Magnolia, Texas

Episode 121 / 30 May 2019 / 144 min / full

A Trailer Too Close

"We're going to Magnolia, Texas ... It's in southeastern Texas ... this is Montgomery County, Texas, Zip code 77353." about 0:06:54

The case: Murders of Sharon Thurman and Guy Fernandez (September 25th, 2001). Read the case file.

The figures, as told in 2019

Population

1,828

Median age

37.6

Median household income

$45,375

Median home value

$279,300

Two-bedroom rent

$1,210

Cost of living

about 114

Religious

about 53%

Property crime

right at average

Violent crime

▼ about 25% under

History, in brief

• The first settlement in the area was named Mink Prairie, founded in about 1845 by a farmer named Mink. about 0:11:11
• By 1850 the town name was shortened to Mink. about 0:12:22
• After the Civil War the population swelled as settlers came in from Kentucky and Tennessee. about 0:12:40
• A post office was built in 1885. about 0:13:40
• In 1902 the International Great Northern Railroad, now a Union Pacific line, was built just north of Mink. about 0:13:46
• The whole town moved closer to the railroad, and the old town of Mink was abandoned. about 0:14:22
• The town was renamed Melton in honour of a local wealthy landowner. about 0:16:02
• The post office kept confusing Melton with Milton, so the name was changed to Magnolia. about 0:16:51
• The post office itself was moved in 1903. about 0:17:28
• By 1915 the town had 150 people, a telephone service, a sawmill, a Baptist and a Methodist church, two general stores, a physician, a railroad agency, a hotel, a real estate office, a cattle dealer, a confectionary, a cotton gin and a blacksmith. about 0:18:48
• By 1924 a number of sawmills had opened, along with general stores, saloons, tanning yards, garages, feed stores and shipping places. about 0:19:57
• In the 1940s an oil field east of town brought jobs and the population increased to 400, with a railroad station, a cemetery and forty-five houses. about 0:20:54
• Missouri Pacific took over the railroad line in 1962, by which time the town had two high schools and a landing field for small aircraft. about 0:21:58
• The town was incorporated in 1968 after an election in September 1968 in which 106 voted for and 17 against. about 0:22:18
• Sedric Smith served as the first mayor. about 0:23:29
• By 1989 the town had 124 businesses, and the population had gone up and down with the oil booms and busts of the 1980s. about 0:23:36

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