By Myra Lee Adams Goff

Do you know where the Klappenbach House is located? From Landa St., turn onto Fredericksburg Rd. and go straight until you get to a hill, Klappenbach Hill. The house on the left is the Klappenbach property. The story of the Klappenbach family is indeed interesting.

The story begins in Sorenbohm, Germany, where in the 1820’s, Johann Heinrich Voelcker was called to be an evangelical Lutheran preacher. He was married to Caroline Wilhelmine Wirth and they had four children, Friedrich, Julius, Franciska, and Eugen Voelcker. In1834 their oldest son, Friedrich, died and then two years later Rev. Voelcker died, possibly of smallpox from parishioners he was tending. The young mother was left alone with three children. She moved to Anklam, a seaport town in far North Germany near the Baltic Sea. Here she eventually married Georg Jochim Jacob Friedrich A. Klappenbach.

Klappenbach, born in 1810 in Lenzen, had studied “Legal Science” at the University of Griefswald. While there he joined a radical reform protest movement, was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison. A year passed and his sentence was commuted. Friends who were in this movement said that Georg was nicknamed “Rebell” and the group was a democratic reform group that met at a pub to drink beer and make speeches. This movement eventually led to the later revolution of 1848 in Germany.

After his arrest, Georg moved to Anklam. He took several municipal jobs. Apparently the political situation was in chaos because the mayor’s position was perpetually vacant. Klappenbach ran for mayor and won, but that didn’t end the discord.

Now here’s a familiar name: John O. Meusebach (as he was later called in Texas) was called on to help sort out the reforms in Anklam and a bond grew between the two men. This friendship ultimately led to Klappenbach’s coming to Texas.

In Anklam Klappenbach married the widow Voelcker, and together they produced a child, Rosa, born in 1840 who died in 1842. Another child, Bruno, was born in 1845.

The Klappenbachs were familiar with the fact that Meusebach emigrated to Texas and Julius Voelcker, Caroline’s oldest living son, emigrated first. Meanwhile the Adelsverein contacted Georg offering him free passage and land in New Braunfels if he would come as an assistant to John Meusebach. He accepted the offer in 1846 and the family pulled up stakes and moved to Texas.

Although Klappenbach received the traditional half acre lot in town (on the corner of Seguin Ave. and Garden St.) he also claimed 50 more acres. This property was bounded by Landa St., which was then called County Road, up Fredericksburg Rd., adjacent to the Balcones Escarpment, and down Parkview Blvd.

On this property in 1846 the Klappenbachs buried Caroline’s child, Franciska Voelcker, 22 years of age. Dr. Ferdinand Roemer describes the funeral in this manner: “According to a North American custom in the rural districts, all people in the funeral procession were mounted (on horses) which appeared unusual ….” The burial was on the property of the stepfather, beside the springs of the Comal, in view of the river and shaded by forest trees.

Stepson Eugen Voelcker constructed the dog-trot style homestead for the Klappenbachs near the springs. He had been trained in carpentry and home building in Anklam. Three feet thick walls of native fieldstone rubble with mortar made of caliche and straw were then covered with stucco. The roof is supported by two unjointed cypress beams the length of the house. The floors are cedar.

Klappenbach farmed and ranched on this property. He used the “GK” brand. He didn’t give up his interest in politics, being elected mayor in 1851 and then on the school board of the NB Academy. He was elected chief justice of Comal County in 1861.

Carl and Augusta Buehler bought the property from Klappenbach in 1881. It was Buehler that terraced the property next to the hill below the house. Buehler was known for his horticulture and the soil was so rich, and the area so perfect for growing fruits and vegetables, that even today many plants spring forth on their own – herbs such as horehound and mustang grapevines.

The most unusual trees are the anaqua trees. They are an old variety that grow close to water (aqua is water). There are many in Landa Park. About this time of year these trees are covered with tiny fragrant flowers that soon turn into berries. Indians concocted a dried food call pemmican. The berries of the anaqua were mixed with dried venison and made into paste for easy carriage.

