Eleven years ago Rosemarie Gregory and I wrote a book called “Kindermaskenball, Past and Present”. It’s about an event here in New Braunfels that goes back to the early days of the settlement. At the beginning of the book we made this statement: “Kindermaskenball is about tradition and make-believe. Children particularly flourish in this world of make-believe and adults create the tradition by recreating what they themselves enjoyed in childhood.” Isn’t that what tradition is?

Next weekend on Saturday, April 12, and Sunday, April 13, Heritage Society’s annual Folkfest will be held on their grounds on Churchill Drive. The Kindermaskenball parade downtown NB will be part of this celebration on Saturday.

The Kindermaskenball is believed to be a celebration of spring, as in Germany it dates back to the Teutonic custom of the coming of this season. Another theory claims it was a pre-Lenten observance in Germany called Fasching. According to German teacher, Benno Engel, Fasching began on the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the month lasting until Ash Wednesday. Parades and masked dances prevailed.

The event used to be called Kindermaskenball. Yes, Kinder is “children”, Masken is “masks”, and Ball is “dance”. For several years the term Kindermasken has applied. That’s possible because there is no dance connected to it now. Hermann Seele is given credit for starting Kindermaskenball in 1846 but some written accounts say 1856. Which is a type 0? The Neu Braunfelser Zeitung says that children assembled at the New Braunfels Academy (on Mill St.) dressed in costumes, led by their leaders (probably teachers), and a brass band. They frolicked through the streets, engaged in plays and sang at the Saengerhalle. At a time, when the norm was for children to be seen and not heard, this must have been quite a show.

Nevertheless, after parading through the streets they moved out to Seele’s Saengerhalle. Hermann Seele in 1855 had built a large hall next to his home on the Guadalupe River. There is no building standing now but if you drive to the foot of Seele Street, you can pick out the location. Another street in that area is Saenger. That makes sense because the first state-wide Saengerfest (Festival of Singers) was held at Seele’s Hall. All his life he was active on the music scene. Oscar Haas stated that the Kindermaskenball parade ended up at the hall for 20 or more years.

The next location for Kindermaskenball was the Lenzen Halle located where the Courthouse Annex stands on Seguin Ave. This hall burned in 1895 and after that the children paraded to Matzdorf Halle (formerly Rheinlaender Halle, and later named Echo Hall and now Eagle’s Hall.)

In 1901 the Seekatz Opera House opened on San Antonio St. In reference to this location, a 1917 news article tells of “merry dancing and romping by children until 10 o’clock when the hall was turned over to grownups to “render homage to Terpsichore”. I love that statement. Not only did I not know who Terpsichore was, but I didn’t know how to pronounce it. It’s pronounced “terp-sick-o ree” just in case you want to use it in your every-day conversation. Terpsichore was the Greek muse of dancing.

It is believed that the custom of the Grand March began about this time. The Grand March is hard to describe in words and certainly didn’t begin in New Braunfels, but during the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s it was a big part of the dance.

Elaborate costumes became popular in the early 1900s and by the 1920s, Landa Park was a favorite destination after the parade. Serious costume making began by mothers, aunts, grandmothers, and seamstresses. Thousands watched the parade according to the newspaper. Ballerinas, dancers, Indians, soldiers, cowboys and clowns marched down the street. The 1920s brought in the innovation of lipstick and eye makeup. Little girls and big girls were allowed this luxury during the Kindermaskentall but it was a “no-no” on ordinary days.

Eventually the parade culminated about where the old City Hall is on Seguin Ave. and then families got together in Landa Park. In Landa Park, there was a wooden hall that was located between the Pioneer Statue and the Outdoor Dance Slab. Children through Jr. High age would play and dance “Put Your Little Foot”, “Herr Schmidt” and “The Bunny Hop” inside the wooden pavilion that has been torn down.

In the evening, the crowd would move over to the open-air dance slab. Christmas tree lights adorned the big tree in the center of the floor. On this tree-house pavilion the orchestra sat and played. Dancing on the slab would take place until 9 o’clock when an announcement was made that the Grand March would begin. Two by two, children followed the leaders by grade level. “Under the Double Eagle” was the favorite march. The custom was for boys to ask girls to be their Grand March partner, usually at school.

The NBISD sponsored the event for years, then the Beta Sigma Phi sorority and finally it became a part of Folkfest in 1992.

In the past, costumes were very elaborate. There were some women in town that were very handy with needle, thread, ribbon, sequins and net. Photos reflect these costumes. The Sophienburg has a large collection of some of these costumes on mannequins inside the museum. Joline Erben, Marie Jarisch and Antoinette Malmstead designed costumes that are still in the collections.

Gone are the days when thousands participated. I have my own theory. In the 1920s, 30s and 40s all the elementary schools had an end of school event. These were programs in April and parents were asked to furnish costumes. Then World War II came along, and everything was scarce, especially for such frivolous things. Programs turned to “non-costumed” events.

Folkfest, which is all about tradition, is keeping the tradition alive. Tina Lindeman, chairman, asks all participants to line up at 10 a.m. at the Central Fire Station in downtown New Braunfels and then, along with parents, make their way to Folkfest after the parade.

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I’m writing about iconology, the study of icons. The word “icon” has been stretched thin over the years. Originally it referred to “a painting of religious personages on a wooden panel in the Eastern Church”. In advertising, we have icons for almost everything. Christmas icons are the symbols that make us think of Christmas.

Go all the way back to the 1844 emigrant landing on the coast at Indianola. Soon after, at Christmas time, a coastal oak tree was procured and covered with candles. The lighted tree as an important icon lives on. Protestant Reformer Martin Luther is given credit for the lighted tree when he noticed the brilliance of the stars peeking through the snow-covered trees. He rushed home to put candles on his fir tree.

