Archive for August, 2009

If forefathers could Google would they still have come?

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

By Myra Lee Adams Goff

Would New Braunfels history be different if in 1840 there had been communication technology like Face book, Twitter, Google, e-mail, and texting? Would the Adelsverein and the immigrants have had a better picture of the whole situation here in Texas and more importantly for us, would they have emigrated?

It’s called modern communication technology. Imagine how different history could have been with instant communication. In the 1800s, correspondence took at least three months to get here from Germany and another three months for a reply. It was impossible to solve problems in a timely manner.

Now take us back to the past but add modern communication. What if:
- Prince Carl gets over to Texas and instantly e-mails the Adelsverein to either call off the whole emigration project or send lots and lots of money.
-John Meusebach looks at his Blackberry and someone writes “They’re coming to string you up. Better get out of town”. He jumps on his horse and gets a ticket for texting while riding.
-The Zeitung staff googles the name of an immigrant and says “Hey, this guy isn’t who he says he is. He’s got a record in Germany”.
-Lindheimer hides his printing press because someone e-mails him that a group doesn’t like his stand on secession and they’re on their way to throw his printing press in the Comal.

Today one can instantly contact people all over the world and get mega amounts of information from the Internet. By the turn of the 20th century, telegrams and telephones were a big leap forward in the field of communication.

The best source of information regarding early New Braunfels history that the Sophienburg has is the Solms-Braunfels Archives collection. This huge collection consisting of 70 volumes shows what was going on here in NB. The slowdown is that the collection is in German and out of the 70 books, only five have been translated into English. It’s a tedious process.

Originally, there were 46 boxes of documents and they were bound into 70 books sometime in the 1960s by some Sophienburg patrons. The time frame is from 1840 to 1857. In these books are contracts, minutes, reports, instructions from the Adelsverein’s representatives in Texas, and letters from prospective emigrants. Eleven boxes contain correspondence of emigrants to members of the Adelsverein. Now, how interesting will that be? One thing is certain; these letters from the emigrants aren’t going to contain a smiley face picture.

Who collected these archives? It was the Adelsverein, the group of German noblemen who organized the Texas emigration project. The group organized in 1842, reconstituted into a stock company in 1844, declared provisional bankruptcy in 1847, but continued to function until 1891. Their archives were moved to Braunfels, Germany in 1893. In 1929-31 a photocopy was made for the Library of Congress and the archives were microfilmed for two archives in Germany. Eventually they were sold several times to collectors in the United States. Yale University now has the original papers in their collection.

Professor Rudolph Biesele at the University of Texas used the microfilmed copies in 1933 to transcribe (not translate) the originals which were written in “Fraktur” (old German script) to English Roman letters.

The Sophienburg has Biesele’s German copies and a group of volunteers consisting of Margot Hendricks, Rose Emich, Fred Huehner, Bob Pfennig, and Andreas and Wilma Lojewski are in the process of translating the papers. Dr. Robert Govier, before his death, was actively translating.

Communication systems are merely means of transferring information. Translating the archives is a slow, slow process. Timing is the difference between the old system and the new. The translating crew can’t begin to tell you how long it will take. Maybe years from now when these archives are translated, we can write a “shockumentary” about what really went on here in New Braunfels.

The New Braunfels office of the Southwestern Telegraph & Telephone Co. in 1916. Seated on the far left is Miss Lee Ellis. Standing from left to right are F.F. Schuchartz, Miss Florence Moeller, Manager G. Platz, Miss E. Schumann, and Mrs. A. Radford. Seated from left to right are Mrs. Nan Phillips, Miss E. Oberkampf, Miss Lottie Oberkampf, Miss Pauline Bose, Miss Hattie Tauche, Miss Frieda Klingermann and Miss Hattie Bose.

The New Braunfels office of the Southwestern Telegraph & Telephone Co. in 1916. Seated on the far left is Miss Lee Ellis. Standing from left to right are F.F. Schuchartz, Miss Florence Moeller, Manager G. Platz, Miss E. Schumann, and Mrs. A. Radford. Seated from left to right are Mrs. Nan Phillips, Miss E. Oberkampf, Miss Lottie Oberkampf, Miss Pauline Bose, Miss Hattie Tauche, Miss Frieda Klingermann and Miss Hattie Bose.

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Hermann Seele would have loved this fine arts class

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

By Myra Lee Adams Goff

This week 164 years ago, on August 11, 1845, Hermann Seele called to order the first school in New Braunfels under elm trees at the bottom of Sophienburg Hill. Fifteen children were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, English and German. The picture shows Austin and Macy Bergquist and their grandmother, Stephanie Bergquist checking out the marker commemorating the spot where the first school was taught on Coll St. Bergquist taught at Seele Elementary and the children are students there. It is appropriate that the school was named Seele Elementary because Hermann Seele taught school on and off all his life.

This time of year I get a little nostalgic feeling for teaching. I am remembering an incident that occurred when I was teaching sixth graders at NB Middle School. Bless them, I loved this age with their “grown-upness” and childishness all wrapped up in one body!

The incident was sometime in the 1970s. Fellow teacher Georgia Brooks and I had a class of about 60 sixth graders in a class loosely called “Fine Arts” which was required by the state of Texas. We did some very creative activities and one of them went like this:

The students were divided into six groups and they were to write a play lasting about ten minutes. It was a lesson in creativity, imagination, and of course, grammar. Do you remember how creative your mind was in the sixth grade?

All right, step one accomplished. Step two was for each student to make a puppet representing their character in the play. The final step was to paint the head, make clothes for the puppet, create a stage on which to present the play, and finally to perform it for the class. It taught cooperation, art, color awareness, play writing, grammar and performance. A dream lesson plan with lofty ideals!

But the dream nearly turned into a nightmare. Picture this:

Each child was to bring a toilet paper roll on which to attach a blob of papier-mâché. This blob they would transform into the head of a character. On the day that this step of sculpting took place, Georgia Brooks mixed the papier-mâché with her hands in a huge tub. She added water to the paper which contained wallpaper paste (that’s what holds it together). Each student was given a glob of wet, sticky papier-mâché from which they formed the head, ears, nose, and whatever. They loved playing with this stuff and I do remember being on the lookout for small missiles.

About 15 minutes into the class, not too many faces had been formed and most of them had the gooey stuff up to their elbows. Now the fun began. A fire alarm!

That meant everyone had to evacuate the building. We didn’t know if it was the real thing. We couldn’t just hide, so leaving the wet heads behind, 60 sixth graders with 120 sticky wet hands filed out of the building. As we were in front of the building, the papier-mâché dried on their hands and arms. I remember looking over at Principal Bill Karnau shaking his head with that “you did it, you solve it” look on his face.

Typical for this age, the 6th graders were delighted that their hands were stiff. All the other students in school filed back into the school and here we were. We could not let them wash their hands in the sinks because the pipes would stop up.

On the ground was the solution to the problem - a water hose! For the next 30 minutes we hosed off (and it wasn’t easy) the 120 stiff hands. (Could that have been a science lesson in paper, paste, wind, and finally water?)

Were you in that class? This episode was the highlight of the whole project. I think Hermann Seele would have loved our fine arts class.

Austin, Macy, and grandmother Stephanie Bergquist checking out the marker commemorating the place where Hermann Seele taught the first school below Sophienburg Hill in 1845.

Austin, Macy, and grandmother Stephanie Bergquist checking out the marker commemorating the place where Hermann Seele taught the first school below Sophienburg Hill in 1845.

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