Mr. President, I am pleased to commend Emmett Chassaniol, Jr., and the Chassaniol family of Greenwood, MS, for 100 years of service and contributions to the U.S. cotton industry. Mr. Chassaniol and his family are the subject of a profile…
Mr. President, I am pleased to commend Emmett Chassaniol, Jr., and the Chassaniol family of Greenwood, MS, for 100 years of service and contributions to the U.S. cotton industry.
Mr. Chassaniol and his family are the subject of a profile published recently by the Delta Business Journal. The profile not only reviews a century of influence by an agricultural family in the Mississippi Delta but also the changes in the cotton industry over the decades. Mississippi remains one of the leading cotton-producing States in the country. Farmers in my State produced more than 1 million bales of cotton in 2016.
Since its founding in 1917, the Chassaniol and Company has helped producers move cotton from the farm to the marketplace. Three generations of the Chassaniol family have engaged in the business of buying, shipping, or selling cotton. I am pleased to recognize their continuous role in meeting the needs of cotton farmers in this important and challenging industry.
Today Emmett Chassaniol, Jr., continues the family cotton business established by his grandfather. Since 1996, he has expanded Chassaniol and
Company's reach, selling cotton for producers in Arkansas, Louisiana, and areas of the State beyond the Mississippi Delta. Emmett, Jr., like his grandfather, father, and other family members, has served in leadership positions that have helped to maintain cotton as an important commodity crop in my State.
I am pleased to join cotton producers throughout my State in commending Emmett Chassaniol, Jr., and the Chassaniol family for 100 years of business in the cotton industry.
I ask that the June 15, 2017, article from the Delta Business Journal magazine, titled ``A Century of the Cotton Business--The Chassaniol Family,'' be printed in the Record.
The material follows:
[From the Delta Business Journal, June 15, 2017]
A Century of the Cotton Business--The Chassaniol Family
(By Mark H. Stowers)
Cotton has been king in Mississippi since the early 1800s
but has seen its reign diminish since the late 1980s. The
majestic crop has seen a rise in its ranks with an increase
in acres planted the past decade. For the past century, the
Chassaniol family of Greenwood has been part of the cotton
kingdom and its rise and fall and rise again. Emmett
Chassaniol Jr., still works in the family cotton business his
grandfather started in the early 1900s. He explained the
family history in the cotton business by gathering
correspondence from his grandfather, family input and his own
recollection.
In 1917, the Chassaniol and Company cotton business opened
its doors in the Cotton Capital city when the transplanted
cotton shipper Herbert Spencer (H.S.) ``Pop'' Chassaniol
decided to stay in his adopted home town. His original office
was on 117 Front street but then he later moved to 110 Main
Street--the corner of Ramcat Alley and Main Street in the
``Cotton Row'' area. He stayed in that building until he
retired in 1963 and then he passed away in 1966. In 1968, the
family sold the building to Mr. Charles Swayze.
In 1956, H.S. recounted his career in a letter he wrote to
the vice president of the Hibernia National Bank in New
Orleans. H.S. had known the VPs father and uncles in the
cotton business in the New Orleans Cotton Exchange.
``My first job was at the age of 12, with Kline Wilson and
Company and your Uncle Peter J. Stoube was the manager of the
New Orleans office. Through my mother's family, Mr. Stoube
gave me my first job as his office boy.''
From there Chassaniol worked his way up from the bottom of
the cotton business to owning his own cotton business.
Emmett's grandfather was later moved to the Delta in 1910--
first to Greenville and then Greenwood with the English firm,
Alexander Eccles and Company. But they then decided to close
that office and move Chassaniol to Tennessee. But H.S. knew
he had found a business home, so he stayed in Greenwood and
opened up the Chassaniol and Company cotton business in 1917.
The Greenwood Cotton Exchange got its charter in 1927 and
H.S. was the first president serving the 1927-1928 term. He
later served again from 1940-1941.
