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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Do you know where the Klappenbach House is located? From Landa St., turn onto Fredericksburg Rd. and go straight until you get to a hill, Klappenbach Hill. The house on the left is the Klappenbach property. The story of the Klappenbach family is indeed interesting.

The story begins in Sorenbohm, Germany, where in the 1820’s, Johann Heinrich Voelcker was called to be an evangelical Lutheran preacher. He was married to Caroline Wilhelmine Wirth and they had four children, Friedrich, Julius, Franciska, and Eugen Voelcker. In1834 their oldest son, Friedrich, died and then two years later Rev. Voelcker died, possibly of smallpox from parishioners he was tending. The young mother was left alone with three children. She moved to Anklam, a seaport town in far North Germany near the Baltic Sea. Here she eventually married Georg Jochim Jacob Friedrich A. Klappenbach.

Klappenbach, born in 1810 in Lenzen, had studied “Legal Science” at the University of Griefswald. While there he joined a radical reform protest movement, was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison. A year passed and his sentence was commuted. Friends who were in this movement said that Georg was nicknamed “Rebell” and the group was a democratic reform group that met at a pub to drink beer and make speeches. This movement eventually led to the later revolution of 1848 in Germany.

After his arrest, Georg moved to Anklam. He took several municipal jobs. Apparently the political situation was in chaos because the mayor’s position was perpetually vacant. Klappenbach ran for mayor and won, but that didn’t end the discord.

Now here’s a familiar name: John O. Meusebach (as he was later called in Texas) was called on to help sort out the reforms in Anklam and a bond grew between the two men. This friendship ultimately led to Klappenbach’s coming to Texas.

In Anklam Klappenbach married the widow Voelcker, and together they produced a child, Rosa, born in 1840 who died in 1842. Another child, Bruno, was born in 1845.

The Klappenbachs were familiar with the fact that Meusebach emigrated to Texas and Julius Voelcker, Caroline’s oldest living son, emigrated first. Meanwhile the Adelsverein contacted Georg offering him free passage and land in New Braunfels if he would come as an assistant to John Meusebach. He accepted the offer in 1846 and the family pulled up stakes and moved to Texas.

Although Klappenbach received the traditional half acre lot in town (on the corner of Seguin Ave. and Garden St.) he also claimed 50 more acres. This property was bounded by Landa St., which was then called County Road, up Fredericksburg Rd., adjacent to the Balcones Escarpment, and down Parkview Blvd.

On this property in 1846 the Klappenbachs buried Caroline’s child, Franciska Voelcker, 22 years of age. Dr. Ferdinand Roemer describes the funeral in this manner: “According to a North American custom in the rural districts, all people in the funeral procession were mounted (on horses) which appeared unusual ….” The burial was on the property of the stepfather, beside the springs of the Comal, in view of the river and shaded by forest trees.

Stepson Eugen Voelcker constructed the dog-trot style homestead for the Klappenbachs near the springs. He had been trained in carpentry and home building in Anklam. Three feet thick walls of native fieldstone rubble with mortar made of caliche and straw were then covered with stucco. The roof is supported by two unjointed cypress beams the length of the house. The floors are cedar.

Klappenbach farmed and ranched on this property. He used the “GK” brand. He didn’t give up his interest in politics, being elected mayor in 1851 and then on the school board of the NB Academy. He was elected chief justice of Comal County in 1861.

Carl and Augusta Buehler bought the property from Klappenbach in 1881. It was Buehler that terraced the property next to the hill below the house. Buehler was known for his horticulture and the soil was so rich, and the area so perfect for growing fruits and vegetables, that even today many plants spring forth on their own – herbs such as horehound and mustang grapevines.

The most unusual trees are the anaqua trees. They are an old variety that grow close to water (aqua is water). There are many in Landa Park. About this time of year these trees are covered with tiny fragrant flowers that soon turn into berries. Indians concocted a dried food call pemmican. The berries of the anaqua were mixed with dried venison and made into paste for easy carriage.

Buehler’s grandson, Edward Penshorn, took ownership of the farm and then Melvin and Juanita Johnson bought it in the 1930’s. Finally the present owners, Tim and Elisabet Barker, bought the remaining 3 1/2 acres in 1984. Barker is a Master Gardener who grows magnificent flowers on the five terraces. Two small historic buildings have been moved on to the property blending in with the historic dog-trot house still in existence.

Much of the information for this article column has been collected from the Sophienburg Archives. There is a collection of about 450 family books, one of which is “Fink, Voelcker, and Klappenbach Families” by Albert Henry Fink. These family books are a real plus for researchers!

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A month from this day on March 21, New Braunfels will once again observe Founder’s Day. It was the year 1845 when the first emigrants crossed over the Guadalupe River and made their way into what would become their new homeland. Germany was left far behind. The vast majority of those that crossed that day and became the first settlers of the town had never seen Texas before landing in November of 1844. Some that joined Prince Carl on the coast had been in Texas for quite a while.

Four of the more well-known immigrants who had been in Texas a decade or more were Ferdinand Lindheimer, Louis Ervendberg, George Ullrich, and Friedrich von Wrede. Johann Rahm and Daniel Murchison had been with Jack Hays’ Ranger group in San Antonio when they joined the Adelsverein. They all joined the Adelsverein at the coast and came with that first group of settlers.

