Barbed wire, the railroad, and Germans and Czechs desiring to own small family farms combined to make cotton king in Lavaca County. From 1892 to 1971, cotton ginning, the cottonseed oil industry, and cotton export by rail were a vital part of Shiner’s economy. August Stephan built the city’s first cotton gin in 1892, and the Shiner Oil Mill & Manufacturing Co. began in 1896. The cotton industry peaked in the 1920s with eight cotton gins within the city limits. This site was home to four gins: Edward Fertsch Gin and Mill, August Heinsohn Gin, Rogge Gin Company and Shiner Farmers Co-Operative Gin and Mill. In 1971, Buske Gin, the city’s longest in operation, ginned the last bale of cotton in Shiner.