Martindale, Texas. (original) (raw)
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.
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.
| 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 | | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |
- 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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