One of the largest undertakings during the boom years was an immense cotton mill built at Kearney. The Cumnock brothers, successful Eastern cotton manufacturers, agreed to locate a mill in Kearney in return for substantial subsidies. Construction began in 1890.
The Kearney Cotton Mill ran for nine years, every year at a loss. The owners declared that it was not the distance from Texas cotton, not the necessity of importing coal, nor even the sparsely settled distributing territory, but the want of cheap labor that forced the closing of the mill.