By Myra Lee Adams Goff

Ten years ago on January 22, 1999, our Comal County Courthouse, the Grand Dame of Main Plaza, celebrated its 100th birthday. Demanding the center of attention, the imposing, age-worn structure has stood guard over the hub of New Braunfels and Comal County all these years. The Courthouse guards the records of citizens past and present, literally from the cradle to the grave and everything in between.

Iris Schumann with the Sophienburg asked me to do research on the 100 years and the result was a 12 page booklet published in the Herald-Zeitung on January 17, 1999. Here are a few interesting facts:

The very first actual courthouse was a rather plain-looking building (in comparison) located at the Plaza where the Chase Bank is located. The most noteworthy event that happened at that building was on Oct. 4, 1860, when Sam Houston came to plead with the citizens to vote against seceding from the Union. New Braunfels Zeitung Editor Ferdinand Lindheimer led a campaign to vote in favor of secession. Statewide, secession was ratified with Comal County voting 239 “for” and 86 “against”. Lindheimer’s influence was greater than Sam Houston’s in Comal County. In 1897 the Commissioners noted that thecourthouse building was dilapidated and needed replacing. This decision was not without controversy. Some people wanted the building to be directly on the Plaza. Judge Adolph Giesecke asked the Mayor if the city-owned plaza could be used and the answer was “no”. The lot chosen was # 32, initially belonging to Nicholas Zink and then Samuel Millett. The last owners were Wm. Clemens and Joseph Faust and the lot was purchased for $6,098.63.

The Commissioners asked for plans and bids from architects across Texas. Finally the plans of J. Riely Gordon were accepted and that really opened a “can of worms”. Three commissioners voted for Gordon, - A. G. Startz, John Marbach, and W. H. Adams- but Judge Giesecke and Comm. August Schulze opposed the selection on the grounds of what they heard about Gordon’s character and the shoddiness of his buildings. Schulze was mad enough to resign but two days later he withdrew his resignation. Schulze told the Zeitung that he did not approve of the plan; too much wasted space in the center and the four cut-out doorways. He said the walls should be thicker than 17 inches. He wanted an architect from out of state and for many other reasons. He concluded that the building wouldn’t last. Nevertheless, the building was built, but Mr. Schulze and Judge Giesecke refused to have their names on the cornerstone as it remains today.

At the laying of the cornerstone ceremony, there were two bands and flag-waving children walking from the NB Academy to the oldCourthouse and then on to the new location. Then there was a big party at Oberkamp’s Garden (where Callahan’s Pub is) with lemonade for children and beer for adults. The cornerstone was opened in 1999 by Comm. Moe Schwab who was chairman of the 100th Anniversary.

The Romanesque style building is made of Comal County limestone. Betty Pfeuffer Triesch, who researched information about thecourthouse, said that the limestone was extracted from a quarry on Altita Ranch that was sold in 1901 to her grandfather, Gus Pfeuffer. Her father inherited the ranch and the last limestone taken from the quarry was in 1937 to build the spring-fed pool and old bathhouse in Landa Park. The Herald said that the limestone from the old torn-down bathhouse was used in the construction of the Dittlinger Library, now the Sophienburg Museum and Archives.

The Courthouse knows who we are and what we are about. For a building thought by some to cave in, it has handled its age remarkably well.

Christian Herry, Casimir Rudorf, Joseph Faust, and Robert H. Krause stand in front of the 1860 Courthouse. Date: 1898

By Myra Lee Adams Goff

Do you know anyone in New Braunfels that is descended from aristocracy? Not the “let’s pretend” kind, but the real thing. In 1975 Roland Baetge compiled a history and family tree of the Baetge family and in his own words “put the living flesh on the skeleton of cold facts and dates” beginning with Carl and Pauline Baetge.

Roland Baetge was the g-grandson of Carl and Pauline Baetge, and Fred Baetge is Roland’s son. Fred, who recently moved back to his hometown New Braunfels estimated that there are over 350 descendants of the original couple. I looked over the list and recognized about 25 names of people that I knew, including my longtime friend, Martha Jo Baetge (Goertz). If you are a descendant of the Carl Baetges, you have a unique heritage.

Carl Baetge

Johann Friedrich Carl Baetge was born in Uelzen, Germany. He was very bright, mastering seven languages. At a fairly young age, his mother died and there was a disagreement with his father’s decision to marry a second time. According to Roland Baetge, the tradition in Germany was that the youngest son would inherit the father’s entire estate. Carl Baetge was the youngest by the first marriage, but when the father remarried, there would be a real possibility that there would be other sons, as indeed there were. Carl eventually severed relations with his family altogether.

When Carl was 27, he began studying to become a civil engineer and was certified. He then went to work for a privately owned engineering company specializing in railroad building. In 1840 he was in Russia as chief civil engineer of the construction of a 420 mile railroad line between St. Petersburg and Moscow for the Russian government. Czar Nicholas I was eager to have this railroad line because it would connect the summer and winter palaces of the royal family. The line was completed in 1846.

Pauline Spiess Baetge

The Czar awarded Baetge an honorary title for his railroad construction. Because of this title, he was able to wed a lady-in-waiting of the court, Pauline Spiess. As a member of the aristocracy, she was educated in music, dressed in silk, and waited on by servants. The couple was married in St. Petersburg in 1846 when he was 41 and she was 19.

Over the years, Baetge was influenced by writers such as Viktor Bracht who advocated freedom, political rebirth and social reform. Carl, Pauline, and family decided to leave Russia and come to Texas. The family arrived in Indianola in 1850, made their way to Comal County, and purchased 640 acres about 19 miles north of New Braunfels in an area of the Guadalupe River called the Demi-John Bend. Incidentally, the name “Demi-John” refers to a glass bottle with a long neck, a little like the shape of the Guadalupe River in that area.

Baetge first built a small log cabin called a block house and in 1852 built a two- story European style home. Most of the material for this house was hauled by ox-drawn wagons from Indianola.
Can you imagine this genteel lady out in the wilderness of Texas? Can you imagine her cooking over an iron pot in the yard (dressed in silk)? The family didn’t stay in the Demi-John area long and sold it in 1857. From there they moved to the Sattler area. After Carl died, 26 yearslater, Pauline moved to NB where she lived out her life.

After many years and several owners later, the house at Demi-John Bend was eventually donated to the Conservation Society and reconstructed on their property. Baron Schlameus spearheaded the dismantling and reconstruction.

Families that have someone researching their genealogy are indeed fortunate.  Come look at our collection of family books at the Sophienburg. Roland Baetge, who died in 1999, is a good example of the importance of family research.