Marienfeld
Stanton, Martin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Former name of Stanton. Begun as German colony by 5 German Catholics from Kansas, who pitched tents here, near new Texas & Pacific Railroad in 1881. The site -- with a water tank, section house, telegraph office bore name Grelton, but settlers had it changed to Marienfeld, German for "Field of Mary." County was created 1876 and named for Wylie Martin, senator in Republic of Texas. When the county organized, town became county seat. First commissioners court met here December 13, 1884. Through Protestant influence, town was renamed Stanton, 1870. (1970)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1881 five German Catholic settlers from Kansas pitched their tents beside the new Texas & Pacific Railroad on the West Texas plains. They renamed the railroad stop "Marienfeld," German for "Field of Mary," and the fledgling colony soon became the seat of newly organized Martin County, with its first commissioners court meeting in 1884. Later Protestant influence gave the town the name it still carries, Stanton.
Why it matters
Rail-line colonies like Marienfeld show how immigration and the railroad together settled the arid West Texas plains, planting European communities where none had stood before.
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Related people
- · Wylie Martin
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of St. Joseph's Church
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In 1881, Carmelite monks set out to plant a monastery and a German Catholic colony on the West Texas plains, raising the first Catholic church between Fort Worth and El Paso. Adobe-and-brick buildings followed—the monastery in 1884, St. Joseph's Church in 1885—and Sisters of Divine Providence, then Sisters of Mercy, ran schools and a convent academy here. The Carmelites disbanded in 1897, and a tornado in 1938 ended the sisters' work, leaving only ruins, a dormitory, and the cemetery.
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