Not very well-known was Daniel Murchison. He was born in North Carolina in 1809 and arrived in Texas in 1832. He was a soldier in the War for Texas Independence and received many land grants for military service and for surveying for the Republic. Murchison had a town lot in the fledgling town of Austin and in 1840 he joined Capt. Jack Coffee Hays’ Spy Company. Brave men were the only protection on the Texas frontier and these groups of men were called “ranging companies” or also called “spy companies”.  Organized groups would later be called Texas Rangers.

Daniel Murchison was with Jack Hays in San Antonio when he met Prince Carl. He joined the militia of Prince Carl that was organized to accompany the emigrants in their trek inland as well as to protect them while they were in the new settlement. He accompanied the group and was given land.

After Meusebach took Prince Carl’s place, he disbanded the militia and organized another company with Lt. Murchison as leader. Rudolph Biesele in “The History of the German Settlements in Texas, 1831-1861” states that Meusebach left New Braunfels looking to establish a settlement due to additional emigrants on the way. Meusebach found a tract of land north of the Pedernales River about 80 miles from New Braunfels.  Meusebach organized a surveying party of 36 men equipped with wagons, tools, provisions and guns under the command of Lieutenants Bene, Groos and Murchison. They were to lay out a wagon road from New Braunfels to the new settlement. After the surveying expedition returned to New Braunfels, preparations were made to send the first settlers to what would become Fredericksburg.

In 1850 Daniel Murchison married immigrant Wilhelmina Holzgrefe from Hannover.  The 1860 census lists Daniel, 47, and wife Wilhelmina, 27, five children and two Holzsgrefe relatives living with them .He was politically involved in the community and served in the Texas Legislature in 1866 where he was on the initial committee to revise the state constitution.

In the old section of the Comal Cemetery is a lot with two identical obelisks, one for Daniel Murchison who died Feb. 22, 1867, and the other for his widow. After Murchison died, his wife, children and servant Hugh McCrainey moved to the Murchison’s ranch in Llano County. Six years later, Mrs. Murchison died and was buried at her husband’s side. The young children were then raised by the servant McCrainey.

Texans who emigrated independently of the Adelsverein like Murchison and others should be remembered as we once again observe Founder’s Day.  And let’s give Prince Carl credit for having the foresight to invite them.Comal County Deed Records show Murchison’s name many times as the agent for land owners who were selling lots in Braunfels and Comaltown, across the Comal River from New Braunfels. An agreement between land owner Rafael Garza and land agent Murchison stated that Murchison was to sell lots between the Comal Springs and the Guadalupe rivers (Comaltown and adjoining land) for fifteen percent of what he could get for the lots, and to “prevent the cutting of timber of said land and to prosecute trespassers on the same”. The 1881 map by Augustus Koch shows that the present Central St. was formerly named Murchison St. That street was stemmed off by the building of the railroad track.

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg — 

I watch rooftops multiply daily as I look out from our house of more than 30 years. I will not lie. It is distressing. It truly makes me appreciate the beautiful well-built 100-plus-year-old buildings that grace our city. Being a native, I often wonder what has become of the many others that no longer stand in their places.

In the mid-’60s, there was a young dentist who officed in a little house on Comal Avenue. It was the cutest little two-or-three-room house, gray with a red tin roof and red window trim. That dentist was Dr. Kahler. While he was away studying orthodontics, Dr. Hubert Risinger occupied his office. Dr. Risinger was my dentist for a short time.

The cute little house was originally owned by the Heinrich Scholl family. The Scholls, consisting of Heinrich Scholl and wife Anna Marie Saenger Scholl, along with their three children, Heinrich Jr., Adam and Caroline, set out for Texas from their home in Dillenburg, Nassau, Germany, with other immigrants through the Adelsverein. Upon arriving in Indianola, tragedy struck the Scholl family. Heinrich Sr. went hunting in a boat, fell out and drowned.

His wife and her three children continued to New Braunfels. The family worked hard to survive. The boys, Heinrich Jr. and Adam, learned carpentry and the mother kept boarders. Adam and Heinrich made the windows and doors used in building houses, which became an outstanding business. At one time, they worked for Dr. Koester in a mill. Later they made chairs and tables of walnut and cedar. The Scholl brothers also built houses and built them well.

Shortly after the Scholls reached New Braunfels, the Mexican American war broke out creating trouble for those in the young German settlement. Some men enlisted in the American Army while others were not interested in war. They had left Germany to escape mandatory military service. According to Scholl family historians, Heinrich Jr, Adam and a few other men of their age decided they would hide in hollow trees down on the Comal River to escape the soldiers who were rounding up men to fight.

The Scholl home was not far from the river, so Adam, being the bravest or the hungriest, decided he would venture out of hiding to go home for food. Adam dressed as a woman with a big sunbonnet on. About the time he got in the house, a soldier knocked at the door. He told Caroline Scholl he had seen a suspicious character come into her house. In the meantime, she had shoved her brother Adam under her bed where there was a trap door to the cellar. She denied seeing anyone, telling the soldier that there was no one else there. Adam, thinking the soldier had left, peeped from out from under the bed. Caroline quickly shoved him back with her foot and the soldier was none the wiser.

Heinrich Scholl, Jr. married twice. His first marriage was to Johanna Schmidt, which produced five children. After her death, he married Louise Schneider. They had nine children including two sets of twins. Heinrich became a well-known cabinet maker in New Braunfels and eventually lived in the house across the street from the original home. He died in 1909 at the age of 81.

