Adventurous Boy Scouts used drainage tunnels to stay out of trouble

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Proclaiming themselves the Huck Finns of New Braunfels, Carroll Hoffmann and Doyle Krueger recently talked about their exploratory activities under the city streets. Mark Twain, author of “Huckleberry Finn” described Huck in this way: “There were things which he stretched, but mostly he told the

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At one time, it was a big deal for women to frequent saloons

By Myra Lee Adams Goff There was a time when women and alligators and catfish and perhaps a man or two sat side by side in the Phoenix Saloon and Beer Garden. Why is this such a big deal, you ask. It’s because it just wasn’t socially acceptable for women to frequent saloons and alligators

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First settlers crossed the Guadalupe River on Good Friday

By Myra Lee Adams Goff One of my favorite historical places to go is the middle of the Faust Street Bridge and look upstream to where the first settlers crossed the Guadalupe on their way into NB. I have walked Nacogdoches St. on the east side of Seguin Ave. towards

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New Braunfels native lost on Arctic expedition

By Myra Lee Adams Goff It’s been four years since Jennifer Niven wrote the book “Ada Blackjack” in which she told a 1921 tale of an ill-fated Arcticexpedition to Wrangel Island by four men and an Inuit Eskimo woman (Blackjack). One of the men was New Braunfelser Milton Galle. Niven’s local resource

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Hoffmann’s verse reveals skepticism for emigration plan

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Possibly you, as I, have never heard of August Heinrich Hoffmann (von Fallersleben) (1798-1874). A renowned German poet, Hoffmann had a philosophy of freedom that was one of the strong factors leading to emigration to Texas from Germany. The translated poems and the info for this

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A former downtown resident knows the people, places of her youth

By Myra Lee Adams Goff There was a time when, on Saturday night, the most exciting thing one could do in NB was to drive downtown to look at the photographs in the windows of Seidel Studio. Otto and Johanna Seidel who began their photography business in 1922 were called on

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Many early immigrants didn’t last long, buried in Verein Cemetery

By Myra Lee Adams Goff The Comal County Geneology Society has researched NB records over the years, such as census, birth, marriage, death, cemetery records, ship lists, maps, and many more. If you come to the Sophienburg to do research, you have these booklets available. They are also for sale

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Original Seekatz Opera House built for traveling shows, local entertainment

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Marie Jarisch and Gaston Parsons have an obvious pride when they talk about their grandfather and the Seekatz Opera House. The current Seekatz Opera House owned by Ron Snider is on the exact site of the original building, which burned down in 1941. Brothers Louis

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Recalling a restaurant shaped like a coffee pot

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Activities at the Sophienburg have finally slowed down a little bit after the holidays. After Weihnachtsmarkt, St. Nicholas made his presence known to a huge crowd of children and their parents. Everyone is now getting back to the work of the archives. Last column about

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Remembering a time of war, air raid drills, victory gardens and sacrifice

By Myra Lee Adams Goff It’s the end of December and this pesky little song has entered my head again and won’t leave. “Let’s remember Pearl Harbor as we did the Alamo”. I’m back in Julia Odiorne’s fourth grade class at Lamar School. Earlier, on December 7th in 1941 a

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