Startzville Community
Canyon Lake, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The area of Startzville was established at the intersection of Cranes Mill Road and Sattler Road. In 1940 Bruno and Viola Elbel built a cedar yard and store. Curt and Alice Schlameus Startz leased the building in 1944, operated the store and eventually bought the property in 1946. Curt Startz was the grandson of Heinrich and Louise Artzt Startz that settled in the area in the 1850s. The name Startzville was first used in 1950 by artist Dr. E. J. Duffin who completed a painting of the store front. Selling ice was a significant business before, during and after the building of Canyon Dam and Lake. In 1963, James and Lorine Pantermuehl Startz added a café that is still in operation today. (2012)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This crossroads community grew up around a cedar yard and store opened in 1940 and later run by Curt Startz, grandson of German immigrants who had settled the area in the 1850s. Named in 1950 for an artist's painting of the storefront, Startzville did a brisk trade in ice through the building of Canyon Dam and Lake. A café added in 1963 kept the little community's gathering place alive.
Why it matters
It shows how a Hill Country immigrant family's store anchored a rural community across a century of German settlement and mid-century change.
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Related people
- · Curt Startz
- · Alice Schlameus Startz
- · Heinrich Startz
- · Bruno Elbel
Related events
- · Construction of Canyon Dam and Lake
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Pantermuel House
Canyon Lake, TX
Heimrich and Pauline Pantermuehl were German-born settlers who put down roots in Comal County during the great mid-19th-century wave of German immigration to the Texas Hill Country. The limestone-and-native-cedar cottage they raised about 1865 follows the compact, sturdy style typical of small German farm homes in the region.
Smithson Valley Cemetery
New Braunfels, TX
In the Texas Hill Country, this cemetery is the resting place of the German immigrants who settled the Smithson Valley community, once home to a store, post office, schoolhouse, dancehall, and saloon. It began in 1876 as a family burial ground and was formally deeded for a cemetery in 1898 by Heinrich Pantermuehl. Its east-facing rows, curbed plots, and German-language gravestones carry on customs brought from Germany.
German Pioneers in Texas
Sattler vicinity, TX
Between 1844 and 1847 a society of German nobles, the Mainzer Adelsverein, sponsored the emigration of thousands of Germans to Texas, who founded New Braunfels in 1845 and Fredericksburg in 1846. Pushing west, these farmers, artisans, scholars, and scientists endured epidemic and privation, and a treaty with the Comanche opened millions of acres between the Llano and Colorado rivers to settlement. Much of the land they first settled now lies beneath Canyon Lake.
Jacobs Creek School Teacherage
Sattler, TX
Settlers in Comal County started Jacobs Creek School in 1867, leasing land for a dollar, and teacher Carl Pantermuehl soon built a teacher's residence beside it. The 1½-story cabin is a fine example of German vernacular building—hand-hewn Ashe juniper joined in half-timbered fachwerk, with limestone and brick worked in. After a newer school opened nearby, the schoolhouse was razed but the teacherage lived on as a home.