Texas Sugar Refining Company

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Texas Sugar Refining Company, right there in Texas City, Galveston County. Now settle in, because this one's got ambition, sugar, and a debt that came due in the worst kind of way. The Texas City Transportation Company had an idea back in 1910.

Why just move goods when you could make them? So they established the Texas Sugar Refining Company that same year, with designs on planting a refinery right at the Texas City port. They had their eye on a ten-acre tract on this very site as early as 1910, though the negotiations, well, they proceeded slowly.

Slowly. As negotiations sometimes do when the stakes are five million dollars. That was the price tag on the whole complex, designed by Eastwick Engineering, with every board and beam supplied by the Kirby Lumber Company of Houston.

Nine large buildings. Three hundred and fifty workers showing up every day. And out the other end, one million pounds of sugar, every single day, branded with a name that had a certain sparkle to it: Diamond Star.

Granulated and powdered, rolling out of Texas City and into the wider world. By 1926 the company had signed a three-year contract with the American Sugar Company, refining and packaging sugar under that label. Things looked solid.

They looked sweet, you might say. But two years into that contract, the Chicago Title and Trust Company filed suit against the Texas Sugar Refining Company for a three million dollar outstanding mortgage balance. Three million dollars.

That debt did what debt of that size tends to do. It led the company straight into bankruptcy, and the refinery went to public auction, selling for two million dollars. Now, most outfits would have called it a day right there.

Not these folks. In January of 1929, the Texas Sugar Refining Company reorganized, this time as the Texas Sugar Refining Corporation, and came back swinging under their own Diamond Star label again. You have to respect the stubbornness.

But the corporation closed its operations in April of 1932, and that was the end of that chapter. In its time, though, this refinery had played a significant role in the early industrial development of Texas City, and it had provided real competition for the nearby Imperial Sugar Company. No small thing.

The facilities were later acquired by the Monsanto Chemical Company, and then came 1947. The Texas City dock explosions. And those nine large buildings, that whole complex that once hummed with three hundred and fifty workers turning out a million pounds of Diamond Star sugar a day, were virtually destroyed.

Some stories end with a ledger. Some end with fire. This one ended with both.

What the marker says

The Texas City Transportation Company established the Texas Sugar Refining Company in 1910 to increase its profits by locating a sugar refinery at the Texas City port. A ten-acre tract on this site was chosen as early as 1910, but negotiations proceeded slowly. The refinery complex was designed by Eastwick Engineering. The Kirby Lumber Company of Houston supplied all lumber for the five million dollar project. Comprised of nine large buildings, the refinery employed three hundred and fifty people and produced one million pounds of "Diamond Star" granulated and powdered sugar daily. In 1926, the company signed a three-year contract with the American Sugar Company to refine and package sugar under the American Sugar label. Two years later, the Chicago Title & Trust Company filed suit against the Texas Sugar Refining Company for a three million dollar outstanding mortgage balance. This debt led the company into bankruptcy. The refinery was sold at public auction for two million dollars. In January 1929 the Texas Sugar Refining Company reorganized as the Texas Sugar Refining Corporation and returned to refining and marketing its own "Diamond Star" sugar. The corporation closed its operations in April 1932. The Texas Sugar Refining Company played a significant role in the early industrial development of Texas City and provided competition for the nearby Imperial Sugar Company. The refinery facilities were later acquired by the Monsanto Chemical Company and were virtually destroyed in the 1947 Texas City dock explosions. (1998)