GERMANIA, TEXAS (Midland County). Germania is on the Texas and Pacific Railway and Interstate 20 eight miles northeast of Midland in northeastern Midland County. It was established as a land promotion by the Texas and Pacific after the state of Texas deeded twenty acres to the railroad on February 13, 1883. The railroad laid out the town, offered other land for sale, and gave prospective buyers free transportation to the area. A number of people of German descent settled there and named the community in honor of their native country. A post office operated at Germania from 1884 to 1887. During World War I the descendants of the original settlers temporarily changed the name of Germania to Paul. On November 11, 1924, W. E. Jackson, a cotton exporter from Hillsboro, bought the property around Germania and began raising cotton on it with tenant farmers as workers. He built six family houses for the farmers and hired Mr. and Mrs. Jim Glass of Whitney to manage the property. Ector Thorton of Stanton opened a store in Germania in late 1924, with Grady Dawkins as manager. The business operated as a company store where tenant farmers charged their supplies until the cotton harvest. In 1933 the community reported a population of ten and one store. By 1945 the population had climbed to twenty-five; the store remained in business through 1962. From 1966 through 1990 twenty-seven people lived at Germania.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Midland County Historical Society, The Pioneer History of Midland County, Texas, 1880–1926 (Dallas: Taylor, 1984).
