FIRST -- Person to Establish a Cotton Mill in TX, Texas State Cemetery, Austin TX
N 30° 15.914 W 097° 43.635
14R E 622431 N 3348861
Jacob De Cordova, who is responsible for several firsts in Texas, including the first cotton mill, is buried at the Texas State Cemetery at Austin, Texas
Waymark Code: WMQ01T
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 11/20/2015
Views: 3
Jacob De Cordova's firsts include contributions to the International Order of Odd Fellows, the state of Texas, and the City of waco. His amazing life is briefly memorialized on his tombstone that stands in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, Texas.
His tombstone reads as follows:
"[Front]
JACOB DE CORDOVA
June 6, 1808 – January 26, 1868
First Deputy Grand Sire IOOF outside USA
Instituted first IOOF Lodge in Texas, Lone Star No. 1 -- July 25, 1838
Instituted Grand Lodge IOOF of Texas April 29, 1841
Member, 2nd Legislature of the State of Texas
Established first cotton mill in the state of Texas
Founder of the city of Waco Texas
Erected by the Odd Fellows of Texas
and the state of Texas
1937
[Back]
Rebecca Sterling De Cordova
April 19, 1808 - December 30, 1882
A True Wife and Helpmate of Jacob De Cordova
In All His Undertakings"
In the 1860s de Cordova identified a spot on the Brazos River in Bosque county that would provide power for a cotton mill.
From the Celebrating Texas website: (
visit link)
"In the 1850s, De Cordova built himself and his family a country house outside of Seguin known as Wanderer’s Retreat. He worked to develop a textile mill for spinning cotton in the 1860s. Unfortunately, the onset of the Civil War caused the mill to fail."