It’s the Silver Anniversary of Weihnachtsmarkt. Can you believe it? For 25 years the Sophienburg has been putting on this event. Weihnachtsmarkt means “Christmas Market”. Patterned after the Christmas Markets in Germany, the purpose is to allow tradesmen to offer customers goods and gifts for Christmas gift-giving. Of course, our purpose is also to help keep the doors open to the Museum and Archives. The event will be at the Civic Center from Friday, Nov. 22 through Sunday, Nov. 24.

There are some unexpected connections between Weihnachtsmarkt and the Civic Center. Stretch your imagination and see if you can guess the first connection.

Karl Matern

In 1844 when the first group of immigrants on the ship Johann Dethardt arrived in Galveston, there was a young man aboard named Karl Matern. He was typical of the single first emigrants looking for a new life. Early in March, Prince Carl went to San Antonio looking for land to buy and bought the Veramendi Tract (Comal Tract) from the Juan Veramendi heirs. Karl Matern accompanied Prince Carl on this trip. As a first founder of New Braunfels, Matern received Lot #63 from the Adelsverein, on which he built a log cabin without using nails. He had been trained in forestry in Germany.

A year later Matern attended a picnic in Austin County where he met his future wife, Ulrike Fuchs. After they married in 1853, the couple moved to land on the Colorado River in Burnet County where her family had settled. Matern was gone from New Braunfels and so was his little log cabin.

Now you have connection #1. Lot #63 is where the Civic Center now stands and I’m sure lots of nails were used in construction. In front of it is the statue of Prince Carl. This is where Weihnachtsmarkt will be held.

Alonzo Garwood

About the time the Matern left New Braunfels, a child, Alonzo Garwood, was born in Bastrop, Texas. He was destined to have a successful medical practice in New Braunfels. Dr. Garwood built a grand home on the corner of Seguin and Garden Sts. sometime in the mid-1920s. The lot number was #63. He married Irene Pfeuffer, the daughter of Senator Georg Johann Pfeuffer and Suzanah Gravis and two children were born to the couple – Lucille in 1885 and George in 1889.

After Irene’s death, Garwood married Bertha Harpstrite. When Dr. Garwood died in 1932, his widow lived in the house until her death.

After several owners, the property was purchased in 1969 by the City of New Braunfels, including most of the block, that included lot # 63.

Chamber of Commerce

Fast forward to an ad in the l00th Anniversary of the Neu Braunfelser Herald-Zeitung in 1952. This ad stated that the Chamber of Commerce began in 1920 when the town was a “neat little town” of 3,590 to almost 15,000 in 1952 (today’s population is at least six times that amount). In its infancy, NB had ideal living conditions, was favored by nature, and was strategically located in the heart of Texas. Originally called the Merchants Association, the Chamber of Commerce organization became the Board of City Development and eventually the Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce.

Now go way back in time. As long as commerce existed, traders grouped themselves together for protection and then eventually to set up rules of governing the conduct of trade. As a world-wide organization, the Chamber goes back to the end of the 17^th century in Marsaille, France when the city council formed an association of traders.

In the British Isles, it was in Glasgow, Edinburg, Manchester, and London in 1881. In Germany, Kaiser Wilhelm saw the advantages of such organizations for promoting trade. Its success spread over Germany.

The oldest Chamber of Commerce in America was formed in New York in 1768 and was chartered by King George of England and by 1870 there were 40 U.S. Chambers. Each was an association of tradesmen for promotion of the sale of goods. When businesses realized that their success depended on a healthy community, the Chamber of Commerce became a true community organization. That’s true of the New Braunfels Chamber. To attract new industries and to involve the community in governmental affairs on a local, state and federal level became major goals for Chamber programs.

Our Civic Center opened its doors in 1971. Most of the building is smack-dab in the middle of lot #63.

Weihnachtsmarkt

Now let’s get back to Weihnachtsmarkt. Eighty years ago the Sophienburg Museum and Archives was organized for the purpose of preserving the unique history of New Braunfels and Comal County. Weihnachtsmarkt began in 1989 as a primary fund raiser.

The Civic Center was the location of the event. During the expansion of the Civic Center, Weihnachtsmarkt was held as a one year event in the Wursthalle. Although the atmosphere was charming using huge murals of Germany, the event returned to the new Civic Center in 2008. More geared to this type of event, Weihnachtsmarkt has been there ever since.

The sounds and smells of Weihnachtsmarkt will put you in the mood for the holidays. Sophie’s Kaffee Shop gives you an opportunity to eat and rest in between shopping. There is so much variety in the shopping and if you want to experience old world Christmas charm, come to Weihnachtsmarkt.

Letter to Prince Carl:

Dear Prince Carl,

Perhaps you can be with us in spirit at Weihnachtsmarkt. We think you would like what we have done at Sophie’s Castle on the hill. We will use the money we make at Weinhachtsmarkt to keep alive the history of the community you helped found.

Sincerely,
The Sophienburg Museum and Archives

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Detail of K. W. Pressler & W. Völker 1851 map of Texas. This map was issued as part of G. M. von Ross’ 1851 book, Der Nordamerikanische Freistaat Texas.

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

Among a stack of “orphaned” papers, I found an old map of Texas. “Orphans” are those papers or artifacts that either were inadvertently separated from their donor connection or that showed up randomly at the back door of the Sophienburg Museum in a box.

This map was cut into rectangles and mounted on a linen canvas so it could be folded into a small booklet; it is missing its front and back cardstock covers. Titled, “Map of Texas, Compiled from Surveys at the Land Office of Texas by K. W. Presler & W. Völker, Geometers of the Land Offices of Texas”, this beautiful engraved topographical map depicts Texas counties established prior to 1851 along with rivers, creeks, pioneer routes and towns. There is also an octagonal card glued to it that has “G. M. v Ross1852” written in German script.

The names gave me some starting points to find out more about the map. Turns out, this is a pretty cool, pretty rare, and remarkably accurate map.

I researched G. M. v Ross. George Moerner von Ross was an American of German descent. That little “v” in his name stands for “von”, the German word “of or from”, which usually signifies that a man is landed gentry and not your basic peasant immigrant from Germany. Ross wrote several travel/informational books for Germans considering immigration to the US of A: (1848) Rathschläge und Warnungen (a book of advice on immigration); (1851) Der Nordamerikanische Freistaat Texas (describes Texas climate, geography, animals, biology and minerals); (1851) Des Auswanderers Handbuch (includes a section on Texas).

