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 in 1923 for about 10 years. It was a period of extreme success, followed by almost complete failure and then success once again. To me, it showed the tenacity of the directors to keep this “the largest County Fair in Central Texas”.

Here’s how it happened: After some slack years, the Fair Association reorganized into a corporation in 1923, bought more land, put up more buildings, repaired the grandstand and then the unexpected happened; a fire totally destroyed the new grandstand. The choice was to rebuild or close up; they rebuilt. Then they took out rain insurance, and as luck would have it, rain came on Friday and Saturday. On Monday the insurance adjuster handed over $5,000 and with the additional gate receipts that year, the fair was in good shape financially.

The success of this fair spurred on spending for the next few years. Additional buildings were built and the land was improved. Write-ups in the New Braunfels Herald showed an overall optimistic spirit. Two gigantic pageants were held at the fairgrounds, the biggest with over 300 performers was called “The Gypsy Rover”.

The first fair queen, Alvina Vogel, was crowned in 1929 with much pomp, circumstance, and expense. The parades were getting bigger and so were the carnivals and rodeos. Slowly the Great Depression crept south but the local economy was looking good (so they thought) and the Fair Association decided to hold the 1931 fair despite economics. The depression was having a bigger effect than they realized and unfortunately, the fair went in the hole to the tune of $2,250, a big amount at that time.

Now here’s where they showed their tenacity. The FA decided to make some drastic changes in order to hold a fair in ’32. First they sent a letter to all those winners who would have received cash prizes in ‘31 stating that they were sending a certificate that could be redeemed “only after we have the money”. Secretary Edwin Staats suggested that they might want to consider just donating the unpaid certificate as many others had done. Then they cut out all activities that cost big bucks, like the queen’s contest. Elsie Meyer in ‘31 was the last fair queen until 1967. In addition, as much home talent as possible was used.

Of course, the carnival had to be engaged and a professional rodeo had to be hired. For entertainment, the arena was converted into a western ranch with ponies, steers, and broncos. Then there was a home talent rodeo in which only Comal Countians could participate.

Pageants that had become a big draw were eliminated. They called on the community to provide free entertainment, like the NB Unicorns football game and polo games. There was even a burlesque polo game on donkeys as a comedy act. On this team were Ernst Stein, Charles Scruggs, Paul Jahn, Pete Nuhn, Coach Rode, Red Babel, Barney Koepp, Dr. Rennie Wright, and Jack Eiband. There were no cash prizes for anything.

By far, the biggest innovative change was the practice of giving gate passes to exhibitors in order to attract large crowds. This practice has been carried on ever since. The strategy worked! The fair not only kept afloat, but it made a whopping profit of $150. When all was done, a Herald reporter observed,”No depression that ever existed can depress the fair spirit in Comal County”. If you would like to know more about the history of the fair, purchase their book It’s Fair Time at the fairgrounds or the Sophienburg.

(This article first appeared SEPTEMBER 18, 2007)

The post First county fair was in 1894 appeared first on Sophies Shop.

Ranch Road 32 West is worth a drive into a scenic part of Comal County. From New Braunfels, drive out FM 306, right on Purgatory Road, then left at RR 32 over a section called Devil’s Backbone. Probably named for the spine of the devil, it winds and winds and you are sure to get car-sick if you are prone to such an affliction.

At the intersection of RR32 and FM484 you come to a settlement called Fischer. Just to tell you how long this settlement has been there, the area (Hermann Fischer Ranch) received the Texas Department of Agriculture Family Land Heritage 150 year designation in 2004, which is given for continuous agricultural operation in the same family beginning at 100 years.

Hermann Fischer and his wife Anna were the first to settle in the valley on 160 acres where they built the first log cabin in the area. They came to Texas in 1846. Otto Fischer bought land next to Hermann’s, and both brothers were in the cattle business. Otto married Adolfina Schlameus. Other Germans that settled in the area were– Schlameus, Spangenberg, Linnartz, Luehlfing, Sachtleben, Pantermuehl, Kaderli, Haas, Schubert, Wersterfer, Krause and Wiechman. With this many families in the valley, Hermann decided to build a store in 1866 at one end of his log cabin. The store became the center of the community. With a large assortment of merchandise, Hermann soon expanded the store to three buildings selling groceries, farm machinery and household goods.

