The county's growing dairy production, promoted by the efforts of the Mt. Pleasant Chamber of Commerce and the Cotton Belt Railroad, attracted Ben Grisham's interest by 1929. Mr. Grisham, who was by then headquartered in Little Rock, made several visits to Titus County and decided that Titus County farmers could to produce the cream and butter he needed and decided to build a plant in Mt. Pleasant.
He wired the Chamber of Commerce on Monday, January 14, 1929 to say that he would put a plant here if local outlets would agree to sell his products. Chamber of Commerce Industrial Committee members visited local ice cream dealers, who agreed to support Grisham's. The Chamber sent Mr. Grisham a telegram stating their findings. On Tuesday, January 15, Mr. Grisham replied to Chamber of Commerce Industrial Committee chairman George Lilienstern saying that he had definitely decided to build a plant in Mt. Pleasant.
Mr. Grisham's plant would provide a constant market for whole milk and cream because he used both to make ice cream and butter. Although his plant would not be as large as some milk plants being built in other areas, it would greatly help develop Titus County's dairy industry. Mt. Pleasant's location was ideal for distributing products to nearby towns, and the plant would cover a large area. He would spend several thousand dollars to construct the plant, and it would employ several local people.
Mr. Grisham returned to Mt. Pleasant on Friday, January 25 to look the area over again. He was so pleased that he bought two lots from Charles Carr on the old East Texas League baseball park. The lots are at what is now 310 East 9th Street, on the southwest corner of North Washington and East 9th. He chose the location because it was across the street from Mt. Pleasant's ice factory, which was located on the east side of the intersection of present-day Industrial Road and North Washington Street. (The intersection's design has been changed since the plants were located there.) While he was here, he contracted to erect a building starting at once so the plant could possibly be in operation by March 15th.
In addition to his Arkansas plants, Mr. Grisham was erecting another plant in Corpus Christi, Texas. He announced that when he began operation he could handle all of the sweet and sour cream and butter produced in the county, and if farmers produced more he would enlarge his plant to use it, too. He said he expected to make high quality ice cream and would pay higher prices than were being paid for sweet and sour cream and butter.
By February, 1929 the Chamber of Commerce's interest had increased in trying to attract a milk plant to Titus County, but the county's milk production was still to low for a large plant. The bull circles discussed several months ago were started in latter February. D. T. Simons, secretary of the Texas Jersey Cattle Association, had been in Ohio and West Virginia, where he purchased the eight fine bulls that Titus County communities had ordered. They were from strains that produced an average of 650 pounds of butter fat each year.
The Grisham Ice Cream and Butter plant would mean a lot to local dairy farmers because it assured them of a constantly good market price. Farmer's interest in dairying had already increased, and it was growing every year and rapidly becoming one Titus County's principal cash crops.
Chamber of Commerce Secretary C. A. Pickett, James Grisham and G. Daniel, who would manage Grisham's plant, met with Naples businessmen in Naples on Tuesday night, March 12. Mr. Grisham agreed that if Naples merchants would sell his products, he would create a Naples milk route to pick up sweet milk and cream if sufficient quantities could be produced.
In April, 1929, Mt. Pleasant was also trying to convince Texas Milk Products to locate a large plant here. This caused considerable speculation whether the area could produce enough cream to meet the combined demands of Grisham's Ice Cream and Texas Milk Products. The Daily Times published figures showing how much cream production had increased on April 29, 1929.
Ed Dickson took a Titus County agricultural census in 1925, supervised by the Bureau of The Census in Washington. The census showed that 655 gallons of cream, or around six thousand pounds, were sold in Titus County in 1924. Just four years later, the Express Company alone shipped 231,000 pounds of cream out of Mt. Pleasant, over 38 times as much as in 1924. This did not include what area produce houses had picked up or what was shipped from the county's others towns, which would have greatly increased the volume.
In 1924 there were 4,264 dairy cows and 1,197 heifers in Titus County, while the recent dairy census showed over five thousand dairy cattle in the county. Not only were there more cows, but they were a much better milk production strain than the county had four years before.
In four years, the market had been gradually and painstakingly built up, and there was no doubt that if a good market was provided in Mt. Pleasant that eliminated having to ship milk and cream, future production would increase much faster. Every year Texas imported an enormous amount of cheese, butter, condensed milk, etc., and as long as that was the case, there was no question of having a market if the proper kind of processing plants were secured to prepare the milk and cream into marketable forms.
With dairying as part of a balanced farming program, Titus and adjoining county land owners could greatly increase their revenue and also improve their soil. However, dairying would not mean quick riches because livestock demanded constant care.
By Monday, April 29, construction of the Grisham Ice Cream factory had been complete for several weeks and they hoped to begin operation during the week. Managers had planned to start production the week before, but an ammonia condenser was lost in transit and did not arrive until Monday morning. It would take two days to install, and they estimated that operation would begin about Friday.
Considerable machinery had been installed in the new factory, including three mixers or pasteurizers, a freezer with a thousand gallon a day capacity, a steam turbine separator that could separate a thousand gallons of milk per hour, and several minor pieces of machinery.
