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MARTINDALE,
TEXAS
Caldwell County,
Central Texas S
Hwy 142 and FM 1966
10 Miles W of Lockhart
5 Miles E of San
Marcos
24 Miles NE of New
Braunfels
Population:
953 (2000)
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Downtown
Martindale
(See forum below for building
history)
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2006 |
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History
in a Pecan Shell
Mississippian (Mrs.) Nancy Martindale arrived in Texas in 1851 and
four years later donated the land to establish the community. Things
got off to a slow start. It wasn't until 1875 when the town had a
population of 50 that they acquired a post office. By 1890 things
had improved to where locals had four general stores to choose from
with an equal number of gristmills. The population had increased to
200 by the early 1890s. |
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Methodist
Church
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2006 |
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Sacred
Heart Of Mary Catholic Church
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2006 |
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In 1914 the
town had three gins, a bank, two schools and telephone service as
well as essential businesses. From 1910 through WWII the population
remained at 500.
After WWII, 65% of Texas' hybrid seed corn was processed in Martindale
in addition to a large percentage of the state's pedigreed cottonseed. |
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Martindale's
Bagley "Texas Hybrid Seed Corn"
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2006 |
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Harper
Seed Co. silos
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2006 |
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Old
store front
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2006 |
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Martindale
family plot
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2006 |
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| Population peaked
in 1957 when 600 people lived there but 12 years later it had decreased
to only 250. It reached a low in 1982 with only 210 people but jumped
to over a thousand by the end of that decade and has since rebounded
to a respectable 953. |
Martindale,
Texas Forum
Martindale,
Texas: A Perfect World?
Dear TE, Regarding the [photo of the] two story building shown with
a white car in front and some broken windows upstairs - this was
originally built for a Ford dealership I understand, back around
1920. It had a showroom downstairs, gas pumps in front, and a garage
in back. It was the meeting place for the Masonic Lodge upstairs.
There were also apartments upstairs in later years. A man named
Marshal Fuller lived in one of the apartments and was found dead
there. Probably due to a heart attack since he was pretty good-sized.
He gave me a fifty cent piece one time.
In the 1960's, the post office was in the bottom floor on the far
side. On the near side was a garage operated by a Black man named
Clifford Kennon who was my Dad's fishing buddy and childhood friend.
He was killed and the garage was later operated as a service station
by Alfred Glynns who was an immigrant from Ohio. He later moved
his business to I-35 in San Marcos. Since then, the building has
had several different businesses in it.
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Also,
a further note, a lot of the signs on the downtown buildings are not
original but were painted to look old at the time they filmed the
movie "A Perfect World" with Clint Eastwood.
In the early 1950's Martindale was called the "Seed Corn Capitol of
the World" because there was more corn seed shipped from there than
anywhere else in the world. The seed business was very big and very
cutthroat back then. By the 1970's, it was dying out. - Michael
Howard, Soil Conservationist, Benavides, Texas, November 03, 2006
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Subject:
Rockne & Martindale
I am surprised you do not have Rockne, Bastrop county on your list
of towns. Rockne is a gem. Visit any Saturday from 10:00 A M. to
2:00 P. M. You will not waste your time. A musuem, two log cabins
that were actually lived in and the Catholic church.
Regarding Martindale: John Crayton and the Spruill Family arrived
in what became Martindale in 1839. They are all buried in the John
Crayton/Crayton-Spruill a cemetery on the same side of the street
as the Martindale City Cemetery only a few yards away. What is noteworthy
about John Crayton and the Spruills is that they remained in Martindale
from their arrival (sometimes between 1850 and January of 1856)
until their deaths. City Councilman Lee Harrison has documentation
of this as does Eugene Cox, former City Councilman. - Regards,
Velma Fogle, August 22, 2006
Anyone wishing to share history, stories or photos of Martindale,
Texas, please contact
us.
More Texas Towns
© John
Troesser
More photos by Barclay
Gibson
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