New Braunfels treasure celebrates 90 years

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — A 90th birthday is an event well worth celebrating. My beautiful friend was born in 1933, the same year as Willie Nelson and Carol Burnett. It was the worst year of the Great Depression, when twenty-five percent of the labor force was unemployed, the U.S.

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Photo Caption: The telegram that told Albert Kirchner he had won the Certified Cremo Cigar contest in October 1931.

Albert Kirchner wins Cremo contest

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — Last week, David Hartmann, the present-day unofficial historian of New Braunfels, brought some old telegrams to the Sophienburg Museum. In case some of you don’t know what that is, a telegram is a written message transmitted by using an electric device called a telegraph. The

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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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First county fair was in 1894

By Myra Lee Adams Goff — Soon it will be the annual Comal County Fair which had its first event in 1894. When I was doing the research at the Sophienburg for the book It’s Fair Time for the Fair Association, there was one particular era in its development that intrigued me. It was the period beginning

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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)

‘Bout birthin’ babies

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”

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Women in history

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — When the Museum is quiet, like it has been for the past few weeks, I like being in the exhibit hall. In fact, my favorite thinking spot is sitting on a bench in there, just listening. In the silence, one can almost hear the sounds

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Bridging the river

By Myra Lee Adams Goff — What story could be timelier than a story about bridges? The San Antonio Street Bridge, the main bridge across the Comal River linking New Braunfels to Comaltown, is undergoing massive renovations that will take almost two years to complete. Under the circumstances, detours have

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Which way to the fair?

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — With the upcoming bridge closure, much has been written about daily street traffic and river traffic and where they all will go, but it was the announced change in the Comal County Fair Parade route that got people talking. The most vocally opposed viewpoints were

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Goff Scholarship winner shares history

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Every child passing through the Texas Public Education System receives an introduction to history. I say an introduction, because they may not remember all of it, but they are definitely shown it. Elementary students begin learning about their own community history in third grade, eventually

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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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