By Myra Lee Adams Goff

The Sophienburg’s Civil War exhibit will open this coming Saturday, May 19th.  and that day has been designated as a “free museum day.” The exhibit will focus on Comal County’s part in the war and will be on display until spring 2013.

Here is a thumb-nail refresher course in Civil War history before you come:

The conflict between the industrial north and the agrarian south had been going on for years. Ferdinand Lindheimer, editor of the Neu Braunfelser Zeitung wrote editorials in the newspaper in favor of secession. He was an advocate of state’s rights to the end.  Even  Gov. Sam Houston didn’t have as much influence as Lindheimer in the county.

A state Secession Convention was held in Austin on Feb. 1, 1861. Representing Comal County were Dr. Theodore Koester and Walter F. Preston, native of Virginia, who had bought the Meriwether farm on the Guadalupe River near New Braunfels. The majority of the convention voted for secession.

A statewide election was to be held over the issue. Comal County Chief Justice Hermann Heffter called for an election to vote “for” or “against” secession on Feb. 23, 1861. Of the total voters (men only) 239 voted “for” and 89 voted “against”. Comal County was the only primarily German community to vote to secede.  Do you think the vote would have been different if women also had the right to vote? I don’t know.

On April 26, 1861, the Neu Braunfelser Zeitung published the Constitution of the Confederate States of America on its front page. In keeping with a resolution of the Feb.1

Convention in Austin, 10,000 copies were to be distributed across the state, 1/5 of which were in German and Spanish.

Ultimately, the secession bill was ratified and Texas once again became a free sovereign and independent state with its capital in Montgomery, Alabama.

Now that Texas was part of the Confederacy, military forces had to be obtained. The first Confederate legislative act called for volunteers to serve 12 months and state militia volunteers to serve six months. By Dec. 1861, the Texas legislature passed a law for men from 18 to 50 to sign up for frontier defense. In Comal County, by March 15, 1861, three militia companies had been organized.

The July 4th parade was “dignified”. The home-guard militia and the bugle corps marched in the main streets to the beat of a single drum. At the plaza a military review was staged.

Now back to the exhibit: The Iwonski art exhibit that I told you about in my last column is part of the over-all exhibit. Outside, the Sons of the Confederacy in uniform are setting up an encampment with tent, cannon and many other archives.

Now go inside the museum. There are vast amounts of Civil War era artifacts in the Sophienburg collection and they will be displayed throughout the museum.

The first display that will catch your eye is the cabin reproduction. The story from the Landa family goes like this: Joseph Landa was in exile in Mexico as a result of his being tried by an anti-abolitionist secret society for freeing his five slaves in 1863. His wife, Helene, stayed behind to run the store and other businesses. A gang of “ruffians” invaded the store and Helene held them off with a six-shooter.

Every segment of the museum will display something that involves the Civil War period. The medicines in the Doctor’s office, alcohol  in the saloon, guns, clothing, and the Ladies Aid Society’s role in the war effort.  By the wall painting of the Comal Springs is an exhibit of saltpeter production used in gunpowder. There are panels of old photos and a vast amount of information about participants in the war effort, from the leaders Hoffmann, Podewils, Bose, and Heidemeyer to everyday people.

Sophie’s Shop has the largest collection of Comal County books for sale in town. There are three Civil War books, two about Comal County and also a beautifully illustrated Smithsonian collection.

It was a confusing time. Excerpts from this folk song by Irving Gordon tell it all:

Two brothers on their way…
One wore blue and one wore gray…
Two girls waiting by the railroad track…
One wore blue and one wore black…

Volunteers Janis Bodemann and Ann Giambernardi examine the clothing of the Landa mannequins inside the museum. The Landa story is part of the Civil War Exhibit beginning May 19 at the Sophienburg.

Related Articles

• July 8, 2008 — Cannon fire signaled news of Civil War’s conclusion
• Jan. 20, 2009 — Courthouse holding up pretty well after 110 years
• April 14, 2009 — New book will detail county’s Civil War history
• Nov. 3, 2009 — Many Texans were “Treue der Union”
• May 17, 2011 — New Braunfels newspaper has changed with the times
• May 1, 2012 — Artist Iwonski part of Civil War exhibit

Books Available in Sophie’s Shop

• War Between the States - Participants from Comal County, Texas
• War Between the States - Comal County Texas in the Civil War As Reported in the Neu Braunfelser Zeitung 1859 to 1865
• The Civil War: A Visual History

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)