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Downtown Martindale
(See forum for building
history)
Photo
courtesy Barclay
Gibson, August 2006 |
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.
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.
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. |
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| Photo
courtesy Darryl Pearson, April 2014 |
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Sacred
Heart Of Mary Catholic Church
Photo
courtesy Barclay
Gibson, August 2006 |
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Martindale's
Bagley "Texas Hybrid Seed Corn"
Photo
courtesy Barclay
Gibson, August 2006 |
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Martindale,
Texas Forum
Martindale,
Texas: A Perfect World?
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 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
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| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history
and vintage/historic photos, please contact
us. |
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