By Myra Lee Adams Goff

There were only three times in the long history of the Comal County Fair that the fair was postponed. Two times had to do with weather and one time had to do with war.

The very first fair was scheduled to be held in November 1893. The recently organized Comal County Fair Association, under the leadership of Harry Landa, chose Landa’s Pasture for its location (LCRA later on). The Association owned no property so it rented this pasture from Landa for four years. Because of a drought, the dust was so bad that the fair had to be postponed until the following November of 1894.

The next time the fair was postponed was 1942-1946. Like so many events, the Comal County Fair was put on hold during World War II. The last year of a full-scale fair was 1941. The war was a sad time and celebrating just wasn’t in the plans. Trying to keep the fair alive, the directors carried on small stockshows and rodeos with no prizes, in other words, nothing that involved money.

New Braunfels’ Centennial in 1945 was postponed until the following year. The Centennial Fair of 1946 was the first complete fair in five years. It was good to celebrate with a fair and a parade.

Read about this Centennial Fair at Sophienburg.com Sept. 22, 2009. The NBHS band led the parade in their brand new blue and white wool uniforms. With military precision, the band played the John Philip Sousa marches. The pet parade was a huge success and this led to an even bigger pet parade the following year with 120 pets entered, even a zebra, a baby donkey, squirrels, foxes, an African tiger in a rolling cage. There were 36 horses from the Mission Valley Guest Ranch. The next year, because of several anthrax cases in the county, the Fair Association eliminated all livestock exhibits and shows. The parade banned all hoofed animals and of course that meant horses.

The years 1949 and 1950 were really boom years for the fair. Unusual animals started appearing in the pet parade. Joyce Eberhardt entered a doodle bug and won the smallest pet category. What ever happened to doodle bugs? I haven’t seen one in a long time, but I recall how entertaining they were on the Lamar School playground.

Horse races were popular and Reagan Calhoun, rodeo chairman, reported that he was looking for broncos that were “really mean.” Also on the rodeo grounds Walter Sippel demonstrated harness racing. This was a sport that had been featured in the early years. Sippel was considered one of the outstanding harness race men in the southwest.

Let’s jump up to 1954. This was the beginning of the worst drought in the history of the city. The average rainfall for New Braunfels is a little over 30 inches. In ’54, the yearly rainfall was slightly over 10 inches. The drought lasted two more years with 23 inches in ’55 and 18.44 inches in ’56.

This three-year period was when the springs dried up, there was no water in Landa Lake and both the Guadalupe and the Comal were reduced to a mere trickle. The fair rocked along in the dust. Does anyone remember the city water trucks that sprinkled the roads to try to eliminate the dust?

Now jump forward to 1957 when the rainfall for the year was 51.88. By Wednesday when the carnival rolled into the fairgrounds, eight inches of rain fell so, they just parked on the paved center street of the grounds. The fairgrounds turned from a lake to a swamp — just dried-up grass and mud, and lots of it. The fair was postponed for two weeks.

The Comal County Fair generates much interest and enthusiasm year after year. It becomes part of childhood, growing up, and part of old age. The show must go on.

Landa Park Springs - Drought dried up the Landa Park Springs in 1954, ’55 and ’56, but the Comal County fair rocked along in the dust.

By Myra Lee Adams Goff

What I knew about William Hunter Meriwether could be summed up as “That American from Virginia who had slaves dig the canal next to Landa Park Drive.” That’s changing, thanks to Joy Alexander who has been doing an extensive study of Meriwether.

Alexander first became interested in Meriwether when she and Laris Priesmeyer in 1976 bought the little house at 133 Landa that had been part of Meriwether’s property. They restored the house and opened a German import store called Das Spielhaus (play house).

One of my first questions about Meriwether was: “How did he even know about New Braunfels or the Comal Springs?” He was from an old Virginia family and had been in the mill business before coming to Texas. In Virginia in 1829, he purchased the right to build a dam across the Rivanna River. In 1846, the year he came to New Braunfels, he sold 150 acres and his interest in a dam and a toll bridge there. He definitely had experience and money.

The middle of the 1800s time period fits the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. Perhaps through his connections with mill owners, he heard of this area and its springs. Regardless, Meriwether purchased a total of 680 acres from Rafael and Maria Garza and also from the German Emigration Co. in 1847.

On the 1850 Slave Schedule Census, Meriwether is listed as having 30 slaves. The slaves dug the canal so that he would have water power to run his sawmill, gristmill, and gin. He dammed the geyser springs locally called Los Fontanas to create a millrace (canal). The Comal Springs began above the Landa Estates, originally flowed through the lake area and made a turn going through the spring-fed pool, then under the Elizabeth Street Bridge, going through Schlitterbahn, and dumping into the Comal Creek (River). Landa Park Lake was a side product of digging the canal.

The canal was dug from the spring-fed pool end of the lake and then parallels Landa Park Drive going under the bridge into the mill pond, and out over the falls into the river.

Now the question of digging that canal. The majority of Germans were against slavery, but Meriwether was an American and used slave labor. It’s hard to imagine anyone digging the canal, but remember that Meriwether had done this before and he must have had some sort of implement to dig. How about a “buck scraper”, the forerunner of the Fresno? The buck scraper was a crude wooden tool pulled by mules. He was, after all, quite an inventor. He patented the fence wire. Local old-timers said that a fresno-like implement was used by the slaves to dig the canal.

In 1859, Meriwether sold his holdings in the Comal Springs Tract for $14,000 to Joseph Landa, as you might say, “lock, stock, and barrel.” Harry Landa, Joseph’s son, in his book “As I Remember,” wrote that Meriwether was a very old man (65) with a very young wife (22) and as he wished to comply with the desire of his wife, she wanted to return to their home in Tennessee and to her Mint Julips. They did leave and he died the next year in Tennessee.

Meriwether and his canal changed the scene in New Braunfels, as it opened up the area for industry. Those slaves about whom we have so little information, made a significant contribution to the town. Digging a canal of the magnitude of the millrace and then operating the mills required a large labor force.

The Landa family utilized the canal and mill pond to develop Landa Industries. Other industries developed like the Comal Power Plant. After changing owners and finally being bought by the City of New Braunfels, much of Meriwether’s original property including the canal and millpond has become the beautiful Landa Park.

The Meriwether Mill House at 133 Landa St., the only original Meriwether structure standing, continues to be preserved by owner, Joy Alexander.

Meriwether's millrace — A 1920s view of the bridge over the millrace and millpond. (Source: Sophienburg Archives)