This map was issued with George M. v Ross’ 1851 Freistaat Texas. The Texas Handbook says, “Ross was for a time associated with Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer in the publication of the Neu Braunfelser Zeitung.” George M. indeed appears in advertisements in the Neu Braunfelser Zeitung in early 1853. The paper also includes his obituary which states that he was co-editor of the NB Zeitung and also the editor of the Allgemeinen Auswanderungs Zeitung. He died on his farm in Sisterdale in October 1856. So, the map might actually have been his.

I also wanted to know about the map’s maker, K. W. Pressler. Karl Wilhelm Pressler was born in Prussia in 1823. Karl studied cartography and surveying and upon graduation, he worked for the Prussian government (or as a civil servant). Dissatisfied with most everything about Prussia, Karl, like many other young men his age, became certain that his destiny awaited him in Texas. Pressler joined the Adelsverein and landed in Galveston in February 1846, right as Texas officially became the 28th state to join the United States.

Karl joined three other German lads and tried out farming. It was a “no go” for him and he made his way to Austin. There, he became friends with a fellow German immigrant who was drawing maps for the Texas General Land Office. He managed to get a 2-month job with the GLO and spent his days drawing maps from 9-12 and 2-5. After his job ended, he travelled a bit and met Jacob de Cordova.

Cordova was also an immigrant, not from Germany, but from Jamaica. He became successful as a land agent in Philadelphia before he turned his eyes on Texas. Here he found more land than even he knew what to do with. For us in New Braunfels, Cordova is important for founding the community of Neighborsville in 1847 (Milltown) and naming many of the creeks in the Canyon Lake area. Cordova lived on the Guadalupe/Comal County border on his land, “Wanderers Retreat” for several years.

In August 1846, when young, 23 year-old Pressler met Cordova, he was made head of Cordova’s surveying expeditions of 1846 and 1847. Pressler also fact-and-quality-checked Cordova’s first map of Texas issued in 1849. Jacob de Cordova founded the city of Waco that same year. Karl, or Charles as he would come to be known, also surveyed in Guadalupe County. That makes sense. He was probably bunking at Wanderer’s Retreat with the Cordova family.

In 1850, Karl Pressler became a full-time draftsman in the Texas General Land Office. He was promoted to principal draftsman in 1858 and chief draftsman in 1865. With a short stint of service as an engineer for the Confederacy and also city engineer of Galveston, Pressler served at the Texas GLO until he retired in 1899.

Our little orphan map, issued along with G.M. v Ross’s book, is the first map K.W. Pressler drew and published. It was followed by another revised and corrected map of de Cordova’s and then his own map of Texas issued in 1858. The 1858 Pressler map was considered to be the most accurate map of Texas that had been produced and took him four years to create from records he found at the GLO. It faithfully depicted rivers, creeks, mountains, pioneer routes, forts, locations of Native-American tribes, towns and counties. The Texas Legislature appropriated $1,000 to purchase copies of Pressler’s 1858 Texas map for placement in each county clerk’s office in the state. Pressler revised his map again in1862, but it was not widely circulated due to the Civil War. Revised and reissued in 1867, it was known as the Traveler’s Map of the State of Texas. He is also credited as the creator of maps for 38 counties in Texas.

Pressler died in 1907 in Austin.

But this is not the end of this story. While researching Mr. Pressler, I found that Oscar Haas was given a collection of letters that new Texan Karl wrote home to his family in Prussia. These letters tell his story of immigration, finding work, surveying the Texas Hill Country, dances, living conditions and include descriptions of the people he met. Be on the lookout for more on this intrepid and adventurous young man.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum: Oscar Haas Collection, Neu Braunfelser Zeitung Collection; Heritage Auctions; Texas State Historical Association: George M. von Ross, Karl Wilhelm Pressler; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Karl Wilhelm Pressler; Texas Historical Commission: Texas Time Travel: Charles Pressler’s Map of the State of Texas.

“Around the Sophienburg” is published every other weekend in the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung.

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

Have you ever tugged at a loose thread only to find that the thread was not really loose, resulting in an irritating unraveling of sorts? I recently pulled at said “loose thread,” but the odd “thread” that I pulled exposed a beautiful tapestry with a surprising outcome. Last month, I wrote about the beautiful cut limestone house in Comaltown built by Johann Georg Moeller (spelled with an OE) that was finished in 1866. The home was purchased in 1881 by Johannes Mueller (spelled with a UE). When I checked it out to make sure that it wasn’t just a mix up of vowels, I found a whole lot more.

Who was Johannes Mueller spelled with a “UE”? Johann or Johannes, the German form of John, was a common name. There are a ton of Johns in the world, and so it was with Johannes. This particular Johannes Mueller was born November 22, 1823, in Welsch-Neudorf, Nassau (Germany). He, along with who may have been his maternal uncle and family (Stendebach), set sail for a new life in September 1845 aboard the Ship Auguste Meline. At the ripe old age of 22, he arrived in Galveston on December 9, 1845, and made his way to New Braunfels, in what were the waning days of the Republic of Texas.

About that same time, a young woman by the name of Maria Magdelena Rheinlander arrived in Galveston on the Barque B. Bohen, December 22, 1845, with a man destined to become her husband. She wed Gottlieb Heldberg in New Braunfels in May of 1846, but her “happily-ever-after” was short-lived. Gottlieb was killed by Indians in August 1847 when Magdelena was pregnant with their daughter, Anna. Johannes and Magdelena met in 1847 and married in December 1848.

Johannes appeared to be an ambitious soul. In his first years in Texas, Johannes engaged in the freight hauling business. Freight by wagon was the only way to get goods into and out of New Braunfels for a number of years since the railroads did not arrive until 1880. Johannes was in business with Mr. John Halm until 1869 before dissolving the partnership. Besides the freight business, Johannes had opened a store, which was known as the Hannes Mueller Store selling dry goods, groceries, shoes, boots, and cutlery to name a few things.

The store, located on the corner of Main Plaza and San Antonio Street, was a two-story structure which later became the Streuer Brothers. When I was young, it was the site of the United Gas Company (now Entex) and eventually a bank building (Guaranty State Bank, Mbank and Moody Bank). Like many store owners in 19th-century New Braunfels, the Hannes Mueller family lived on the second floor above the Hannes Mueller Store (and there were a lot of people in that family).

Hannes really had his fingers in a bit of everything. While still involved with the freight company, he also served as both town Marshall and County Treasurer from September 1863 to July of 1865. In his later years, he was elected city Alderman (precursor to our city council members) from April 1881 to October 1883.

He somehow earned the nickname “MuellerHannes”. Literally translated it would be “MuellerJohnny”. MuellerHannes was said to be a very humorous man. His friends told many anecdotes about him. One of his friends was Anselm Eiband, editor and publisher of the New-Braunfelser Zeitung. He printed his anecdotes about MuellerHannes in the newspaper. Nice friends.