The Puritans were against decorations, including trees, but when German and Irish emigrants arrived in America, the Puritan legacy was stamped out by long-standing ethnic traditions. Meanwhile in the Texas Hill Country, the only tree that came close to resembling the fir tree was the “don’t touch me, I have stickers” juniper. Christmas trees changed from juniper, to imported fir trees, to artificial trees.

Candles were the only tree lights until electricity was invented around the turn of the 20th century. Those early electric lights were problematic; if one globe went out, the whole string went out. Much time was spent looking for that one burned-out globe. With time, that problem was solved and now we have LED lights.

Decorations, too, have changed over the years. The Sophienburg has some glass globes brought from Germany. Fast forward to the 1920s, before children chewed on trees, some very dangerous decorations appeared on the scene. For example, there was spun glass called angel hair, tinsel icicles made of lead, and globes made of mercury glass.

In America the most iconic symbol of children’s Christmas is Santa Claus. Long before the big guy dressed in red and was made famous by an illustration by Haddon Sundblom for Coca Cola, a similar character appeared in Europe. He was Saint Nicholas and his story was brought by the settlers from Germany. The more judgmental Nicholas filled stockings hung somewhere in the house on Dec. 5th with candy and fruit for good children and a switch or a potato or a piece of coal for a “bad” child. But “bad or good” there was hope for all children because there was still two weeks to straighten up before Santa Claus came.

Locally, Bill Vollmar was given much credit for bringing Santa Claus to New Braunfels. Vollmar owned a local 5 and 10 cent store. The picture shows Santa arriving on a train. Hearsay says he also arrived in an airplane and, of course, the vehicle of choice was not a reindeer, but a fire truck.

Gift giving has always been a big part of the holidays. Here’s a short list of advertised gifts: a Kodak camera at Voelkers Drug Store (1898); Tigress, Woodhue, and Tabu perfumes plus Tangee lipstick (1940s); hand carved dolls and marbles (ancient cultures).

Stores had toys for sale, but the first toy store was Tante Amelia’s Christmas Store next to Henne Hardware. Tante was a sister to the Hennes and the toy store was only open for two weeks. When it wasn’t a toy store, it held kitchen supplies.

Church activities dominated the Christmas season. The Germans celebrated Christmas Eve with a light supper and then gift opening. In the old days the tree was closed off to children until the gift opening ceremony. This was the first time that children saw the tree and gifts. A midnight candlelight church service followed.

In the Catholic Hispanic community, Dec. 24th was a time for friends and neighbors gathering together at one home. They would have a rosary by the nativity scene at the home and place the baby Jesus in the empty crib to remain there until Feb. 2nd. Another tradition was Las Posadas (the Inns), an old ceremony commemorating the journey of Mary and Joseph as they sought lodging preparing for the birth of Jesus.

As more and more Americans moved to New Braunfels, traditions gradually blended together. New Braunfelsers have their own icons of German, Hispanic, and American origin. Tamales, chili, poinsettias, sausage, cookies, pralines, divinity, toffee, piñatas, bells, all blend together, so–

Fröliche Weihnachten, Feliz Navidad, and a New Braunfels Merry Christmas to all!

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A flurry of activity and preparation is engulfing organizations that involve themselves with Wurstfest activities. The ten- day celebration is from Nov. 2nd through the 11th. One organization, the Conservation Society, located on Churchill Drive, utilizes their grounds to hold a major fundraiser during Wurstfest. Carrying out the theme of early historic New Braunfels, they operate a German Kaffee Haus for lunch from 10:30a.m. to 2:00 p.m. from November the 7th through the 11th. The place is Forke Store.

This year’s lunch includes German potato soup, Koch Kase, Wurst, homemade desserts and features a sauerkraut cake. It actually does contain sauerkraut and the recipe comes from Mrs. Ben Faust who gave it to the Conservation Society. They, in turn, submitted it to the Sophienburg to be included in their book, “Guten Appetit”. I made this cake once and it’s delicious, but I no longer want to spend half a day baking it; I’ll get it at Conservation Plaza.

For those of you who are not familiar with Conservation Plaza, you should come and familiarize yourself with their grounds. Entrance is free and there is much to see. The Kaffee Haus is once again at Forke Store. New Braunfels has held many events in this building over the years. They estimate that the building is rented close to 200 times a year.

Forke Store was moved from the corner of Seguin Ave. and Jahn St. out to Conservation Plaza when the Becker family bought the property in the ‘60s. They gave the building to the Conservation Society. Arno Becker remembers a ten-foot wide trail from Seguin Ave. to the Comal River known as the “water lane”. It had been the property of the city and was used by early emigrants to walk down to the Comal to get water. This water lane ran across the property that Becker purchased and the city deeded the lane to the property owners. Somewhere under Bluebonnet Motors is that water lane. Sorry, you’ll have to turn on a faucet to get water.

The construction of Forke Store is interesting. The framework is of the “fachwerk” or half-timber style which means that the spaces are filled with bricks, stone or mud. When the emigrants arrived in 1845, they noticed that the building method that had been used in Germany would be well suited locally. The materials were all here – limestone for the foundation, cedar for beams, and sun-dried adobe bricks which could easily be made in Texas. Adobe would be poured into a wooden mold and even children could do this. A shingle roof was installed and siding was attached. The bricks were covered with mud plaster mixed with straw. Fine mud was smeared over and then painted.