The old original Scholl home ca.1846 is now near 179 years old. It is solidly built and still standing, even though not in its original place. It is a unique house in that it utilizes two different kinds of fachwerk. In the front wall of the house, builders used “rammed earth” fachwerk . That is much like pouring a curb today. Forms are set up and then mud is poured in between to fill the space. The mud is ‘rammed” with a long pole to remove any air pockets. Once the mud dries/hardens, the forms are removed, and plaster is applied to both sides to make a smooth wall.

The other three walls are made of mud brick. In Germany, they used fired brick. Here in Texas, they made bricks of mud and straw in brick molds, then air dried them before putting them in between the timbers. Once the dry bricks complete the walls, cedar shingles were placed on the exterior to prevent erosion. Inside the home, they used original Bastrop pine for both the floors and ceilings. It was originally built over a wonderful root cellar, which must have served as a good hiding place. The roof was of cedar shingles. In 1867, the city of New Braunfels passed an ordinance requiring all roofs to be fireproofed for insurance purposes, so tin was simply nailed over the shingles. In 1881, 90 percent of New Braunfels’ structures were fachwerk. Now, 95 percent of them are gone.

By the mid-1960s, the porch of the little house had been closed in to make another room. More windows were added. The exterior of the entire building was wrapped in wood shiplap siding. The little house changed hands over the years with room additions made. Wayne and Toni Peters purchased it in 1987 to use as a summer home. When they completed their rock home behind it in 1999, they graciously donated the little fachwerk house to the New Braunfels Conservation Society.

In its new place among the other architectural treasures, it serves as the office for New Braunfels Conservation Society Old Towne. The Scholl Peters house has been returned to near its original state with the “rammed earth” fachwerk and mud bricks still visible thru Plexiglas windows on the walls. The little house that I thought had “gone missing” was indeed hiding in plain sight all along. When buildings disappear, our history connection disappears. It makes me happy to see the Scholl house and history being cared for.

Do you know of any hidden fachwerk buildings?

Sources: New Braunfels Conservation Society; Sophienburg Museum and Archives; Betty Stratemann.

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

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

Last week I took on the challenge of finding out about City Lot 89. It is located on the corner of South Seguin Avenue and Coll Street, across from the First Protestant Church. We know it today as the location of Johnson Furniture Co and their lovely, landscaped corner.

This prime real estate was first drawn by lot from the Adelsverein’s land grant by Aloys Rosser in 1848. Rosser sold it to Jacob Winkler in 1850, who quickly flipped it to H. Bevenroth. By 1854, Bevenroth’s estate had sold Lot 89 to Charles Rossy and his wife, and they sold it to Carl Floege. Six owners in six years — I’m guessing that maybe they wanted farmland not city property or perhaps saw a quick way to make some cash.

Carl Floege, a cabinetmaker by trade, immigrated to Texas in 1849. After obtaining Lot 89 in 1854, he built a home and his first general store on the property. He built a much larger, two-story business on Main Plaza (location of Utilities building) and a larger home off Market Plaza. Impressive! More impressive, he used his carpentry skills and know-how to build the first low-water bridge over the Comal at West San Antonio Street (1856), the Torrey Mill bridge on the Comal at Bridge Street (1867) and a new high-water bridge over the Comal (1873) at the location of his former low-water bridge after it had washed away.

Mr. Floege also used his trade to work on the first Comal County Courthouse (1856), a new 66-foot river ferryboat (1859), add rooms to the New Braunfels Academy (1867), deal with city streets and drainage issues (1873-1874), and build numerous stores and homes. Carl could truthfully say he built a lot of old New Braunfels with his two hands.

Carl Floege sold Lot 89 to Rudolph DuMenil in 1858, after the completion of his larger store and home. DuMenil had emigrated from Germany in 1850, and first lived in Hortontown where he ran a meat market for about eight years. In 1858, he moved into the old Floege home and set up his own general merchandising business in the old Floege Store. DuMenil literally sold everything but the kitchen sink — Hungarian grass, bois d’arc saplings for living fence lines, whiskey and brandy, clothing, dry goods, lead and percussion caps, hardware, tobacco products, paint, stoves and kitchenware. Maybe he did sell the sink! Rudolph also sold an ambulance, pianos and did freighting as well as being involved in local education as a trustee at the New Braunfels Academy.

In 1875, DuMenil auctioned off his store inventory and rented the store building to Carl Floege’s son Herman to use as a wagon business. When Herman Floege moved his business elsewhere in 1881, the store was rented to Homans Saddlery/Leather shop.

Lot 89, with the old Floege home and store, was sold by the DuMenils to Cuno “C.J.” Ludewig in 1902. Mr. Ludewig and his brothers had started a furniture business in 1887 at the location of the old Krueger Chevrolet building (across from Granzin Bar-B-Q). C. J. Ludewig took over the business from his brothers and moved it to the Seguin Street property in 1905. The family lived in the old home and ran the furniture company out of the DuMenil store. In 1929, a new “modern” brick building was built next to the old DuMenil store. It had the first elevator in any building in New Braunfels. Almost 3,500 townspeople attended the new store opening event where souvenir ashtrays featuring Charles Lindbergh’s face were distributed. The building was just one of several “modern” buildings built just prior to the market crash of 1929: Travelers Hotel (Faust) 1927, Comal Power Plant (Landmark) 1926, Greyhound Bus Station (Celebrations) 1929, Booker T. Washington School 1929, and the old City Hall 1929, to name a few.

