The history behind the Marglin name

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Recently, the Ludwig Leather Company on Seguin Avenue was purchased by Terri Moore Cocanougher, originally from New Braunfels. The new name of the company is Ludwig and Marglin. Why Marglin? Marglin is the French name for Mergele and First Founder Peter Mergele is Terri’s ancestor. Steve Moore, her father is […]

Peace on earth, good will to men

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Imagine that you are on the Texas Coast where you have just arrived on one of the Adelsverein ships. You left Germany three months ago. You are far away from the Heimatland (homeland) for the first time ever and it is Christmas time. Your whole life you have loved the […]

Waisenhaus Orphanage on the Guadalupe

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Do you believe everything you read? Do you believe everything you hear? If your answer to these two questions is “no,” you must be thinking like an historian. A good historian reads material and thinks “there must be more” and hears information and thinks “where’s the proof?” One of our […]

The year 1846 was a dark year for the German immigrants

By Myra Lee Adams Goff The year was 1846, a year after Hermann Seele arrived in Texas. It was the time of year that we, in Texas, understand – July and August. The heat continued to increase and thunder storms made the Guadalupe River rise. A ferry boat at the confluence of the Comal and […]

Waisenhaus believed to be first orphanage

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Can you think of three words that would describe what was important to your mother’s generation? How about your grandmother’s? Go back one more generation and it’s easy because that generation of immigrant women spelled it out: “Küche, Kirche, und Kinder, or “kitchen, church and children”. Written accounts bear this […]

Christmas in the “Neu Heimatland”

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Hermann Seele arrived in Galveston on Dec. 13, 1843. He had come alone to make his home in Texas. On Christmas Eve, he walked the streets of Galveston totally alone and his thoughts were of home in Germany. He remembered how the children stepped up to the glittering Christmas tree […]

Meusebach persevered despite pestilence, poverty

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Baron Ottfried von Meusebach dropped his aristocratic title and became John Meusebach when he came to Texas in May of 1845. He was to be the Adelsverein’s second administrator of the German settlement of New Braunfels succeeding Prince Carl. The prince had departed just two months after the first emigrants […]

Journey through New Braunfels with Dr. Roemer

By Myra Lee Adams Goff It’s early spring in the year 1846 and I am imagining myself at the edge of the Guadalupe where the ferry would be bringing Dr. Ferdinand Roemer into the new town of New Braunfels. He had arrived in Texas the year before to study the resources, geology, and flora of Texas. He especially wanted […]

Poets provide accounts of early New Braunfels life

By Myra Lee Adams Goff The late Dr. Robert Govier was a friend of mine and a real friend to the Sophienburg Archives. A native of New Braunfels, he got his Ph.D. in German and translated many documents for the Sophienburg. I considered him a multi-talented genius. While working on his M.A. degree in 1962, Govier […]

Arriving Germans found Indian tribes in area they settled

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Prince Carl in the diary of his sojourn to Texas writes about sleeping on the ground, using a pistol case as a pillow. Even before the emigrants arrived, he feared an Indian attack. He recalled a patriotic drinking song called “Deutschland Hoch”. Rewriting his own words to this song, he envisioned […]