By Myra Lee Adams Goff

Before we say goodbye to the Civil War, let’s look at what the period immediately after the war known as Reconstruction, brought to Comal County. When the war was over in 1865, many did not return home, putting a terrible hardship on the families. Many survivors sustained lifelong injuries. For all, life was different than it had been before the war.

Comal County had been divided on the question of secession from the Union and although the vote was overwhelmingly for joining the Confederacy, it wasn’t without conflict. Shortages of necessities of life made life difficult. Confederate money, issued during the war, was now worthless.

Jacob Lindheimer, editor of the Zeitung, kept the paper going during and after the war even though the lack of paper forced him to use wallpaper and tissue paper. When citizens who didn’t agree with his opinions dumped his printing press into the Comal, he just fished it out and kept on printing. Then there was the matter of newspaper subscribers wanting to pay their subscriptions in Confederate money. Once Lindheimer and his sons, who were unable to buy food with this money, went out and slaughtered a beef and then advertised that he would be glad to pay the owner of the animal in Confederate money. The beef owner refused to take this money for the beef. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander”, so they say.

Comal County issued its own money but it wasn’t honored either. The merchants came up with their own medium of exchange. It was called “due bills”, sort of like “charging”. Some larger companies like Runge & Sons of Indianola issued their own due bills.

All the industry that had developed in Comal County before the war was destroyed, not from combat, but from lack of raw materials. Some entrepreneurial types began driving cattle or hauling freight from the coast. NB was a feeder station for trail drives on the Chisholm Trail from San Antonio to Kansas. Ranching was quickly replacing the cotton industry. Industries like Landa Flour Mills prospered. Skilled German artisans like saddlemakers, blacksmiths and wheelwrights were in demand.

The New Braunfels Woolen Manufacturing Co. was organized in 1867 in a building formerly used for a brandy distillery located at Garden and Comal streets. It was converted into a woolen mill and later furnished yards of gray woolen cloth to A&M College for uniforms. The building became a steam laundry after the turn of the century and was razed in 1952. The present St. John’s Episcopal Church built in 1967 contains a wooden cross made from timbers of the old mill.

A new type of business association began with the formation of mutual insurance associations and cooperative gins. Neighbor had to help neighbor as they had done in the early days. Individuals owned the associations. If the breadwinner died during the war, the organization promised to pay a benefit to the survivors. Germania Farmers Association at Anhalt was one of those mutual companies organized for protection, and to promote agriculture. (See Sophienburg.com, Around the Archives, May 13, 2008.) Ranchers and farmers pooled their money and built their own gins. Most were non-profit but shared the proceeds according to the use they made of the facilities.

The insurance business in the United States was the brainchild of Benjamin Franklin. He came up with the idea in 1752 in Philadelphia to cover houses lost by fire. Houses were mostly made of wood and were very close together. Seven years later Franklin organized the first life insurance company. Religious authorities were outraged at putting a monetary value on human life but assented when they realized that it also protected widows and orphans. The whole insurance business expanded as the need evolved.

The Sons of Hermann was another mutual insurance company. In 1840 a handful of German men in New York City formed a brotherhood whose mission was to provide aid to each other, the sick, widows and orphans. The brotherhood was founded to combat the prejudice of the “Know-Nothing-Party”, an organization promoting prejudice against foreigners in the US. The European immigrants, particularly Germans, were recipients of prejudice. The Germans formed the Sons of Hermann insurance company in response to this prejudice. Hermann was a German folk hero who was a symbol of manhood.

Reconstruction was over with the entrance of the railroads in the 1880s. By the turn of the century, the Landa family had opened up picnic grounds at Landa Park. A new industry had begun based on the cultural assets of the community. Tourism was here to stay.

One of the oldest photos of Landa Park in 1912 after Harry Landa opened his park to the public.

By Myra Lee Adams Goff

A month from this day on March 21, New Braunfels will once again observe Founder’s Day. It was the year 1845 when the first emigrants crossed over the Guadalupe River and made their way into what would become their new homeland. Germany was left far behind. The vast majority of those that crossed that day and became the first settlers of the town had never seen Texas before landing in November of 1844. Some that joined Prince Carl on the coast had been in Texas for quite a while.

Four of the more well-known immigrants who had been in Texas a decade or more were Ferdinand Lindheimer, Louis Ervendberg, George Ullrich, and Friedrich von Wrede. Johann Rahm and Daniel Murchison had been with Jack Hays’ Ranger group in San Antonio when they joined the Adelsverein. They all joined the Adelsverein at the coast and came with that first group of settlers.

Not very well-known was Daniel Murchison. He was born in North Carolina in 1809 and arrived in Texas in 1832. He was a soldier in the War for Texas Independence and received many land grants for military service and for surveying for the Republic. Murchison had a town lot in the fledgling town of Austin and in 1840 he joined Capt. Jack Coffee Hays’ Spy Company. Brave men were the only protection on the Texas frontier and these groups of men were called “ranging companies” or also called “spy companies”.  Organized groups would later be called Texas Rangers.

Daniel Murchison was with Jack Hays in San Antonio when he met Prince Carl. He joined the militia of Prince Carl that was organized to accompany the emigrants in their trek inland as well as to protect them while they were in the new settlement. He accompanied the group and was given land.

After Meusebach took Prince Carl’s place, he disbanded the militia and organized another company with Lt. Murchison as leader. Rudolph Biesele in “The History of the German Settlements in Texas, 1831-1861” states that Meusebach left New Braunfels looking to establish a settlement due to additional emigrants on the way. Meusebach found a tract of land north of the Pedernales River about 80 miles from New Braunfels.  Meusebach organized a surveying party of 36 men equipped with wagons, tools, provisions and guns under the command of Lieutenants Bene, Groos and Murchison. They were to lay out a wagon road from New Braunfels to the new settlement. After the surveying expedition returned to New Braunfels, preparations were made to send the first settlers to what would become Fredericksburg.

In 1850 Daniel Murchison married immigrant Wilhelmina Holzgrefe from Hannover.  The 1860 census lists Daniel, 47, and wife Wilhelmina, 27, five children and two Holzsgrefe relatives living with them .He was politically involved in the community and served in the Texas Legislature in 1866 where he was on the initial committee to revise the state constitution.

In the old section of the Comal Cemetery is a lot with two identical obelisks, one for Daniel Murchison who died Feb. 22, 1867, and the other for his widow. After Murchison died, his wife, children and servant Hugh McCrainey moved to the Murchison’s ranch in Llano County. Six years later, Mrs. Murchison died and was buried at her husband’s side. The young children were then raised by the servant McCrainey.

Texans who emigrated independently of the Adelsverein like Murchison and others should be remembered as we once again observe Founder’s Day.  And let’s give Prince Carl credit for having the foresight to invite them.Comal County Deed Records show Murchison’s name many times as the agent for land owners who were selling lots in Braunfels and Comaltown, across the Comal River from New Braunfels. An agreement between land owner Rafael Garza and land agent Murchison stated that Murchison was to sell lots between the Comal Springs and the Guadalupe rivers (Comaltown and adjoining land) for fifteen percent of what he could get for the lots, and to “prevent the cutting of timber of said land and to prosecute trespassers on the same”. The 1881 map by Augustus Koch shows that the present Central St. was formerly named Murchison St. That street was stemmed off by the building of the railroad track.

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