All three of Ludewig’s sons helped in the store. Local competitors included Jahn Furniture Co., Lack’s Furniture & Automotive, and Starke’s Furniture in Seguin. Ludewig’s sold all kinds of high-quality manufactured furniture that included kitchen, living and bedroom pieces. To promote their company, C.J.’s son, Monroe F. “Fatty” Ludewig, began giving out “little Lane cedar chests” to graduating senior girls in New Braunfels. I still have mine!

When the Ludewig fam­ily de­cided to get out of the busi­ness, they leased the 1929 fur­ni­ture build­ing and the old Du­Me­nil store to Wal­lace and Dorothy John­son in 1966, who con­tin­ued to run the busi­ness un­der the name John­son Fur­ni­ture Co. In 1972, the John­sons bought the prop­erty out­right. In 1984, the old Du­Me­nil Store was sold and moved to Gruene (Hunter Junc­tion) where it sur­vives.

Wal­lace and Dorothy’s daugh­ter Carol pur­chased the prop­erty from her par­ents in 1989 and runs the John­son Fur­ni­ture store to­day. She con­tin­ues the legacy of pro­vid­ing qual­ity fur­ni­ture and decor to New Braun­fels cit­i­zens that be­gan on Lot 89 over 120 years ago.

If you have never been in­side this his­toric fam­ily busi­ness, you have a chance to prac­tice yoga in it on Thurs­day, Oc­to­ber 10, 2024, from 5:30–7 p.m. The $15 fee ben­e­fits the So­phien­burg Mu­seum & Archives. Fol­low­ing prac­tice, a bev­er­age and his­tory talk will let you ex­plore the build­ing.

If you are not into yoga, drop by the store, say hello and check out all the good stuff. Carol’s got a chair, bed or table that is bound to have your name on it.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives: Ludewig, Floege and DuMenil family histories; Reflections program #918-Monroe C. Ludewig; New Braunfels Herald and Neu Braunfelser Herald newspaper collections.

“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 —

New Braunfels historians have told us that the first immigrants arrived with very little in the way of belongings. And, unlike today’s new arrivals in New Braunfels, our founding ancestors had a lot to do before settling into a house. They had to secure materials (chop trees for lumber, make mud bricks, cut stone) to be able to build their own places to live. We are very fortunate to live in a place where so many of those early homes still exist. One of my favorites stands on a lot at 212 W. Austin Street in Comaltown, exactly where it has stood for over 150 years.

The story? It begins with people making life-changing decisions to build a new life, sell everything, move across the Atlantic Ocean and settle on the Fisher Miller Grant in the Republic of Texas. Like many, that is exactly what Johann Georg Moeller did.

Georg Moeller left Bremen aboard the ship Weser, arranged by Henry Fisher for the San Saba Colonization Company, in May of 1844. Once he arrived in Galveston in July 1844, he learned that the Fisher & Miller land grant had never materialized. He was stuck along with several others from his hometown of Michelsrombach, Hesse. Moeller did eventually end up in New Braunfels in late 1845.

Meanwhile, on similar track, Johann Peter Hoffmann boarded the Garrone, arranged by the Adelsverein, with his wife and children. They arrived in Galveston in December of 1844 and finally reached New Braunfels with the First Founders. Mr. Hoffmann died shortly thereafter, leaving Elizabeth Hoffmann to fend for herself and her two children, Charlotta and Alex. (Soap operas got nothing on true history!).

So fast forward to 1848, when Georg Moeller and widow Elizabeth Hoffmann married. Their instant family of four eventually totaled seven with the addition of twin sons, Franz and Johann, in 1849 and Louis in 1852.

The Moellers settled in Comaltown. At one time, they owned/farmed most of the Landa Estates area. Georg Moeller began building my favorite limestone house in 1859. He built it all by himself. The beautiful two-story is constructed of hand-cut hard limestone that was quarried locally. All the walls are constructed of hard limestone, cut into squares and rectangles with stone lintels across the top of each window.

The wood beams and roof rafters are of hand-hewn cedar logs and the floors are hand-hewn cypress planks. Although the outside walls are perfectly square and the floors and ceilings are perfectly level, there are no two rooms the same size, no two walls the same thickness and no two rooms with the same size floorboards. The walls range from 8 to 18 inches in thickness. The original house had two staircases: one leading to the basement, the other to the second floor. Each wood tread of the steps going upstairs is smoothly fitted into grooves in the supporting side boards. No nails were used. The stairs to the basement are solid rock. It is truly amazing that no cement was used to put the stones together. In some places, it is said to be plain black dirt mixed with straw; and in others, a mortar made of sand and lime was used.

The limestone house, begun in 1859, took 6 years to build. The family lived in a modest home where Our Lady of Perpetual Help is now located while their limestone home was being built. It was finally completed in 1866. Sadly, Johann Georg Moeller died in 1867, just weeks after the family moved into the new home.

In 1881, ownership of the house changed. Okay, this is where it gets sticky. Pay attention to the “OE” and “UE” here. The home was sold by the Johann Georg M”oe”ller family to Johannes M”ue”ller, known as “Mueller-Hanas” in 1881. He owned a freight company. Mueller-Hanas was a very interesting guy, but I will save that for another day. He raised his family in the home. Johannes Mueller died in 1908 followed by his wife in 1909. Oddly enough, Emma, daughter of Johannes Mueller, married Henry Moeller, the grandson of Johann Georg Moeller.