The Forke building was moved in two parts and put back together with the original floor and ceiling. Doors and window sashes are also original. The store was a mercantile store and objects within the store reflect that. Old display counters are from Henne Hardware and the original handmade Forke walnut desk is displayed.

Originally the property belonged to Victor Bracht, author of “Texas in 1848”. He belonged to the nobility in Germany, was highly educated and trained for a mercantile career. In 1846 the German Emigration Company sent him to New Braunfels to look after the emigrants. He stayed a year, went back to Germany, and in 1848 returned to New Braunfels. That same year he married Sibilla Shaefer. One lot was given to him by the Adelsverein and he purchased another next to it for $35.00.The first store building and house next door was built in 1852. Bracht was a merchant at this location from 1846 to 1855 after which he moved to San Antonio. The first building described by Bracht was later used by Jacob Ludwig Forke as a “feather house” where feathers were sold by the pound.

From 1855 there were several owners and in 1865 Jacob and Caroline Forke bought the property from Joseph Landa. They ran the mercantile store and raised 10 children. In 1902, the property was left to their youngest son, Louis, who continued the business until he died in 1966. The Becker family purchased the property from the Forke estate and this is when Forke Store moved to Conservation Plaza. Becker Motor Company was sold to Bluebonnet Motors in 2002.

Thanks to the Becker family and the Conservation Society, Forke Store lives on.

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When I think of Botanists in New Braunfels, I immediately think of Ferdinand Lindheimer. Lindheimer was given property on the Comal for his botanical garden. No doubt his accomplishments were many, but there were others in the field who contributed much to the beauty of our town. One in particular helped make NB the “garden spot” of Texas and that was Otto Martin Locke, Jr. He was a third generation New Braunfelser and a third generation horticulturist. He died in 1994 so some of you may remember him.

Here’s his family story:

Johann Joseph Locke, hailing from Prussia, arrived in NB in 1852 and in four years bought two 10- acre plots of land on the Comal Creek, what is now Town Creek and running to the Landa Street area. It eventually also covered the area from the RR tracks to the hill. Seeing a need for ornamental trees, as well as fruit-bearing trees, he put his knowledge of horticulture to use and began the first nursery in New Braunfels.

For 30 years the business thrived and then was taken over by Johann’s oldest son, Otto Martin Locke, Sr., who named the nursery “Comal Springs Nursery”. He was responsible for developing and producing fruit and pecan trees, vegetables and ornamental shrubs. Large orders were shipped by train. One order of 50,000 peach trees was sent to Mexico.

Many pecan trees around town were grown and grafted by Locke. I grew up knowing that the 10 pecan trees in our yard, the soft-shelled Daisey Pecan, were developed by Locke.

In 1906 Locke planted 50 to 60 thousand roses and developed the Bonita Arbor Vitae, which is a variety of evergreens. Other plants developed by him were Heidemeyer apple, Strington apple, Ferguson fig, Comal cling peaches, Dixie peach, November peach, Daisey pecan, Fall City tomato, Germania rose, Locke’s pride pear, Perfection pear, Old-favorite pomegranate, McCarthy plum, and Guadalupe dewberry. Locke was granted the first state permit for irrigating using state waters (Comal Creek).

The Otto Lockes trained their four boys in the nursery business in NB, Poteet, and San Antonio. The boys were Emil, Herman, Walter and Otto, Jr. It was this youngest boy who made the biggest impact on the whole town of New Braunfels.

Otto Martin Locke, Jr. and his wife, Etelka Rose Locke, acquired property between W. San Antonio St. and Hwy 81 S. in 1928, after the death of his father. They began the Otto Martin Locke Nursery that they operated until Otto’s death in 1994. At the time that Otto and Etelka moved to their new property, Herman and Thekla Locke and their son Howard, formed the Locke Nursery and Floral on part of the old property in the area of present streets: Lockner (Locke Nursery),Howard (Howard Locke),and Floral (obvious).

When Otto and Etelka Locke bought the property on W. San Antonio, it was a cotton field. Etelka was famous for her gardens, once planting 5,000 tulip bulbs in the 1940’s. (For pictures of theses tulips, log on to Sophienburg.com and click on column). She planted the garden around the Lindheimer House on Comal Ave. and the McKenna Memorial Hospital. Otto planted a chestnut oak for the Arbor Day ceremony at the Landa Park office. They used no pesticides on their ten acres, using only chameleons, lizards and snakes to eat the bugs.

Otto Locke’s love of animals as a child grew into a business. He became famous nationally and internationally as a major importer and exporter of exotic native animals and birds for zoos around the world. Inquiries came for birds, snakes, and armadillos. He traded his stock for monkeys, exotic snakes, lion cubs, alligators, crocodiles and even kangaroos. Animals were shipped to many countries and continents- England, Mexico, Germany, Singapore, Australia, Africa, Calcutta, and India. He supplied many snakes for Hollywood. Locke Nursery provided the closest thing to a zoo that New Braunfels had, for these animals were all on display. Children’s trips to the nursery were a real treat.

Looking toward the old nursery from I.H. 35 S., you see the remnants of the old sign, “Locke Nursery”, and thousands of overgrown trees, helping us remember a thriving business for 138 years. But…

“We’ll never smile at a crocodile again”.

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

It used to be when you traveled, you would pick up postcards at all the locations you visited. Then you would either send them home to family and friends or keep them as a souvenir. Postcards were cheap, easy and extremely portable. The coming of the digital age has made the popularity of postcards shrink considerably. We no longer buy a card, address it, go find a post office, buy stamps and send a post card; although, in foreign countries, this process could and often did entail laughter and make memories in and of itself. Today, we use our phone to take a photo and “post” it on social media almost immediately letting friends and family in on our travels. I recently got a postcard from a friend in France that I had to pay postage on to receive — they had posted it without postage. Still, it was nice thought.

