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About Caldwell
The following was taken from The Handbook of Texas Online.
During the Reconstruction period, a company of State Police was stationed in Caldwell. A company of the Texas National Guard, Company E, was headquartered in Caldwell from 1898 through 1940, when it became part of the Thirty-sixth Infantry Division. Caldwell was the smallest town in Texas to have a full infantry company; its soldiers were all volunteers from Caldwell, Somerville, and the rural parts of the county. Many of these men were captured by the Germans at Salerno, Italy, in 1943 and were prisoners of war until the Germans surrendered in 1945.
The population of Caldwell, which was 2,165 in 1940, remained static until the 1970s, when oil
was discovered in Burleson County. In 1990 the population was 3,181, and in 2000 it had grown to
3,449. At that time the town was a supply point for the agriculture and livestock industries and
the oilfields in the county. The Burleson County Industrial Foundation, organized in 1961, and
the Chamber of Commerce have been responsible for locating four manufacturing plants and twelve
oil-related industries in the town. The town also had a newspaper, a veterinary clinic, and four
financial institutions. The courthouse square, dominated by the fourth courthouse to be built on
the site, was the heart of the town. Motels, restaurants, a shopping mall, grocery stores, and
service stations lined the two highways. Medical facilities included two clinics, two dentists,
a nursing home, and the Burleson Memorial Hospital, operated by a county hospital district. The
hospital, opened in 1978, was a successor to Thomas L. Goodnight Memorial Hospital, dedicated in
1956. Recreational facilities included baseball fields, tennis courts, parks, a country club, a
swimming pool, and a saddle club arena. The town had twelve churches, two museums, nine civic
clubs, and two veterans' organizations. It was also the home of the Burleson County Fair and
the Kolache Festival.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Burleson County Historical Society, Astride the Old San Antonio Road: A History of Burleson County, Texas (Dallas: Taylor, 1980). - Catherine G. Alford « back
