Spindletop is the name given to the general area beginning at the southern boundary of Castroville’s present city limits (about one mile southeast of Casgtroville’s Medina River bridge on Hwy. 90) to about two miles north of present La Coste.
The area was given this name at about the turn of the century, when the big Spindletop oil field near Beaumont opened, starting large-scale oil production in Texas. Spindletop field was the center of the state’s oil industry. The area was inhabited at the time by numerous farming families including those of Benjamin Kempf, Joe Halty, Albert Biediger, Emil Zimmerman, John Rihn, Bill Rihn, Joe Biry, Charlie Biediger, John Biediger, Bill Biediger, Joe Biediger, Joe Tondre, Joe Hutzler, Ambrose Bohl, Frank Bohl and Anton Bohl.
A few ambitious young men of the area decided to give “rough-necking” in the big Spindletop oil field a go, according to Andrew Kempf, son of Benjamin Kempf, a longtime resident of the area.. Among the young men who made the journey to oil country were Fritz Biediger, son of Joe Biediger, and Ed Bohl, son of Joe Bohl. They toiled in the oil fields only for a short time, but when Fritz returned home sporting a fancy suit, derby hat and cane, jokingly acting out the part of a rich oil millionaire, it didn’t take long for the area to become known as Spindletop.
Kempf, Gerald W.. “Communities: Spindletop.” The History of Medina County, Texas, Rev. ed., vol. 1, Castro Colonies Heritage Association, Castroville, TX, 1994, pp. 139-140.
