Caldwell County is a county located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 45,883, and was estimated to be 52,430 in 2024, Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

is Lockhart. The county was founded on March 6, 1848 and named after Mathew Caldwell, a ranger captain who fought in the Battle of Plum Creek against the

Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

s and against Santa Anna's armies during the

Texas Revolution The Texas Revolution (October 2, 1835 – April 21, 1836) was a rebellion of colonists from the United States and Tejanos (Hispanic Texans) against the Centralist Republic of Mexico, centralist government of Mexico in the Mexican state of ...

. Caldwell was also a signer of the

Texas Declaration of Independence The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. It was adopted at the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, and was form ...

. Caldwell County is part of the metropolitan area.

History

Around 8000 BC,

Paleo-Indians Paleo-Indians were the first peoples who entered and subsequently inhabited the Americas towards the end of the Late Pleistocene period. The prefix ''paleo-'' comes from . The term ''Paleo-Indians'' applies specifically to the lithic period in ...

hunter-gatherers A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, especially w ...

inhabited the area, and later

Tonkawa The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe from Oklahoma and Texas. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct language, extinct, is a linguistic isolate. Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the Federally recognized tribes, federally recognized Tonkawa ...

, Karankawa and

peoples became the first identified inhabitants. 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, the county's oldest town.

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two indi ...

named the town for his future wife Margaret Lea Houston. The legislature formed Caldwell County from Bastrop and Gonzales counties in March 1845. Lockhart was named as the county seat. By 1860, the county population was 2,871, with 1,610 slaves. The community of Fentress was established, originally as Riverside, but later changed to honor the town's first physician, James Fentress. The next year, the county voted 434–188 in favor of

secession Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

from the Union. Several hundred men from Caldwell County served in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the Military forces of the Confederate States, military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) duri ...

. In the 1870s, St. John Colony was established by former slaves. The town of Luling was established in 1874, close to an earlier farming settlement named

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

. John and James Merriwether and Leonidas Hardeman built a gristmill and a sawmill, later known as Zedler's Mills. The Missouri, Kansas, and Texas completed its track between Lockhart and San Marcos in 1887. Two years later, the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway connected Lockhart and Luling to Shiner. By 1892, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas had laid track from Lockhart east to Smithville. From 1880 to 1900,

tenant farming A tenant farmer is a farmer or farmworker who resides and works on land owned by a landlord, while tenant farming is an Agrarian system, agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating Ca ...

accounted for nearly half of all the county's farming and as much as 75% of the 3,149 farms. The Southwest Texas Sacred Harp Singing Convention was established in 1902 in McMahan. On August 9, 1922, Edgar B. Davis discovered the Luling Oilfield. The Luling Foundation was established in 1927 by Davis to teach diversity in agriculture and improve the lives of farm and ranch families. The Lockhart State Park opened to the public in 1948. In 1953, Luling established its annual Watermelon Thump celebration.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.35%) is water. It is the 235th largest county in Texas by total area.

Major highways

Interstate 10 Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost transcontinental highway in the Interstate Highway System of the United States. It is the fourth-longest Interstate in the country at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. It was part of the origina ...

U.S. Highway 90 * US 183

U.S. Highway 183 * Texas 80

State Highway 80 * Toll Texas 130

State Highway 130

Adjacent counties

* Travis County (northeast) * Bastrop County (north) * Fayette County (southeast) * Gonzales County (southwest) * Guadalupe County (south) * Hays County (west)

Demographics

As of the third quarter of 2024, the median home value in Caldwell County was $214,150. As of the 2023

American Community Survey The American Community Survey (ACS) is an annual demographics survey program conducted by the United States Census Bureau. It regularly gathers information previously contained only in the long form of the United States census, decennial census ...

, there are 15,741 estimated households in Caldwell County with an average of 2.78 persons per household. The county has a median household income of $68,503. Approximately 13.7% of the county's population lives at or below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

. Caldwell County has an estimated 58.0% employment rate, with 16.4% of the population holding a bachelor's degree or higher and 80.3% holding a high school diploma. The top five reported ancestries (people were allowed to report up to two ancestries, thus the figures will generally add to more than 100%) were English (64.1%), Spanish (35.0%), Indo-European (0.5%), Asian and Pacific Islander (0.2%), and Other (0.3%). The median age in the county was 38.2 years. Caldwell County, Texas – racial and ethnic composition

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, there were 45,883 people, 15,010 households, and 10,716 families residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 16,379 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 51.51%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 5.32%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1.09% Native American, 0.52% Asian, 0.06%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 21.16% from some other races and 20.35% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 55.51% of the population.

2010 census

As of the 2010 census, there were 38,066 people, 12,278 households, and _ families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 13,733 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 75.65%

, 6.78%

, 0.80% Native American, 0.94% Asian, 0.03%

, 13.03% from some other races and 2.53% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 47.08% of the population.

2000 census

As of the 2000 census, there were 32,194 people, 10,816 households, and 8,079 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 11,901 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 70.13%

, 8.50%

, 0.61% Native American, 0.34% Asian, 0.03%

, 17.66% from some other races and 2.74% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 40.44% of the population. Of the 10,816 households, 37.0% had children under 18 living with them, 56.0% were married couples living together, 13.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.3% were not families. About 21.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.82, and the average family size was 3.28. A Williams Institute analysis of 2010 census data found about 5.8 same-sex couples per 1,000 households lived in the county. In the county, the age distribution was 28.3% under 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 29.8% from 25 to 44, 20.8% from 45 to 64, and 12.5% who were 65 or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.5 males. For every 100 females aged 18 and over, there were 92.7 males. The median income for a household in the county was $36,573, and for a family was $41,300. Males had a median income of $29,295 versus $21,595 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the county was $15,099. About 10.40% of families and 13.10% of the population were below the

, including 15.10% of those under age 18 and 15.40% of those age 65 or over.

Communities

Cities

* Lockhart (county seat) * Luling (small part in Guadalupe County) * Martindale * Mustang Ridge (mostly in Travis County and a small part in Bastrop County) * Niederwald (mostly in Hays County) * San Marcos (mostly in Hays County and a small part in Guadalupe and Comal Counties) * Uhland (mostly in Hays County)

Unincorporated communities

* Brownsboro * Dale *

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

* Elm Grove * Fentress * Joliet * Lytton Springs *

Maxwell Maxwell may refer to: People * Maxwell (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name ** James Clerk Maxwell, mathematician and physicist * Justice Maxwell (disambiguation) * Maxwell baronets, in the Baronetage of N ...

* McMahan * McNeil * Mendoza * Pettytown (partly in Bastrop County) * Prairie Lea * Reedville * Saint John Colony * Seawillow * Soda Springs * Stairtown * Taylorsville * Tilmon

Ghost town

* Polonia

Politics

County government

Caldwell County elected officials

Education

School districts: * Gonzales Independent School District * Hays Consolidated Independent School District * Lockhart Independent School District * Luling Independent School District * Prairie Lea Independent School District * San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District * Waelder Independent School District Austin Community College is the designated community college for the county.Texas Education Code, Sec. 130.166. AUSTIN COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT SERVICE AREA.

References

External links

Caldwell County Government official site

Caldwell County in ''Handbook of Texas Online''
at the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

.
"Caldwell County"
''Almanac of Texas'' - includes printable county map {{Authority control 1848 establishments in Texas Populated places established in 1848 Majority-minority counties in Texas