Looking through the postcard collection of the Sophienburg Museum and Archives, I began to see how today we are missing the personal nature of sending a postcard. Many cards in the collection had been chosen to either remember an event or location or to appeal to the one who received the card and message. They were little “hellos” from loved ones (like to or from a soldier in WWI), a reminder of love (to girl or boyfriends), a reassurance to parents as to one’s safety and prosperity, or an announcement of some personal benchmark (promotion, marriage or baby). I still can pick up books at home and find postcards I used as bookmarks, and I’m immediately taken back in time to remember a person or place.

These little 3 ½ by 5 ½ inch pieces of cardstock have a fairly long history. As early as the 1860s, postcards were printed by both private publishers and country postal systems. These were blank on one side for an “open” message and printed with a stamp on the other side which was also where the address was to be written. By the 1870s, the cost to send a postcard was one penny in the U.S.; that was half the amount of a letter in an envelope.

Illustrated postcards came along in the 1890s. These are mostly greyscale (black and white) line drawings, etchings or engravings of locations. Since the illustrations filled one side of the card, the other side was divided; the right half provided space for stamp and address and the left half had room for a short message. Sometimes there was a wider border on the illustration side that could be used to continue the message.

As people grew more and more mobile via first the railroads and then cars, and as they had more “free time” and spare cash, vacation travel cards became very popular. The 1890s saw an uptick in the thousands of cards printed and sold. Early photographers got into the trend and produced stunning black-and-white photographs of towns, country landscapes, ancient ruins and beaches, as well as iconic works of art and cultural rituals. The world was becoming smaller each time a postcard was, well, posted. They were also collected to place in albums as souvenirs of special holiday vacations.

Postcards from 1915 to the 1930s are mostly printed with a white border. These early color views were produced with colored ink on inexpensive cardstock. They have a white border around the image to save on ink. The illustration also usually has a caption. In the 1930s, postcards are printed on a higher quality paper with a linen-like texture and no white border. The ink colors, on both of these early 20th century postcards, are vivid and intense and sometimes unusual. The color photo postcards we are familiar with today began to show up at gas stations as souvenirs in the 1940s.

There is actually a name for postcard collectors — a deltiologist. Greek deltos (small tablet or letter) and logia (study of). This appellation was coined at Ohio State University in 1945. Prior to that, postcard enthusiasts were called philocartists, a name akin to stamp collectors, philatelists. It’s all Greek to me.

The Sophienburg Museum & Archives collects postcards because they are important in research. They depict specific times and scenes in New Braunfels history. They chronicle our cultural and social events. Postcards can be utilized to teach geography and writing skills to our children. But they are also beautiful and just plain fun.

Beginning in April, an exhibition at The Sophienburg will showcase many postcard images of New Braunfels and Comal County from the collection. I guarantee it will take you back in time in a visually stunning way.

FYI: Postcard collecting is the third largest collecting hobby, eclipsed only by stamp collecting and coin/banknote collecting.

Sources: Sophienburg postcard collection; Smithsonian Institution Archives – Postcards; The Postal Museum – Postcards.

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

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

On February 27, 1977, Herb Skoog recorded the 21st interview of the Sophienburg Museum’s “Reflections” oral history program. Herb interviewed Jerome Nowotny. It is one of the best episodes in the series — a real humdinger.

Jerome Nowotny is perhaps best remembered for his enormous “Beer Bottles of the World” collection. 6,000-plus bottles are on permanent display on the Wurstfest grounds inside the Spass Haus. In his oral history interview, Jerome revealed that his passion for collecting beer bottles began when he was a child growing up during Prohibition. I’ll share a bit of his reminiscing:

… There were so many wonderful places to buy illegal homemade beer. They were called bootlegging joints. New Braunfels was very famous for good bootleg joints. People from Houston, San Antonio … they came from everywhere to get this good New Braunfels beer…

Albert Nowotny was Jerome’s dad. Albert ran a business known as “The House the Jack Built” on W. San Antonio Street. It was a restaurant, gas station and Indian relics museum with a tourist camp of cottages out back. The business began in 1927 and added a concrete building in 1930. It flourished through the 1940s, then became Zoeller’s Funeral Home in 1953. In 1981, the building became the Comal County Juvenile Residential Supervision and Treatment Center. Just a few weeks ago, the building was demolished to make way for a new building on the Connections Individual and Family Services campus. (See https://sophienburg.wpenginepowered.com/the-house-that-jack-built/).

The House the Jack Built sold near-beer during Prohibition. Near-beer had only ½ of one percent alcohol. Jerome explained to Herb Skoog that breweries still made real beer and then “distilled it, warmed it up” to evaporate the alcohol. Only near-beer could be legally sold.

… When people came to our place for hamburgers, they would often ask, “Where can we get good beer?” There were so many places it wasn’t difficult to find one if you knew … but you could drive all over town and never find a place if you didn’t know, because every yard had a ligustrum hedge …

Many yards in New Braunfels were bordered by ligustrum hedges instead of wooden fences. It was common practice to set up your bootlegging operation behind the hedge in the back yard. As a child, Jerome’s father would periodically send Jerome to one of the known bootleg places to get real beer for the customers. He always had to go to different ones so that “the Revenuers” wouldn’t catch on and friends get in trouble. Customers tipped Jerome $5 to go on these procurement expeditions. Jerome jokingly said that some people said he was “a pimp for the bootleggers.”

