A letter written on May 2, 1845, two months after the first settlers arrived in New Braunfels, gives us details of those first two months in NB. The letter was written by Lt. Oscar von Claren to his sister in Germany. The end of von Claren’s life overshadows the optimism conveyed by him, as you will see.

When Prince Carl left to go back to Germany, amid festivities and cannon fire at the site of the Sophienburg, he offered to take 69 letters back to Germany. Mail at that time took three months or longer. According to author Everett Fey, writer of “First Founders”, there are 14 letters preserved and transcribed “and it is uncertain whether the rest of the letters were delivered to families. There is a good possibility that these 14 letters were used as advertising by the Adelsverein to promote their immigration project.”

The preserved letters are mostly positive about the project, so what happened to the other letters that were perhaps not so positive? Were only the letters of satisfied customers published?

Letters alleging that the Adelsverein was irresponsible in caring for the immigrants were also published in the newspapers. The Adelsverein fought back with replies by one of their own, Count Carl of Castell. He demanded publication of letters giving the “voice of truth” or the positive view.

One of those 14 letters was Oscar von Claren’s sent to his sister, Augusta, and she, in turn sent it to the Adelsverein. It was, no doubt, of value to them.

Oscar von Claren from Hanover arrived on the ship Apollo and came inland with the first group of emigrants. As a young single man, von Claren was chosen by Prince Carl for the responsible position of being in charge of artillery in Prince Carl’s Militia. He organized them to protect the emigrants, both on the way and in the settlement.

In his letter to his sister, von Claren described his arrival in New Braunfels in April 1845 and then of the celebration that took place in early May when Prince Carl was getting ready to leave for Germany. He said that at the Sophienburg (fortress), festive speeches were made and the cannons fired.

At the time of year of his arrival, it was too late to put in a garden on the lot that had been given to him. He put in a cow pen out of logs where the calves stayed while the cows roamed freely. It was not necessary to feed them. In the evening, the cows would automatically roam back to their calves in the pen. Even people that had no houses had pens with cows. Anyone who had more than 25 cows had to pay a fee to the state of Texas. Von Claren was waiting to get chickens; “four hens for $1.00 and a rooster for a third of a dollar”. “He who has cattle, chickens and a livable house has everything” he told his sister. Milk, eggs and butter were the main diet.

Von Claren was aware of unfamiliar noises, like the cutting of trees, plowing and the building of huts. He arose at five in the morning, lit a fire, dressed, cooked tea, baked bread and ate breakfast. After 11 o’clock in the morning the heat was unbearable so everyone stopped working. At this time he cooked dinner and then at three o’clock went to work again. After working, the evening meal was prepared and took a long time because corn meal bread had to be baked every day. It tasted bad when it was not fresh. It got dark around seven o’clock. Twilight, like in Germany, was not known in Texas and it got much darker. Von Claren told his sister that what he needed more than anything was tools, carpenter tools and tools for gardening. Also he needed seeds, fruit seeds of all kinds, lentils, and grape vines. He wished he had brought more with him. An immigrant only paid for the transportation from Bremen and the Adelsverein provided everything else to the colony.

He told his sister that during the land trip in from the coast, many of his clothes and part of his weapons were damaged due to not having them packed in boxes encased in tin. He now sleeps on animal hides and covers with a woolen cover instead of the linens he is used to.

About 300 Tonkawa Indians visit the settlement daily. They are at peace with the Germans and come into town to trade. Von Claren traded animal skins, hides and leopard fur. He traded gun powder, colorful chinz and calico, red and white beads, but not yellow or green (curious), and all kinds of toys made of tin or German nickel silver. Turtles and snakes demand high prices and he intended to sell them.

Their clothing was very thick and long boots were indispensable, but very expensive. He praised the beauty of the area, pretty forests next to the Guadalupe River, hills and prairies covered with wild flowers. Wood like cypress and cedar trees emit a magnificent odor and remind him of pencils. The beautiful blooms of the cactus would be greatly admired in Germany. At night, the air is filled with lightning bugs.