Buehler’s grandson, Edward Penshorn, took ownership of the farm and then Melvin and Juanita Johnson bought it in the 1930’s. Finally the present owners, Tim and Elisabet Barker, bought the remaining 3 1/2 acres in 1984. Barker is a Master Gardener who grows magnificent flowers on the five terraces. Two small historic buildings have been moved on to the property blending in with the historic dog-trot house still in existence.

Much of the information for this article column has been collected from the Sophienburg Archives. There is a collection of about 450 family books, one of which is “Fink, Voelcker, and Klappenbach Families” by Albert Henry Fink. These family books are a real plus for researchers!

Georg Jochim Jacob Friedrich A. Klappenbach, 1860s

By Myra Lee Adams Goff

Research for this year’s July 4th article led me on an unexpected journey into the past. My aim was to inform you, the reader, of the history of a certain piece of property at the Main Plaza, observable when you watch the Sophienburg’s annual parade and Independence celebration. That property is the present UPS store that looks amazingly like a filling station. That’s because it was. Before that, it was a mercantile store, a tavern, a residence,   and a fruit stand.

Here’s the history of that piece of property: In 1847 a small wooden building was leased to John Torrey in the exact location of that UPS building. The provision was that he would not open a saloon or a boarding house, and it became a mercantile store. John Torrey, along with his brothers owned a trading post near Houston on the Brazos River and he was the one that provided the provisions for the emigrants to New Braunfels from the coast. Guns and swords were sold to Prince Carl for his Mounted Company. Consequently, John Torrey accompanied the settlers to New Braunfels. He stayed here, engaged in many merchandise and industrial businesses and after industries on the Comal were destroyed by flood and once by fire, he left the town forever.

Now here’s where I got off the track. Seeking information about the Torrey Brothers’ Trading Co.  near Houston, I ran across Dr. Ferdinand Roemer’s story in 1846 about his trip to the trading co. He describes the topography of that particular area of Texas as much like the region between Austin and New Braunfels. Instead of dense forests, there were prairies covered with mesquite trees and occasional oak groves. One evening, he and his companion observed a prairie fire which they thought the Indians had started in order to drive the game in a certain direction for hunting and to burn off dry grass.

The next morning the trading post appeared before them with seven rough unhewn log houses. The largest house contained pelts received in trade from the Indians, most of which were buffalo robes, buffalo rugs, and deer hides. Some of the buffalo hides were painted artistically, which determined their value. Some were sold in Houston and most shipped to the Northern States and Canada. Indians also brought in skins of raccoon, cougar, beaver, antelope, bobcats and gray wolves.

Mules were another article of trade by Comanches which they captured on their annual raids to the northern provinces of Mexico. These mules were tamed and sold as pack animals.
In another house were the goods that the Indians received in trade, mainly woolen blankets, woolen cloth colored scarlet and blue and used to make breech cloths. There was also printed calico for shirts and thick copper wiring used in making ornaments for arms, legs, and knives. Then there were glass beads, powder, lead, and tobacco.

The rest of the houses were dwelling places for those who worked at the post. There was even a gunsmith appointed by the government who repaired guns for the Indians.
The trading post was also where captives (particularly children) were brought by the Indians for sale. Roemer observed three boys for sale. Delicacies such as dried buffalo meat, and smoked buffalo tongue were for sale as well.

Now fast forward to our Main Plaza. Following Torrey’s store, around 1898, the small building became Ferdinand Simon’s Tavern and then Mrs. Yettie Wiedermann’s Plaza Fruit Store. Then in 1925 A.C. Moeller built a two-story brick building for the Wiedermanns right next to the fruit stand (now Comal Flower Shop). The Wiedermanns moved their business to the bottom floor of their new building and lived upstairs.

By 1932 the wooden building had been torn down and Al Leissner assumed the Texaco dealership that same year. Leissner ran the Texaco station until 1945 when he sold it to Al Schnabel.
NB is fortunate to have such an obvious center of town like Main Plaza, one that is recognizable and incidentally hard to navigate. That indeed makes it memorable. Remember, July 4th celebration  at the Plaza at 9:15 a.m.

This enhanced postcard of the early plaza shows Torrey's small wooden structure in the center of the card. Across the street is the former Eiband and Fischer store.