Since then, H.S.'s sons--Pershing and Emmett (Sr.)--a
cotton buyer--each worked the business together before
Pershing started his own company--The Pershing Chassaniol
Cotton Factor--in 1955 after serving time in World War II. He
also served as president of the Greenwood Cotton Exchange for
the 1970-1971 term. Pershing was then joined by his nephew
Emmett Jr. and Pershing's daughter, Sally Chassaniol
McSpadden. Emmett Jr. served as the Greenwood Cotton Exchange
president on three occasions--1992-1993, 1999-2000 and 2006-
2007. The Cotton Exchange's final year of existence was in
2009 and then it was dissolved.
``Pershing was in that business from 1955 to 1995,'' Emmett
Jr. said. ``My dad was in with my grandfather at Chassaniol
and Company. Sam Adams came in as partner with my grandfather
in 1931 but they never changed the name. That lasted until
1953 when they dissolved the partnership. My grandfather
retired in 1963 and passed away in October of 1966.''
One of H.S.'s sons, Herbert Chassaniol, Jr., worked with
him in the business until June of 1939, when at the age of
25, he died in a diving accident on the Mississippi Gulf
Coast. Also, one of Pop's sons, Lloyd, worked in the cotton
business for different companies but never with Pop.
``Uncle Lloyd went to work for the George B. Wolfe and
Company in Greenwood representing J.P. Stevens out of South
Carolina. In 1963, they moved Uncle Lloyd, his wife and four
daughters to Greenville, South Carolina where he stayed with
them until he retired. He passed away in January of 2000. His
widow and four daughters all still live in South Carolina.''
Emmett Chassaniol said. ``Doris Chassaniol Mallette, one of
my grandfather's daughters, worked for him as well. My
grandfather's son-in-law, J.E. McCurdy was married to
Blanche, was a cotton factor but didn't work for my
grandfather. Also, my grandfather's nephew, Herbert
Chassaniol, ended up as sales manager over at Staplcotn and
retired in 1965.''
Pershing retired in 1995 and sold his building to Viking
Range. Then in January of 1996, Emmett Jr. incorporated his
business, Chassaniol and Company and moved into the historic
McBee building that dates back to 1880.
For more than a century, the Chassaniol family has blessed
farmers and the family alike as the Chassaniols kept to the
foundational value as stated by Pershing quite often to his
daughter.
``He said it doesn't matter if the farmer comes in and has
one bale of cotton or if a farmer comes in and brings in 100
bales of cotton--you treat them just the same because they
are both cotton farmers,'' she said. ``That was one of the
things I always remembered.''
McSpadden, like the rest of the family, grew up in the
cotton office as well.
``We would be up there working with them, especially during
the busy season,'' McSpadden said. ``I came back in 1979 and
took momma's place doing the bookkeeping and worked until
1997.''
With no computers, McSpadden had plenty of paperwork to
tend to that she included her children's help with as well.
``I would bring work home at night and we'd be sitting in
the middle of the living room floor--me and my two boys--and
we would have all the class cards spread out and they would
help me put them in order,'' she said. ``But just to be able
to work with your daddy every day for 18 to 19 years is a
true blessing,'' she said. ``We had a wonderful relationship
and I went home every day with him to each lunch with
momma.''
McSpadden invoiced and paid famers while Emmett graded out
and sold the cotton.
``I can't say enough nice things about the farmers, the
buyers and the other sellers,'' McSpadden said. ``They were
true to their word and it was just a pleasure to be in the
cotton business as long as I was.''
Emmett Jr. explained his job as ``I sell cotton for the
farmers. That's all I've ever done as well as my Uncle
Pershing. My father and grandfather were shippers and buyers
but I don't buy a bale of cotton. I just represent the farmer
and get the price for him and sell cotton for him.''
Three generation of the Chassaniol family have worked with
the Bank of Commerce and continue do so today, according to
Emmett Jr. The Chassaniols have experienced plenty of
technology changes on the cotton selling side as farmers have
seen in the field. As field hands used to pick cotton by
hand, all of the bookkeeping and cotton samples were all done
by hand with what now would seem to be primitive tools.
