Poth

Poth is at the junction of U.S. Highway 181 and Farm roads 427 and 541, seven miles southeast of Floresville in southeastern Wilson County. It was established in 1886 as a switch on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway. The community was first called Marcelina but was renamed Poth in 1901, when A. H. Poth established a gin there. John Francis Stortz opened a store at the community in 1900. A depot was built at Poth in 1906, and by 1914 the town had a lumberyard, a cotton gin, a bank, a furniture and hardware store, a blacksmith, three general stores, and a population of 250. The community's population was 300 in 1920 and 600 in 1947, when it also reported twenty-three businesses. By 1965 the population of Poth was 1,119, and in 1990 it was 1,642. The number of businesses reported there had declined, however, falling from thirty-five in the mid-1960s to thirteen in 1990. In 2000 the population was 1,850 with fifty businesses.