(Here’s the catch:) One must become accustomed to the great heat and large unpleasant animals that inflict deadly wounds, and the numerous rattlesnakes, some ten feet long and probably 15 years old. There are also a large number of alligators, so bathing in rivers is dangerous. He shot a 14 foot alligator. Tarantulas, large spiders that “runs around with the snakes and scorpions” in the woods, have a disagreeable stinger. Finally there is a caterpillar that crawls over the skin.

In May of 1845, there are 400 people living in the settlement. He would like to have friends and family with him “with whom he could cultivate a companionable relationship”.

By the time his sister received his letter, von Claren had been brutally killed and scalped near Live Oak Springs. He and two companions were returning to NB from Austin and while camping, a band of natives attacked the three. Wessle got away and led the Rangers to the site of the massacre. Von Claren and von Wrede were buried there.

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Two sisters, Debbie Elliott and Lynn Norvell, have built homes on the property that has been in their family over 100 years. The property is on the corner of Garden and Comal Sts. on the Comal River, next to the Garden Street Bridge. They are very much interested in people knowing the history of this property, from distillery, to woolen mill, and finally to a laundry.

Distillery

In the early 1860s Dr. Theodore Koester purchased the property and began a brandy distillery. It didn’t last long and in 1867, a group of New Braunfels businessmen organized a stock company to purchase the distillery and begin a woolen mill. The distillery building was a large wooden two story building 40 by 90 feet. The price of the property was $9,000 and machinery purchased cost another $25,000. The former brewery became New Braunfels Woolen Manufacturing Company.

New Braunfels Woolen Manufacturing Company

Organizers of the company were Franz Moreau, Thomas Perryman, Otto Groos, and brothers Adolph and Julius Giesecke. The Giesecke brothers operated the mill. Julius Giesecke’s son was Dr. F.E. Giesecke who would later become a professor at A&M College and operate a summer school for his students. Some of you may remember that Camp Giesecke was on the property that now is “the Other Place”.

The woolen mill, with its prominent 80- foot smokestack, was in operation from 1867 to 1883 and received recognition throughout the state. For that matter, a diploma in 1870, names the mill the outstanding woolen mill in the Southern states. Their products included jeans, tweeds, and blankets. It took 600 to 700 pounds of wool per day for production and employed up to 40 people.

The Texas New Yorker magazine reported that the mill, run by a steam engine, furnished 1,233 yards of gray woolen cloth to Texas A&M College for uniforms. After seven years of operation, the shareholders transferred the property, and incidentally its indebtedness to Groos and the Giesecke brothers for $18,265. During the operation of the mill, a cedar covered tract of land was purchased near Huaco Springs. This 1,210 acre tract was covered with cedar, so vital for burning in the boilers of the factory, but the cost of cedar cutting was high. Products from the mill had gained a reputation for quality, but financial trouble occurred when woolen mills in the Eastern U.S. began copying the NB product. A blanket appeared on the market with the trademark and label of the local mill. This eastern product was inferior and it is thought that people confused the products. Soon the NB mill was in financial trouble.

In 1883 the mill closed and the machinery was broken up and sold as junk. The building just sat there until 1902 when Franz Popp and his wife Anna bought the property, building and all. They used the second floor to live in and put in a steam-operated laundry on the bottom floor.

Evolution of laundry

I’ve lived long enough to witness the evolution of washing clothes. Not that I actually saw anyone beat their clothes on rocks in the Comal, but I heard about it and know it was done. As a young child, I watched a neighbor build a fire under a very big pot, putting the laundry in the pot along with a big bar of homemade lye soap. All the while she stirred it. Oh, what fun! Then she emptied out the whole thing and started over with clean water for rinsing it. She didn’t even have to go to the Comal to get water, she just turned on the faucet. Then she dragged the clothes over to the clothesline and hung them up to dry. No wonder Monday was called “wash day” because it took all day! In the early days if you washed on Mondays you would know not to drink water out of the Comal on Tuesday.