Johannes had developed quite the business acumen and accrued quite a bit of land in their lifetimes. In 1881, they bought the beautiful rock home in Comaltown and six adjacent lots. In 1882, their son, Henry, joined the family business. They also sold two acres of land west of town to the trustees of Three Mile School. It later became Lone Star School in 1901.

Johannes and Magdelena shared 62 anniversaries (62!) together. He died in 1908 at the age of 85 and she, the following year at 82. Their lives and the lives of their thirteen children, 59 grandchildren, and 26 great-grandchildren played out in the newspapers: births, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, deaths, funerals. It was the long listing of their family members at each gathering that caught my eye. I know those names. I know those people. In the story about the Moeller House, I told how the youngest Mueller daughter, Emma, married a grandson of Georg Moeller. What I did not tell you was that Johannes and Magdelena’s third child, daughter Marie, born 1853, who married Theodor Meckel, is my great, great grandmother. Little did I know I was writing my own family history when I first started the Moeller House story. Pulling the thread that leads to another branch of your family tree is pretty cool. And very addicting.

The Sophienburg Archives is an absolute gold mine for finding things like this. Even if you use Ancestry.com, there are things found in the Red Family Surname Books and the hanging files that most people don’t know about. And if you are working on a family history, I would strongly recommend giving a copy to the Archives, both for safe-keeping and as a resource for others. Digital records/photos may be great, but paper documents are priceless.

Sources: Sophienburg Archives: Red Family Surname Books; Rural Schools and Teachers of Comal County, Texas, 1854-1956; Alton J. Rahe.

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg

Change. One of the few constants of life. Because change is occurring rapidly in and around New Braunfels, rural cemeteries are endangered. Cemeteries and graveyards are sometimes the only connection to the history of an area. York Creek Cemetery is one of historical importance, as it documents the lives of early permanent inhabitants of the York Creek and Hunter communities.

Where the heck is York Creek, you might ask? The actual York Creek begins somewhere around Wegner Road in Comal County and travels southeast through Hays and Guadalupe counties before flowing into the San Marcos River. The creek naturally attracted farmers to the resource.

Along about 1867, a man by the name of Andrew Jackson Hunter settled his family on York’s Creek (now York Creek). He operated a thousand-acre cotton farm. The land was strategically located along a stagecoach line that ran from New Braunfels to San Marcos before the railroad.

In 1880, the townsite of Hunter was established with the arrival of the International and Great Northern Railroad. By 1883 a post office opened in Gustavus A. Schleyer’s general store, with the owner as postmaster. Schleyer’s store, a cotton gin, a grocery store, and a saloon were in operation there by 1884, when Hunter had about sixty residents. By 1890, Hunter was a bustling community of 200 that included two saloons, a barbershop, a blacksmith, a wagonmaker, a meat market, and a gin and gristmill.

York’s Creek Cemetery came into being on October 7, 1882, when Ernst Gruene, Jr. sold one acre of land to D. G. Posey, Frank Tate, and Charles Crawford to be used as a community cemetery. Posey, Tate and Crawford were the first cemetery trustees. The cemetery doubled in size in 1904, when William Simon, Sr. sold one acre of land to cemetery trustees, D. G. Posey, Charles Crawford, and William Simon, Jr. That is when they formed an association and officially named it York Creek Cemetery. They elected D. G. Posey, C. B. Crawford, and H. Wiegreffe as commissioners. A. J. Wallhoefer was elected secretary and treasurer. Currently, Mr. James B. Skarovsky and his wife, Lynn, are the only trustees of record.

There are over 180 burials recorded in York Creek Cemetery. According to existing records the earliest burial in the newly established cemetery was John B. Taylor, in 1885. Seven of the graves must have been moved to York Creek, as the death dates predate the cemetery. Most of those buried in the cemetery were born in Texas although at least 16 were born in Germany. Over half of those buried bear German surnames. Occupations of the deceased and their families included farmers, homemakers, laborers, railroad workers, blacksmiths, military, and saloon keepers. Hobart Gilmore, who was killed in 1972 Flood, is also buried there.

Walking through the cemetery, it is easy to see the various family groupings with over 68 different surnames (no way to write about all of them!). Some families are represented in greater numbers. The Soechtings have twenty-one graves. Friedrich Heinrich Andreas Söchting (German spelling) immigrated to Texas in 1852. While preparing to emigrate, he met Christine Katarina Gold, also planning to emigrate. Since married couples received special consideration, they married, before leaving Germany. They moved inland to New Braunfels and in 1866 they purchased 17.5 acres on York Creek. In 1878, they purchased an additional 338 acres for 4.90 an acre. They raised five children.. The children in turn had large families and most continued to farm in the area.

In 1850, Henry Rutherford Crawford and wife, Ann B. Wilson Crawford moved from Tennessee and purchased a 300-acre farm on Hunter Road. The couple established a school in the nearby Bonito settlement. Prior to that time, the first school was conducted in their home with their daughter, Lizzie Crawford, as teacher. Lizzie also taught at the Hunter School. In her will, she designated 500 to build the cemetery fence. Her brother, Charles B. Crawford was one of the first cemetery trustees.

Frances D’Gress Posey came to Texas at age 5 in a wagon train with his parents, brothers and aunts from Tennessee. The Posey family arrived in Texas at the Watson Campgrounds in Comal County (or could be Hays County) in early fall of 1853. That was their home for several years. Eventually, his parents, John Bennett and Amanda Posey, farmed cotton on 539 acres in the York Creek area. Frances D’Gress Posey married Mary Elizabeth Neill in 1869. Frances was a farmer and one of the first cemetery association trustees. He, his wife and many descendants are buried in the York Creek Cemetery. Posey land is now part of TXI.

John Dix Watson conveyed one acre of land in exchange for 1 for the nearby Watson School. It was located on Neill homestead land off Watson Lane. The school was closed in 1949 and combined with other schools as the Goodwin School. Mr. Watson was a Confederate veteran. He is one of seven veterans buried in York Creek

James Curtis Riley was a saloon keeper and started Riley’s Tavern in Hunter after the repeal of Prohibition. Riley’s Tavern has a Texas Historical Commission marker and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It is one of the oldest taverns in Texas and reported to have the first liquor license issued after the repeal.

Alwin Merz was a trustee when the cemetery was established. He was a farmer married to Annie Braune Merz. Alwin’s parents were John and Elise Strempel Merz, who immigrated from Germany and farmed the York Creek area. Both couples are buried in the York Creek Cemetery.

