Lindemann Store

The store's customers came from a mixed farming country. Germans, Czechs and African Americans settled steadily around Industry from the 1850s to the 1890s, slowed only briefly by the Civil War. Farming and cotton carried the local economy until the 1950s, when ranching took over. The town's population fell between the late 1920s and the 1960s, and many residents came to commute to jobs elsewhere. Still, in 1985 Industry had a school, a post office, a bank, a public park, twenty-seven businesses and about 600 people.

What the plaque says

Lindemann Store The history of the Lindemann Store dates to 1884, when Edward Lindemann (1859-1931) and Franz Getschmann opened a general store in the German community of Industry. By 1889, the business had prospered so well that Lindemann bought his partner's share of the store. In the early days, the Lindemann Store served as a community gathering place as well as a center where items such as groceries, medicines, dry goods, fabrics, notions, and housewares could be purchased. Farmers from the surrounding regions came to the store to exchange produce for manufactured goods. After 1889 the store offered a "peddle wagon" service, whereby goods were brought directly to the farms and produce was taken to town by wagon. When the railroad came through the area in 1892, the Lindemann Store expanded its freighting operation. By the early 1940s, agricultural products were in great demand, and the store's emphasis changed from general merchandise to agri-business. The Lindemann Store, which has remained a family business throughout its history, continues to provide needed services to Industry and the surrounding area. (1984)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Somerville State Park and Trailway — 24 mi
  Two park units on an 11,000-acre lake between Austin and College Station, joined by a thirteen-mile trailway for hikers, cyclists and riders with primitive camps along the way.
• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 26 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 32 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 32 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.

More markers nearby

• Industry State Bank — 0.4 mi
• Education in Industry — 0.4 mi
• Friedrich Ernst — 0.6 mi
• Industry — 0.6 mi