The 18th Amendment made it illegal to SELL alcoholic beverages from 1920-1933. As a citizen, you could brew up to 200 gallons of beer a year to use for personal consumption. You could NOT SELL beer to anyone else. Legally, you needed to have a doctor’s prescription to purchase any kind of alcohol to use “for medicinal purposes.”

Comal Brewery was the only beer brewery still in business by the time of Prohibition (the building is now the New Braunfels Smokehouse Ice Plant facilities). Comal Brewery made real beer and then turned it into near-beer; however, over time, the alcohol content began inching its way back up to real beer. At that point, “the Revenuers” (government agents who collected taxes and enforced laws against illegal alcohol manufacture) raided the place and destroyed all the brewing equipment:

… ”The Revenuers” came in and chopped up all the big copper kettles and everything…that was the end of it. Then it became an ice factory …

I am envisioning a whole “Andy Griffith” episode. I can only imagine how distraught the citizens of New Braunfels were.

Mr. Skoog asked Jerome if there were other folks in New Braunfels who got caught and sent to jail for bootlegging. The answer was “yes”, but they both agreed it was still too early to drop any names — several well-known bootleggers were still living! In New Braunfels, those men who did a spell in jail for bootlegging were not looked upon as hardened criminals.

The discussion on bootlegging is just one part of this great interview. Jerome also told wonderful stories about collecting the almost 14,000 beer bottles that made up his collection. Jerome also shared fascinating memories about his time as a comic actor in Hollywood!

If you want to hear all of Jerome’s interview, you can visit the Sophienburg Museum & Archives to hear or purchase this oral history; there are over 2,000 recordings of other New Braunfels citizens to choose from. You can also go to the New Braunfels Public Library and check out “Reflections” interviews to listen to.

FYI: Jerome Nowotny passed on in 1992 at the age of 77. Sadly, for many of us locals, Herb Skoog passed away recently on February 3, at the age of 93. Herb and his velvety voice will be truly missed.

Sources: Sophienburg Archives, “Reflections” oral history program #21 — Jerome Nowotny.

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

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

Who invented the cotton gin?

Many of you learned the answer to this question in elementary school. If you said “Eli Whitney” you are correct, but like me, back then you really didn’t understand that the invention of the cotton gin revolutionized the American economy and made cotton a major industry.

Thanks to Whitney’s invention in 1793, cotton no longer had to be “ginned” by hand although cotton was still picked by hand well into the 1940s. There are 15–20 bolls on each cotton plant and 27–45 seeds in each boll. That’s a lot of seeds that need to be separated from the cotton fiber. The cotton gin mechanically separated the seeds and fiber by rolling the cotton through wooden rollers covered with metal hooks that caught at the fiber and pulled it through a mesh. Cotton seeds were too big to go through the mesh and fell into a hopper below. A person could hand-gin one pound of cotton in one day; Whitney’s technology processed 50 pounds of cotton in a day.

Cotton was first grown in Comal County by German immigrants in 1852. The non-slave-holding Mittendorf brothers planted and harvested cotton enough for nine bales. William H. Meriwhether had built a water-powered grist and sawmill using the Comal Springs in 1847. He later added a flour mill and cotton gin. Meriwhether ginned the Mittendorf boys’ cotton for 1½ cents per pound. Francis Moreau shipped the nine bales through Indianola to New Orleans for an additional 1½ cents per pound. The bales were graded “middling fair” and sold for 10½ cents per pound. Cotton proved a profitable undertaking for the Mittendorfs who got 7½ cents per pound for their efforts.

In 1857, F. B. Hoffmann set up the first horse-powered cotton gin in the county out at Four Mile Creek/Solms. Later in 1870, Hoffmann was also the first to convert his gin to steam power; he advertised that he could “gin 6 bales a day” with the new technology.

In 1863, Erhard Mittendorf built a gin near the Austin Hill Community, and in 1875, George Webber operated his cotton gin and oil mill in downtown New Braunfels just one block off Main Plaza on North Seguin Street. And you thought the silos of the Co-op looked rural.

By the 1880s and 1890s, cotton gins were features in many of the small communities and settlements that peppered Comal County. They were usually known by the owner’s name:

• H. D. Gruene – Goodwin
• Gus Reinarz (formerly Hoffmann’s) – Solms
• John Marbach – Bracken
• August G. Startz – Smithson Valley
• Reinarz & Marbach – Danville
• Charles Knibbe – Spring Branch
• Hunter Gin Co. – Hunter
• Fischer’s – Fischer’s Store
• Hermann Guenther – Sattler
• Frank Guenther – Hancock
• Ludwig Haag and Gustav Schmidt gins – Bulverde
• Farmers Union – Hortontown
• Oberkampf’s and Flugrath’s gins – Cranes Mill
• Reinarz & Knoke, Landa Milling and Faust & Co. gins – New Braunfels

This is a partial list, but it shows the importance of having area gins for the many farmers who grew cotton across the county.

Sadly, only a few of the cotton gin structures or ruins still exist today. However, a notable example is still visible at Eight Mile Creek/Comal Settlement off Old Nacogdoches Road. From the road you can see the beautiful brick Friesenhahn Cotton Gin and Corn Sheller building with its stately, very tall smoke stack which signified it was steam-powered. The gin was constructed by Andreas Friesenhahn in the early 1890s, but it was not the first gin constructed by Friesenhahns. An earlier gin was built by Andreas and his two brothers, Jacob and Nicholas, in the 1880s. This building included the first commercial corn sheller in the area as well. The gin was located on a site near the sharp corner of Old Nacogdoches Road just north of the old Kneupper Store. It burned down in 1899 causing Jacob and Nicholas to get out of the ginning business. FYI: Cotton is very flammable and can spontaneously combust. Trailers full of rain-wet cotton and stored piles of unginned cotton can ignite in the center and burn inside-out setting fire to other trailers and the cotton gin itself.