York Creek Cemetery is a perfect example of a rural cemetery: quietly resting under huge oak trees, protected by a chain link fence with rock posts. Unfortunately, the two-acre cemetery is no longer located among the green pastures and farmhouses. The York Creek/Hunter community was sheared in half when Interstate 35 was built; and the cemetery is now surrounded by industrial warehouses just off one of the most travelled highways in Texas. Little has changed inside the York Creek Cemetery, but much has changed around this true Comal County treasure that holds so much history. It was designated a Historic Texas Cemetery by the Comal County Historical Commission 2022.

Sources: Handbook of Texas Online; The Comal County Historical Commission; Jim Skarovsky; Paul Soechting; Wilfred Schlather; John Coers; Karen Boyd.

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

It was very early in the morning, still dark, but they had far to go. As Conrad gave a final tug on the ropes securing the six bales of cotton in the wagon, he watched his 13-year-old son Heinrich say goodbye to his wife. It would be a long separation for the boy and his mother, two weeks, but the 100-plus-mile round trip to Austin and back from Geronimo would teach the boy many things he needed to know as a farmer. The cotton was good this year, and Conrad was delivering the bales to a William Schuchard who had promised to give him 18 cents a pound for it, very good money indeed. It was worth the trip.

What Conrad could not know was that this was a final good bye. Neither he nor Heinrich would return to the farm.

In the last week of March 1872, Conrad and Heinrich Bormann set out on their journey to Austin. At a rate of about 15 miles a day, it would take them at least three days to get to Swenson’s Farm outside of the city. The farm was founded as a cattle ranch in 1850 by Swedish immigrant Swen Magnus Swenson. It is now the area of Govalle located between Webberville Road and Airport Boulevard. Conrad Bormann and his son were last seen alive camping on the farm on April 1.

On March 29, 1872, William Schuchard met up with S.B. Brush of Austin. He promised Mr. Brush that in a few days he would have six bales of cotton to sell him. They shook hands and Mr. Brush waited to hear from Schuchard about the cotton’s arrival.

As the morning of April 2 dawned, Conrad and son Heinrich made ready to head for home following the sale of the cotton. What transpired is conjecture on the part of investigators. It is supposed that when Schuchard came to the campsite he wanted to take the cotton and pay Bormann the following day. Bormann was no fool and he insisted that the cotton be paid for — cash-on-delivery — as agreed. The meeting went awry. Schuchard picked up an ax and brutally beat in the skulls of both father and son. With the murder done, he claimed the wagon of cotton and contacted Mr. Brush.

Brush went out to Swenson’s Farm that afternoon and met with Schuchard near the location of the Bormann’s campsite. He bought the cotton still loaded on the wagon. Schuchard received $528 in gold — clear profit.

Back in Geronimo, Mrs. Bormann had received a telegram from her husband that he and Heinrich would be back home on Friday, April 5. When the men had not returned by Monday, she sent one of her sons off on the road to seek his father and brother while she went into New Braunfels and sent a telegram to James Davidson, Adjutant General of Texas and Chief of the State Police, to inquire about her husband and eldest boy.

Davidson immediately began an investigation. Finding out that the Bormanns had camped at Swenson’s Farm, he made a thorough search of the area. In an abandoned log cabin, he came across the partially decayed bodies of the father and son. The bloody ax used to bludgeon them lay nearby. The bodies had been concealed under the canvas tarp from the wagon and everything hastily covered with straw and hay. Davidson collected reports and determined that the murderer they were after was indeed Schuchard, an alias for William Byfield. Byfield’s reputation for trouble-making was well-documented and well-known to General Davidson. He began a state-wide manhunt for Byfield.

Oscar William Byfield (alias Schuchard, alias Kellner) was reported to have been born in 1853, in Hanover, Germany. When he emigrated is unknown. He can be traced in Texas through a series of official documents. From July 1869 until May 1870, Byfield was appointed sheriff of Kerr County until his actions got him into trouble. An 1869 muster role for Kerr County verifies he arrived in the area in July of 1869. He appears in the 1870 Kerr County census: age 23, married to a woman with six children, ages 1 year to 11 years (It is unknown whether some or any of them were his). In September of 1870, Byfield served in Captain H.J. Reichardt’s Co. E Frontier Forces until he was ousted in June 1871. Byfield once again enlisted as a soldier in San Antonio on July 14, 1871, but deserted 12 days later. This register gave a good description of William Byfield: age 24, gray eyes, brown hair, fair complexion, 5 feet 10 inches tall.

After almost four years of bouncing between law enforcement groups, William Byfield showed up in Austin in 1872 for the cotton deal with Conrad Bormann and became a murderer.

On Wednesday, April 11, General Davidson sent a telegram to Mrs. Bormann informing her of the murders of her husband and son. Mr. Loose, of the New Braunfels Telegraphic Office, immediately took the telegram to Geronimo to personally deliver it. He returned to New Braunfels and reported a heart-breaking scene as Mrs. Bormann and her nine children received the horrific news. Mrs. Bormann was just over eight months pregnant.

General Davidson continued the hunt for William Byfield who had last been seen in Austin on the day of the murders. It was first thought that he might have taken the night train to Galveston for the train arrived in Galveston at 10 o’clock the following morning just in time to catch a boat to New Orleans. On Thursday, April 4, a man was arrested, but it was not Byfield.

The newspapers reported on April 12 that a man had been arrested in Brenham by police officer Doran and was to be transported to Austin. The man arrested also turned out not to be William Byfield.

Two weeks after the murders, news arrived in New Braunfels that William Byfield had been arrested on the 14th in Castroville. A sizable police detachment was being sent by Chief of Police Davidson in order to prevent “Lynch Justice” and guarantee a proper trial by law. Once again, the arrested man was not Byfield.

Davis, the Governor of Texas, issued a statement offering a $400 reward for the capture of William Byfield, but by then the trail had grown cold. Oscar William Byfield had simply vanished.

There are a few bright spots in this dark story. Conrad and Heinrich share a single grave in Austin’s Oakwood Cemetery, buried in the section for “Mexicans”, “Blacks” and “Strangers.” S.B. Brush sent Mrs. Bormann $528 in gold — the same amount he had paid Schuchard for the cotton. And Mrs. Bormann gave birth to a healthy baby boy, the 10th child of Conrad Bormann.

Today, you can find many descendants of Conrad Bormann’s family intermarried with the other families of the Geronimo area. If you are really interested in the Bormanns, you can visit the Texas Agricultural Education and Heritage Center at 390 Cordova Road and State Highway 123 South. Located on the premises are the Conrad Bormann family kitchen and blacksmith shop as well as son Carl’s home. You can also see Conrad and Heinrich’s original limestone headstone from Oakwood Cemetery on view in the kitchen — they still rest in peace in Austin beneath a new gray granite stone.

