From Union St., turn onto Common and drive straight to the Guadalupe River. At the bridge and on the east side of the river, as far as you can see, look left and right. You are looking at Hortontown. Down river to the right of Hortontown was Neighborsville. These two areas are referred to by these names only historically. Beginning in 1846, when sickness was rampant on the coast and in New Braunfels, and emigrants were still arriving, Hortontown was settled to avoid going into the sickness- infested town. Neighborsville followed a few years later. Both areas were originally in Guadalupe County but were added to Comal County and also to the City of New Braunfels.

From the bridge, you will notice a gradual incline up to Loop 337. Turn right on the loop, and right before the railroad overpass, turn left on Church Hill Drive. Across the road from Conservation Plaza, a church was built in 1852. It was the St. Martin’s Evangelical Lutheran Church and next to it, in 1870, a school was built. The Church Hill School served the children of both Hortontown and Neighborsville.

Hortontown was named after Albert C. Horton who came to Texas from Alabama in 1835. He became an active supporter of the Texas Revolution. From 1836-38 he served as senator in the 1st and 2nd congress of the Republic of Texas. He became the first Lt. Gov. of the new state of Texas. Leopold Iwonski became the agent for Horton’s land grant.

The settlement of Neighborsville was laid out by Jacob de Cordoba who designated a lot for the establishment of the church and parochial school. In 1870 the church congregation decided to build a separate building for their school. And that school became the Church Hill School.

The Church Hill School was built of 18” thick hand- cut limestone blocks brought by wagon from a hill country quarry. The doors and floor are also original. The appointments are from other rural Comal County one-room schools.

Martha Rehler, Exec. Director of the Conservation Society, took me on a tour. There is nothing as empty as an empty classroom. Going into the abandoned school, that strange feeling returned. A classroom needs children.

There were wooden desks of all sizes with a hole in the top for an ink bottle. They still had those when I was in elementary school. Our fountain pens had a little bladder that had to be filled with ink. What a mess! In this old classroom the teacher sat in the back of the room by the door. I’m surprised she didn’t notice the initials carved in the older students’ desk, probably by a pocket knife which I’m told, was every boy’s toy. Slate boards were on each desk taking the place of paper. The large chalkboard (black, later green) had the lesson for the day in German script (Fraktur).

Other relics are a long table from the Ursaline Academy in San Antonio displaying photographs of groups of school children. Water was drawn out of a well or a cistern and put in a portable water fountain. There are two large bells. The smaller of the two at one time stood in front of the Guadalupe Hotel (Plaza) which was a stagecoach stop. The bell was used to welcome arrivals. The larger was a school bell to call students.

Rehler gave me a “Texas Public School’s Report Card from 1925 that parents had to fill out about their own child. It was for a 7th grade girl going into the 8th grade. I put myself in my mother’s shoes, evaluating her only chick on a scale of 1 to 100. Knowing that I was a “city girl” in New Braunfels, I would have failed miserably. I would have a “0” in canning, care of stock, care of poultry, cooking, gardening, general farm work, milking, providing fuel, sewing, and sweeping,. I would have done fairly well in dusting, washing dishes, obedience, neatness, reliability and special work. In my case, special work would have been socializing.

The St. Martin’s Church, originally adjoined to the old Church Hill School, was moved in 1968 next to the Hortontown Cemetery on Loop 337. The school remained and was eventually donated to the Conservation Society in 1975 to be used as a museum.

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The Daughters of the Republic of Texas: One and Indivisible

By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

There is nothing more beautiful to a Texan than the Lone Star Flag flying against a brilliant azure blue sky. You may have noticed the Texas flags posted around Main Plaza and on downtown streets earlier in the week. But do you know why? Or by whom they are posted?

Every good Texan should recognize March 2 as Texas Independence Day and March 6 as Alamo Day. For the “Newly Texan” or those who do not remember 7th grade history, here is a short explanation in a nutshell.

In 1835, Texian Colonists had grown discontent with the dictatorship of President Antonio López de Santa Anna. Things heated up in the fall of ’35 with a couple of battles taking place. On February 1, 1836, delegates, representing seventeen Texas municipalities, were elected to meet March 1 to discuss independence from Mexico. Before they could meet, Santa Anna’s army attacked the Alamo on February 23, where the battle raged for 13 days. On March 2, 1836, fifty-eight members signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, and the Republic of Texas was born! The Alamo fell on March 6, 1836, sparking the cry “Remember the Alamo” that carried Texians on to win the Battle at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836 (San Jacinto Day).

How do we know these things? There are people and groups that make it their life’s work to research old documents, diaries, and letters to keep history alive. One such group, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas have been sharing the stories of Texas for more than 130 years.

Founded in 1891, The Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT) is the oldest patriotic women’s organization in Texas, as well as one of the oldest in the nation. It came about when Miss Betty Ballinger and her cousin, Miss Hally Bryan, both of Galveston, came up with the idea of honoring the memory of the Texas pioneer families and soldiers of the Republic of Texas by forming an association of their female descendants. They, along with fourteen other ladies at the Houston home of Mrs. Andrew Briscoe, formed the organization that is known today as the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

The DRT held their early meetings in conjunction with the Texas Veterans Association reunions, inviting the wives and daughters of these Veterans to join their organization. It had been fifty-five years since the Battle of San Jacinto. It was easy for the women to realize the necessity of a patriotic group to assist and carry on the work of the aging heroes identifying and preserving important historical sites.

