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| Martin County is situated in West Texas, on the Staked Plains. It was created
from a part of Bexar County In
1876, named for Wyly Martin, and
organized In 1884. Its estimated population
is 2,000; Stanton, the county seat,
has about 1,500, and is the only post office in the county. Total assessment, $2.780,768. The average price of raw lands is $10 per acre; cultivated lands. $20
per acre. The surface is a gentle, rolling prairie, traversed with several draws, which are dry, with an exceptional
water hole. The soil is friable red sandy, very porous, with an occasional spot of black waxy In basins or depressions,
which hold water in very rainy seasons. There Is no timber, but a stunted growth of mesquite, cedar, hackberry
and shin oak Is common. The water supply Is obtained from wells ranging In depth from 10 to 150 feet. The principal
industry Is cattle raising. Agriculture has made rapid strides within the last five years. The population has almost
doubled, and nearly all new settlers are farmers. There are no irrigation plants in the county, except small ones, which are used for watering truck patches'
wells equipped with windmill power are used for this purpose. Corn, cotton, peanuts, milo maize and Kaffir corn
are principally grown. Corn produces 25 bushels per acre; cotton, three-fifths of a bale; milo maize, one and one-half
tons; Kaffir corn, one ton; sorghum, two tons. This is a splendid fruit country; peaches, plums, apples, grapes
and all kinds of berries are grown successfully; grapes are marketed. There were last year 24,086 cattle, 1,505
horses and mules, 281 hogs and 446 sheep. Poultry raising and dairying have not been developed except as these
lines are carried on by farmers. The Texas and Pacific Railroad passes across the southeast corner of the county, having 12.58 miles of track. There are five public free schools
in the county.
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| In 1881 the Texas and Pacific Railway built a two-story section house, a pump, and
a water tank at a small settlement in Martin County then known as Grelton. While searching for a place to establish
a German Catholic colony, John Jacob Konz of Anderson County, Kansas, met Charles Froesee, who surveyed the land
around Grelton and marked off town lots. Konz returned to Kansas and organized a settlement party, and on August
15, 1881, five men, including Konz's son Adam Konz and Father Christian D. (Anastasius) Peters,qv arrived in Grelton. In October 1881
a load of lumber arrived, and the first buildings and homes were built. The next year Konz built a general store.
The elder Konz led more Kansas settlers who arrived in 1882, and two of Father Peters's cousins were part of a
group which came from Pocahontas, Arkansas. In 1883, the year a post office was granted and J. B. Konz named postmaster,
another settlement party arrived. Father Peters and his brother Boniface, also a priest, wrote promotional bulletins
and even traveled to Germany to publicize the colony. In 1885 Father Anastasius and others organized a sale of
town lots. Citizens constructed the first permanent courthouse and petitioned the railroad to change the name of
the town to Marienfeld (German for "Field of Mary"). There being no objection, the railroad agreed. By
1885 Marienfeld had several businesses including a hotel, a wagonyard, several stores, a courthouse, a jail, a
school, the Catholic complex, and railroad operations.In 1890 the town was renamed Stanton, for Edwin McMasters
Stanton, a Supreme Court justice and secretary of war under President Lincoln. |
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