Then came the electric washing machine. Out in the garage there were two connected tubs (You’ve probably seen them in antique stores). Between these two tubs was a rubber wringer. Clothes were put in one tub and would be washed just by turning on an electric switch. Then the washed clothes were fed into the wringer and into the clean water tub to which blueing was added. They were swished around and again put through the wringer. From here the clothes dropped into the basket and then lugged out to the clothesline. Monday was still wash day, a little easier but still an all-day process. Well, maybe only a half day.

Now every day is wash day. If you don’t believe it, just ask one who does it. The washing machine washes the clothes, spin-dries them, rinses them, then spins them almost dry and the dryer dries them. All you have to do is take them out of the dryer and put them away. Guess what! I complain about this last step. I can just imagine that the women of old didn’t “whistle while they worked” on Mondays.

New Braunfels Steam Laundry

Getting back to the Popps and their laundry purchased in the early 1900’s. Franz Popp emigrated from Prussia in 1886 and married Anna Mielke in Texas. Two of their children were Bruno and Emma. Emma married Carl Doeppenschmidt who was proprietor of the Phoenix Cafe.

Emma’s life was full of sadness, but she was a strong woman. First her husband Carl died in 1926, then her mother Anna in 1934. A fire at the laundry was the ultimate cause of her mother’s death. Her father died in 1938. She operated the laundry alone during the Depression, was also a cook at the Phoenix and lived upstairs over the laundry with her two small children, Lawrence and Thelma. Eventually Emma married Adolph Krause.

Emma’s daughter Thelma, with her husband James Ethridge, lived in a house next to the laundry until Thelma died in 2002. She was the mother of Debbie and Lynn Ethridge, the two sisters who have built homes on the property.

In 1954 the old building was torn down, so they have decided to apply for a historical site marker designating the laundry history .The large bell salvaged from the top of the building will be included with the marker. Part of the smoke stack is still visible. It should be quite attractive as it marks the site of an old New Braunfels landmark.

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Dr. Carl Windwehen’s wedding gift to his bride, Lena Coreth, was a beautiful home on 257 E. Bridge St. now owned by Joel and Merry Saegert, and that home is being nominated for the prestigious designation as a Recorded Texas Historical Landmark.

In Comal County, there are presently 50 structures that have achieved this designation. Just to give you an idea about what this entails, here are six structures that you no doubt are familiar with: CC Courthouse, Faust Hotel, First Protestant Church, Gruene Hall, Henne Hardware and Old New Braunfels High School. Look at sophienburg.com for a list of all 50 structures. The designation is awarded to not only residences but also bridges, churches, commercial buildings and schoolhouses.

The Windwehens

Dr. Windwehen practiced dentistry in NB for 40 years. He married Charlotte Stocker in 1902. A daughter, Stella, was born in Lockhart. In 1905, his wife, Charlotte, died and Windwehen moved with his daughter and his mother, Ida, to New Braunfels. By this time, NB had emerged as one of central Texas’ significant market towns. There were lots of teeth to fill and pull. The 1906 telephone book lists Dr. Windwehen as the only dentist with a telephone, perhaps the only one in town.

In 1910 Dr. Windwehen married Lena Coreth, a granddaughter of Ernst von Coreth, an Austrian nobleman who came to NB and purchased land on Mission Hill. Lena grew up near Mission Hill and attended school in NB. Many of you will possibly remember her brother, Rochette Coreth, prominent rancher and business man.

After the Windwehens married, they moved into their new home where eventually two more daughters were born, Mabel (Faust) and Florence (Eikel). Dr. Windwehen died in 1946 and Lena lived in the home until her death at age 90. She was well known socially, known for her art work and her gardens. The Saegerts have kept up the tradition of outstanding gardens on the property

The house

Originally pioneer homes utilized readily available building materials, caliché and lumber. It was a very basic one-room shelter. After a while, a fachwerk half-timber folk tradition house using rough-hewn cedar for the structure, clay as infill and lime to seal the walls. It is thought the immigrants either learned this technique in Germany or from Prince Carl who had the idea that this form of construction should be used because he felt it was more “pure”. OK!