The 34th and final reunion of the Texas Veterans Association took place in Austin in 1907. Only six Veterans answered roll call. The Veterans voted to dissolve the Veterans Association but chose to merge their memories and historical meaning with the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

Building on the DRT mission of perpetuating the memory and spirit of those who achieved and maintained the independence of Texas, the organization provides education programs and preserves historic documents and memorial historic sites from the Republic of Texas period. The DRT chapter numbers have grown to ninety-one chapters statewide, plus one in Arkansas and one in Washington, D.C. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas is a genealogical organization. Membership is open to any woman who is a lineal descendant of a man or woman who rendered loyal service for Texas prior to annexation of Texas to the United States of America (February 19, 1846, Texas Statehood Day). Each chapter is a part of the larger organization, operating within the framework of Bylaws established by the Association.

In New Braunfels, the Ferdinand Lindheimer Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas was chartered on May 11, 1982 with nineteen Charter Members including: Agnes Glasscock Grimm, Sudie Wray Barker, Katherine Elva Grimm Burrell, Ann Cunningham Burrus, Martha Amanda Burrus, Mary Ellis Burrus, Esther Gerhardt, Mary Ann Moore Greaver, Marie Shelly Holm, Mattie Nelson Howard, Viola Mae Shearer Johns, Carolyn Grimm Appling, Mary Elizabeth Williams Lozo, Hilary K. Lyon, Joyce Avery Moore, Luciclaire Proud, Mary Jane Kincaid Schoch, Bronwyn Ann Wilson, and Jeanne Renni Wilson. The Chapter now boasts 145 members and associate members.

The Ferdinand Lindheimer Chapter name pays homage to the Father of Texas Botany, who rode with Prince Solms into New Braunfels, and qualifies as a Republic of Texas Ancestor. The local DRT Chapter has taken on multiple projects preserving and promoting Texas history: the purchase and posting of the Texas flags on Texas Honor Days (several mentioned above); provision of books and educational materials about Texas to local schools; holding essay contests promoting Texas history; awarding scholarships to graduating students in Comal County and to DRT descendants. The Ferdinand Lindheimer Chapter of DRT funds their local projects and the larger DRT State projects with fundraisers held throughout the year.

As part of their mission, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas has maintained the birthplace of DRT in Galveston, The Cradle, and other historic properties overseen by DRT chapters across the state. They also maintain and oversee the DRT Library Collection in San Antonio. Recently, the DRT opened the Republic of Texas Museum presented by the Nelson Pruett Foundation in the new Republic of Texas History Center’s state-of-the-art facility located at 810 San Marcos Street in Austin.

If you are interested in learning more about your Texas ancestors and celebrating Republic of Texas history, check out the Daughters of the Republic of Texas website or email questions to ferdinandlindheimer@drtinfo.org . Who knows? You might be a descendant of a Republic of Texas Ancestor.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum and Archives; Daughters of the Republic of Texas; Handbook of Texas Online.

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How many times have you said or thought, “I wish I could remember what my grandmother told me about that.” If you have letters or a diary from your family, you are one of the fortunate ones. Our history of New Braunfels is almost totally based on the writings of Prince Carl, Hermann Seele, Ferdinand Roemer, Ferdinand Lindheimer and all those who told us our history because they were here. From them we learned what the town looked like, what people were doing, what they ate, how they felt, and what they thought. Even from the Spanish period in Texas we are told about routes along the Camino Real through the Comal Springs and about the missions established along the routes and how the explorers lived.

We live in what is called the communication age but you have to wonder how much of our “communication” today will be left for future generations to discover where we were and who we were. Remember that when you hit “delete” on your computer or cell text. Wonder if there is some kind of “cyber diary” out there that will be tapped in the future or will it all just be transported into outer space?

In 2013, I wrote an article about the life of Ferdinand Lindheimer, however, recently I read again A Life Among the Texas Flora by Minetta Altgelt Goyne, and decided to write more about this exceptional man. The book is a compilation of letters from Lindheimer to botanist George Engelmann.

Dr. Goyne, a descendant from some old New Braunfels families (Altgelt and Coreth), was teaching at the University of Texas at Arlington and could translate the old German script. She also knew a lot about New Braunfels history, Lindheimer and the history of Germany, all contributing to her insightful analysis published alongside the letters. The original letters are housed at the Missouri Botanical Garden at St. Louis. In 1979, the president of the New Braunfels Conservation Society approached Dr. Goyne to translate the letters. Copies of the letters had been acquired from Carlos Lindheimer, great-grandnephew of Lindheimer and native of Argentina.

