Item #66816 PROMISE TO PAY $1000 TO JAMES HAMILTON "ON THE FIRST DAY OF JULY NEXT," BY ORDER OF T.H. McCRAY, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE TELLICO MFG. CO., TELLICO, ELLIS CO., TEXAS.

PROMISE TO PAY $1000 TO JAMES HAMILTON "ON THE FIRST DAY OF JULY NEXT," BY ORDER OF T.H. McCRAY, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE TELLICO MFG. CO., TELLICO, ELLIS CO., TEXAS.

NP: September 10, 1857. Partly printed document, completed in manuscript, on blue lined paper, 12 x 19 cm. Signed by T.H. McCray, and by the President of Tellico Mfg. Company, S. Vanhook. The money was to be placed to the account of the Tellico Manufacturing Company. This document marked "No. 5" in the upper right corner. Docketed on verso: "Secured by a lien on all of the property belonging to the Tellico Manufacturing Company," and signed by McCray. Filed 4th January 1859. Old horizontal fold line, with some fading along the crease, else very good. Item #66816

Thomas Hamilton McCray (1828-1891) established the Tellico Manufacturing Company in the small town of Tellico, Texas in 1854. According to the Texas State Historical Association's Handbook of Texas online, "McCray and other investors spent over $100,000 on the plant, which covered a 100-by-200-foot area and used four large engines to produce cotton and wool cloth. By 1856 the community had several business establishments and a hotel." McCray applied for a patent on a "new and Improved Press for Pressing Cotton, Hay, Tobacco, and other Similar Materials" on Jan. 17, 1860. [see: UNT Libraries Portal to Texas History, patent collection]. A record of the county in "A Memorial and Biographical History of Ellis county, Texas," (Chicago: 1892), p.85 states that many of the local citizens invested in this enterprise, including McCray, James Hamilton, Solomon Vanhook, Isaac Sessions. G.C. Richardson, etc. "The grand bubble, however (after an expenditure of $100,000, and an immense mill... after flourishing like a green bay tree for four or five years), fell to the ground, a most magnificent failure...." The coming of the Civil War put an end to the company and to the town. McCray moved to Arkansas and joined the 5th Arkansas Infantry Regiment, serving in the Confederate army throughout the war. Following the war he became a sales representative for the McCormick Reaper Company in Chicago. He died there in 1891.
Only one listing found for this company on OCLC: SMU.

Price: $750.00

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