When the settlement received a post office named Fischer’s Store in 1876, it became well known over Texas. Then the name changed to Fischer Store and then in 1950 to Fischer.

A dance hall, bowling alley, school, blacksmith shop, cotton gin, gristmill, rodeo grounds, grist mill and last, but certainly not least, a cemetery was added.

Not far from the settlement on Ranch Road 32 is a large cemetery that has the earmarks of a caring group of people. This cemetery already is an HISTORIC TEXAS CEMETERY. Many Fischers are buried in that cemetery. Of the almost 500 graves there are other prominent family names.

In 1886 Otto Fischer gave 30 acres of his land to the Fischer’s Store Community for the purpose of building a school for their children. It was on the highest point of this land that the cemetery informally got started. It was appropriately called Fischer’s School Graveyard at Fischer’s Store. The Fischer Cemetery Association was later organized in 1976.

The first burial was the infant son of Monroe and Nettie Smith, nearby landowners and also the cemetery caretaker. Besides family members interred, there are also 21 graves of people whose remains were moved from the area that would become covered by Canyon Lake. Throughout the years, four graves were also moved from the Pantermuehl Ranch and single graves from Dripping Springs, Pleasant Valley, Schlameus Ranch and Suche Ranch.

So what happened to the rest of the 30 acres that was to be used for education? A school was built on this property and still stands. It is now the Fischer Community Center. All the one-room county school houses were consolidated under the Comal County Rural School which led to the current Comal Independent School District. Under this consolidation, the district claimed ownership of the land given by Otto Fischer. In 1976 the CISD transferred 3.851 acres of the original 30 acres to the Fischer Cemetery Association. The association divided the land into 1170 burial plots.

Leaving the cemetery, turn right on RR32 which leads you into the Fischer settlement. Located in the old Fischer Store is the Fischer Store Museum. There is so much history in that museum and so many genuine old things that tell the history of the Fischer community. One relict of interest to me was the old telephone booth that was located inside the store. It is beautifully constructed of wood. Inside the booth was a phone and at one time there were 16 parties on this one line. I even remember when there were two party lines in the city of New Braunfels. But 16?

The old cotton gin ledgers are there and their liquor license #84. The shelving and tables are all authentic to the store. Another interesting relic was a large cabbage slicer. Guess what that was used for. Right. It was used to make sauerkraut. Many people that live in the country still make sauerkraut.

Just down the road from the museum is the old dance hall. Private dances and receptions are still held and a public dance once a year. Next to the dance hall is the bowling alley where, to this day, nine pin bowling takes place.

Did you know that Fischer Store had a polo team? In the museum are homemade mallets made of a type of bamboo and wood. The open grass field measuring 300 feet long and 160 yards wide is still there across from the dance hall. The game was played with four players. One game lasted six chukkers or periods of 7 ½ minutes each. Cecil Smith who died in 1999 is given credit for starting the polo team at Fischer Store. Smith bought horses from the ranchers and trained them to be polo ponies. Polo ponies cannot be used as ranch horses once they are trained to be polo ponies. These trained ponies were temperamental and had a mind of their own. Part of the sport was the pony trying to throw off the rider.

The Comal County Fair will be this next week, Sept 24 to 28. There won’t be a polo game, but there once was. Back in 1932, the fair was reeling from the Depression, trying to stay afloat. They asked for local talent and the Fischer Store polo team challenged the New Braunfels team. The Fischer Store team was made up of Bill Fischer, Raymond Fischer, J.W. Bode, Bubie Vollmering, Reagan Calhoun and —Pape. The New Braunfels team was E.A. Maier, Hilmar Staats, Clifford Startz, Tommie Specht, Dickie Tausch, Roy Meredith, R.R. Coreth, Jackie Bergfeld, and Herbert Marion.

Between chukkers, a burlesque polo team from New Braunfels put on a comedy act. That team was made up of Ernst Stein, Charles Scruggs, Paul Jahn, Pete Nuhn, Coach Rode, “Red” Babel, Barney Koepp, Dr. Rennie Wright and Jack Eiband. What a sight that must have been!

Even without a polo game, see you at the Fair!

The post Devil’s Backbone leads you to Fischer’s Store appeared first on Sophies Shop.