Sources: Sophienburg Archives: Bormann and Boenig Family Histories; US Census and Fold3 records; Neu Braunfelser-Zeitung and New Braunfels Herald newspaper collections; The Texas Agricultural Education and Heritage Center; Oakwood Cemetery records; Kerrville Genealogical Society; www.austinmonthly.com; Chas. S Middleton and Son Ranch Sales.

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

So, I’m still in “cigar-mode.” Once begun, research on a subject takes me down many roads, each with their own questions to answer.

For instance, I found out that early New Braunfels had cigar makers. These were not big outfits, but little factories which had one to five individuals who hand-rolled the cigars. While some did grow their own tobacco, most obtained tobacco leaves from Cuba and places in east Texas and Louisiana. It almost goes without saying that most of the makers here in New Braunfels had been trained back in Germany.

As early as 1853, a Mr. Arnold is listed as a local cigar maker in the city. Gustav Conrads set up a cigar factory in 1871, and employed four workers until 1874. Ed Rische, formerly a New Braunfels resident, advertised in 1880 that he had opened a factory in San Antonio and would sell locals (his old friends) his cigars. Gus Mittendorf had been making cigars in his small factory in Comaltown for several years. In 1896, he moved his enterprise out to Austin Hill. Adam von Buchberg reportedly began a cigar factory in 1896 which was still operating in 1902. It is difficult to find information on these early men, but now they are on my radar. Does anyone know of some Hispanic cigar makers?

Carl Schreyer (Schreier) started his cigar making business in 1901. Carl had moved his family to New Braunfels in 1898. He was fond of singing and was a member of the Protestant Church choir and the Echo men’s singing society. He was also in Hermann Sons. His cigars were so good that they won prizes at the Comal County Fair in 1903. The Schreyer cigar factory was located in Comaltown.

Carl also manufactured a special cigar blend for Ed Gruene. “Ed Gruene’s Military Band” brand cigar box featured a photo of the band on the inside of the cigar box lid. Members in the photo were: Director Gruene; Robert Schreyer, brother of cigar maker Carl; Robert Zipp; Alwin Steinbring; Edward Kanz; Harry Eberhardt; Oscar Braunholz; Henry Dierks; Carl Freitag; Richard Nolte; Willie Nuhn; Carl Fehlis; Carl Druebert; Willie Gebhardt, founder of the Gebhardt Chili Co.; Robert Kirmse; Edwin Eberhardt; and drum major Adam von Buchberg, who also made cigars.

The best-known local cigar maker was H.W. Schmidt. He was born at Bünde, Westphalia, in 1866. Schmidt learned cigar making as a young man in Germany before he immigrated alone to America when he was 18 years old. Schmidt moved around mid-America living and making cigars in St. Louis, Denver, and Milwaukee. It was in Milwaukee that a doctor diagnosed him with a heart ailment and told him to move to the Texas Hill Country region. In 1905, H.W. Schmidt moved to New Braunfels with his wife and two daughters. He opened his cigar factory in 1906, featuring his “Comal” and “Colorado” brands. Schmidt sold his cigars to almost all the saloons in downtown New Braunfels and in rural Comal County. His first factory was in the “old Schnabel home on Comal Street.” Later, he moved the factory to “Mrs. Scherff’s recently vacated building on Mill Street.” Schmidt entered his cigars and tobacco in the 1908 Comal County Fair. By 1909, he may have opened another factory in Lockhart. He also bought Ed Kuhfuss’s billiard and pool establishment, “The Smoke House,” at 508 San Antonio St. He promised patrons that the quality of his cigars would never be lacking. His brothers Ernst and Herman joined him in the factory; they are listed along with H.W. as cigar makers in the 1920 US Census.

While H.W. Schmidt sold his own brands of cigars, he also blended custom cigars for many of his patrons. These were boxed under exclusive labels. At least two of these patrons featured their sons’ portraits on the cigar boxes. “Little Dan” cigars were made for saloon owner Otto Reeh who at one time also managed the Phoenix Saloon. “Little Julius” or “Little Schleyer” cigars were made for Ed Schleyer who sold them in his saloon. Julius Schleyer, known as “Judge” Schleyer, was later a prominent local attorney but he was just a small child when his face graced his dad’s exclusive cigar boxes in 1906.

Fischer Store, out near what is now Canyon Lake, bought and sold many H.W. Schmidt’s cigars. Schmidt also shipped his cigars to the community of Comfort and towns in the Hill Country. The New Braunfels Herald even reported that Max Neuse kept himself supplied with Schmidt’s cigars when he went off to World War I. Schmidt cigars were obviously a local favorite for many years.

H.W. Schmidt died from complications following surgery in 1929. Carl Schreyer had died in 1928. With their passing, the era of a good hand-rolled local cigar had come to an end.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum: NB Zeitung and Herald newspaper collections; Family genealogy collections; Oscar Haas; Edna Faust and Marjorie Cook collections.

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman –

Sometimes a little tidbit of information sets me off on a bunny trail. I took one of those trails recently after finding and reading a 1975 letter from Oscar Haas to Mrs. Gregorio Coronado here in New Braunfels. Haas was drawing her attention to the mention of a Mexican boy, Pablo Diaz, in the 1850 Comal County census. That piqued my interest, and I ran down the trail Haas laid out in his letter. It isn’t that I doubt Oscar at all, I just wanted to journey along with him in his research.

Haas told Mrs. Coronado that Pablo had been captured by Comanche who had made a raid over the Rio Grande into “Old Mexico” and carried him with them up to the San Saba River country. He suggested she look at Roemer’s Texas, to find Pablo mentioned. So, I went to Roemer’s and on pages 242-243, I found Roemer describing his travels with John O. Meusebach as he was finalizing the treaty between the German Emigration Company and the Comanche Nation in February 1847.

Roemer said that they met a young blond-haired, blue-eyed, 18-year-old Anglo-American man who dressed and acted as an Indian. Ten years earlier, the blond young man had been captured after his parents were murdered by Comanche near Austin. Roemer goes on to say that the young man “had a little Mexican boy about eight-years-old, who rode behind him on the horse and whom he treated as a slave…he looked half-starved and was shivering in the cold north wind because of his scanty dress. In answer to my question how he had come here, the “Indianized” Anglo-American answered quietly, ‘I caught him on the Rio Grande.’”

Wow. Pablo was with the Comanche when he was eight-years-old.

