East Texas farm products, fertilizing industry and poultry industry. (original) (raw)
M.S. Wright lived in Steele's Tavern, Virginia, in the southern or "upper" end of the Shenandoah Valley, and worked as a fireman for the Baltimore & Ohio Railraod, in a feed and fertilizer store in Staunton, Virginia, and as a traveling salesman for Armour Fertilizer Company.
From his travels Wright understood farmer's need for fertilizer, especially in East Texas. Texas used 235,000 tons of fertilizer annually, 12,000 tons in Nacogdoches County alone, all of it shipped in at great expense. So Wright decided to produce the fertilizer nearer to where it was used. Some might have thought that the winter of 1929 -1930 was not the best of times to start a new business, but Wright decided to do it anyway.
Wright and his eldest son, Steele, arrived in Nacogdoches on January 1, 1930. Wright met with I.L. Sturdevant, president of the Stone Fort Bank, who introduced him to a group who became the first investors in the Texas Fertilizer Company, capatalized at $30,000. Wright began as vice president and general manager. Over the years he was able to acquire all the stock in the company from the original investors and made it a family owned concern run by himself, and sons Steele, Joe, Tom, and Dick Wright. The Texas Fertilzier Company marketed its products under the Lone Star brand, and eventually changed is name to Texas Farm Products. Since fertilizer was used principally in the Spring, the company added new products to keep employees working year round. First came a mill to produce cornmeal and flour, then a cotton-oil and seed mill. They established experimental farms that aided cattle raisers and helped develop the poultry industry in East Texas.
By the 1980s the company was a leading producer of pet food and veterinary medicine products, and operated mills and other facilities in several states, and remains one of the leading industries in Nacogdoches, where the Lone Star Brand began in 1930. Now "Bud" Wright, grandson of the founder of the fertilizer industry in East Texas, manages the company.
OCTOBER 8-14, 2000
Published by permission.