In 1910, the home was sold to Mr. & Mrs. Albert Nowotny. Their son Jerome, who was born in the home, bought it in 1947. He eventually built a very successful tourist attraction/restaurant around it — Bavarian Village. By coincidence, Jerome Nowotny’s son, Lionel, married Mary Lou Mueller, a great-granddaughter of Johannes Mueller, second owner of the house. The Moeller House is now owned by Schlitterbahn Waterparks/Cedar Fair.

There were many descendants of the Moellers in the area and many were builders. Most of the structures are still standing as they are very well built like the Moeller House. The following is a list just to name a few: Garden Street Bridge, Mission Valley Mill Dam, Old Fire Station, Richter Buildings, Wagenfuehr House, Celebrations, Comal Flower Shop, The Black Whale Saloon, Lamar School, Seele Parish House, Johnson Furniture, Main Plaza Gazebo, Gerlich Home (Borchers Office), Fischer House (next to the Civic Center), Corner Coffee Shop, Old New Braunfels High School, Citizens Ice House (Conway’s), numerous curbs and sidewalks, and hundreds of homes in the area and surrounding counties. They truly lived well-built lives.

The Moeller House became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1970; however, at some point the marker was removed. A new marker was sponsored by a Johann Georg Moeller descendant, Myra Lee Adams Goff.

The Moeller House Marker Rededication ceremony will take place Sunday, March 3, 4:00 p.m. at 212 W. Austin Street. The public is invited.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives; Comal County Historical Commission.

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

A Princely Estate — We learn that Maj Leland of New York, has settled among us, having purchased the Comal Ranch of Col. Sparks, fronting the Guadalupe River 9 miles, and laying 22 miles west of New Braunfels … all one body of some ten thousand acres with improvements thereon, and some 640 acres under fence near Mr. G.W. Kendall’s celebrated sheep farm. In his purchase of stock from Col. Sparks, there are some 3000 sheep, 750 head of cattle, 250 head of horses and mules, working oxen, a Maltese jack, two Bramah bulls and the celebrated race horse, Hockaway, and also 1000 hogs, goats, etc … amounting to $106,700, the largest sale ever made in Texas of any stock farm.” — The True Issue (LaGrange) Feb 22, 1859.

Wow. So many questions. Where was this? Who was Col. Sparks? Who was Maj. Leland? Why have I not heard of this enormous ranch?

Oscar Haas apparently had the same questions, because piece-by-piece he collected information from the older generation. Piece-by-piece a mental image has started to come together in my head.

First, where was it? The article said, “fronting nine miles on the Guadalupe … 22 miles west of New Braunfels” and another description adds “about 30 miles nearly north of San Antonio”. This puts us in the Spring Branch area. Bridging Spring Branch and Western Comal County, Texas, by Brenda Anderson-Lindemann, is an exhaustive history of the early German settlers of that area. However, there are only a few references to Comal Ranch, one being that “the Comal Ranch, a Confederate Post about a mile from Spring Branch” became the area post office with William DeForest Holly as postmaster in 1861 and Col. Charles Power from 1862-1865. Knowing these names, Mr. Haas delved into early land records. If you have never read original land grants/deeds, let me tell you, it is not easy.

The news article of Feb 1859 gave the names Col. Sparks and Maj. Leland. Found very little on Daniel P. Sparks. He was originally from South Carolina and served in the US Army in 1812 (yes, that war). In 1857, he moved his family to Louisiana and then to Indianola, Texas. Don’t know how he got to Comal County but after he died in 1867 on a trip to New Orleans, his will was probated in Comal County. According to the above news article, he sold the expansive Rancho Comal to Maj. Leland in 1859.

Maj. William W. Leland was from a well-known family of New York hotel proprietors. In 1849 at age 28, he headed to California for 10 years. After that, he owned a hotel in New York for several years and then did a salvage project in Russia. He took the remains of his fortune and purchased the Comal Ranch, in 1859, to go into stock raising on a grand scale. In a May 1859 issue of the NB Zeitung, Maj. Leland advertised the service of several fine stallions for $25-$75 and the sale of merino rams from Vermont for $100-$500. He was fairly successful, but the project was doomed by the coming of the Civil War. Maj. Leland was elected to the Texas Convention on Secession as a delegate from Karnes County. He strongly opposed secession and spoke out defending the Union. He was given two hours to leave the State, his property was confiscated, and he went back to New York financially ruined. He joined the Union Army and after the war got into the hotel business again.

The Rancho Comal was next owned by William DeForest Holly and Danville Leadbetter. In 1860, DeForest Holly conveyed half of the following tracts of land for $19,375 to Danville Leadbetter: 431 acres of the (1851) James Henderson Survey north of the river; 50 acres known as the Foster Place on Spring Branch Creek; 960 acres of (1846) John Angel Survey; 1280 acres of the (1846) James Henderson Survey; 1600 acres of three (1846) Gordon C. Jennings Surveys; 580 acres of the (1848) James Webb Survey; and 640 acres of the (1848) James W. Luckett Survey. You can see these land grants on the map.

DeForest Holly was made Confederate postmaster of the Comal Ranch/Spring Branch area in 1861, but in 1862, the Comal Ranch was sold to Col. Charles Power … 5324 acres for $19,543.44. The ranch came with: a caballado of 322 horses; 350 head of stock cattle; 50 beef cattle; 2000 sheep; 40 bucks; one Brahmin bull; 3 stallion horses named Belchazer, Scott Morgan and Hockaway; 5 yokes of oxen; 1 ox wagon; hogs and goats.

