Marfan (inhabitant of Marfa)

“Marfan” is the name of an inhabitant of Marfa, Texas. The name “Marfan” has been cited in print since at least 1933. “Marfan” is, perhaps, a less than ideal name because it can easily become confused with the genetic disease called Marfan syndrome.

An inhabitant of Marfa has also been called a “Marfaite” (cited in print since at least 1910). Although “Marfaite” is older, “Marfan” is currently more popular.
 
 
Wikipedia: Marfa, Texas
Marfa is a town in the high desert of far West Texas in the Southwestern United States. Located between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park, it is also the county seat of Presidio County. The population was 1,981 at the 2010 census.
 
Marfa was founded in the early 1880s as a railroad water stop, and grew quickly through the 1920s. Marfa Army Airfield (Fort D.A. Russell) was located east of the town during World War II and trained several thousand pilots before closing in 1945 (the abandoned site is still visible ten miles (16 km) east of the city). The base was also used as the training ground for many of the U.S. Army’s Chemical mortar battalions.
 
Despite its small size, today Marfa is a tourist destination. Attractions include the historical architecture and classic Texas town square, modern art at the Chinati Foundation and in galleries around town, and the Marfa lights.
 
Amateur etymologist Barry Popik has shown that Marfa is named after Marfa Strogoff, a character in the Jules Verne novel Michael Strogoff and its theatrical adaptation; the origin was reported in the Galveston Daily News on December 17, 1882, after the Marfa railroad station was established but before Marfa received a post office in 1883.
 
The Handbook of Texas states that the wife of a railroad executive reportedly suggested the name “Marfa” after reading the name in the Fyodor Dostoevsky novel The Brothers Karamazov.
 
5 June 1933, El Paso (TX) Herald-Post, pg. 6, col. 5:
Marfans Defeat
Five Points Club
MARFA, Texas, June 5.—Although outhit by the visitors, Marfa defeated Five Points, 6-4, in a close ball game here yesterday.
 
27 June 1939, El Paso (TX) Herald-Post, pg. 10, col. 3:
Marfan Gets Big Sailfish
MARFA, June 27.—Pictorial proof of his catch of a 170-pound sailfish is being displayed by Arthur Kerr, Marfa business man, who returned recently from a trip to what he describes as “one of the two best fishing places in North America.” 
 
3 August 2005, Santa Fe (NM) Reporter, “Marfa-cosm” by Zane Fischer, Magazine, pg. 20, col. 2:
One Marfan sensibly says poorly planned affordable housing schemes and a Wal-Mart will hurt the community in the long run.
 
flyover
May 29, 2008 9:30 AM
When in Marfa ... do as the Marfans do?
I drove out to Marfa, TX for the first time a couple of weeks ago. How deeply embarrassing is it that I didn’t make it to one art gallery?
 
Big Bend Now 
Lights, camera, Marfans: Filming again in Far West Texas
September 1st, 2011 under Arts
MARFA – A film crew headed by writer-director Meredith Danluck and producer Matthew Shattuck has spent the last couple weeks around Marfa shooting Danluck’s “North of South West of East.” The art film is part of Ballroom Marfa’s car-centric exhibition called “AutoBody,” which opens September 30.