A Queen Anne style architecture used in homes really started locally after the railroads arrived in CC in 1885 for the IGN and 1900 for the MKT. Prefab buildings became available. Steeply pitched roofs with full width porches and decorative trim, they were often built of wood siding or shingles, brick or stone, or a combination.

Looking at the Windwehen house from the outside, you see many of these Queen Anne features. Going inside, however, reveals a very personal, livable home. I decided to describe the inside of the home to you by combining not only recollections of grandchildren (mostly from the 1950s) but also the architectural description done by Bob Warnecke for the CC Historical Commission. The grandchildren are Jerry Faust, Kay Faust Specht, Carol Faust Patton and Jon Eikel who all have memories of the Windwehens and their home.

A compilation

Built on one of NB’s original town lots, the house is of wood frame construction on pier and beam. From the front, one can see the attic, finished in 1968, and a large porch to the left. There are two brick chimneys visible, used for pot-bellied stoves that are no longer used. Originally the house was heated by a coal-burning stove in the basement and the coal chutes are still visible at the back of the house.

Walk into the central corridor through the original front door. The parlor and then dining room with a large table and kitchen beyond are on the right. On the left are a living room, solarium, master bedroom/bath combination and second bedroom.

Most of the doors and transoms are original. The entry hall contained bookshelves, a piano, table and chairs. Grandson Jerry Faust recalls sleeping on the porch. Everyone slept there because there were many beds and no air-conditioning anywhere. Granddaughter Kay Specht remembers four or more white wrought iron beds and as she slept, she could hear the bells of the Catholic Church. All of the Windwehen babies were born in the house. Daughters Stella and Florence both married in the parlor and daughter Mabel was married in the Methodist Church, but had the reception at the house.

Kay’s mother Mabel told her stories of the Christmases celebrated at the Windwehen house and how Dr. Windwehen had played Santa Claus and the children were not allowed to see the tree until Christmas Eve, a practice in NB. In the dining room, a large tiffany-type chandelier hung over the damask covered table laden with silver, crystal and china. Granddaughter Carol Patton remembers the traditional afternoon Kaffee Klatsch with her grandmother, drinking coffee out of demitasse cups.

As a child, grandson Jon Eikel was impressed with the basement. He recalls the coal stove and the ducts that brought the heat to each room. He would walk to Hollmig’s Drive-In to pick up hamburgers for dinner with his grandmother. When he married, he and his wife lived in the back of the house converted to an apartment. In her bedroom, his grandmother had a small table where the three would play dominoes.

The Windwehens were significant to NB and the home embodies distinctive characteristics of a type of construction during the change of the century. Joel and Merry Saegert have maintained this external and internal model of preservation. Thank you, Joel and Merry.

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Do you know where the Klappenbach House is located? From Landa St., turn onto Fredericksburg Rd. and go straight until you get to a hill, Klappenbach Hill. The house on the left is the Klappenbach property. The story of the Klappenbach family is indeed interesting.

The story begins in Sorenbohm, Germany, where in the 1820’s, Johann Heinrich Voelcker was called to be an evangelical Lutheran preacher. He was married to Caroline Wilhelmine Wirth and they had four children, Friedrich, Julius, Franciska, and Eugen Voelcker. In1834 their oldest son, Friedrich, died and then two years later Rev. Voelcker died, possibly of smallpox from parishioners he was tending. The young mother was left alone with three children. She moved to Anklam, a seaport town in far North Germany near the Baltic Sea. Here she eventually married Georg Jochim Jacob Friedrich A. Klappenbach.

Klappenbach, born in 1810 in Lenzen, had studied “Legal Science” at the University of Griefswald. While there he joined a radical reform protest movement, was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison. A year passed and his sentence was commuted. Friends who were in this movement said that Georg was nicknamed “Rebell” and the group was a democratic reform group that met at a pub to drink beer and make speeches. This movement eventually led to the later revolution of 1848 in Germany.

After his arrest, Georg moved to Anklam. He took several municipal jobs. Apparently the political situation was in chaos because the mayor’s position was perpetually vacant. Klappenbach ran for mayor and won, but that didn’t end the discord.