In 1869, an incident at Rancho Comal made the NB Zeitung. A young black girl was living with a Mexican family named Rodriguez. She was molested by a black man called “Crazy Gus’. Mr. Rodriguez confronted Crazy Gus, but was stopped in his questioning by two other men, Alfred Carson and Antonio Rubio, who defended Gus. A week later, Crazy Gus went to the Rodriguez home and threatened to hurt or murder the girl and Mrs. Rodriguez. Old man Carson tried to shoot him but Mrs. Rodriguez intervened and the men were taken to Comal Ranch and held. Rodriguez appealed to the Justice of the Peace Theodor Goldbeck for retribution. JP Goldbeck could not have Crazy Gus arrested because there was no sheriff sworn in. It seems that the Reconstruction government after the Civil War had not gotten around to everything yet. Crazy Gus, crazy politics, just crazy.

Col. Power went bankrupt in 1869. The Rancho Comal went into receivership secured by creditors in Austin. 2800 sheep, 233 horse, 400 cattle, 30 beeves, 2 stallions, 1 jack, 28 bucks, 2 Mexican jacks, 1 jenny, 1 Durham bull, 12 stock horses, 200 hogs, 6 yokes of oxen, 2 ambulances, 6 sets of harness, and 3 mules were auctioned off on Tuesday, May 1, 1869.

The 5334 acres, made up of 9 surveys, were bought by the creditors for $4,500.

In 1871, 960 acres of the John Angel Survey were purchased by Dietrich Knibbe who had founded the community of Spring Branch in 1852. In 1880, 92 acres were bought by Keturah M. Voight; Voight picked up 277 ½ acres more in 1881. In 1882, 1421 acres of the Luckett, Webb and Jennings Surveys were sold to F.W. Rust; 195 ½ acres were bought by Herman and Charles Knibbe; 976 ½ acres were sold to Friedrich Bartels; and the last 546 acres were purchased by Henry Bender.

The Comal Ranch was now a part of the families of many of the early Spring Branch settlers. However, the extensive ranch with prize stallions lived on in stories. In 1884, the San Antonio Light related a story which had recently occurred to C. J. Forester while at “Comal Ranch”:

I want to tell you a horse story, not a fish story, yet a true story … I had in New Braunfels a spring wagon and a pair of horses. One of them, a stallion was taken sick with colic and came near dying; he was so bad that after the lance was struck it was nearly two minutes before he bled. We then took about a gallon of blood from him, and turned him into an unused lot to get a roll and some grass. Next morning I put his mate in with him. In the lot was a well about 50 feet deep, with 15 feet of water in it, partially covered with plank, and it is supposed that in playing or fighting, the stallion kicked his mate into the well. Some men nearby, hearing the rumpus and the fall, and going to the well, found the horse partly submerged, with his feet resting on the ledges of rock, keeping his head above water. Being at once apprised of the case, I had a derrick rigged and placed, and paid a negro $10 to go down and fix the ropes on him. The air was so bad that he nearly fainted, but pulled through, and we pulled up the horse, who, strange to say, after four hours in the well, started off with only a limp, and went to grazing. We found he had a cut in the shoulder, which we sewed up; otherwise he seemed uninjured …” — San Antonio Light, October 9, 1884

I have asked lots of people what they know about Rancho Comal and truth be told, even if they have heard of it, no one really knows anything about it. Was that because it belonged to a string of Anglo Americans originally from other parts of the US and not the German immigrants? I find it interesting that several of the early owners were military men with visions of a grand project in Texas, but that none of them were buried in Texas. And then there was the Civil War; it definitely had an impact on the viability of Comal Ranch.

I keep looking at the land grant maps and thinking, “Wow. I can barely imagine a huge ranch like that here in Comal County.” Sadly, that vast Comal Ranch full of cattle, race horses, sheep, goats, pastures and farm buildings is now full of lots and lots and lots of homes.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum Oscar Haas Collection; Texas General Land Office; Neu Braunfelser-Zeitung; San Antonio Light; The True Issue, LaGrange; Bridging Spring Branch and Western Comal County, Texas, Brenda Anderson-Lindemann; Sparks Family pedigree; Find a Grave; Wikipedia; Comal County Historical Commission; Land Grant Map of Comal County, DelRay E. Fischer, 2007.

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

Emmie was not just any little girl. Born Sept 15, 1867, she was the daughter of civic and cultural leader Hermann Seele and his wife Mathilde nee Blum.

Much was expected of Emmie.

Hermann Seele was known as “The Soul of New Braunfels”, a name given him in honor of his impact on the newly founded town. In German, Seele means soul – his name was quite prophetic. He was the first school teacher in NB, holding classes in an elm grove on Coll Street just three months after the emigrants’ arrival to the banks of the Guadalupe and Comal Rivers. Seele organized traditional German societies to protect and keep the cultures of the “Old Country” alive. Vereins (Clubs) and parades like the Gesangverein (singing club), the Drama Club, the Türnverein (gymnastic club), Maifest (May Day) and Kindermaskenball and Parade (children’s masked) promoted both health and culture and kept the German language and literature alive.

Hermann Seele petitioned and got one of the State’s earliest school charters from the Texas Legislature for the formation of the New Braunfels Academy, the first public school in NB. He also helped win the lawsuit of the Veramendi heirs vs the citizens of NB, giving townfolks peace of mind and continued ownership of their property.

Seele was mayor and alderman, preacher and teacher and statesman — a tough act to follow, but Emmie did just that.