Andreas Friesenhahn continued on and built a new gin and corn sheller soon after the fire. This is the structure we can see today. He ran the business through the early 1900s and then deeded the gin, corn sheller, seed house and cotton yard to his three sons Gregor, Jacob and Ferdinand. They operated the place under the “Friesenhahn Brothers Gin” name. Gregor left the company in 1923. The cotton market nose-dived in the 1940s, and the gin closed. After the death of Jacob in 1946, Ferdinand’s wife Mathilda and son Roman bought the structure and continued to run the corn shelling operation until 1959.

In a 1986 oral history recording in the Sopheinburg Museum collections, Vivian Zipp, a native of the Solms/Comal Settlement area, reflected on the Friesenhahn Brothers Gin:

The Friesenhahn Brothers Cotton Gin and Corn Sheller was owned by Jacob, Gregor and Ferdinand Friesenhahn. It was located close to the Katy railroad. A spur line was laid from the main tracks to the cotton gin and corn sheller…you could see box cars loaded with shelled corn, ginned cotton bales and bales of corn shucks. The farmers would use the shucks to feed their cattle. They had a warehouse close to the spur where bales of corn shucks were stored when boxcars were filled or not available for shipping…. At the peak of the season [August through December] the wagons of cotton and wagons of corn were lined up from each direction — from the west on the San Antonio–Austin highway, from the east on the San Antonio-Austin highway and to the south on Friesenhahn Lane — with waiting wagons taking cotton to be ginned and corn to be shelled [There was no IH-35 back then, so the San Antonio–Austin Road went straight through the middle of Solms]. There were many nights that you could hear the cotton gin and corn sheller running into the wee hours of the morning until every farmer had unloaded. Sometimes as many as 50 wagons from each direction were waiting in line.

The Friesenhahn gin and corn sheller stands empty and quiet now. I love the big old yellowish brick building whose smoke stack still towers over the landscape. What stories can it tell of those first farming families who lived there for generations, working the land, gathering with friends, going to church and pitching in when disaster hit one of their friends or family? What can it tell us about the character of the people and times it shadowed in its heyday? Drive by, take a moment —and listen.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum: Neu Braunfelser Zeitung collection; Oscar Haas collection; Reflections Oral History collection; and “Comal Texas”, a research project of the Comal Settlement Association and Schertz Historical Preservation Committee.

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

As a child, were you ever told that wanting a special toy or dress or bike would land the whole family on the poor farm? I’m not sure it was said specifically to me, but I have heard it said. I wondered where these farms were and who had to go there, but never really got an answer, until now. Did you know that New Braunfels had a poor farm? I certainly didn’t, and I grew up here.

I think the farm location shocked me the most. A farm. In town. Okay, it was actually located in Comal Town, close to what is now Landa Park, but only a mile and a half from Main Plaza. The area was rural farmland when the county commissioners created it, and Comal Town was not part of New Braunfels. Let’s start over.

As long as people have inhabited the earth, there have been people of lesser means – the indigent or poor people. Many were poor because of unfortunate circumstances, illness or old age. Continental Europe followed Spanish traditions where families and the church charities were responsible for helping the needy. Within English society, responsibility for care of the poor was given to local authorities and families, but with government oversight.

Pauper care in Texas was rooted in Spanish tradition that expected the church, charities and families to care for the needy. The churches did the best they could. With the formation of the Republic of Texas 1836, care for those in need changed to a system rooted in English poor law. The new republic enacted laws that organized courts and defined their duties. One law specified that it was the “duty of said board of commissioners to provide at the expense of the county, for the support of indigent, lame, and blind persons, who are unable to support themselves.” Support came as both outside support (money to help them in their homes) or inside, which meant living in an almshouse or on a poor farm. After Texas gained statehood, the act was modified in 1846 to include a provision for responsibility of pauper burials.

Those who came to Texas from Europe banked all they had to make a new life in this wonderful land. The risk was high and there was no Plan B. If things went wrong, they were in trouble. Illness, snake bites, childbirth, even riding a horse could create a traumatic change of events. Losing a spouse to childbirth or illness often split up families. Those with frailties, no means of support and advanced age were sent to the poor farm and children went to an orphanage. The indigent of early New Braunfels were usually widows or of very advanced age. They were granted support of about $6 monthly.

After the Civil War, there was much suffering that churches and charities could hardly keep up. The Texas Constitution, amended in 1869, provided for the establishment of the county labor poorhouses. It was not until 1897 that Comal County Comissioners voted to establish a poor farm in New Braunfels. They voted to purchase fourteen acres of land from Louis Moeller for $1350. The land was located in the vicinity of the Landa Estates, bordered by Market (now Torrey), LibertyAvenue, Mulberry Avenue and the Comal River. The county authorized the building of three houses of board and batten construction. The houses were located on Lots No. 74 & 82 up front on Market. Mr. George Lang was hired to be the manager of the poor farm. He was allowed to live rent-free in the middle house and was expected to feed all of the paupers sent to the farm on 20 cents per day. Approximately eleven and a half acres of the property was leased back to Mr. Moeller for cultivation.

The poor farm continued to operate over the years in spite the MKT Railroad cutting through the property. Albert Marion was manager for twenty-four years. After his death in 1934, his nephew Milton C. Marion took the job. The poor farm had been very important in helping many people make it through the depression, being able to work and support the families.