Now here’s a familiar name: John O. Meusebach (as he was later called in Texas) was called on to help sort out the reforms in Anklam and a bond grew between the two men. This friendship ultimately led to Klappenbach’s coming to Texas.

In Anklam Klappenbach married the widow Voelcker, and together they produced a child, Rosa, born in 1840 who died in 1842. Another child, Bruno, was born in 1845.

The Klappenbachs were familiar with the fact that Meusebach emigrated to Texas and Julius Voelcker, Caroline’s oldest living son, emigrated first. Meanwhile the Adelsverein contacted Georg offering him free passage and land in New Braunfels if he would come as an assistant to John Meusebach. He accepted the offer in 1846 and the family pulled up stakes and moved to Texas.

Although Klappenbach received the traditional half acre lot in town (on the corner of Seguin Ave. and Garden St.) he also claimed 50 more acres. This property was bounded by Landa St., which was then called County Road, up Fredericksburg Rd., adjacent to the Balcones Escarpment, and down Parkview Blvd.

On this property in 1846 the Klappenbachs buried Caroline’s child, Franciska Voelcker, 22 years of age. Dr. Ferdinand Roemer describes the funeral in this manner: “According to a North American custom in the rural districts, all people in the funeral procession were mounted (on horses) which appeared unusual ….” The burial was on the property of the stepfather, beside the springs of the Comal, in view of the river and shaded by forest trees.

Stepson Eugen Voelcker constructed the dog-trot style homestead for the Klappenbachs near the springs. He had been trained in carpentry and home building in Anklam. Three feet thick walls of native fieldstone rubble with mortar made of caliche and straw were then covered with stucco. The roof is supported by two unjointed cypress beams the length of the house. The floors are cedar.

Klappenbach farmed and ranched on this property. He used the “GK” brand. He didn’t give up his interest in politics, being elected mayor in 1851 and then on the school board of the NB Academy. He was elected chief justice of Comal County in 1861.

Carl and Augusta Buehler bought the property from Klappenbach in 1881. It was Buehler that terraced the property next to the hill below the house. Buehler was known for his horticulture and the soil was so rich, and the area so perfect for growing fruits and vegetables, that even today many plants spring forth on their own – herbs such as horehound and mustang grapevines.

The most unusual trees are the anaqua trees. They are an old variety that grow close to water (aqua is water). There are many in Landa Park. About this time of year these trees are covered with tiny fragrant flowers that soon turn into berries. Indians concocted a dried food call pemmican. The berries of the anaqua were mixed with dried venison and made into paste for easy carriage.

Buehler’s grandson, Edward Penshorn, took ownership of the farm and then Melvin and Juanita Johnson bought it in the 1930’s. Finally the present owners, Tim and Elisabet Barker, bought the remaining 3 1/2 acres in 1984. Barker is a Master Gardener who grows magnificent flowers on the five terraces. Two small historic buildings have been moved on to the property blending in with the historic dog-trot house still in existence.

Much of the information for this article column has been collected from the Sophienburg Archives. There is a collection of about 450 family books, one of which is “Fink, Voelcker, and Klappenbach Families” by Albert Henry Fink. These family books are a real plus for researchers!

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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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Thanks to some early settlers, we have pictures painted with words of what early NB looked like from writers like Roemer, Lindheimer, Brach and the most prolific of all writers, Hermann Seele. Let’s not forget all those personal letters that were saved by families.

One of the best descriptions of the early Mission Valley area was written by Wilhelm (Bill) Adams, the older brother of my grandfather, Louis Adams. In 1937 Bill Adams told his story to his son, Harold Adams, who fortunately for us all, typed Bill’s story as he was speaking.

The paper was copied in its entirety in Alton Rahe’s book, “History of Mission Valley Community”. Excerpts from that paper bear repeating.

