MENTZ, TEXAS. Mentz is at the intersection of Mentz and Frelsburg roads, seven miles northeast of Columbus in Colorado County. St. Roch's Catholic Church is at the crossroads. The community was settled around 1846, primarily by German Catholics from Büdesheim, Hesse. Many of the early settlers were from the Diocese of Mainz. The first ones came with the Mainz Society (see ADELSVEREIN) and named the settlement Neu Mainz, a name which evolved into Mentz. The settlers built a small church in 1858 and named it after a St. Roch chapel in the vicinity of Bingen and Büdesheim. From 1872 to 1916 Mentz had a Catholic school staffed by the Sisters of Divine Providence.^qv The area's post office began as San Bernard in 1853, was renamed New Mainz in 1860, and was discontinued in 1866; the office was reestablished as Mentz in 1889, discontinued in 1896, reestablished the next year, and transferred to Alleyton in 1913. In 1986 Mentz had the church building, a church hall, a cemetery, a rectory, and various picnic buildings. A baseball park was also on the grounds. Mentz was a voting precinct with 167 registered voters. In 2000 the population was 100.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Karl M. Conrad, ed., Postmasters and Post Offices of the Tenth Congressional District of Texas (1976). Chester William and Ethel Hander Geue, eds., A New Land Beckoned: German Immigration to Texas, 1844-1847 (Waco: Texian Press, 1966; enlarged ed. 1972).

Arliss Treybig