In 1934, the Social Security Act changed indigent care forever and the need began to dwindle. I could still find M.C. Marion was listed as poor farm manager in 1940, but not after that. In 1936, Harry Landa sold his park to the City and the Landa Estates developed on property that was once poor farm. People still resided in the old poor farm houses in the ‘40s and ‘50s.

Time moved on and in 1961 the City County Health Department took up residence in one of the white board and batten Torrey Street houses. If you had to get vaccinations or health cards between 1961 and 1974, that is where you went. At the same time, the county warehouse occupied barns on the same poor farm property between the railroad and Torrey Street. After the Health Department moved to the old Naval Reserve building on Comal Street, the County Probation department had some programs there. The two-acre poor farm property changed hands in 1980 when Henk Paving moved in. The last board and batten structure was recently destroyed to make way for parking.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives; https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1467&context=ita

Caption: Map indicating the location of the Comal County Poor Farm

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

Have you ever thought about what travel was like before superhighways and chain hotels? It was definitely a much simpler time.

Early travel meant dirt roads, complete with ruts and mud holes. Not until after World War I did road improvements became a priority. The Federal Highway Act of 1921 provided funding for a system of paved two-lane interstate highways giving each state the responsibility for building standards and numbering systems within their borders. Wow, that seems like a travel nightmare waiting to happen.

In November 1926, the United States Numbered Highway System changed the way U.S. drivers navigated the country. North-south routes were given odd numbers and east-west given even. That is when U.S. Highway 81 was born. It ran from Laredo, Texas to Canada, roughly following the 6th meridian. Part of it ran from San Antonio through Solms, then along the edge of New Braunfels and on through to San Marcos.

Early travelers stayed in hotels located in towns. As more people traveled the back roads of America, more roadside overnight accommodations appeared. West of the Mississippi, tourist campsites became popular. Then came “cabin camps,” basically gas stations that offered cabins for rent with or without mattresses. By the 1930s or ’40s, roadside tourist courts became a classier alternative to cabin camps. Each cottage was decorated with a theme, connected together around a center courtyard. They were designed to be automobile friendly, often with attached carports.

New Braunfels, touted as the “Beauty Spot of Texas”, had many tourist courts along U.S. 81.

The first was Sunset Courts. It was a small strip of rooms located on the tip of the triangle where 81 meets Butcher at Avenue A. Owned by Willie Deterling, they boasted AC/heat, kitchenettes, carports (as most of them did) and a 4-star rating.

Alta Motel was located at the top of the hill on the corner of Highway 81 and Magazine Avenue. This tourist court had eleven tidy little white individual cabins with covered parking situated all around the perimeter of the property. The two-story office and swimming pool were located in the center courtyard. In addition to similar amenities as Sunset Courts, they offered free swimming at Camp Warnecke or Landa Park. The last buildings were torn down sometime in the early 2000s to make way for Advance Auto Parts.

Lucky Star Motel was located between the Guadalupe River bridge on 81 and what is now McKenna Avenue. Lucky Star was a collection of stucco flat top buildings with carports built around a central driveway. It currently operates as the Riverside Lodge. The office is now a two-story structure, and the roof of each building is gabled.

Dwight’s Motel was located on the corner of 81 and Ridgewood Avenue. It was a collection of stucco units connected to each other in an L shape around the edge of the property. In the center of the court was an office and a private swimming pool. Some years ago, the motel was updated with brick facades and gabled roofs. It is currently operating as Garden Inn of New Braunfels.

Shady Oak Courts originally sat on what was the old Meyer Ranch/Farm. After Meyer’s death, Hylmar and Lucille Meyer Oberkampf inherited and built the Shady Oaks Motel with its pool. It changed hands a couple of times before being sold to the Smokehouse. The New Braunfels Smokehouse tasting room, which originally sat on the property that is now Howard Johnson’s, was moved across 81 to the Shady Oaks property. I remember that they originally left the pool, but later filled it in. Portions of the motel rock fence around the property could still be seen around the Smokehouse property until they moved the restaurant again. It is now a car wash.

Fountain Court Motel was built by Thurman and Bertha McEvoy in the mid-1940s to serve the budding “snowbird” tourist community long before Interstate 35 was built. It consisted of half a dozen stucco duplex style cottages with attached covered parking on each side. They were arranged in a half circle around a large grassy center court with a fountain. In later years, they installed a large rock fountain and a huge swing set. The cottages became a home-away-from-home for any repeat guests. The last buildings were destroyed when Walgreen’s was built in the early 2000s.

Alta Vista was located on Highway 81 just north of Fountain Courts. Owned for many years by Art & Leah Queen, it was built in the Spanish Revival style. The white stucco buildings had shaped parapets and were connected by red tiled roof entry ways. The office was at the front, facing the road. The last building was removed to make way for Lux Funeral home.

Although I have listed these in order along Highway 81, I purposely skipped one and left my very favorite memory until last. Have you ever heard anyone speak of the Diving Lady? To me she was a marvel in neon calling to travelers on Highway 81 and an absolute sight to behold in the dark of night. She sat atop the River Courts Motel at the base of the Guadalupe River bridge in New Braunfels, blinking back and forth from upright to diving. The motel was comprised of several wood frame units joined together by carports and gabled roof. Owned by the Biedermanns, the motel wrapped neatly around the property perched above the Guadalupe River. The Diving Lady promised a refreshing dip in the swimming pool.

