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Guadalupe County (''Local'' , ) is a
county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
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 ...
of
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, its population was 172,706. The
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 Seguin. The county was founded in 1846 and is named after the Guadalupe River. Guadalupe County is part of the
San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
metropolitan statistical area.


History

Indigenous paleo-Indian
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 ...
were the first inhabitants of the area, thousands of years before European colonization. Later, historic Indian tribes settled in the area, including
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, Kickapoo,
Lipan Apache Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan languages, Southern Athabaskan Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people, who have lived in the Oasisamerica, Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European ...
, and
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 ...
. In 1689, Alonso de Leon named the Guadalupe River in honor of
Our Lady of Guadalupe Our Lady of Guadalupe (), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe (), is a Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with four Marian apparitions to Juan Diego and one to his uncle, Juan Bernardino reported in December 1531, when t ...
. In 1806, French army officer José de la Baume, who later joined the Spanish army, was rewarded for his services to Spain with title to of Texas land, the original El Capote Ranch. The grant was reaffirmed by the Republic of Mexico after it achieved independence. Following
Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
's independence from Spain, Anglo-Americans from the United States settled in Texas in 1821, and claimed Mexican citizenship. In 1825, Guadalupe County was part of Green DeWitt's petition for a land grant to establish a
colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...
in Texas, which was approved by the Mexican government. From 1827 to 1835, 22 families settled the area as part of DeWitt's colony. Following Texas' gaining independence from Mexico (1836), 33 Gonzales Rangers and Republic veterans established Seguin. Founded as Walnut Springs in 1838, the settlement's name was changed to Seguin the next year to honor Juan Nepomuceno Seguín, who had fought for independence. In 1840, the
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
n Michael Erskine acquired the El Capote Ranch for use as a cattle ranch. In 1842, the
Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas (), or simply Texas, was a country in North America that existed for close to 10 years, from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas shared borders with Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, an ...
organized Guadalupe County as a judicial county. The Texas Supreme Court declared judicial counties to be unconstitutional. In 1845, Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels secured title to of the Veramendi grant in the northern part of the former judicial county. Following the annexation of Texas by the United States (1845),
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
n immigrant August Wilhelm Schumann arrived on the Texas coast aboard the SS'' Franziska'' in 1846, and purchased in Guadalupe County. Shortly thereafter, the state legislature established the present county from parts of Bexar and Gonzales Counties. In 1846, during the war between the United States and Mexico, a wagon train of German immigrant settlers bought Guadalupe land from August Schumann. The following year, the town of Schumannsville was established by German immigrants and named after him. Numerous German immigrants entered Texas at Galveston following the revolutions of 1848 in German states, settling in Guadalupe County and central Texas. After their own struggles, they tended to oppose slavery. The last Indian raid into the area was made by the Kickapoo in 1855. By 1860, 1,748
slaves Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
of African descent were in the county, generally brought in from the South by slaveholder migrants. In 1861, the people of the county voted 314–22 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. Guadalupe County sent several troops to fight for 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 ...
. Following the end of the Civil War and the
emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure Economic, social and cultural rights, economic and social rights, civil and political rights, po ...
of the slaves (1865), a
Freedmen's Bureau The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, usually referred to as simply the Freedmen's Bureau, was a U.S. government agency of early post American Civil War Reconstruction, assisting freedmen (i.e., former enslaved people) in the ...
office opened in 1866 in Seguin to supervise work contracts between former slaves and area farmers. Together, German Americans and African Americans joined the Republican Party, leading Guadalupe County to be a reliably Republican one into the 20th century, even after the state disfranchisement of African Americans in 1901 by imposition of a poll tax."Nixon v. Condon. Disfranchisement of the Negro in Texas"
''The Yale Law Journal'', Vol. 41, No. 8, June 1932, p. 1212, accessed March 21, 2008
By 1876, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway reached Seguin. It was completed as far as San Antonio the following year. By 1880, ethnic Germans accounted for 40% of the county population.
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 ...
and
sharecropping Sharecropping is a legal arrangement in which a landowner allows a tenant (sharecropper) to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping is not to be conflated with tenant farming, providing the tenant a ...
accounted for the operation of 25% of the county's farms. By 1910, immigrants from Mexico accounted for about 11% of the country's population. In 1929, oil was discovered at the Darst Creek oilfield. By 1930,
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 ...
and
sharecropping Sharecropping is a legal arrangement in which a landowner allows a tenant (sharecropper) to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land. Sharecropping is not to be conflated with tenant farming, providing the tenant a ...
comprised 64% of the county's farms. Over the next five decades, the economy changed markedly, as the area became more urbanized and less dependent on agriculture. By 1982, professional and related services, manufacturing, and wholesale and retail trade involved nearly 60% of the workforce in the area.


Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which are land and (0.5%) are covered by water.


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 ...
*
Interstate 35 Interstate 35 (I-35) is a major Interstate Highway in the central United States. As with most primary Interstates that end in a five, it is a major cross-country, north–south route. It stretches from Laredo, Texas, near the Mexican bo ...
* U.S. Highway 90 *
U.S. Highway 90 Alternate * State Highway 46 * State Highway 123 * State Highway 130


Adjacent counties

* Hays County (north) * Caldwell County (northeast) * Gonzales County (southeast) * Wilson County (south) * Bexar County (southwest) * Comal County (northwest)


Demographics

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, 89,023 people, 30,900 households, and 23,823 families were 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 . The 33,585 housing units average . The racial makeup of the county was 77.65% White, 5.01% African American, 0.55% Native American, 0.87% Asian, 12.86% from other races, and 3.07% from two or more races. About 33.21% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos of any race. Of the 30,900 households, 38.30% had children under 18 living with them, 61.60% were married couples living together, 11.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.90% were not families. About 18.90% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.60% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.83, and the average family size was 3.23. In the county, the age distribution was 28.50% under 18, 9.00% from 18 to 24, 29.10% from 25 to 44, 22.20% from 45 to 64, and 11.30% who were 65 or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.00 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.30 males. The median income for a household was $43,949, and for a family was $49,645. Males had a median income of $32,450 versus $23,811 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 $18,430. About 7.30% of families and 9.80% of the population were 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 ...
, including 13.30% of those under age 18 and 9.50% of those 65 or over.


Education


School districts

School districts include: * Comal Independent School District * La Vernia Independent School District * Luling Independent School District * Marion Independent School District * Navarro Independent School District * New Braunfels Independent School District * Nixon-Smiley Consolidated Independent School District * Prairie Lea Independent School District * San Marcos Consolidated Independent School District * Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City Independent School District * Seguin Independent School District


Colleges and universities

Most of the county is in the service area of Alamo Community College District. The portion in San Marcos CISD is zoned to Austin Community College. Texas Lutheran University has about 1,400 students. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It was ranked number three among the best west regional universities by '' U.S. News & World Report'' in 2013. Texas Lutheran is now a member of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference,
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
Division III, with Austin College,
Colorado College Colorado College is a private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Founded in 1874 by Thomas Nelson Haskell in his daughter's memory, the college offers over 40 majors a ...
, Centenary College of Louisiana, Schreiner University,
Southwestern University Southwestern University (Southwestern or SU) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas. Formed in 1873 from a revival of collegiate charters granted in 1840, Southwester ...
, Trinity University, and the University of Dallas.


Communities


Cities (multiple counties)

* Cibolo (a small portion in Bexar County) * Luling (mostly in Caldwell County) * New Braunfels (mostly in Comal County as well as its seat) * San Marcos (mostly in Hays County and a small part in Caldwell County) * Schertz (partly in Bexar and Comal Counties) * Selma (partly in Bexar and Comal Counties) * Universal City (mostly in Bexar County)


Cities

* Kingsbury * Marion * New Berlin * Santa Clara * Seguin (county seat) * Staples


Census-designated places

*
Geronimo Gerónimo (, ; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a military leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache bands the Tchihen ...
* Lake Dunlap * McQueeney * Northcliff *
Redwood Sequoioideae, commonly referred to as redwoods, is a subfamily of Pinophyta, coniferous trees within the family (biology), family Cupressaceae, that range in the Northern Hemisphere, northern hemisphere. It includes the List of superlative tree ...
* Zuehl


Unincorporated communities

* Barbarosa * Clear Springs * Leesville‡ * Schumansville * Zorn


Ghost town

*
Concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bound together with a fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. It is the second-most-used substance (after water), the most–widely used building material, and the most-manufactur ...


