Braunfels Castle Archives - Sophies Shop

The art of history

director — Sun, 02 Aug 2020 05:00:35 +0000

By Tara Voigt Kohlenberg —

History is shared in many formats including art, the printed word and personal stories handed down from one generation to another. Quilts are special commemoratives given for births, graduations, weddings, and anniversaries or to someone who is moving away. Quilts are art. While more practical and useful than an oil painting, some quilts use textiles to paint pictures documenting people, places or events.

Every 25 years, New Braunfels has celebrated its founding and traditionally marked the occasion with a permanent symbol of historic importance. Fundraisers are required to support those projects. For the 150th Anniversary or Sesquicentennial, quilts were selected as one of the fundraisers, as well as, a way for the community to participate and to leave something behind to mark the occasion.

In 1993, two years before the 150th Anniversary, the Sesquicentennial Quilt Committee was formed. Bobbie Purdom, Historical Advisory Committee Chair, named Nell Morton and Mary Ann Thompson co-chairs of the Quilt Committee. Their project was to enlist the community to create three complete historically themed quilts; one to raffle and two for museums. They set about organizing The Pictorial Quilt Block Contest of historical places/events in New Braunfels.

Mission Valley Mills supplied the plaid fabrics for the contest. The fabrics were cut and packaged in bags with instructions. Contest rules required that each contestant: use only the fabric provided in their packet, hand-piece the square, and create an original design and pattern. But what to put in a quilt design? If you could choose a few of your most prized images or icons that represent your life’s journey and assembled them all into one place, what would you see? Mine might include a Unicorn and a Double T for starters, but telling my story in a dozen pictures would take some thought. What about the story of New Braunfels? That is what the Quilt Committee had to come up with.

Topics suggested for participants to use on the squares included Prince Solms, Landing at Indianola, The Comal Springs, the Bandstand on Main Plaza, Founders’ Oak, Wurstfest and more. The response was overwhelming, with over seventy packets being given out. The blocks were returned by March 15, 1994. The entries were judged by Fran Hensley of San Antonio, Betty Benton of Seguin and Beth Kennedy of Austin. First Place went to Brenda DeStefano for Lindheimer House, Second Place went to Rosemarie Ritchey for her Bandstand and Third went to Connie Cone and Alvena Armstrong for Prince Solms. Honorable mentions were given to Loyce Boarnet and Marie Mann. In the meantime, while the sewing was done, Betty Worl and Jane Hensley headed the committee members selling sponsorships and raffle tickets to support the anniversary celebration. The raffles netted about $800.

After the contest, the assembled squares were to be arranged into the three quilt tops. The committee soon learned that they had enough squares to make a fourth quilt, allowing for a second quilt to be raffled off. Mary Ann and Hank Thompson designed the quilt layouts, using a large center block format. The center logos were done by Jeanette Felger, Brenda DeStefano, Florence Brownfield and Mary Ann Thompson. All four quilts were backed and bound by Susan Derkacz and Brenda DeStefano. The quilts were truly a community project. The quilt frames were set up in the lobby of the Chamber of Commerce where the actual quilting was done. Women, men, children, the New Braunfels Area Quilters’ Guild, the Eagles’ Auxiliary, church quilters, and the Senior Citizens of New Braunfels all put their stitches in these quilts.

The first quilt was raffled off in April of 1995, at the Sesquicentennial Festivities. Carol Torrence won. The second quilt was raffled off at the Chamber dinner in January 1996 to end the sesquicentennial year. Ann Kuehler won the second quilt. The last two quilts went to the Sophienburg Museum and Archives… and are currently on display.

Sounds like a busy couple of years for those quilters, but wait, there’s more to the story.

In 1995, the city of Braunfels, Germany, also gave New Braunfels a quilt for our 150th Anniversary. It is a beautiful piece representing Braunfels Castle and the city of Braunfels. That treasured quilt is still on display in Honors Hall at the Chamber of Commerce offices. After completing the four quilts for New Braunfels Sesquicentennial year, Brenda DeStefano and Susan Derkacz decided it would be great to return the sentiment by giving the city of Braunfels a quilt marking their 750th Anniversary in 1996. DeStefano and Derkacz designed the quilt and presented the list of blocks to the Sesquicentennial Commission for the Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce. They came up with several landmarks that had to be in the design, and then added Texas items, like the yellow rose and prickly pear. They already had patterns for five of the blocks and then created the rest.

The women began the quilt in September 1995 (after the other four were done) and finished it in May, putting in more than 500 hours of work. They were pretty much working 40 hours a week at the end just to make sure they got it done on time. The finished quilt includes landmarks such as the Comal County Courthouse, the Pioneer Family Monument, First Protestant Church, Sts. Peter and Paul Church and others. It also has several crests representing the heritage of the people living in New Braunfels. The blue around the center seal represents our local rivers. The fabrics again came from Mission Valley Mills. The inscription on the back of the quilt reads: Presented to Braunfels, Germany on their 750th birthday by the New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce Sesquicentennial Commission. The quilt was on display in New Braunfels for the month of June before Herb Skoog delivered the quilt to Braunfels in July 1996.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum and Archives; Brenda DeStefano; Susan Derkacz; New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce.

