Saspamco

Saspamco is on the northern bank of the San Antonio River off U.S. Highway 181, eleven miles northeast of Floresville in western Wilson County. Its name was derived from the initials of the San Antonio Sewer Pipe Manufacturing Company, which around 1901 began using the red clay of the area for the manufacture of tile products. Also in 1901, a post office opened there. A loading switch on the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway became the nucleus of the community, which by 1915 had a population of 125, Baptist and Catholic churches, three grocers, two general stores, a hotel, a cotton gin, and a dairy. In the late 1930s Saspamco reported 200 residents; at that time the pipe plant employed about 150 people and had a production capacity of 120 tons of sewer pipe a day. By the mid-1960s the town had 300 residents and six businesses. Thereafter the population grew slowly, though most of the businesses closed. In 1990 Saspamco reported 443 residents and one business. The population remained the same in 2000.