Startzville Community
Soon after New Braunfels was settled in 1845, the settlers started to spread out into the Hill Country. Most of the settlements in the Hill Country were located close to some water source. In this area of Comal County, it was the Guadalupe River which supplied the drinking water and a source of power to grind the grains. The closest settlement to where Startzville was later established was the Tom Creek valley where the Heinrich Startz and Gottlieb Artzt families settled in the 1850s. While the Tom Creek was a reasonable source of water, it could not supply enough water to support the mills. It was the Crains Mill settlement about five miles north, established in the early 1850s and named after J. B. Crain, which had a mill at the Gum Spring crossing on the Guadalupe River. This settlement also had a post office established in 1857, which was discontinued in 1866. When Rev. August Engel reopened the post office in 1873, it was renamed to Cranes Mill.
In time, the Startzville Community was established at the intersection of two roads where the early settlers did not settle because of the lack of water supply and tillable soil to grow crops.
The Continuation of the Original Site and Growth of Startzville The changes caused by the construction of Canyon Dam had a tremendous influence on the development of community of Startzville. Activity at Startzville grew during the actual construction of Canyon Dam from 1960 until 1964. In 1963, James, son of Curt and Alice, and wife, Lorine Pantermuehl Startz, added a café building to the left side of the grocery store. James and Lorine operated the Startz Café in the Startzville community while Alice continued to run the grocery store until she died in 1985. At this time the store was closed while the café continued to flourish until Lorine passed away in July of 1997. James Sr. passed away in 2003, and since then the business is owned by their two children, James Startz, Jr. and Sandra Duncan.