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Panthers in the park

director — Sun, 03 Feb 2019 06:00:45 +0000

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

Growing up on Kentucky Boulevard in the ‘60s, my “backyard” included Panther Canyon. All the streets in that hilltop neighborhood dead-ended at the canyon, including Kentucky before New Braunfels High was built. We called it simply “the canyon” and it provided many hours of imaginative exploration, old tires for us to make into tire swings, and a quick way down to the park. There were a few cave-like holes in the cliff face which we were certain were the lairs of panthers and bears, although we never saw any.

In 1853, Hermann Seele described an incident which occurred at Comal Springs in the local paper. It was reprinted in the 1906 Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung Kalendar and then translated into English by Oscar Haas in 1970. In the article, Seele described the humbling beauty of the springs and the crystal clear waters of the Comal. Then, he cut to the chase.

On a pleasant April evening in 1852, Maria Z. had taken medicine to an indigent family living in the forest and had come to the main spring. After having rested there for a length of time … she suddenly heard a scream which she at first took to be the voice of a woman. However, of this she was soon disillusioned when at the same moment there came out of the thick underbrush, a huge panther which rolled himself close to her side.

Maria was, understandably, so frozen in terror that she didn’t even call out. She and the panther locked eyes for several long minutes. The panther made no move to attack her and she had almost decided it was all her imagination when it began to whine loudly in pain. Maria then noticed that the animal could not close its jaws — at all — never mind having her for lunch.

Now looking more closely, she was astounded to discover that a large bone was wedged in between the molar and eye teeth, which prevented the animal from closing its jaws … the animal turned its head slowly closer as if to show the difficult situation it was in.

Could it be possible, she thought, that instinct tells wild animals that man can help them if he wants to? She recalled the story about the slave Androcles and the lion … but even if it had been in her power to dislodge that bone, would not the danger then be even greater?

Apparently, Maria and the beast exchanged a look that gave her the courage to move closer and relaxed the panther so that he moved his paws away from her. Picking up a nearby stone and wedge-like stick, she knocked the bone free from the panther’s jaw. Maria remained very quiet and still and watched as the animal moved over to the springs to take what could have been his first drink in hours, if not even days. As the panther drank his fill, Maria high-tailed it to the nearby cabin of George Klappenbach where she promptly fainted. Waking half an hour later, Maria told the family about her fantastic adventure.

The family hardly could believe it, but walking well-armed to the spring, found there the bone on which the impressions of strong teeth were plainly visible, also the slaver-covered wedge and stone, and in particular the impress in the grass where the panther had lain, and the still fresh footprints at the spring. The next day the footprints were followed far up into the hills; but the panther itself never was found.

Was this story responsible for the name “Panther Canyon” being given to the gorge behind the springs? Now, if only my brother Tobin and Randy Lohman and I had known that story back-in the-day. The adventures we could have made up!

While on the search for the answer, I came across some interesting ideas this community has had for Panther Canyon in the not-too-distant past. Did you know that the canyon was acquired by the city in the mid-’40s? That in 1958, the park wanted to have a pony ride concession down in the canyon? That in 1961, the Chamber of Commerce proposed building a replica of the Braunfels Castle to use as a museum somewhere in the canyon’s tree-shadowed bottom? That the Lions Club had looked into erecting a 1600-seat amphitheater under the limestone cliffs in 1963? That in 1968 and again in 1973, the city seriously considered building a bridge across Panther Canyon to connect California Boulevard to Fredericksburg Road in order to cut down the traffic through the park?

These proposals, products of their time, seem odd, even unthinkable, to us now. We know the area as a nature trail and truth-be-told, I’m rather glad none of them came to fruition and “the canyon” retains some of the wildness of my childhood memories.

I still don’t know when citizens began calling the gorge Panther Canyon. The Sophienburg has drawings and maps as far back as 1845 showing the canyon, but it doesn’t appear named on one until WPA plans in 1936. If anybody out there knows please let me know. Until then I’m going with Hermann Seele’s story as the source.

One more thing. In 1971, there was a resident on Panther Canyon who recorded big cat tracks measuring 2½ to 3 inches wide in the mud of the usually dry creek bed after a hard rain. Who knows what might still be lurking in the leafy, quiet depths of what we call Panther Canyon.

Hermann Seele at the Comal Springs, January 30, 1894. Sophienburg Collection (1075B)

Sources:

Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung, New Braunfels Herald and New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung
Oscar Haas Collection — Sophienburg Museum and Archives
Historic Map Collection — Sophienburg Museum and Archives

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