Next, Haas told Mrs. Coronado that at the treaty conference, Meusebach ransomed Pablo from the Comanche Chief. I did a little digging and found corroboration of this in the Julius Dresel diary in the Sophienburg’s archive collection. The entry in the diary describes a time Dresel was staying on Meusebach’s farm at Comanche Springs:

“The next morning a small Mexican boy, Pablo Diaz, whom Meusebach had ransomed from the Comanches at a peace settlement on the San Saba (north of Llano), showed me how a brown bear on a long chain, could eat an enormous pumpkin which he held in his for paws while balancing on his hind paws. “Wackerlos” (cowardly) and “Schlinge” (Noose), the dogs, barked noisily. — April 18, 1853”

Oscar Haas continued in his letter to tell Mrs. Coronado that Meusebach had taken Pablo to Sisterdale and left him with the Dresel Family. True. Pablo is listed with the names of those in Dresel’s house in the 1850 Comal County census. Sisterdale was in Comal County until 1862; it is now in Kendall County.

Dresel’s diary entry for April 27, 1853, also confirms that Pablo was left in Sisterdale. Dresel says he had taken Pablo “into his quardianship” from Meusebach and that Pablo was put in charge of the milking and butter and cheese making at his farm.

Haas next informed Mrs. Coronado that Julia Dresel taught Pablo to read and write both German and English. I can find no written documentation for this statement. I did find that on Find a Grave it states that on the 1860 Gillespie County census, there is a Pablo or Paulo Diaz living as a servant in the William Marschall household. The Marschall and Meusebach families were joined by marriage so there is a link. I looked up the 1860 Gillespie County census and found a “Paulo” from Mexico listed in the Marschall household. It could be our Pablo, but I am not sure.

When the War Between the States broke out it 1861, Texas voted to secede from the Union. However, many of the Germans of the Texas Hill Country did not identify with the Confederate cause and did not want to fight for it. Some of the men decided to head to Mexico to stay during the war or find a way to get back north and enlist in the Union Army. Oscar Haas told Mrs. Coronado that Pablo joined the 68 young men from around the Fredericksburg-Sisterdale-Comfort area because he “thought it to be a good opportunity to return to Mexico to try to find his relatives. He owned a pony then and a saddle and a rifle, same as all the others.”

Geez…I wish I could find proof of this statement but I can’t. Oscar must have had an oral source from the time.

I do know that the group of men, including Pablo Diaz, started out for Mexico at the beginning of August 1862. On the evening of August 9th, the group set up camp on the banks of the Nueces River. A group of Confederate soldiers had been tracking the Germans and fired on them sometime that night. Twenty-eight men from the German group slipped away during the battle. Nineteen others were dead by morning. Nine more wounded Germans were summarily executed. Another nine were pursued by the Confederate soldiers to the Rio Grande and killed as well. The thirty-seven Germans killed in what became known as “The Battle of the Nueces” or “The Nueces Massacre” included Pablo Diaz. His and the bones of thirty-five others were recovered in 1865 and buried in Comfort. Their names are listed on the Treue der Union Monument, a twenty-foot-tall limestone obelisk erected over their remains.

On Find a Grave, it is also stated, “Although Mexican, he [Pablo] was considered by all to be as “German” and “Unionist” as any of the others.” This is someone’s theory, but I can’t say I don’t think it might be true. After all, young eight-year-old Pablo seems to have been treated with kindness and maybe even with some affection by the Germans who ended up caring for him. I am sure he spoke German. And after around 14 years with them, he had heard their views on everything…including slavery…and most likely agreed with his adopted friends and guardians.

I am absolutely enthralled with this young man’s story. It is one of incredible courage, adaptability and thirst for freedom. RIP Pablo.

Sources: Roemer’s Texas, Dr. Ferdinand Roemer, 1995 edition; John O. Meusebach, Irene Marschall King, 1967; Sophienburg Museum & Archives: Oscar Haas Manuscript Collection, the Dresel Family Manuscript Collection and the Nueces Massacre file.

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

The forty-eighters were refugees of the failed German Revolution of 1848. They were idealists. They fought to establish a liberal and unified Germany using liberty, democracy and unity as their main tenets. The designation “forty-eighter” excludes the hundreds of thousands who emigrated from 1848-1852 for mostly economic reasons. It also does not include political refugees from previous periods of political unrest.

There were as many as 4,000 forty-eighters who came to America. Many of the Forty-eighters were young men in their twenties and thirties willing to risk their future. Many of them came from the southwestern Germanic states, from towns like Baden, Hesse, Wurtemburg, the Palatinate, and the Rhineland. Many were highly educated professionals: journalists, soldiers, physicians, pastors, bankers, engineers, lawyers, innkeepers and merchants. And many were “free-thinkers” or even atheistic in their views.

In the book, The Forty-eighters, edited by A.E. Zucker (1950), eleven professors put together a list of several hundred of these men who fled to America. The list includes six who emigrated to Texas — and interestingly enough, five of them have ties to New Braunfels. Let’s take a look at these guys.

Eduard Degener (1809-1890) was the son of a wealthy banker in Braunschweig. He was privately tutored and studied in England. He ran in aristocratic circles even though he favored liberal, democratic ideals. In his elected government positions, he voted for proposals pushing a German republic. He was a member of the first German National Assembly at Frankfurt in 1848. When the revolution failed, Degener emigrated to Maine and in 1850 he made it to Texas. He lived near New Braunfels, and then in Sisterdale, as a gentleman farmer. Degener was a German Unionist and vocal abolitionist. Two of his sons were in the group of young men who tried to get to the North via ship from Mexico in 1862. Overtaken at the Nueces River by a force of Confederate soldiers, many of the men, including the Degeners, were killed. Eduard was put in prison in San Antonio for several months. After the war, he was a wholesale grocer in San Antonio, elected to two constitutional assemblies in Texas and also served in the Forty-first Congress for two terms. In 1865, Degener, with William Steves and William Heuermann, bought land in Comfort. There, they buried the remains of those massacred at the Nueces and put up the “Treue der Union Monument” in their honor.

Carl Daniel Adolf Douai (1819-1888) was born in Altenburg. He studied at the University of Leipzig, got his doctorate and then travelled to Russia where he became a private tutor. He also married a baroness. From 1846 to 1850, Douai was in and out of prison five times! His revolutionary writings and his experimental school made him a target. Leaving Germany in 1852, he settled in New Braunfels and founded his own school. By 1853, he had become editor of the San Antonio Zeitung in which he advocated the gradual abolishment of slavery. Public outcry against his editorials necessitated the help of the Sam Antonio Turnverein (Athletic Club) to protect his offices. He moved to Boston in 1856. He founded a kindergarten and school but after several years this closed due to his atheistic articles. Moving to New York in 1866, he opened another school and edited a socialist newspaper. Through it he became one of the first to popularize Marxist philosophy in the US. Douai wrote articles on philosophy, German grammar, world history and education, as well as short stories and a novel. He was “a brilliant and courageous writer, unafraid of offending his readers’ opinion.” He was also a musician who composed over 60 songs.