Public Safety


Public Safety Departments

Guadalupe County is covered by eight career and eight volunteer fire departments. There are multiple law enforcement agencies within the county, each city with the exception of Kingsbury provides their own police force along with the Guadalupe County Sheriffs Office and Constables.


Career Fire Departments

The eight career fire departments respond with their city limits as well as to fires in small portions in the county. Guadalupe County established its first career department in 2020, and became full time in December 2022. Guadalupe County Fire Rescue was established to augment and assist the volunteer departments with responses due to the increasing volume of emergencies. * Seguin Fire/EMS * Schertz Fire Department * Cibolo Fire Department * Luling Fire Department * San Marcos Fire Department * New Braunfels Fire Department * Selma Fire Department * Guadalupe County Fire Rescue


Volunteer Fire Departments

The eight volunteer departments are based in small towns, or unincorporated areas. These volunteer departments are required to have a first responder organization license through the State of Texas, as well as a certain amount of training hours per year. * Geronimo VFD- Covers the Geronimo Community and surrounding areas. * Marion VFD- Covers the Marion, Santa Clara, and surrounding areas. * Kingsbury VFD- Covers Kingsbury, and surround area. * McQueeney VFD- Covers the McQueeney Community and surrounding area. * Lake Dunlap VFD- Covers a small unincorporated area around Lake Dunlap. * York Creek VFD- Covers, the communities of Zorn, Staples, Redwood, and surrounding areas. * New Berlin VFD- Covers New Berlin, the Zuehl Community, and surrounding areas. * Sand Hills VFD- Covers the unincorporated area of southeastern Guadalupe County.


EMS Agencies

Emergency Medical Services is provided by Schertz EMS that contracts to other agencies within the county to provide such services. * Seguin Fire/EMS * Schertz EMS * San Marcos/Hays County EMS * Luling EMS * Acadian Ambulance * Wilson County ESD 3 EMS


Law Enforcement Departments

* Guadalupe County Sheriffs Department * Guadalupe County Constables Precinct 1-4 * Seguin PD * Schertz PD * Cibolo PD * Selma PD * Marion PD * New Berlin Marshals Office * Staples Police Department * Santa Clara Marshals Office


Politics

Guadalupe is a strongly Republican county that possessed strong GOP leanings even during the
Solid South The Solid South was the electoral voting bloc for the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party in the Southern United States between the end of the Reconstruction era in 1877 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the aftermath of the Co ...
era. The only Democratic presidential candidate to carry Guadalupe County since 1940 has been Hill Country native
Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He became president after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, under whom he had served a ...
during his 1964 landslide. Although
Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was the 42nd governor of New York, serving from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1923 to 1928. He was the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party's presidential nominee in the 1 ...
did win the county in 1928 due to anti-
Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...
sentiment, Guadalupe had even leaned Republican before
Warren G. Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was one of the most ...
's 1920 landslide, voting Republican in every election between 1896 and 1924 except the divided 1912 contest.


Government

Guadalupe County is run by a commissioners court presided by the county judge. The court has four members elected for two-year terms. The commissioners are elected by and represent individual districts. The county judge is elected through a county-wide at-large election.


County judge past and present

* Donald Schraub (2003 - 2007) * Michael T. Wiggins (2007 - 2012) * Larry Jones (2012 - 2014) * Kyle Kutscher (2014–present)


See also

* List of museums in Central Texas *
National Register of Historic Places listings in Guadalupe County, Texas This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Guadalupe County, Texas. This is intended to be a complete list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Guadalupe County, Texas. ...
* Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks in Guadalupe County


References


External links


Guadalupe County government's website
* {{coord, 29.58, -97.95, display=title, type:adm2nd_region:US-TX_source:UScensus1990 1846 establishments in Texas Greater San Antonio Populated places established in 1846 Majority-minority counties in Texas