Note: Due to the length of the Chamber of Commerce's life span and the complexity of projects they have been involved in, this article will be an on-going article as current events dictate and will be periodically updated through the life of our website.
Of all the civic and fraternal organizations that have existed since Titus County's founding, few, if any, have had the profound and long-lasting effects on the county's development and progress as the Mt. Pleasant / Titus County Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber members are mostly local businessmen, and the Chamber's goal is to increase business for its membership. However, basic economics dictate that people spend based on what they earn. If they have extra money, they will spend it. If money is tight, as in the Great Depression and at other times, money is only spent on necessities. If you study the current stock market and national economics, it has become painfully obvious that the United States economy is now highly dependent on consumer spending rather than manufacturing and other more substantial and productive elements. Therefore, when the town and county grow and progress, it is natural that Chamber members' business will do likewise.
The Chamber of Commerce has historically been an active force in Titus County's development of good roads and highways, attracting industry to the area, obtaining an adequate supply of good drinking water, assisting area farmers, and other things that have benefited the county's general development. In a nutshell, anything that benefits Titus County's citizens also benefits its local businesses.
At present, we have not located details of when the Chamber of Commerce was first organized, who the charter members were, or where the group first met. It is likely that the group was originally organized before 1923, when local newspapers were first microfilmed. It first operated as an unincorporated group of businessmen working together toward common goals. The businessmen not only paid dues to support the Chamber, but were expected to contribute substantial cash toward many of its projects.
The Chamber has been located in several places during its lifetime. The locations that we have been able to document and their approximate time periods are:
Mt. Pleasant City Hall, 120 West Third Street (1917? - August, 1927)
The Phillips Building, street address unknown (August, 1927 - May 28, 1928)
Second floor of George Lilienstern's building,
street address unknown (May 28, 1928 - June 1, 1932)
Downstairs in the Williams Building, 114 N. Jefferson Street,
shared with Southern Cities Gas Company (June 1, 1932 - June 3, 1935)
Mt. Pleasant City Hall, 120 West Third Street (June 3, 1935 -
107 East Third Street (shown on 1948 Street Map)
Mt. Pleasant City Hall, 120 West Third Street (shown in 1954 City Directory)
Chamber of Commerce Building, 110 East Second Street
Chamber of Commerce Building, 1604 North Jefferson
Please note that there are gaps in records, and that the above list is probably incomplete. Also, because early news articles refer to the buildings simply by their name and do not give street addresses, it is sometimes difficult to determine the exact location and exact time period that the Chamber was located in each place.
Due to the number of activities that the Chamber of Commerce has historically participated in, they organized committees within the Chamber to devote special attention to various civic affairs. Some of these were:
Advertising & Publicity
Agriculture
Civic
Commercial & Industrial
Entertainment
Highways and Transportation
Membership & Finance
Public Health
Titus County Fair
With well over 50 pages of news articles and other notes to sift through, we were unable to complete the Chamber of Commerce's history in time for the April, 2008 website update. We will continue working on the article, and will post it as soon as possible.