Julius Dressel (1816-1891), born in Geisenheim, Rhineland, was the son of a prosperous wine merchant. He studied history, literature and law in Heidelberg. Julius joined his father’s wine business and promoted Rhenish wines around Europe. The Dresel home welcomed guests with radical political ideologies; Julius soon joined the ranks of these revolutionaries and was present at their major meetings. At the failure of the 1848 Revolution, Julius was exiled and he emigrated to Texas where his brother Gustav was employed by the Adelsverein (The Society for the Protection of German Immigrants) as general agent. He was good friends with Lindheimer and many of the early New Braunfelsers. He bought land in Sisterdale but he first worked the New Braunfels farm of John O. Meusebach. Several years later, he moved out to the Sisterdale property. During the Civil War, his abolitionist leanings caused the Confederates to place him in prison in San Antonio. After release, Julius did business in the city until his brother Emil died in California. He became heir to the estate and moved his family to the Sonoma Valley where he took over his brother’s vineyard until his own death. Dressel wrote and published essays and poems in various journals and newspapers, many dealing with the subject of homesickness for his Vaterland.

Gustav Wilhelm Eisenlohr (1811-1881) was born in Loerrach, Baden. He studied theology in Karlsruhe, Halle and Heidelberg. He became the vicar in Emmendingen. Eisenlohr was very outspoken in his support of the 1848 Revolution. Accused of high treason and imprisoned, Gustav was given the choice of being sentenced or to leave Germany. Fleeing to Switzerland, he then emigrated to America in 1850 with his young son. He first took a pastorate in Richmond, Ohio. Eisenlohr then answered an advertisement for the pastorate of the German Protestant Church in New Braunfels. He was installed by Hermann Seele in 1851. After six years, he accepted a pastorate in Cincinnati. He edited and wrote many poems for the Protestantische Zeitlaetter (newsletter) for 20 years. It was “for the instruction and edification of thinking Christians.” Educated in Greek and Latin, this liberal theologian also translated the poems of Petrarch! Pastor Eisenlohr and his second wife returned to New Braunfels 22 years later to retire. Both he and his wife are buried in Comal Cemetery.

Oskar von Roggenbucke (1811-1883), born in Suhl, Thuringia, was a career soldier who attained the rank of major in the Prussian army. Like many other soldiers, he resigned his commission and joined the forty-eighters. A political refugee, he emigrated and came to Texas in 1854. He and his family stayed six months in New Braunfels before settling on a farm in Comfort. He was also an abolitionist. His two sons refused to become soldiers for the Confederacy. They joined the group of Germans headed for Mexico and were among those slaughtered on the Nueces River. Von Roggenbucke lived in Comfort until his death.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives: Oscar Haas Collection; Dresel Family History; The First Protestant Church Its History and Its People, O. Haas; The Forty-Eighters, A.E. Zucker; A Hundred Years of Comfort in Texas, G. E. Ransleben.

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman –

Tokology. When you read that word, what do you think of? When I came across an old book in the Sophienburg’s collections with this title I was intrigued. If you are like me, you may have thought this book was about “the study of toking” or “a how-to book on smoking pot”. Well, it turns out we would both be wrong. In Greek, tokos means childbirth. Tokology is the study of childbirth, midwifery and obstetrics. Ah!

A couple of years ago, researcher Kathleen A. Huston contacted the museum for information on 19th C. German midwives. Now you might think that particular research subject is strange for us, but it really isn’t. With our vast collections, we help many professors, students and researchers in finding peculiar, off-beat and always interesting information.

Kathleen was in luck. I had recently searched through the Neu Braunfelser Zeitung and other archival collections on midwives. It was midwives who delivered most of the babies in early Texas. There were native-born white midwives, African American “granny midwives”, Hispanic pateras and immigrant midwives from Europe. Ms. Huston had chosen to look into the midwives who were part of the influx of German-speaking immigrants of the 1840s to 1890s.

Prissy’s line in Gone With the Wind, “I don’t know nothin’ ‘bout birthin’ babies,” passed through my mind. Well, it turns out that the German immigrant women in Texas knew plenty.

Kathleen Huston concentrated on three themes in her research. The first is that the German-Texan midwives seemed to view midwifery (I love the way that words sounds!) as a true profession not as “neighbor helping neighbor”. Secondly, that midwife-assisted births were as safe and even safer than physician-attended births. And thirdly, that midwives and doctors cooperated: midwives performing most of the deliveries and doctors called in for difficult or unusual situations.

I had found in the German-language Neu Braunfelser Zeitung, that as early as 1853 (the paper began its run in 1852), two German women were marketing their midwife skills much like other contemporary businessmen. Johanne Bandelow advertised as a nurse and midwife who could be reached at the drugstore of August Forcke. County records also show that Dr. Remer had her testify to the birth and birthdates of NB citizens she had helped deliver. The second woman, Elizabeth Katterle, advertised specifically to reach her rural area around Henderson’s Settlement. This area was settled in 1850, 19 miles northwest of NB on the Guadalupe and was also called Esser’s Crossing or the Guadalupe Valley community.

The 1860 Comal County census showed that two German women, Barbara Alsens and Frederika Pendalon, actually listed their profession as “midwife”. In the following years, Mrs. Madeleine Le Fevre, Mrs. Louis Dillits Leuders, Mrs. Marie Groos Haas and Mrs. Ida Habermann Tolle promoted themselves in the newspaper as midwives. According to Ms. Huston, 65% of all midwives advertising in Texas newspapers between 1850 and 1890 were of German descent.

She speculated that one reason for the prevalence of German-born midwives may have been Germany’s strong traditions of midwifery as an acknowledged profession. By 1456, the town of Frankfurt was hiring midwives as city employees. Schools for the study of midwifery were created and funded by several German towns. Many books on obstetrics and midwifery were published in German and were authored by German women. The Tokology book (1885), was written by Dr. Alice B Stockam specifically for women to give them knowledge about issues related to childbirth and women’s health. This book became a huge success, reprinted over forty-five times with hundreds of thousands of copies sold over the years.

In “Reflections” #237, Edna Voigt gave her oral history which included stories of her grandmother, Teresa Schlather Guenther. Mrs. Guenther was a well-known midwife who assisted the births of many in Sattler, Spring Branch, Smithson’s Valley, Hancock, Fischer and Wimberley. Mrs. Voigt remembers that her grandmother was in such demand in the days of large families, that she was seldom ever at home. People would come and take her to stay with them through labor, delivery and the “lying in” period that followed. Mrs. Guenther practiced midwifery from around 1910 to 1925.