Bill Adams and my grandfather Louis were sons of Heinrich and Katarina Doeppenschmidt Adams. Katarina’s father was Jacob Doeppenschmidt, Sr. whose ranch was in the Honey Creek area. Heinrich’s ranch was in the Mission Valley. Both families were ranchers from the beginning. Honey Creek Ranch is now under the care of the Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Heinrich Adams, as a single man, came to Texas and New Braunfels in 1850 from Prussia. A family tradition states that Heinrich was educated in Germany and was in an elite military unit – elite because one had to be over six feet tall to be eligible. That was tall for Europeans in those days. Supposedly he had to leave Germany because he hit an officer. In 1856 he married Katarina Doeppenschmidt, daughter of Jacob and Anna Marie Doeppenschmidt. There were six children; my grandfather was the youngest.

In 1894 after both Heinrich and Katarina had died, second son Bill bought the ranch from his sisters and brothers. My grandfather, Louis, being a minor, went to live with his uncle, Jacob Doeppenschmidt,Jr. Bill was a successful rancher and eventually expanded the ranch to 1100 acres.

Bill was also involved in politics. He served as a Deputy Sheriff and then Comal County Commissioner for eight years and then was elected Sheriff and Tax Collector in 1908-1920. (Source of above by Marilyn Thurman and Jane Brummet, granddaughters of Bill Adams).

Bill’s paints a word picture of the early Mission Valley area. At one time there were no fences and sedge grass was as high as a horse “waving in the wind like waves of the ocean” with no brush and cedar and an occasional live oak. The game was deer, wild hogs, wild turkeys, javelinas, geese, ducks, swans, pelicans, flamingos, wild pigeons (an extinct bird sometimes referred to as the wandering dove because it would drift south in the winter and return in the spring.) There were panthers, various wolves, coyotes, bears, leopards, wild cats, raccoons, opossums, ringtail civet cats, skunks, armadillos and other smaller animals.

Farming in the area started when the settlers arrived and they needed tanks and waterholes. This explains all the types of waterfowl. The most remarkable of all the watering places was the Post Oak Sea, a mile from Adams’ ranch house. It was a large body of water never known to go dry until 1887 and since then held water for only a short time following a series of heavy rains. When all other watering holes were dry and the Guadalupe was down to a trickle, this large body of water was full. If you want to see it, drive out Hwy. 46 and from the intersection of Loop 336, on the right side about four miles, you will see a large tank near the road. That’s not it! Drive a little further and off in the distance you will spot the “Sea” with a small amount of water. Speculations about the “Sea” going dry have gone on for years; some thought there was an earthquake, some felt it had to do with a storm in 1886.

“We young fellows from our neighborhood would get together at the Sea all on horseback with several trained dogs, and waited for the wild hogs to come to the water. The lake was several acres across and a mile in every direction. Good rodeos would take place there between the dogs and hogs.”

Other Bill Adams stories are reprinted in Rahe’s book that can be purchased at the Sophienburg.

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg — 

I watch rooftops multiply daily as I look out from our house of more than 30 years. I will not lie. It is distressing. It truly makes me appreciate the beautiful well-built 100-plus-year-old buildings that grace our city. Being a native, I often wonder what has become of the many others that no longer stand in their places.

In the mid-’60s, there was a young dentist who officed in a little house on Comal Avenue. It was the cutest little two-or-three-room house, gray with a red tin roof and red window trim. That dentist was Dr. Kahler. While he was away studying orthodontics, Dr. Hubert Risinger occupied his office. Dr. Risinger was my dentist for a short time.

The cute little house was originally owned by the Heinrich Scholl family. The Scholls, consisting of Heinrich Scholl and wife Anna Marie Saenger Scholl, along with their three children, Heinrich Jr., Adam and Caroline, set out for Texas from their home in Dillenburg, Nassau, Germany, with other immigrants through the Adelsverein. Upon arriving in Indianola, tragedy struck the Scholl family. Heinrich Sr. went hunting in a boat, fell out and drowned.

His wife and her three children continued to New Braunfels. The family worked hard to survive. The boys, Heinrich Jr. and Adam, learned carpentry and the mother kept boarders. Adam and Heinrich made the windows and doors used in building houses, which became an outstanding business. At one time, they worked for Dr. Koester in a mill. Later they made chairs and tables of walnut and cedar. The Scholl brothers also built houses and built them well.

