By Myra Lee Adams Goff

Several months ago, sitting at the back of the Archives, I saw what appeared to be a wolf and a child at the front door. The sun was behind them so I got up to investigate. In the front foyer were two almost life-size plaster figures, one of Little Red Riding Hood and one of the Wolf. They have a sad story attached to them, for in 1908, fourteen year old Stella Faust became sick and died. She was the only surviving child of John and Emmie Seele Faust. Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf were placed on the landing between the first and second stories of their home (361 W. San Antonio St.) as a remembrance of Stella, and later given by the family to the Sophienburg.

Emmie Seele Faust, benefactor of the museum, library, and hospital was the daughter of Hermann and Mathilde Blum Seele. Of all the names in NB, the name Seele is the most familiar and recently their descendants gathered at the Sophienburg to honor the memory of their ancestors with an afternoon tea. When they married, Hermann was 35 and Mathilde was 17.They had five children, Emmie (Faust), Heinrich (Harry),Hulda (Eiband), Hermann (Fritz), Jr., and Ernst.

An extremely gifted person, Hermann Seele had it all. He wrote prose, plays, poetry, and was a musician. He organized a drama club, and had a long history of service to the community as district clerk, Justice of the Peace, postmaster, mayor, and state legislator. He served as a major in the Confederate Army and mayor at the same time. He organized the Volunteer Fire Department and helped Lindheimer establish the first newspaper. As a lawyer, he successfully defended the citizens of NB in a suit to take away their land.

Born in Germany, twenty year old Seele arrived in Texas in 1843 (His twin brother stayed behind in Germany). He did not come with the Adelsverein but joined them in Galveston and arrived with the second group in May, 1845. Through his writing, we have an insight into the settlers’ trip inland from the coast. He tells of floods and mud on the Guadalupe, stinging plants and biting creatures and he witnessed a cannibalistic orgy of Tonkawa Indians feasting on a Waco warrior.

Rev. Ervendberg of the German Protestant Church hired Hermann Seele to teach the first school under the elm trees at the foot of Sophienburg hill. On Aug ll, 1845, fifteen children were taught the basics. In November Seele wrote in his diary that school had to be suspended due to the cold that reached 7 degrees. Cold continued for 21 more weeks while strong rains made things even more miserable. The school eventually moved inside the nearby German Protestant Church in March of 1846. Seele Elementary School is named after the first teacher.

For 56 years Hermann Seele was the secretary at the German Protestant Church (presently the First Protestant Church), stepping in as its pastor when necessary. The Seele Parish Hall is named after him.

The first Saengerfest (singing celebration ) was at his farm next to his home on the Guadalupe in the area of Seele and Saenger Sts. In 1853 on stomped hardened clay with a tarpaulin for a roof and oil lamps for lighting, guests came from across Texas to celebrate.

A short time later in 1855, he built the first amusement hall in NB on his property. He is given credit for bringing the first Kindermaskenball (children’s masked dance) from Germany in 1856 and it was here at Seele’s hall that the dance was held.

The Sophienburg has an invaluable collection of objects given by the family over the years and it was good that they came.

“Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.” - Longfellow

Hermann and son Heinrich (Harry)

By Myra Lee Adams Goff

An interesting change took place recently in one of the Sophienburg Museum’s displays. Switching from one end to the other, the shoe display was changed to hats and all details of millinery. The hats on display belonged to NB women, made of straw, horsehair, and velvet. The decorations are wonderful; ostrich feathers, ribbons, beads, flowers, dyed snails and jet black beads. Did you, like me, think that “jet black” was merely a color? Not so; jet is a dense black coal that can be polished and used for jewelry.

Records show that hat making was a big business and there were several in NB. Anna Huebinger had a shop upstairs at Eiband and Fischer and later on San Antonio Street close to Henne’s. Our photograph is of milliner Minnie Reinarz who in the early 1900s ran a millinery shop on East Mill. The amazing thing about Minnie is that she lost her right arm in an accident and thereby did all that intricate work on hats with only a left hand.

The museum display was put together by the collection ladies under the guidance of Program Director Keva Boardman.Our hats off to you, ladies. Boardman says that the choice of hats that a lady wore could tell you a lot about society and what was going on in the lady’s life at the time. For example, does the lady want to appear prim and proper? Then place the hat squarely on the head (no feather, please). Does the lady want to appear fun-loving? Then place the hat cocked to one side. Feathers and other frivolous items will do fine here. And finally, to show that a lady was in mourning, the hat must be black with a veil hiding the face and certainly no feathers here.

According to history, hats were the property of men until the late 1700’s. When you look up the etymology of “hat” you find that an ancient word for shelter or protection was “hast or hutte”. The German word for hat is “Hut”. In the past we would belt out the song “Mein Hut er hat drei Ecken”, or “My hat, it has three corners”. This song was possibly written to dispel the unpopular and insulting term “square-headed German”. Think about it; you can’t put a three cornered hat on a four cornered head So there!.

Women’s hats were a must at most social gatherings up until the 1960’s. Even here in NB, hats could always be seen at church and in downtown stores, even grocery stores. I can remember my grandmother wearing a hat every time she left the house to visit friends and relatives.

Believe it or not, hats, like foot binding, led to legislation in the past. A law stated that no hat could be decorated with whole birds or whole wings, only feathers.The killing of birds for that purpose became a business and the Audabon Society fought for twenty years to make that practice illegal.

Another law regulated hat pins that held the hat on to the head. Used as a lethal weapon, stabbings and scrapings sometimes happened. This puts a different meaning to the statement, “Like me, like my hat”. Laws in the early 1900s regulated how far the pin could protrude and required hat pin protectors. Galveston even restricted hatpins from being worn on public transportation. Although not made into law, firm suggestions at theaters encouraged women to remove their hats.

In the 1920s when the controversial “bobbed” hair for women became a sign of rebellion, hat pins and their laws were forgotten. The hats of that era, called cloches were bell-shaped and close-fitting and required no pin.

Will hats become the rage again? Never say never. This year alone, I have been to three functions where the entertainment was to wear your favorite hat.

Milliner Minnie Reinarz in the early 1900s.