Lindheimer came to New Braunfels in 1845 with Prince Carl at the age of 43. He did not travel to Texas on the ships with the first contingency of immigrants. He was already here in Texas. He was born and raised near Frankfurt, came to the United States in 1834, entering at New York. He traveled to Belleville, Illinois to the Hilgard Farm where he joined friends that had already emigrated from Germany. One of the friends was George Engelmann. Engelmann had studied medicine in Germany and had a practice in St. Louis but continued his plant studies. Engelmann and Lindheimer had studied botany together in Germany.

In the fall of 1834, Lindheimer set out from Illinois to travel south. His destination was Texas but it was considered dangerous to travel south directly into Texas from the northern route. He decided to travel to Mexico and then enter Texas from the south. He took a steamboat from Illinois down the Mississippi and arrived in New Orleans. then took a schooner to Veracruz, Mexico. He traveled to a German colony not far from Veracruz that he considered one of the most beautiful areas on earth. The German colony grew and exported sugarcane, coffee and tobacco. Lindheimer stayed there for a period of time working and observing the plantation. At that point, he thought he wanted to be a farmer.

We know that he left Mexico and enlisted in the Army of Texas, arriving with his company at San Jacinto one day too late. He received an honorable discharge at Houston on December 5, 1837. Apparently his commanding officers allowed him to collect botanical specimens while his fellow soldiers were performing drills. In 1939, he purchased a ten-acre farm near Houston not far from White Oak Bayou.

The letters to Engelmann beginning in 1841, indicate that he was accumulating equipment for his first botanizing in Texas. In 1835, while in Mexico, Lindheimer wrote to Engelmann about his interest in plants. Now in Texas, he was going to be paid to collect plant specimens and ship them to Engelmann in St. Louis.

Engelmann later organized the St. Louis Academy of Science in 1856 and what is now called the Missouri Botanical Garden. The archives house Engelmann’s plant collections and papers which include the Lindheimer letters. Many of the plant specimens collected by Lindheimer were also be sent to the famous botanist Asa Gray and actually all over the world. The Texas plants had never been collected and catalogued so completely before this time.

In the early 1840s, Lindheimer collected plants in the Houston and Galveston area, making little use of his home and living in a tent. His equipment consisted of paper, plant pressing equipment, magnifying glasses and botany textbooks. Specimens were shipped to St. Louis in wooden crates. Engelmann and Gray paid Lindheimer eight dollars per 100 specimens.

In 1842, Lindheimer wrote to Engelmann from Houston concerning the “Texas Star” flower (Lindheimeria texensis), “Did you write my name among the stars with this little Asteroid? Did I serve botany in that way? Not by knowledge of it but rather by love of this sleeping, dreaming daughter of Flora.” He continues, “So, if I die childless, then I shall nevertheless leave a little immortal daughter, the Lindheimer texensis!”

In 1843 and 1844, we find Lindheimer collecting specimens in (Wild)Cat Springs, San Felipe, Brazoria, Liverpool, the Brazos basin, Industry and the Chocolate Bayou. Wildcat or Cat Springs was established in 1834 by Robert Justus and Rosalie Roeder Kleberg. The 1831 settlement of Industry where Lindheimer visited is considered the cradle of German settlements in Texas. There was a small influx of German emigrants during most of the Republic of Texas period until the last year, when the major immigration to Texas occurred with Prince Carl.

In January 1845, Lindheimer wrote to Engelmann from the Adelsverein’s camp at Aqua Dulce. Many of the German Texans that had settled in Texas prior to the arrival of Prince Carl, joined with the prince at the coast. Then on April 18, 1845, we find that Lindheimer is writing his letter from the new German settlement on the Comal Springs. Lindheimer writes of New Braunfels, “Flower upon flower, richer than the richest Persian carpet. Fragrances that sometimes remind one of violets, often of vanilla, flow around the wanderer.”

In New Braunfels, Lindheimer reserved a piece of land for his botanical garden of Texas plants, arboretum and agricultural experiments. Under the employ of the Adelsverein, he received this farm and a house. By Christmas, he was living in a cold, poor, open hut and spending so much time on survival that he is having difficulty collecting plants. This situation was remedied when he met Eleanor Reinarz. Lindheimer described her as upright, understanding, diligent, solid, refreshing, generous and chaste. She shared in his interests and helped with his plant collecting. He wrote that in a couple of weeks, his weatherproof house will be ready alleviating the problem of moldy specimens.

From this home-base, Lindheimer traveled to the surrounding areas of San Antonio, Seguin, Austin, San Saba and the Pedernales to collect plant specimens.

Gray and Engelmann issued Plantae Lindheimerianae, Part I in 1845 and Part II in 1850, with many publications to follow. In the early 1850s, Lindheimer’s interests became more local and he spent more time raising his family with wife, Eleanor. New Braunfels was in need of a newspaper and on November 12, 1852, the first issue of the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung was published with Lindheimer as editor. He continued botanizing to the end of his days. He died in 1879, and is buried in the Comal Cemetery. The first log home he built on Comal Avenue is no longer standing but his winterized home stands and is maintained amidst gardens by the New Braunfels Conservation Society.

Without a doubt, the letters establish why Lindheimer is considered the Father of Texas Botany.

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