Shortly after the Scholls reached New Braunfels, the Mexican American war broke out creating trouble for those in the young German settlement. Some men enlisted in the American Army while others were not interested in war. They had left Germany to escape mandatory military service. According to Scholl family historians, Heinrich Jr, Adam and a few other men of their age decided they would hide in hollow trees down on the Comal River to escape the soldiers who were rounding up men to fight.

The Scholl home was not far from the river, so Adam, being the bravest or the hungriest, decided he would venture out of hiding to go home for food. Adam dressed as a woman with a big sunbonnet on. About the time he got in the house, a soldier knocked at the door. He told Caroline Scholl he had seen a suspicious character come into her house. In the meantime, she had shoved her brother Adam under her bed where there was a trap door to the cellar. She denied seeing anyone, telling the soldier that there was no one else there. Adam, thinking the soldier had left, peeped from out from under the bed. Caroline quickly shoved him back with her foot and the soldier was none the wiser.

Heinrich Scholl, Jr. married twice. His first marriage was to Johanna Schmidt, which produced five children. After her death, he married Louise Schneider. They had nine children including two sets of twins. Heinrich became a well-known cabinet maker in New Braunfels and eventually lived in the house across the street from the original home. He died in 1909 at the age of 81.

The old original Scholl home ca.1846 is now near 179 years old. It is solidly built and still standing, even though not in its original place. It is a unique house in that it utilizes two different kinds of fachwerk. In the front wall of the house, builders used “rammed earth” fachwerk . That is much like pouring a curb today. Forms are set up and then mud is poured in between to fill the space. The mud is ‘rammed” with a long pole to remove any air pockets. Once the mud dries/hardens, the forms are removed, and plaster is applied to both sides to make a smooth wall.

The other three walls are made of mud brick. In Germany, they used fired brick. Here in Texas, they made bricks of mud and straw in brick molds, then air dried them before putting them in between the timbers. Once the dry bricks complete the walls, cedar shingles were placed on the exterior to prevent erosion. Inside the home, they used original Bastrop pine for both the floors and ceilings. It was originally built over a wonderful root cellar, which must have served as a good hiding place. The roof was of cedar shingles. In 1867, the city of New Braunfels passed an ordinance requiring all roofs to be fireproofed for insurance purposes, so tin was simply nailed over the shingles. In 1881, 90 percent of New Braunfels’ structures were fachwerk. Now, 95 percent of them are gone.

By the mid-1960s, the porch of the little house had been closed in to make another room. More windows were added. The exterior of the entire building was wrapped in wood shiplap siding. The little house changed hands over the years with room additions made. Wayne and Toni Peters purchased it in 1987 to use as a summer home. When they completed their rock home behind it in 1999, they graciously donated the little fachwerk house to the New Braunfels Conservation Society.

In its new place among the other architectural treasures, it serves as the office for New Braunfels Conservation Society Old Towne. The Scholl Peters house has been returned to near its original state with the “rammed earth” fachwerk and mud bricks still visible thru Plexiglas windows on the walls. The little house that I thought had “gone missing” was indeed hiding in plain sight all along. When buildings disappear, our history connection disappears. It makes me happy to see the Scholl house and history being cared for.

Do you know of any hidden fachwerk buildings?

Sources: New Braunfels Conservation Society; Sophienburg Museum and Archives; Betty Stratemann.

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

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

The Hinman House, the first stone house built in New Braunfels, is more than 150 years old. To tell the story of any great house, we must begin with the family’s story. Before the Hinmans came the Arnolds.

Peter Arnold arrived on the ship Ferdinand with the German Emigration Company in December 1844. He and his family were some of the original settlers of New Braunfels to arrive in March 1845. Through his contract with the company for the Fisher-Miller Grant, he drew Town Lot No. 76, which is the property located at 161 S. Castell. Most of the lots in town had a street frontage of 100 German feet (about 90 English feet) and a depth of 200 German feet. In my non-math brain, that is a little more than a one-third acre.

