How would you like to watch the New Braunfels July 4^th fireworks from the highest point in New Braunfels? Maybe you could even see the fireworks in San Marcos, Seguin and Randolph Field from this spot. Well, you can’t do it this year, but maybe it will be possible in the future.

The New Braunfels Parks and Recreation Department is in the process of designing a new park which will be called Mission Hill Park. Off of Hwy. 46 right next to the HEB grocery store is a ten-acre piece of property obtained by the City for the development of a park. The name Mission Hill supposedly got its name from a Spanish Mission in the area from the mid-1700s. However, the description that is more accurate is “proposed site of the Mission Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe.” The mission that was established was short-lived in temporary quarters and really nobody knows exactly where it was located. Missions were established next to water sources and this property is a long way from the rivers. Whatever its origin, the name Mission Hill stuck.

One of the plans is to include a tower on the promontory point of the property reminiscent of a similar tower dating back to the early 1900s. Many New Braunfelsers remember the home with the tower.

The property where the park will locate has an interesting history about who owned it and what it was used for.

Go back to 1847 when the State of Texas issued a grant of land on which the Mission Hill is located to Andres Sanchez who transferred it to Daniel Murchison in 1854. The property was 320 acres.

In 1856 Murchison deeded the 320-acre property to Ludwig Kessler and shortly thereafter to Friedrich Ludwig Hermann Conring. The Conrings were the stewards of the land for almost three decades. Conring and his wife, Georgine Meyer, arrived in 1854 from Germany.

Two of their sons fought in the Civil War. One son, Ernst, was a saltpeter maker which explains why the Mission Hill property contains a kiln similar to the one in Landa Park. During the Civil War the kiln produced gun powder used by the army. This family information was shared by Lorine Riedel (Calvin) who still lives in NB. She is the great-great-granddaughter of Hermann and Georgine Conring. The Conrings built a home on Mission Hill in the 1850s. Lorine’s grandmother, Clara Conring, told stories about her grandmother, Georgine, hiding in the home during the Civil War.

In 1883 the property was sold to Franz Coreth and from that time on, it was owned by the Franz Coreth family, his son Rochette, and his grandson Franz Ernst Coreth.

According to Kay Faust Specht, great-granddaughter of Franz and Minna Zesch Coreth, Franz’s father was Austrian Count Ernst Coreth. After emigrating from Germany, Ernst and his wife Agnes Erler Coreth purchased 280 acres from John O. Meusebach near Wald Road on the Comal Creek. They lived on the property the rest of their lives. Remember when I wrote the Altgelt Pond story? (Sophienburg.com) The house was very close to that pond.

Now back to Mission Hill. Franz Coreth ranched and farmed the land that he bought from Hermann Conring. He built an L-shaped house in the late 1800s but unfortunately it burned down to the ground. Family tradition states that there was a volunteer fire department in New Braunfels but its horse-drawn fire wagon was unable to pull the heavy water tank up Mission Hill. A second house was built on the same spot, very similar to the first one but with the addition of a porch and a tower.

One of the daughters of Franz and Minna Coreth was Lina Coreth Windwehen who shared information with her granddaughter, Kay Faust Specht. Lina grew up in that house and told her granddaughter many tales of living in the house on Mission Hill. She remembered a large screened-in porch. Of course, the tower with the “widow’s walk” was a favorite of all the children. So many events could be seen from that tower. Miles of the land below and early mapmakers came to survey NB from that tower. During WWI, in 1918, Gen. Pershing brought his troops to the ranch from Ft. Sam Houston where they practiced their maneuvers. He watched the troops on the plain below from Mission Hill.

Rochette Coreth was the son of Franz and Minna and he continued to ranch the land after his father died. When he married his first wife, Flora Bading, he built a second house on the hill next to the original house. It was actually the third Coreth house on the hill. Flora Bading died when their only child, Franz Ernst Coreth, was three years old.

The next segment of the Coreth story on Mission Hill began when Rochette married Melinda Staats. Relatives of Melinda’s that provided the following information were: Mitzi Nuhn Dreher, Judy Nuhn Morton, and A.D. Nuhn Jr. The A.D. and Irene Nuhn family lived in the tower house in the mid-1940s. The Nuhns remember seeing the Eiband and Fischer fire down on the Plaza in 1947. It was a huge fire. They also remember lightning striking the tower blowing out what was around the water faucets. When the lightening hit the chimney, the whole dining room filled with soot. The tower was the source of many adventures for the Nuhn children and their friends. I was lucky enough to be one of them.

Another source of information from a more modern observation was that of Joel Karl Erben, great-nephew of Melinda Coreth. His mother, Joline Staats Erben, was the sister of Melinda. As a young child he spent many hours at the Mission Hill homes and ranch. Joel recalls that with Hurricane Carla, considerable damage was done to the upper rails and shutters of the tower. That kept him from going to the top of the tower. It was possible to see things from that viewpoint that one could see nowhere else.

Joel remembers a story about a political cocktail party at Mission Hill. Rochette was on the board of directors of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association. The Coreths gave a party for the directors which, incidentally, included Gov. Dolph Briscoe and his wife, Janie. As formal as these affairs can be, the Coreths asked the guests to park at the bottom of the hill by the barns and hike up the hill. He has a vision of the women struggling up the hill wearing pumps (high heels).

Imagine this: Joel remembers cloudy days when the tower was above the clouds. Now that’s a picture. From the tower it was possible to see the smoke stacks of LCRA sticking up over the fog line. He says that weather fronts take on a different view from up high.