Midwifery fell out of fashion during the 1940s as hospital births were pushed as a more sterile and safe location, but these early women were an integral part of Texas history. More than just “helping out a neighbor”, they saw midwifery as a calling of immense importance. They sacrificed their own family life in order to spend long periods of time to help the new mothers around them — and they were much less expensive than a doctor. For the poor, this access to quality assistance in birthing was a God-send.

You may be a descendant of one of these remarkable women. Spurred on by Kathleen Huston, I have begun a database on Comal County midwives and their biographical information. The list, including those mentioned above, includes the following women up until the 1940s: Mrs. A. Floege (1902-1905), Mrs. Berrison (1900-1909), Mrs. Elizabeth Vecker (1917-1920) (I bet she was busy after WWI!), Mrs. Rosa Sieber (1922), Mrs. Francisca Sanchez (1920s), Mrs. Elisa Phillip (1920s) and Mrs. Josefa Sirio (1930-1940s).

Also included on the list is Mrs. Lina Chapa Delgado who was a midwife from 1931 to 1971 — forty years! Lina worked together with the county nurse and local doctors to provide trusted, skilled and conscientious care especially to the growing Hispanic community within Comal County. She assisted in over 1,600 births including four sets of twins.

If you have any information on these or other local midwives from New Braunfels’ history, please call me at the Sophienburg, 830.629-1572, or email to: museumom4@yahoo.com.

Sources: “German Midwives of Nineteenth Century Texas” by Kathleen A. Huston, 2019; Sophienburg Museum & Archives collections: Neu Braunfelser Zeitung, New Braunfels Herald, “Reflections” programs #2 and #237, Rare Books Library, Oscar Haas collections; https://medicine.iu.edu/blogs/medical-library/Historical-Book-of-the-week — Tokology

Photo Caption: Lina Chapa Delgado helping her granddaughter Michelle Ortiz listen to her heartbeat in January 1973. On the table are instruments given to Mrs. Delgado by Dr. Hylmar Karbach, Sr., a book on obstetrics from Dr. Frederick Casto and records of some of her 1,600+ deliveries. (New Braunfels Herald negative collection, Feb 1, 1973)

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

After this past week’s historic Arctic storms Uri and Viola had us in winter lockdown, I jumped at the chance to go driving through the Comal countryside under the clear blue skies. It wasn’t just the sunshine and 70-degree temperatures that were so inviting. It was our history on display all across the county. Did you know that our beautiful Comal County is officially 175 years old this year? The Texas Legislature formed Comal County in 1846. Comal, Spanish for “flat dish”, perhaps so named due to the flat islands in the river near the springs or shallow river basin, lent its name to the newly formed county. Let’s take a look at what the early immigrants outside New Braunfels.

In our last article, I wrote about the historic Freiheit Store and Freiheit Bowling Club in the southeast corner of the county. Using that as our starting point, we can travel down I-35, basically along the edge of the Comal/Guadalupe line, to the southwest corner of the county. Hidden just off of I-35 on FM 482 is the community known early on by several names: “Eight-Miles” and “Seven Miles Creek” (as it as located seven or eight miles from New Braunfels) and Comal, Texas. The families that settled the community were first generation immigrants from Germany who arrived aboard the first group of ships carrying prospective immigrant settlers to Texas. By the 1870s, Comal citizens formed a church and built a one-room log schoolhouse on land donated by Ignatz Wenzel. By the 1900s, the community grew to include a general store, cotton gin, corn-shelling operation and community hall. A brick Catholic Church, St. Joseph’s Chapel, was built in 1905 that still stands today. Plus, any blossoming genealogist would want to know about the St. Joseph Cemetery (if you have family from out there). There are two historical markers detailing the stories of the Comal Settlement and St. Joseph’s Chapel, one of which is by the City of Schertz.

The next place I want to point out is way up on the northern part of Comal County, located 19 miles northwest of New Braunfels on present-day Farm to Market 311 near Highway 281. The area was called Esser’s Crossing. Community survival depended on being able to move harvested crops to market, as well as getting supplies. Crossing rivers with a loaded wagon was not an easy thing to do. Natural shallow rock crossings were sought out and way-stations sprang up along these routes. Hill country rivers were prone to flooding, so they needed to have something seldom affected by the high waters. After evaluating several nearby crossings, the bridge was built at Esser’s Crossing in 1904. The wrought iron, wooden wagon bridge construction was comprised of two main spans knows as Pratt truss spans, flanked by two smaller spans. The Whipple truss style bridge design was popular in the mid-to-late 19th century. The 1904 Esser’s Crossing bridge was the first/only high water crossing of the Guadalupe River between San Antonio, Spring Branch, Blanco/Fredericksburg. Under highwater conditions before the bridge was built, travelers would have to go out of their way to come into town to cross the Guadalupe. That is 30 miles difference one way on our current road system. I cannot imagine how long it would take, with a wagon on dusty, old, windy roads.

The bridge was only the second high water bridge built in Comal County (behind Faust Street), lasting until 1974 when it was removed and replaced. Near to the bridge, a post office popped up and was called Wesson, TX. You can read the markers there.

The last destination for today’s article is in the northeast corner of Comal County, where we find a treasure trove of history: Fischer, Texas. Not only do they have markers, the Fischer Historic District is listed in the national register of historic places. The Fischer Historical District consists of a store, hall, and period houses. The 1902 Fischer Store is located at 4040 FM 484 in Fischer. It is the third structure to serve as the mercantile establishment with that name originally started by Hermann Fischer Sr. in 1866. He and his brother, Otto, settled the northern part of Comal County in 1853 after previously farming in Geronimo, Texas. They both had their part in developing this area of Texas and building the community today called Fischer, Texas. The Fischer Agricultural Society was formed to promote agriculture and animal husbandry and to acquaint families in the area through social activities, like dances. In 1897, Otto Fischer gave a portion of his property to the Society to construct a hall for the Society meetings and activities, including dances. The store is now a museum, opened at limited times, but the marker is out front for all to read.

These are just a few of the notable historical treasures of our county. You can read more about the town of Comal, the Agricultural Society of Fischer and Esser’s Crossing and the rest of Comal County in Around the Sophienburg by Myra Lee Goff ; Bridging Spring Branch by Brenda Anderson-Lindemann or Hill Country Backroads by Laurie E. Jasinsky, all of which are available at Sophie’s Shop inside the Sophienburg Museum & Archives (online sales www.sophienburg.com). Or, you can create your own Comal Backroad Bingo by finding and checking off the historical markers listed on the Comal County Historical Commission website while driving, cycling or running the roadways of Comal County. Bingo!

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives; Around the Sophienburg by Myra Lee Goff; Comal County Historical Commission.

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