Graduation never meant final departure.
Coming home for Thanksgiving 2009, I knew my home town needed a
cache!
NATALIA, TEXAS. Natalia is on the main line of the Missouri
Pacific Railroad and Interstate Highway 35, sixteen miles southeast
of Hondo in southeastern Medina County. It was founded by the
Medina Irrigation Company in 1912 and named after Natalie Pearson,
daughter of Fred Stark Pearsonqv, prime motivator of the irrigation
project and builder of the Medina Dam. The community has had a post
office since 1913; Natalie's name was spelled wrong. After the
deaths of Pearson and his wife, who were passengers on the
Lusitania when it went down in 1915, the Medina Irrigation Company
was forced into receivership. It was subsequently incorporated
under the name of Medina Irrigated Farms in 1931 after several
failed attempts at refinancing. Bonds in the amount of $2.5 million
were issued to pay for Medina valley irrigation and to provide a
loan fund for prospective land purchasers. Charles F. C. Ladd acted
as chief sales agent for the developers. His campaign was
successful, and the town grew with the prosperity of the
surrounding agricultural venture. In 1939 it had 400 residents, as
compared with 150 in 1933. In 1931 the Griggs Canning plant was
established in Natalia. In peak seasons this plant employed 500
people to can the many varieties of vegetables grown in the
surrounding irrigated valley. In 1950 Medina Irrigated Farms was
sold for a token fee to a group of local residents and now operates
as a virtual public utility under the name of Bexar-Medina-Atascosa
Counties Water Control and Improvement District No. 1. In 1976 the
canning company was sold and converted into the Gold Bond
Manufacturing Company, which produces carpet padding. Natalia was
incorporated in 1968 under an aldermanic type of government with a
mayor and four aldermen elected by the residents. Natalia
Independent School District maintains an accredited public school
system for grades K-12. The town continued to increase in
population, despite a downturn in the late 1960s. In 1988 it had
1,514 residents and twelve businesses. The population in 1990 was
1,545. By 2000 the population was 1,663.