HISTORY

In 1880 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad founded Temple and named the town after its chief construction engineer, Bernard Moore Temple, as it built its way through Central Texas.

In 1885 the McFaddens of Philadelphia, PA built the original buildings at our Temple compound by the main track of the new Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. Since then, the plant has continuously interacted with the railroad as it evolved from the "Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe" to the "Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe" to its present organization as the "Burlington Northern Santa Fe."

In 1900 A.J. Dossett bought the cotton compress warehouse* at Cameron, thirty-two miles east of Temple. His family has remained in Central Texas and diversified into public warehousing, steel fabrication, construction, and the manufacture of school, ecclesiastical, office, and library furniture with national and international sales.

In 2002 Tom Owens, president of Crossroads Distribution, Ltd., joined the Dossets in its ownership

Since the construction of Interstate 35, industrial production and distribution have grown dramatically in Temple. Crossroads is proud to be here. The people of Temple make the most of opportunities that come their way and create opportunities of their own.

*A cotton compress is a massive, steam-powered machine that once mashed cotton bales to about half their original size. It saved valuable space in ships and rail cars. The machine was developed after the Civil War and is obsolete now. A compress warehouse was a warehouse with a compress machine in it.