Soybean Processing, A-70
Posted by: 
drmellow
N 36° 17.823 W 076° 13.243
18S E 390390 N 4017587
Commercial processing of domestic soybeans in U.S. began in 1915 at a plant which was located two miles north.
Waymark Code: WM1RCZ
Location: North Carolina, United States
Date Posted: 06/30/2007
Views: 55
Text on marker:
Soybean Processing
Commercial processing of domestic soybeans in U.S. began in 1915 at a plant which was located two miles north.
This historical marker is located on US 17 Business (Ehringhaus Street) in Elizabeth City in Pasquotank County. It was erected in 1982.
The North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources has an essay on Soybean Processing, from which the following is excerpted:
With the boll weevil taking its toll on North Carolina’s cotton industry, the Elizabeth City Oil and Fertilizer Company, incorporated to manufacture cottonseed oil and other cotton by-products, tried its hand at a new commodity on December 13, 1915. At that time, under the management of William Thomas Culpepper, the company crushed approximately 20,000 bushels of soybeans, generating the first commercially produced domestic soybean oil in the country. The manufacture of the soybean oil was completed without a single alteration in existing equipment. Both the oil and the residual “cake,” usually ground into meal, were highly marketable. Other oil mills, in towns such as Winterville, New Bern, Farmville, and Wilson, began working with soybean oil shortly thereafter. The advent of domestic soybean processing made the easily grown plant popular throughout North Carolina.
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