Martindale, Texas

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Martindale is a city in Caldwell County, Texas, United States. The population was 953 at the 2000 census.

Martindale is well known for its simple charm, its lazy river and its exceptional citizens.

The town is also known for its weddings and celebrations. In 2003, Laura Harrison and James Mayes were married in Martindale and held their reception in two of the buildings of the old downtown. Easter always brings a giant egg hunt. Every fourth of July, the town holds a Independence Parade leading to a town picnic at the oak-shaded river bottom.

In recent years, Martindale has also attracted a surprising number of film scouts who are smitten by the town’s turn-of-the-century charm. As a result, various television shows, music videos and movies have been filmed in town: most notably A Perfect World, starring Clint Eastwood and Kevin Costner, The Newton Boys, starring Matthew McConaughey and Ethan Hawke, and New Line’s 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.Over the years, each subsequent film crew has left its mark on the town. A strand of wood beams sits on a vacant lot next to the bank—all that remains of a saloon that was constructed for one of the westerns.

In 2004, Carlton Carl, a Washington D.C. lobbyist, purchased 36,000 square feet of commercial property in downtown Martindale. A partial inventory of Carl’s purchase includes three empty general stores, a former bank, a cotton-seed weigh station, several warehouses, a movie-set courtroom, an aquarium filled with cotton plants, a seed elevator, 16 seed silos and 300 feet of frontage on the San Marcos River.

Carl has teamed with many Martindale leaders to plan the next phase of the town's life.

1 History
2 Demographics
3 Education
4 External links

[edit] History

Martindale was established in 1855 by Mrs. Nancy Martindale, who moved to Texas from Mississippi in 1851 and donated land for the townsite.

A Baptist church was organized in 1858, and a post office was established in 1875, when the local population was less than fifty. In 1890 the town had four general stores and four gristmills and gins. By 1892 the population was 200. In 1905, Martindale had two schools with four teachers and 184 white students and one school with one teacher for 73 black students. Four churches, a hotel, three cotton gins, three stores, a bank, and telephone service were in operation by 1914. Twenty Martindale businesses served residents in 1931.

From 1910 to 1946 the population was 500. In 1949, cottonseed and hybrid seed corn companies near Martindale, including the legendary Harper Seed Farm, supplied over 65 percent of the hybrid seed corn and a large percentage of the pedigreed cottonseed produced in Texas. The population of Martindale reached a high of 600 in 1957 but subsequently fell to 250 in 1969 and 210 in 1982, when only three businesses were active. In 1982, the town became the third in the county to incorporate. Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, built in 1916, was renovated by the parishioners' own labor in the mid-1980s and then was burned by an arsonist in 1991. After 1984 the local population increased, reaching 1,068 in 1988, when eleven businesses were in operation.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 953 people, 332 households, and 234 families residing in the city. The population density was 182.2/km² (472.4/mi²). There were 363 housing units at an average density of 69.4/km² (179.9/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 58.76% White, 3.04% African American, 0.31% Native American, 33.79% from other races, and 4.09% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 61.49% of the population.

There were 332 households out of which 31.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.7% were married couples living together, 12.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.5% were non-families. 24.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.87 and the average family size was 3.49.

In the city the population was spread out with 26.5% under the age of 18, 13.2% from 18 to 24, 27.4% from 25 to 44, 21.8% from 45 to 64, and 11.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 99.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $33,882, and the median income for a family was $37,125. Males had a median income of $31,094 versus $20,625 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,913. About 10.0% of families and 12.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.6% of those under age 18 and 11.7% of those age 65 or over.