something ambitious right in the center of town. A large agricultural industrial complex.
Think about what that meant on the Texas coastal plain in the early twentieth century. By 1909, they had built a slaughter and packing house, a cold storage facility and ice plant, and a cottonseed oil mill. That's not a town square.
That's a machine. And they weren't finished. By 1921, the complex had grown to include two cotton gins, a feed mill, a cotton compress, a creamery and ice cream factory, and a machine shop.
An ice cream factory on the South Texas plain — now there's a detail that'll stick with you on a July afternoon. As the company plan came to fruition, settlement increased, land values climbed, and the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company began selling off its holdings and realized a profit. The model community had done exactly what it was designed to do.
Slowly, the company presence disappeared, and Taft — once solely a company town — became something the directors maybe hadn't fully planned for: a diversified, living place of its own. Some of those industrial complex facilities kept runnin' under private ownership all the way into the 1950s. The company built the stage, set every prop, and then quietly walked off.
The town stayed.
What the marker says
The Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company laid out the town of Taft on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad line in 1900. The intention of the company directors was to present Taft and surrounding farms as a model community to attract Northern investors. By 1904 a post office and a company commissary had opened near the rail line, and soon other businesses and homes were built nearby. To promote the area's economic possibilities and the ease with which potential farmers and ranchers could market their products, the company planned a large agricultural industrial complex in the center of town. By 1909 they had built a slaughter and packing house, a cold storage facility and ice plant, and a cottonseed oil mill. By 1921, the complex also included two cotton gins, a feed mill, cotton compress, creamery and ice cream factory, and machine shop. As the company plan came to fruition, settlement and land values increased and the company realized a profit as it began selling off all of its holdings. Once solely a company town, Taft soon became diversified as the company presence gradually disappeared. Some of the industrial complex facilities remained in operation under private ownership until the 1950s. (1991)