Cat Spring

Cat Spring, at the intersection of Farm roads 2187 and 949, on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad and the west bank of Bernard Creek in western Austin County, was first settled in 1834 by a group of German immigrants from the duchies of Oldenburg and Westphalia led by Ludwig Anton Siegmund von Roeder and Robert Kleberg. Many of these immigrants had been attracted to Texas by the letters of an earlier Oldenburg migrant, Friedrich Ernst, who had taken up land nearby in the valley of Mill Creek in 1831. The community received its name when a son of Leopold von Roeder killed a puma at one of the springs of the San Bernard River near the family farm. A German Protestant congregation was organized at Cat Spring by Rev. Louis C. Ervendberg between 1840 and 1844. The earliest agricultural society in Texas, the Cat Spring Agricultural Society, was formed in the town in 1856. A post office was established by 1878. By the early 1890s the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad linked Cat Spring with New Ulm to the west and Sealy to the east. In 1836 Cat Spring had a population estimated at 350, and fifteen businesses. However, decline set in after World War II, and by 1950 it had an estimated 200 people and nine businesses. In 1990 Cat Spring had a population of seventy-six and two accredited businesses. In 2000 the population was seventy-six with thirteen businesses.