Victoria, Victoria County
Adolph Goldman was born in Bremen, Germany in July 1836. At age seventeen, in 1853, he immigrated to New York City, where he worked as a clerk. He moved to New Orleans four years later and then to Goliad, Texas in 1859. There, he found work in a mercantile store. Following military service in the Civil War, Goldman moved to Victoria in 1865 and established his own mercantile firm. He became a successful businessman, with other endeavors including dairying, farming, grist milling and cotton ginning. Records indicate Goldman operated a cotton gin at this site beginning in the late 1880s. He purchased the land, as well as existing gin structures, from Ernst Moeller (Miller) in 1890 and may have leased the facilities prior to the date of purchase. Over the next several years, Goldman bought surrounding property and developed a successful ginning operation, which he continually updated with new equipment and structures. With immediate access to the rail line that ran along East Street, Goldman was able to manage other cotton-related operations at this site, including warehouses for area cotton growers. After the turn of the 20th century, Goldman's two sons, Edwin C. and G. Clarence, joined their father in the management of the family business. By 1907, they had constructed a red brick warehouse, and the business continued to grow, averaging 3,000 bales a season. Upon Goldman's death in 1921, he left the property to his sons. Edwin C. maintained the business until 1937, when he sold all but the brick warehouse to F.S. Tarkington. The ginning operations continued until the early 1940s, when the facilities burned. In the 1960s, Tarkington's heirs sold the property, which became the site of an agricultural supply center. (2006)