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 […]

First-hand account of the Indianola hurricane

By Myra Lee Adams Goff New Braunfels loves to celebrate anniversaries, but this date, Friday August 20 in 1886, we can commemorate but not celebrate. It was on this day one hundred thirty years ago (as of yesterday) that a hurricane hit the Gulf Coast. It was so strong that it destroyed the town of […]

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 […]

Emil Kriewitz plays role in Comanche-German treaty

By Myra Lee Adams Goff You, no doubt, have heard of Baron John O. Meusebach’s treaty with the Comanche Indians to promote peace between the Comanches and the German settlers. There was one person, Baron Emil Kriewitz, who played an important part in the success of this treaty. Here is his story: Kriewitz was a […]

Groos home one of few remaining on Seguin Avenue from early New Braunfels

By Myra Lee Adams Goff In the early days, when Seguin Ave. was considered the main street in New Braunfels, the first houses and businesses were constructed there. Possibly Seguin Ave. was so named because most people entered the town from guess where? Seguin. When the settlers first crossed the Guadalupe River in 1845, they […]

New Braunfels Conservation Society gets windfall

By Myra Lee Adams Goff A windfall of big proportions happened to the New Braunfels Conservation Society. They now own a piece of property that is known as the Arnold-Rauch-Brandt Homestead that goes back to the mid-1800s, located northwest from New Braunfels in an area known as Mission Valley. The house, barn and smokehouse are […]

Morales Funeral Home early business in Comaltown

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Dr. Ferdinand Roemer in his book “Roemer’s Texas,” when he arrived in the village of New Braunfels in 1846, wrote that a speculative American had laid out a new city in between the fork of the Comal and the Guadalupe within view of the city of New Braunfels and it […]

Location of Altgelt Pond revealed

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Recently I had an opportunity to practice my investigative reporting skills. I’m not adventurous enough to be a real investigative reporter but every once in a while something piques my curiosity and I’m off on an adventure. Reading a newspaper article by Oscar Haas that he wrote 45 years ago […]

Oscar Haas’ research used by many for over 75 years

By Myra Lee Adams Goff There is one historian’s name in New Braunfels that is mentioned over and over. After writing this column for the last nine years, and writing a few books, I can’t begin to tell you how many times his name is mentioned as a writer or a translator. Somehow the name […]

James Ferguson, early pioneer from Scotland

By Myra Lee Adams Goff If you believe that all of the earliest settlers of New Braunfels were of German descent, then you will be surprised to learn how many European natives were represented. One of those Ausländers (a person not originally from New Braunfels with a German heritage) was James Ferguson from Scotland, about […]