Editing Caldwell County, Texas (section)

==History==
Around 8000 BC, [[Paleo-Indians]] [[hunter-gatherers]] inhabited the area, and later [[Tonkawa]], [[Karankawa]] and [[Comanche]] peoples became the first identified inhabitants.<ref name="Caldwell County, Texas">{{cite web|last=Smyrl|first=Vivian Elizabeth|title=Caldwell County, Texas|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcc01|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 1, 2010|date=June 12, 2010}}</ref> Caldwell County, of [[Green DeWitt]]'s petition for a land grant to establish a colony in Texas, was approved by the Mexican government in 1825.

In 1839, Edmund Bellinger became the first settler of [[Prairie Lea, Texas|Prairie Lea]], the county's oldest town. [[Sam Houston]] named the town for his future wife [[Margaret Lea Houston]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Stock|first=Barbara|title=Prairie Lea|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hlp50|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 1, 2010|date=June 15, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Prairie Lea, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsSouth/Prairie-Lea-Texas.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref>  The legislature formed Caldwell County from [[Bastrop County, Texas|Bastrop]] and [[Gonzales County, Texas|Gonzales]] counties in March 1845. Lockhart was named as the county seat.<ref name="Caldwell County, Texas" /><ref>{{cite web|title=Lockhart, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TOWNS/LOCKHART/Lockhart.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref>

By 1860, the county population was 2,871, with 1,610 slaves.<ref name="Caldwell County, Texas" /> The community of Fentress was established, originally as Riverside, but later changed to honor the town's first physician, James Fentress.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fentress, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsSouth/Fentress-Texas.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref> The next year, the county voted 434–188 in favor of [[Texas in the American Civil War|secession]] from the Union. Several hundred men from Caldwell County served in the [[Confederate States Army]].<ref name="Caldwell County, Texas" />

In the 1870s, St. John Colony was established by former slaves.<ref>{{cite web|title=St John Colony, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsSouth/St-John-Colony-Texas.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref> The town of [[Luling, Texas|Luling]] was established in 1874,<ref>{{cite web|title=Luling, Texas|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/TOWNS/Luling/luling.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref> close to an earlier farming settlement named [[Luling, Texas|Atlanta]] . John and James Merriwether and Leonidas Hardeman built a gristmill and a sawmill, later known as Zedler's Mills.<ref>{{cite web|title=Zedler's Mills|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/Preservation/Luling-Texas-Zedlers-Mills.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref>

The Missouri, Kansas, and Texas completed its track between Lockhart and [[San Marcos, Texas|San Marcos]] in 1887.<ref name="Caldwell County, Texas" /> Two years later, the [[San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway]] connected Lockhart and Luling to [[Shiner, Texas|Shiner]].<ref name="Caldwell County, Texas" /> By 1892, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas had laid track from Lockhart east to [[Smithville, Texas|Smithville]].<ref name="Caldwell County, Texas" />

From 1880 to 1900, [[Tenant farmer|tenant farming]] accounted for nearly half of all the county's farming and as much as 75% of the 3,149 farms.<ref name="Caldwell County, Texas" /> The [[Southwest Texas Sacred Harp Singing Convention]] was established in 1902 in McMahan.<ref>{{cite web|title=McMahan|url=http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsSouth/McMahan-Texas.htm|work=Texas Escapes|publisher=Texas Escapes – Blueprints For Travel, LLC|access-date=December 1, 2010}}</ref>

On August 9, 1922, Edgar B. Davis discovered the Luling Oilfield.<ref>{{cite web|last=Smyrl|first=Vivian Elizabeth|title=Luling Oilfield|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/gol02|work=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=December 1, 2010|date=June 15, 2010}}</ref>  The Luling Foundation was established in 1927 by Davis to teach diversity in agriculture and improve the lives of farm and ranch families.<ref>{{cite book|last=Parsons|first=Chuck|title=Luling (Images of America)|year=2009|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=978-0-7385-7145-4|pages=101–106|author2=Luling Main Street|chapter=Agriculture and the Foundation Farm}}</ref>

The Lockhart State Park opened to the public in 1948.<ref>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first=Tom|title=60 Hikes within 60 Miles: San Antonio and Austin |year=2003|publisher=Menasha Ridge Press|isbn=978-0-89732-533-2|author2=Molloy, Johnny|page=88|chapter=Lockhart State Park Trail}}</ref> In 1953, Luling established its annual Watermelon Thump celebration.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pohlen|first=Jerome|title=Oddball Texas: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places|year=2006|publisher=Chicago Review Press|isbn=978-1-55652-583-4|page=160}}</ref>