Photo Caption: H.W. Schmidt cigar box with circa 1845 cigar cutter and meerschaum cigar holder.

A good smoke was a hometown cigar

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

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Jardin de las almas

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — How we honor our dead says a lot about who we are. It embodies what we believe and how we live and die. For Hispanic Heritage Month, the Sophienburg Museum and West Side Community Center and Library have partnered to focus on where local Hispanic

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Older than Gruene Hall

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — I love driving the streets of downtown New Braunfels on a crisp, clear October morning. My favorite streets are the those laid out by Nickolaus Zink and the streets of Comaltown/Braunfels. Some of the oldest buildings in Comal County are located along these streets. As

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Queen of the night

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — I don’t have a green thumb or even a brown one. My thumbs are most definitely black when it comes to growing plants. However, I have somehow managed to sustain the life of a Night Blooming Cereus. This unusual cactus has blessed me by blooming

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Let’s talk chili!

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — An English-language advertisement in the German-language Neu Braunfelser Zeitung caught my eye: Mexican Restaurant Seguin Street — New Braunfels Meals at all times during the day for 25¢ Chili con carne, frieholes, tomales, fresh oysters, hot coffee and chocolate Cruz Gonzales That might sound pretty

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Snake tales

Keva Hoffmann Boardman — Texas is the perfect environment for many creatures. One of them is snakes, and here in central Texas we have poisonous ones: copperheads, coral snakes, cottonmouths (water moccasins) and rattlesnakes. Early Comal Countians were very familiar with our slithering neighbors. The NB Zeitung records many encounters

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“He Got the Drop on Waldrip”

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — I found this story by Louis B. Engelke in the Sunday, January 3, 1954, edition of the San Antonio Light. It’s the story of Henry Langerhans and the part he played in the demise of Capt. J.P. Waldrip. It is really too good not to

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Heroes and history

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Kids of all ages gravitate to superheroes. I come from a time when the superhero list was relatively short: Superman, Mighty Mouse and Sky King. My favorite was Sky King, of course. But my real heroes — the ones I pretended to be in the

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Naegelin’s Bakery still baking

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Let’s talk bread – white bread, rye bread, pumpernickel and even a variety of different yeast breads that are sweet. All these goodies come out of the oldest continuous bakery in town, Naegelin’s Bakery. Zuschlag In early, early, early New Braunfels, the bread that was

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Sts. Peter and Paul church family relations go back generations

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Prince Carl, on behalf of the Adelsverein, was given the responsibility of establishing two churches in the new settlement of New Braunfels, one Protestant and one Catholic. They were to be established at the same time, but that didn’t happen. Prince Carl engaged Rev. Louis

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