In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had seen the autobahns in Germany during WWII, signed off on the Federal Interstate Highway System to build four-lane highways across the United States. I-35 construction began in New Braunfels in 1959, taking the traffic from U.S. 81 as it grew. Eventually, U.S. 81 in New Braunfels became Business 35 and Elliott Knox Boulevard, but you will still hear the locals lovingly refer to it simply as “81”. It was from a simpler time.

Sources: Sophienburg Archives; https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/twilight-mom-and-pop-motel-180963895/

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

I love driving through the tree lined streets of New Braunfels in the winter month(s). The absence of leaves invites a closer look at the buildings, the rooflines, the architectural details, the landscaping. Oddly, I have always been drawn to the properties lined with mature palm trees. They seem so exotic. As the palms are clearly not native, they must have been chosen to make the properties stand out. One of my favorite palm-lined spaces used to be the property on the corner of Gilbert and Tolle Streets.

One might say, “Oh, that’s a restaurant or tourist place. They do that all the time.” Except these trees are from a time before tourist attractions. They mark the property that was once a hospital. It was the Comal Sanitarium.

In 1920, the Comal Sanitarium Company was formed. Dr. M.C. Hagler and Dr. Arthur Bergfeld initially established the Comal Sanitarium, a privately-owned hospital, in the former Comal Hotel (now Prince Solms Inn). It was run by charge nurse Miss Ida Belle Hulette, R.N. The temporary hospital boasted a first-class operating room, sterilizing room, twelve private rooms and a large ward for emergency cases. It was open to all doctors.

By mid-1920, a new, modern hospital was being built by A.C. Moeller just a block away on Gilbert Street. Financed by Dr. Bergfeld’s father-in-law, U.S.‘Tug’ Pfeuffer, the hospital was built on three acres located on the banks of the Comal River between E. San Antonio and Tolle Streets. The hospital was fully operational by 1921. It was a two-story building, 44 x 80 feet, with a basement and a 10-foot sleeping porch running the length of the building (There was no AC, only the summer breezes to stay cool). The first floor housed ten patient rooms, a large, completely equipped operating room and a smaller adjoining operating space. These operating rooms were said to be top notch and comparable to any found in larger cities. The first floor also had a sterilizing room with steam pressure and an electrical sterilizer. Dr. Arthur Bergfeld’s office was a separate building added later.

The second floor held another ten patient rooms, eight bathrooms and one large ward that could accommodate twenty patients. In the basement, there was a 24 x 44-foot state of the art laboratory. There was also a dormitory accommodating twelve full-time nurses who lived on site. A heating plant located in the basement supplied the building with electrical heating. The buildings had both hot and cold water.

One of the most historically significant things associated with Comal Sanitarium is that it was the site of the very first x-ray machine in Texas. (In Texas, y’all!) Dr. Bergfeld had studied in Germany for several months and had the latest and largest x-ray machine shipped from Germany at the cost of $4,000 to equip his hospital. This new technology, housed in an x-ray laboratory, operated at 25,000 volts (like that of an overhead trolley car wire – YIKES!) and was said to throw a spark 12 inches long with sounds resembling a “gattling gun.” Double Yikes! Occupying at least two rooms, the machine was used to “cure cancer and other incurables,” as well as see bones and such inside the body. I might have to think about that a while.

Drs. Hagler and Bergfeld took their oath to care for people in their community seriously. Not only did they purchase all of the building materials, furnishings and equipment locally (except for x-ray machine), they had a rule to never turn anyone away. They provided thousands of dollars of charity health care and medicine for those who could not pay. Comal Sanitarium ran a tuberculosis clinic and had contracts with the U.S. Treasury Department to care for sick or wounded ex-soldiers. The hospital was also the site of the Comal Sanitarium School of Nursing, graduating many registered nurses. Dr. Arthur Bergfeld’s son, Jack Bergfeld became a physician and joined him in practice in 1943. Somewhere along the way, the palms were planted as large shrubs along the edge of the campus.

By the late ’40s, the other New Braunfels Hospital, or Krankenhaus, was struggling. It was in an old building and was not doing well. In 1949, the Bergfelds offered Comal Sanitarium to the City of New Braunfels for $48,000. The voters turned it down. Hundreds of people continued to receive care and hundreds of babies were delivered at Comal Sanitarium. Yes, yes. I know. Every child ever born at Comal Sanitarium, including me, has been chided about being “crazy” because the hospital was called a Sanitarium (which in recent years has been likened to an asylum). However, the term sanitarium or sanatorium, as used in the 1920s when this fine establishment was built, is defined as a place for extended convalescence or to regain health. Many hospitals of that time were called sanitariums.

Comal Sanitarium closed in July 1965 after the death of Dr. Arthur Bergfeld. Burglaries and vandalism caused much damage to the structure and equipment. The property was sold to J. B. Harmon of El Campo. It sat empty with its only inhabitants being raccoons and other creatures.

In 1975, the property was purchased by a group of investors led by Gaz Green and Melvin Jochec under the name Gasthaus New Braunfels. They razed the building and built the new multilevel stone, wood and glass structure that you see today, named The River Restaurant. The palm trees stayed. The restaurant was to be the first phase of a planned resort on the Comal River, with 100-unit motel planned in the second phase. The restaurant, with food service managed by Anita Jaroszewski, opened in the Spring of 1976, featuring German cuisine an on-site bakery and sausage room. It was a culinary success. The restaurant lasted about three years before closing. The hotel units never materialized. There have been numerous reiterations of the restaurant: Treetops, a BBQ place, a music venue and others, before becoming the current seasonal tube rental place. There are fewer palm trees around the edge of the property, but I still like them.

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Sources: Sophienburg Archives; Photo Collection of Tommy Ortiz

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