| Cat Spring | |
| Settlement Type: | Unincorporated community |
| Pushpin Map: | Texas#USA |
| Pushpin Label Position: | bottom |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within the state of Texas |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | United States |
| Subdivision Type1: | State |
| Subdivision Name1: | Texas |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Austin |
| Unit Pref: | Imperial |
| Population As Of: | 2000 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Timezone: | Central (CST) |
| Utc Offset: | -6 |
| Timezone Dst: | CDT |
| Utc Offset Dst: | -5 |
| Elevation Ft: | 308 |
| Coordinates: | 29.8456°N -96.3258°W |
| Postal Code Type: | ZIP codes |
| Postal Code: | 78933 |
| Blank Name: | FIPS code |
| Blank1 Name: | GNIS feature ID |
| Blank1 Info: | 1332320 |
Cat Spring is an unincorporated community in southern Austin County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, it had a population of 76 in 2000. Cat Spring was one of the first German/American settlements in Texas, and the location of Texas' first agricultural society.[1]
Cat Spring was founded by immigrants from Oldenburg and Westphalia that was led by Ludwig Anton Siegmund von Roeder and Robert J. Kleberg in 1834, in which many of them were attracted to the area and the state by letters sent from Friedrich Ernst after he bought a plot of land in the Mill Creek Valley in 1831 and named for a nearby spring near the San Bernard River where a puma was killed by one of the German immigrants. The first Protestant church was organized in the community sometime between 1840-and 1844 by Louis C. Ervendberg. The community was the location of Texas' first agricultural society (Cat Spring Agricultural Society) in 1856. A post office was established at Cat Spring in 1878. It was the site of a station on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad that linked it to New Ulm to the west and Sealy to the east, established in the 1890s. Its population was reported as 350 in 1836 and had 15 businesses. The community began to decline after World War II, in which its population decreased to 200 with 9 businesses in 1950, had 76 residents and only two businesses in 1990, and grew to 13 businesses in 2000 with the same population.[2]
Today, the community has 75 residents and has a store at the crossroads a mile north of the community, the post office, and a "tractor graveyard". Another building located just west of the crossroads is one of the few remaining buildings in the community and is used as a dance hall. It is currently used for seasonal antique shows.
Although Cat Spring is unincorporated, it has a post office, with the ZIP code of 78933.[3]
Cat Spring lies along FM 949 and 2187 on the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and the west bank of the San Bernard River in western Austin County,[2] 10miles south of the city of Bellville, the county seat.[4] It is also located 29miles south of Brenham, 13miles west of Sealy, 15miles northeast of Columbus and 40miles northeast of La Grange.[5]
Cat Spring is served by the Sealy Independent School District.