Emmie grew up amongst the second generation of the families who had immigrated to Texas. Her father’s stature in town assured her place in town society. She learned, played and worked with members of leading families such as Clemens, Faust, Moreau, Lindheimer, Voelcker, Forcke, Klappenbach and many more. Emmie attended the New Braunfels Academy, however, her father was no longer teaching. She was taught to sew, play several instruments and speak and perform in public (Declamation was a subject in school). Emmie participated in parades, played bridge and performed in plays.

In 1893, she married John Faust, one of the sons of Joseph Faust. Joseph, along with Mr. Clemens and Mr. Tipps, founded The First National Bank in 1881. Son John was also in banking, as well as merchandising, cotton buying and other lucrative endeavors. Throughout their marriage, John and Emmie travelled extensively, taking ocean liners to Europe, and trains to Mexico and parts of the US. Local newspapers record a 1904 trip to Mardi Gras in NOLA and to the St. Louis World’s Fair. They had one of the first automobiles in town and drove to San Antonio to watch “motion pictures”.

Emmie gave birth to twins within their first year of marriage; sadly, one child died at birth leaving them with only their daughter Stella. Stella contracted malaria and the Fausts took her to several health resorts including San Antonio and Mineral Wells and to doctors in San Antonio and Houston.

In 1905, the Fausts moved into their grand new home built on the 300 block of W. San Antonio Street. Still standing, this lovely, ornate, Queen Anne-style home cost $6,700 to build. The contractor/builder, Adolph Moeller, reportedly fell off a 20’ scaffolding while working on the home and ended up with “a slight head injury”.

Emmie and John doted on little Stella. She had tea parties with friends and her Seele cousins. They bought Stella wonderful life-size plaster statues in Germany of Rotkãppchen und der Wolf. These graced the landing of the ornate main staircase of the Faust Home. They were later given to the Sophienburg Museum where they still delight children and adults alike.

Stella Faust died in 1908 at the age of 14 years. It was not unexpected but hit the parents hard. John died in 1926 at the age of 65. Emmie dove head-first into philanthropic works, many benefitting the children of New Braunfels. Her tireless good works and generosity soon earned her the name of “Tante Emmie” (Aunt Emmie) from the many real and “adopted” nieces and nephews in the community.

Tante Emmie was a founding member of the Sophienburg Memorial Association in 1925, and a major contributor and donor to the building of the Sophienburg Museum in 1933. Through her time, efforts, planning and money, she built the city’s first public library in 1938. The cost of $7,500 was paid by her alone as a gift to the children and citizens of New Braunfels. No wonder they named it the Emmie Seele Faust Library in her honor.

Tante Emmie then bought and had installed the first traffic light in New Braunfels. Placed at the intersection of W. San Antonio and Academy Streets, it provided safe crossing for the schoolchildren who had to walk from the Academy to the new library on Coll Street.

Tante Emmie served on city anniversary and various parade committees including Maifest, the May Day celebration begun by her father. She was a major organizer of the 1946 Texas German Pioneer celebration, which included the unveiling of the bronze and granite German Pioneer Monument created by the sculptor Hugo Villa. It stands in Landa Park.

Tante Emmie was a longtime member the NB Bridge Club, the NB Garden Club and the Concordia Gesangverein (singing club). She was instrumental in the formation of the NB Parent-Teachers Association and a member of the NB Music Club.

Tante Emmie was one of the tireless ladies of the Womens Civic Improvement Club and a donor to their projects, some of which were a shelter out at the cemetery and building a women’s bathroom under the Bandstand on Main Plaza. As a woman, having a bathroom on the Plaza was/is a stroke of genius!

Tante Emmie was also generous to New Braunfels hospitals. She donated “a new electrical suction and ether apparatus” for use in the old Krankenhaus which made it easier to remove the tonsils and adenoids of children. She later made the largest single donation towards the building of the new New Braunfels Hospital.

Tante Emmie was a member of the German Protestant (First Protestant) Church. She was active in the adult choir, the Frauenverein (womens club) and served as church organist for 14 years. She attended services regularly until a few weeks prior to her death; on cold Sundays she could be seen sitting at the back with a mink stole around her shoulders. She also contributed to the construction of the Seele Parish Hall which was named in honor of her father.

Emmie Seele Faust died quietly at her home in New Braunfels on Sept 28, 1957 — just two weeks after her 90th Birthday.

An Oscar Haas article in a 1950 edition of The Austin American newspaper contained this quote from Tante Emmie:

“All my life, my heart’s desires have been centered in the civic interests of my home city, the city my father helped to establish in 1845. Here, he married. Here, he reared his family. Our family grew up with this community.”

In German we have a saying, “Die Apfel fãllt nicht weit vom Stamm.” (The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.) Tante Emmie, like her father Hermann Seele, gave to her community in ways we still enjoy today. As one of a later generation of adopted “nieces and nephews” of Tante Emmie, I am thankful for her energetic generosity and truly proud of her amazing legacy in New Braunfels.

Well done, Emmie.

Sources: Neu Braunfelser Zeitung, New Braunfels Herald, New Braunfels Zeitung-Chronicle, The Austin-American; Sophienburg Museum & Archives.

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By Keva Hoffman Boardman —

The Six Shooter Ranch. The name evokes something rather wonderful in an old-Western-movie kind of way. However, dear reader, the history around the Six Shooter Ranch is anything but romantic. There are tales from different time periods which give us clues to its story and with some sniffing around, I think I have got the gist.

I first found a paragraph in the Marjorie Cook files. She was a feature writer/editor for the NB Herald.

