Belton Yarn Mill

Belton was dependent on the cotton industry from the 1880s to the 1920s. As a result, there was a need for a yarn mill to complement the cotton trade and to provide facilities for cotton processing locally. Cotton bought on the streets of Belton was manufactured into cloth and yarn.

The Belton Yarn Mill was a two-story, rectangular-plan limestone industrial building, built by a group of businessmen in 1900. The mill was capitalized at $100,000 and in 1903, the stock was increased to $150,000. The stock of the enterprise was owned about equally between investors in the East and the citizens of Belton. The building was erected at a cost of $25,000. The fuel used by the Belton mill was lignite, shipped from Rockdale in Milam County. The mill began operation in October 1901 and originally had 3,100 spindles and 100 looms. At its peak, the mill consumed from 2000 to 2200 bales of cotton annually, the grades being middling and above.

J. Z. Miller, a banker and native of Bell County, had no experience in the cotton mill industry until he assumed management of the mill. For several years the mill lost money due to the inexperience of the manager and the lack of surplus money with which to operate it. In 1905 the capacity of the mill was doubled for a total of 7,000 spindles.

A reorganization occurred in 1906, and by its close in 1907, the mill earned $24,191.43. According to Mr. Miller, “Texas needed a cotton mill in every town in the state.” He illustrated the profits of the cotton mill industry by the following simple proposition: “The farmer sells a bale of cotton to the factory, for which he receives $50 cash; the mill hand treats it for $35; $5 will pay the insurance and other incidental expenses; then the mill gets a profit of $10; aggregating $100 for the bale, which is left in the community of the mill, thus doubling its value at home, which finds its way into the different avenues of trade and commerce, thus enriching and prospering our State.”

 The mill employed approximately 112 operatives with an annual payroll of about $30,000. Most of the employees were citizens of Bell County: some from poor families and some from tenant farms. The tenant farmers worked as semi-annual hands, coming to town twice a year in between cotton planting and cotton harvesting. The mill owned twenty-five cottages to house employees.

After the Panic of 1907, the mill closed and stood empty for nine years. It was eventually reopened and continued to operate until the late 1920s or early 1930s when the cotton industry in the county collapsed. The building was later sold and functioned as a school and library furniture manufacturer. In December 2007, a fire ravaged the 300,000-square-foot complex of buildings shared by Indeco Sales and Maco Manufacturing. The owner of the businesses, Lee Mays, estimated the loss of inventory and equipment at more than $10 million. By 2019, the building was set to be demolished, primarily due to its fragile condition. R. T. Schneider Construction of Belton razed the building in February 2019. 

Milner, R. T. “Texas Cotton Mills.” Bulletin of the Texas Department of Agriculture, no. 8, July-Aug. 1909.

Sanchez, Jacob. “Demolishing History: 1900-era Belton Building on National Registry Razed.” Temple Daily Telegram, Feb. 6, 2019.