Rochette Coreth was a very popular figure in NB. He involved himself politically and for that he was honored to be the grand marshal for the New Braunfels Centennial parade. Riding his white horse, he had a saddle embellished with sterling silver. The suit he wore and the saddle are at the Sophienburg. A video shows Rochette galloping up the side of Mission Hill after the parade.

The last Coreth to own Mission Hill was Franz Ernst Coreth. In the 1990s both of the unoccupied houses burned down.

The Parks Department is still in the planning stage for the property that will be enjoyed by the whole community. I would think that the whole Coreth family will be proud that this significant property will be honored as a park.

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The banner year in the history of Texas was 1836, the year that the Republic of Texas declared its independence from Mexico, drew up its first constitution and declared itself independent. This constitution with its generous land policy would be the driving force leading to the German immigration movement. What happened at that convention determined that estimated 7,000 Germans would emigrate to Texas. Many settled in Comal County.

Republic of Texas Declaration of Independence

The Texas Declaration of Independence stated that Mexico, under the presidency of Santa Anna, had violated the liberties that had been guaranteed Mexican citizens according to the Mexican Constitution of 1821. It stated that Texicans (Mexicans in the Texas part of Mexico) had been deprived of freedom of religion, right to trial by jury, the right to bear arms, and the provision of public education for its children.

Spanish explorers had made claim to most of the land called Texas since the 1500s. Texas was the northern area of Mexico called Coahuila that had been controlled by Spain until they were defeated by Mexico in 1821.

Texas was not the “pick of the crop” by either Mexicans or Americans. The Comanche of the plains and in the hill country were a big problem for the settlers. Few people ventured into the area, much less settled there. When the Texicans complained to Mexican authorities about their problems, they were met with force on the part of the Santa Anna, president of Mexico. With a large army, determined to drive the Texicans out, Santa Anna’s entry into Texas would lead to the Battle of the Alamo, of Goliad, and then eventually to the Battle of San Jacinto.

These battles resulted from the formation of the Declaration of Independence. The convention to make that decision took place at Washington-on the-Brazos. This small town had enough housing for the delegates and other towns did not.

Fifty-nine delegates met and adopted a constitution unanimously on March 2, 1836. Can you guess how many of these delegates were Texans? Now count: Twelve from Virginia, 10 from North Carolina, nine from Tennessee, six from Kentucky, four from Georgia, three from South Carolina, three from Pennsylvania, three from Mexico (two of which were native Texans, Jose Antonio Navarro and Jose Francisco Ruiz), two from New York, one from Massachusetts, one from Mississippi, one from New Jersey, one from England, one from Ireland, one from Scotland and one from Canada.

After the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, Texas was a free Republic and remained independent from 1836 to 1845.The constitution went into effect immediately and its generous land policy eventually became the reason for the German emigration.

Adelsverein

Now the Adelsverein in Germany enters the picture. A group of German counts and princes met at Biebrich on the Rhine to establish a colony in Texas. Wanting to relieve overpopulation and establish overseas markets to help Germany pay for the Napoleonic War was the main reason for this organization. Besides, the Texas Republic had awarded land to immigrant agents in the form of colonization contracts.

The “Society for the Protection of German Immigrants” was organized and Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels was sent to Texas to purchase land for the colonists.

New Braunfels was never intended to be the final destination of the colony. The original destination of the emigration project was the Bourgeois/Ducos grant on the Medina River. Bourgeois’ contract with the Republic of Texas was not renewed. Then Solms considered another tract of land. Two men, Fischer and Miller, acquired large plots of land on the San Saba and Llano Rivers. The Prince decided that because it was so far away from the coast, he would have to have a waystation. Just six days before the emigrants crossed the Guadalupe the Prince purchased the Comal Tract from the Veramendi heirs as a waystation.

The original immigrant contract with the Adelsverein stated that each head of family would receive 320 acres and single men would receive 160 acres. Only after they crossed the Guadalupe into New Braunfels were they told that they would receive one-half acre lot and one 10-acre plot. They were not happy campers. A few went on their own to claim land on the San Saba, but not many. New Braunfels became the home for most of them.

Veramendi’s Comal Tract

When Texas was still under Spanish control in 1807, a land speculator named Baron de Bastrop purchased four leagues of land on the Guadalupe which included the Comal Springs (later called the Comal Tract). When the Mexican flag flew over Texas, the vice-governor of Texas and Coahuila in 1825, Juan de Veramendi, petitioned the Mexican government for 11 leagues of land which also included the Comal Tract. When Veramendi died, his daughter Maria Veramendi and husband Rafael Garza, inherited the tract of land and sold it to Prince Carl for $1,111.

In Comal County there were three Mexican Land Grants from 1831 before the Republic, two for Veramendi and one for Antonio Maria Esnaurizer. There were eventually many different types of grants available in the Republic of Texas and State of Texas for citizenship, military service, colonization and public improvement, such as schools and railroads. Looking at the Land Grant Map of Comal County, one can find such grantees as Samuel Millett who fought at San Jacinto, Gordon Jennings (heirs), David Crockett (heirs) and Toribio Lasoya (heirs), who died at the Alamo.

Texas became a state of the United States in 1845 and between 1845 and 1898 Texans were issued preemption grants for 160 to 320 acres with the stipulation that the grantee must live on and improve the land for three years. This happened to hundreds of Comal County land owners. These grants were acquired by many German settlers in Comal County.

Without the formation of the Republic of Texas and the Declaration of Independence, the future of Comal County would have been quite different. On March 2^nd, drive around our Main Plaza and salute the many Texas flags put up by the Ferdinand Lindheimer Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

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