Texas 2009 - 81st Regular

Texas House Bill HCR71 Compare Versions

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1	1	H.C.R. No. 71
2	2
3	3
4	4	HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
5	5	WHEREAS, The State of Texas has customarily recognized a
6	6	variety of official state symbols as tangible representations of
7	7	the state's historical and cultural heritage; and
8	8	WHEREAS, The Burton Cotton Gin & Museum, in Burton,
9	9	Washington County, is home to what is believed to be the only
10	10	restored gin of its time period in the United States that remains in
11	11	its original building, on its original site, and that operates with
12	12	equipment that was in the facility when the gin closed; beyond its
13	13	uniqueness, this plant represents a significant chapter in Texas
14	14	agricultural and economic history; and
15	15	WHEREAS, First grown in Texas by Spanish missionaries, cotton
16	16	became an important source of income in the state in the 19th
17	17	century and has remained a significant part of the state's economy;
18	18	Texas has led the nation in cotton production in almost every year
19	19	since 1880, and the state's annual cotton harvest today constitutes
20	20	approximately a quarter of all the cotton raised in the United
21	21	States; the largest cash crop in Texas, cotton has been designated
22	22	the official State Fiber and Fabric; and
23	23	WHEREAS, Beginning in the 1870s, cotton culture in Texas
24	24	expanded dramatically: between 1869 and 1879, the number of bales
25	25	produced in the state rose from approximately 350,000 to more than
26	26	800,000, and by 1900 the number of bales reached more than 3.5
27	27	million; this soaring volume placed a heavy strain on the existing
28	28	gins and their mode of operation; even if steam engines were used
29	29	instead of animals to power the gin machinery, manual labor was
30	30	still needed to shift the cotton from one operation to another, and
31	31	as cotton harvests increased, impatient farmers were forced to wait
32	32	in ever longer lines at the gin; and
33	33	WHEREAS, To cope with the upsurge in production, Robert S.
34	34	Munger, of Mexia, devised a radically new process that became known
35	35	as system ginning; over the period from 1883 to 1892, he created
36	36	pneumatic technology that would move the cotton in a continuous
37	37	manner, directly from the wagon to the gin stand and then to the
38	38	baling press; modern-day cotton gins still use the process that he
39	39	pioneered; and
40	40	WHEREAS, Though highly successful, Mr. Munger's technology
41	41	was too expensive for a single individual to install, and so local
42	42	farmers would establish associations to build system gins; in 1913,
43	43	a group of Burton agriculturists, most of them German Texans,
44	44	incorporated to construct and operate the Burton Farmers Gin;
45	45	designed by the Lummus Cotton Gin Company, the gin relied on Mr.
46	46	Munger's pneumatic system, together with special air-blast
47	47	equipment to doff lint from the gin saws; and
48	48	WHEREAS, During the 1920s, the mechanization of cotton
49	49	harvesting necessitated the addition of still further machinery at
50	50	the Burton gin, in order to remove the increased volume of trash
51	51	from the seed cotton; the total power requirement then exceeded the
52	52	capacity of the gin's original steam engine, and the latter was thus
53	53	supplanted in 1925 by a Bessemer Type IV diesel engine with 125
54	54	horsepower; after that engine failed in 1963, it was replaced by an
55	55	electric motor, though the diesel engine was repaired and kept as a
56	56	standby power source; and
57	57	WHEREAS, The Burton Farmers Gin operated from 1914 to 1974,
58	58	by which time cotton production in the area had almost wholly given
59	59	way to the raising of livestock; efforts by local citizens to
60	60	preserve the gin and return it to its 1930s condition began in 1986;
61	61	as part of the initial phase, the complete gin records, which
62	62	chronicle cotton production and sales by area farmers as well as the
63	63	history of the physical plant, were indexed and archived; later,
64	64	staff from the Smithsonian Institution assisted with the
65	65	restoration of the gin's Bessemer engine, the "Lady B," which is
66	66	considered to be "the largest operating internal combustion engine
67	67	of [its] vintage in the southern United States," and one of the
68	68	"few, if [indeed there are] any, engines of this age and horsepower
69	69	in operation outside of a museum"; and
70	70	WHEREAS, Today, the Burton Farmers Gin constitutes the main
71	71	structure in the nine-acre complex known as the Burton Cotton Gin &
72	72	Museum; the gin itself is open for tours year-round and is activated
73	73	twice a year, during the Cotton Gin Festival in April and the First
74	74	Bale Celebration in October; listed on the National Register of
75	75	Historic Places, the Burton Farmers Gin has also been designated a
76	76	Texas Historic Landmark by the Texas Historical Commission and a
77	77	National Historic Engineering Landmark by the American Society of
78	78	Mechanical Engineers; and
79	79	WHEREAS, A key element of the cotton industry, gins were once
80	80	a fixture in countless rural Texas communities and a fundamental
81	81	part of their local economy; today, the Burton Cotton Gin & Museum
82	82	evokes that earlier time and offers a rare window into a critical
83	83	technological advance, one that continues to benefit the Lone Star
84	84	State; now, therefore, be it
85	85	RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas
86	86	hereby designate the Burton Cotton Gin & Museum as the official
87	87	Cotton Gin Museum of Texas.
88	88	Kolkhorst
89	89	______________________________ ______________________________
90	90	President of the Senate Speaker of the House
91	91	I certify that H.C.R. No. 71 was adopted by the House on April
92	92	22, 2009, by a non-record vote.
93	93	______________________________
94	94	Chief Clerk of the House
95	95	I certify that H.C.R. No. 71 was adopted by the Senate on May
96	96	26, 2009, by a viva-voce vote.
97	97	______________________________
98	98	Secretary of the Senate
99	99	APPROVED: __________________
100	100	Date
101	101	__________________
102	102	Governor