Six Shooter Ranch was owned by Coreths and got its name from a man named John Sippel (who married a daughter of Ernst Gruene, Sr. Sippel lived in the house there and used to get drunk, lie on his bed and shoot flies with his six-shooter. The ceiling was full of holes as a result. The house stood on top of the hill adjoining the Eden Home. This was levelled for crushed rock by Landa on a lease from Coreth. Just before the house was torn down, it served as a bordello.

Is your interest peaked? Are there facts to back up any of this tale?

A transcript of an interview with Coreth Family descendants fills in some details of the location.

At one time they [Coreths] owned property from Mission Hill all the way over to the Eden Home. My uncle Rochette Coreth referred to it as the Six Shooter Ranch. There was a quarry there on the edge. That was in 1913, when Landa wanted to establish a rock quarry on the Coreth property and [paperwork] refers to it as the Six Shooter Ranch.

I looked into the land area a little closer and it seems that it was first owned by Ernst Gruene. His daughter Johanna and husband John Sippel lived on the property when they got married in 1873. In 1887, Sippel opened a rock quarry on the hill to get rock and gravel for the construction of the Guadalupe River Bridge (Faust St. Bridge). Sippel later recovered an 8-pound mammoth tooth at the site. The Coreth’s then acquired the land and they leased it to Landa to quarry gravel.

Olinska Sippel Posey, one of the daughters of John and Johanna Sippel, shared a very personal insight on her family. John built a home on the corner of Academy and Coll in 1881, and that’s where she lived so she didn’t live on the Six Shooter Ranch. She did remember that her father was a little bit crazy and dangerous. Olinska remembered that father John took her to visit her Gruene grandparents who lived on Rock Street one day. They crossed the San Antonio Street bridge, went through Comaltown and at the railroad tracks there on Rock Street, John told her to get out and walk the rest of the way. As she walked, he shot his gun several times over her head to hurry her along.

Olinska’s mother Johanna had a mental breakdown in 1893. Olinska said her mother felt she had to file for divorce in 1894. After her husband shot himself in the head on the second floor of his Phoenix saloon in 1900, Johanna Gruene Sippel lived until 1942.

Doesn’t this recollection just break your heart? Here is a bit more of the Sippels’ story.

John was the son of Valentin Sippel, one of NB’s first founders. John was quite the entrepreneur. He and father Valentin built the first Phoenix Saloon — same location, different building — in 1873. Off and on he lived on the 2nd floor of “Sippel Hall” and rented out the first-floor saloon. He also added an alligator pond and a bowling alley. In 1885 he became the local distributor for Anheuser-Busch. John set up a soda and mineral water bottling works, St. John’s Bottling, in 1886. In 1887, he opened the quarry at the Six Shooter Ranch. He added an ice factory to his line of businesses and became the distributor for Lone Star Beer in 1890.

I think his world started falling apart in 1892. His 18-year-old, first-born son Henry was shot and died while at business college in Dallas. The Sippels’ had already lost a two-year-old daughter in 1883. Henry’s death caused Johanna to have a mental breakdown and require several months of hospitalization. John was having a hard time financially as well. The bottling works went bankrupt after a bad freeze and it and the ice factory were put up for sale. Johanna filed for divorce and six years later, most likely depressed and drinking, John shot himself.

Perhaps this is the origen of the “drunk and shooting the flies on the ceiling” story; so much trauma and heartache for this man and his family to handle.

My last reference to Six-Shooter Ranch is later in time. Hanno Welsch Sr. recorded an oral history at the Sophienburg and told an interesting story. His family lived on a farm out on River Road and Rock Street. Remember that the ranch house of the Six Shooter Ranch was located about where the Eden Home and Dean Word’s pit is now.

There was a fella by the name of Clapp, of Clapp Shoe Company. He was living up there. He was a playboy. I imagine they gave him lots of money to get him away from their business. He hooped it up! He had some nice black horses and a buggy; well-groomed. He’d go to town and meet these girls. He’d get a pretty girl from off the train and have big parties there. And he liked six shooters, pistols and stuff like that. He was shooting at the fella that was working in the field on Rock Street, and, of course, once in awhile this fella would shoot back too you know. I don’t know but I think they were both drunk. They couldn’t hit a target.

Finally. I think I understand the bordello reference in Marjorie Cook’s notes. Mr. Welsch also talks about the “pretty ladies” which came in on the train. Behind the depot was a one-story house about 30 feet long with a porch along the sidewalk of Mill Street. The mostly dark and shuttered house was “verboten to us youngsters” but Welsch and his friends would slip over to the windows and listen to the “sweet talk”. Hanno describes how the ladies would come in by train, pulling up their skirts above the ankle as they stepped down onto the ground. There were always a lot of cowboys ready to help and then escort the ladies to the “entertainment house”. I think the Clapp gentleman at the Six Shooter Ranch would bring “these girls” to the ranch house to party.

So it looks like I’ve figured out quite a bit of the story. But Mr. Welsch gave me one more tantalizing tidbit connected to Six Shooter Ranch. One day Hanno’s father was plowing in the field down on the corner of Rock Street and he plowed up an old pistol.

It was a very peculiar pistol. It was originally a rim fire and it had been converted into a center pin fire pistol. It had beautiful engraving on it and a nice wooden handle. It must have come from the Six Shooter Ranch somehow.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum: Neu Braunfelser Zeitung; New Braunfels Herald; Marjorie Cook Collection; Myra Lea Adams Goff Collection; Hanno Welsch Sr. “Reflections” oral history.

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