``The buyers would actually come by, look at the cotton and
grade it themselves and pull the staple on it and give you a
bid on it,'' Emmett said. ``Now, I don't ever see a farmer
come by the office. It's all done electronically. We get our
data electronically and we get our warehouse receipts
electronically. I've done business with a guy down in
Louisiana for 30 years and we've only seen each other
twice.''
McSpadden's early days involved two daily trips to the bank
with cotton receipts.
``I invoiced every bale of cotton. In a year's time, we're
talking thousands of bales of cotton. In the beginning the
receipts were kept at the bank (in the main safe) and every
morning we would have to go to the bank and pick up all the
cotton receipts and bring them back to the office and I would
invoice them out. The ones I didn't finish with, I had to
take back to the bank before they closed at 2:00 p.m.,'' she
said.
But then Pershing got his own safe so his daughter could
work a few more hours each day.
``That way we couldn't stop and talk to people on the way
to the bank every day,'' she said.
For Emmett Jr., the introduction of technology made selling
cotton a 24/7/365 business pretty much.
``When I first started, the cotton market would open up at
9:30 a.m. and close at 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. Now it opens at 8:00
p.m. at night and closes at 1:15 the next day. While I'm
sleeping, the foreign markets are trading cotton. Sometimes
when I wake up at night and punch my phone to see what the
markets doing. It's really changed,'' he said. ``In 2008,
they went to electronic trading and its changed the cotton
business for ever and ever. They used to trade it manually in
the pits in New York but now it's just punching a button.''
Chassaniol is gearing up for a busier year this year as
more farmers are adding acreage.
``One thing in the cotton business is that no two years are
alike weather-wise or marketwise,'' he said. ``In 1963 and
'73 we had good falls and big crops. In '73, we had the flood
and two million acres of the Mississippi Delta under water.
The price of cotton was around 28 cents and with the flood it
shot up to around 90 cents. But in February of '74 it fell
pretty good. When the water fell, people started planting
cotton and beans. We also had a lot of crawfish that year.''
Chassaniol's reach extends beyond the Cotton Capital as
he's sold cotton out of Louisiana and Arkansas and in the
hills of Mississippi beyond the Delta.
``My favorite part of the business is in the fall when
we're busy but with the markets it's a year-round business
and you have to watch it every day. When my father and
grandfather did it, it was three months--October to
December,'' he said. ``It's been a challenge as I've seen my
acres decrease over the years but I've got some people coming
back who haven't planted cotton in five
years. You're going to lose some customers and you're going
to pick some up.''
As the Chassaniol women married, many of those joined the
cotton business including the McCurdy part of the family.
McSpadden knows that the kingly crop brought and kept her
Chassaniol family close together.
``I am extremely proud of my entire Chassaniol family. They
are wonderful people and we've stayed close over the years.
Daddy had six brothers and sisters. We have all stayed close.
There were 22 grandchildren. Even though we are scattered
around we always know what's going on and we keep in touch.''
With the parents working long hours in the business, they
made sure the kids made it to their extracurricular events
over the years as well.
``They had this older man, Sidney Matlock (a porter who
worked in the sample room) started with momma and daddy. He
was somebody that was big in our lives. Momma couldn't get
away to take us to Girl Scouts, well they'd send Sidney to
take us,'' she said.
``I worked with Sidney for a number of years and he was
there until his health failed and he retired. We probably
opened 100s of thousands of samples of cotton,'' Emmett Jr.
said. ``That's how you sold cotton back then. He was a pretty
good judge of cotton himself.''
Chassaniol has relied on his secretary, Penny Kesterson for
the past 16 years to keep his office a success and running
smoothly.
``She is invaluable in the office she pulls in our
electronic data warehouse receipts and classing info. She
does the recaps invoicing and sees to wire transfers, plus
other clerical duties,'' he said. ``I could not do without
her.''
100 years of working in the cotton business with plenty
more to come--the Chassaniol family of Greenwood.