All cream used to make ice cream passed through a viscalizer, which broke the butterfat into fine fragments under 2,500 pounds of pressure to prevent any churning while in the cream was mixed or frozen. It was one of the plant's most important machines. The plant had an ice cream hardening room with 1,600 feet of ammonia coils in that room alone. There was also a storage room where butter and fruit could be held awaiting use or shipment.
The factory had a complete steam plant to generate steam for sterilization purposes. The plant was electrically operated and was sanitary in every respect. The floors were concrete and all woodwork and machinery was kept painted and spotless.
The plant would mainly produce Grisham's Angel Food Ice Cream, which Mr. Grisham assured would be a real surprise to people because it contained fifty percent richer cream content than average ice cream, and he said no cream then being produced in Texas, with probably one exception, was as rich as his cream.
Mr. Grisham planned to use lots of milk and cream to manufacture his ice cream, and would pay the current St. Louis market price for sweet cream. He would also handle whole milk and sour cream.
Grisham's began marketing their ice cream locally in May, 1929, and ran a jingle contest in the Daily Times requesting people to submit advertising jingles. The best jingle would win a $5.00 prize.
On Monday, May 13, 1929 the Texas Milk Products plant was a topic of discussion at the regular Chamber of Commerce meeting. James Grisham said that people erroneously thought a whole milk plant here would hurt his business, but in fact it would help him.
The June issue of Southwestern Gas & Electric Company's house magazine, the Southwestern, contained an excellent illustrated article about Grisham Ice Cream's opening.
Southwest Dairy Products, who marketed Dairyland brand products, bought Grisham's in 1929, shortly after the Mt. Pleasant plant opened. In 1930, Grisham Ice Cream ads disappeared from the Daily Times, but we don't know when the Mt. Pleasant plant ceased production. Southwest Dairy Products went bankrupt during the Great Depression.
Ray Yarnell, Grisham's former assistant manager and salesman, used all of his available cash on hand and borrowed against his life insurance policy to buy Southwest Dairy's plant in Searcy, Arkansas in 1932.
Today Yarnell's Ice Cream Company is a fourth generation, family-owned business. Still headquartered in Searcy, Yarnell's is Arkansas' only remaining ice cream company. Their products are sold in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Albert Yarnell is chairman, Rogers Yarnell is president/chief executive officer, and fourth-generation Christina Yarnell serves as Custom Brand Manager. The company continues to introduce new products along with its traditional favorites and ice cream novelties.
During the Depression, the government funded sewing rooms through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program as part of the national relief programs. Sewing rooms provided ladies whose families were on the government welfare rolls with a way to earn income to help their families get off welfare. The ladies were paid to sew and made clothing, which was distributed by local relief offices to other needy people in the county.
A sewing room, jointly sponsored by the Titus County and City of Mt. Pleasant governments, the Mt. Pleasant Chamber of Commerce, and the WPA, was opened in the vacant Grisham building on November 25, 1935. Mrs. Lois Morton was its supervisor, and the plan when it was opened was to employ 30 women for nine months. The county leased sewing machines and the WPA bought the fabric and paid the ladies' salaries. The sewing room was expected to inject $12,000 into the local economy during its life, including salaries. By mid-June, 1936, after seven months of operation, the sewing room had provided the local relief office with 14,000 clothing items and employed 42 ladies. The ladies made ladies' print dresses, bonnets, underwear, gowns and pajamas, men and boys' overalls, shirts, underwear, khaki pants and shirts, all types of children's and infants clothing, pajamas, sheets and pillow slips for distribution through the county office. They also made ladies' collar and cuff sets and colorful hand-sewn quilt tops from scraps of material.
The sewing room was relocated by October, 1936, and the program continued into at least 1937. However, we don't know where the sewing room was moved. By March, 1937, the sewing room's payroll was $1,405 per month and 52 women were employed there. The Government had furnished $18,599.60 worth of material for the sewing room during 1936, which was made into 35,684 garments for indigent Titus County families.
In October, 1936, Hunt Plumbing Supply of Jacksonville, Texas, opened a branch store in the Grisham's building. Mount Pleasant Poultry and Egg bought the building when Hunt Plumbing Supply closed. When Mount Pleasant Poultry and Egg closed, that we now know of, the building was purchased by John Vinyard, then Larry Lawrence, and finally by Maude Niblett in approximately December 1985 or January 1986.
Gene Robinson opened "The Garage Sale" store in the building in November, 1995, and currently occupies the bright yellow building as of January, 2008.
Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas
Tuesday, May 7, 1929
JINGLE CONTEST
Are you good at Jingles?
We want jingles of not over twelve lines to advertise our all cream ice cream. Mail your jingle to the Grisham Ice Cream Co., and watch the daily paper for its appearance.
When yours is printed you are entitled to a quart of our Angel Food Ice Cream. When the contest is over the writer of the best jingle will receive $5.00. Each verse must say something about Grisham Ice Cream or Angel Food Ice Cream.
Grisham's Angel Food Ice Cream is richer than any ice cream made in Texas, with possibly one exception.
You will not hurt our feelings if you mention this fact.
GRISHAM ICE CREAM CO.
A diller a dollar, a ten o'clock scholar,
Why do you come so late?
Please teacher, I wanted Angel Food Ice Cream,
So I stopped to eat a plate.