On his lot, Arnold, a blacksmith by trade, built a blacksmith shop and a log house where he lived with his wife and family. In 1855, Peter Arnold sold the property to Heinrich Hinmann (notice it is a double N on the end) for $550.

Heinrich Hinmann was born in 1819 in Lower Saxony in Germany. At the age of 17, he immigrated and travelled through America for several years before settling in New Braunfels. Hinmann, who was also a blacksmith, purchased Lot 76 the year after he married Therese Sickold. They went on to have 10 children, eight of whom survived.

The Hinman House was built in 1868. It is quite a step up from a log cabin. The builder of the cut limestone home is not recorded but was clearly an immigrant stone mason trained in the traditional construction methods of his German homeland. It is surmised that it was built by Heinrich Hinmann himself. One article I found purports that it was built by his son Charles Hinmann, but according to census records, Charles was only 7 at the time.

The original two-story home is rectangular with a small cellar and porches. It sits on a foundation of mortared stone walls to a depth below the cellar floor. The exterior walls are twenty-inch-thick stone masonry of squared, hammer-dressed local limestone with wide lime-mortar joints. The first floor sits on 7-inch-by-7-inch” rough-hewn joists … basically, cedar tree trunks.

The architectural feature that absolutely makes this house, in my humble opinion, is the porches. On the southwest side, facing the street, there are two porches running the length of the house. The lower porch is open with six wood columns supporting the upper porch. On the second-floor porch, solid wood columns support the roof. The upper porch is surrounded by a wooden railing. The original railing was lattice work. Now the railing is in a geometric pattern. There may have been similar porches along the back of the house.

Although the main structure of the Hinman House has remained the same, there have been wood-frame-additions made to the rear of the house to increase functionality. It is possible that rear porches were closed in to create those additions. It is thought that the home was originally heated with wood stoves as there has been no evidence of chimneys. With later renovations, a fireplace was built in the main room and a gas-fired furnace was installed in the cellar. Renovations also moved and reconfigured the interior stairwell.

Heinrich (Henry) Hinmann was a man of many talents. As a blacksmith, he made and repaired most anything made of metal, including farm equipment. He was also the inventor and manufacturer of the Hinman Plow, created specifically for the black soil of Comal County.

Heinrich was also a marble cutter. In the late 19th-century New Braunfels, marble was used for headstones. When Heinrich died in 1899, his son, Adolf, also a marble cutter, returned to New Braunfels to continue The Hinmann Marble Yard at the Castell address. His mother, Therese, lived in the limestone house.

Alexander J. Hinman (he officially dropped the extra N off the end of his name) was a well-respected physician and a prominent businessman in the New Braunfels community. He, his parents and siblings had moved into the Hinman family home to live with his grandmother after his grandfather Heinrich died. On October 1, 1913, Dr. A.J. Hinman bought the two-story home and surrounding property from his grandmother, Therese Hinmann. There, he raised his family, practiced medicine and lived until his death. It is believed that the bulk of the house renovations and additions were done to accommodate his medical practice in the early 1920s.

Hinman was notable not only for the care he gave to his patients, but the impact he had on New Braunfels. He was recognized for being president of the New Braunfels Independent School District school board, founding member of the New Braunfels Rotary Club and the first president of the New Braunfels Hospital. The Hinman Family owned what is known as Hinman Island, which is now part of Landa Park.

When Dr. A.J. Hin­man passed away in Oc­to­ber of 1960, an­other chap­ter opened for the Hin­man House. Of­fice space was leased out to var­i­ous en­ti­ties over the years, in­clud­ing real es­tate firms, med­ical prac­tices and United Way.

The Hin­man House was pur­chased by First Na­tional Bank (now Chase Bank) with the in­ten­tion of build­ing their mo­tor­bank fa­cil­ity on the ad­ja­cent prop­erty; how­ever, they se­lected an­other site. The bank opened the Hin­man House to var­i­ous or­ga­ni­za­tions for meet­ings and events.

In the early ‘70s, the Hin­man House was the venue for Garten­fest, a fundraiser held by the Con­ser­va­tion So­ci­ety dur­ing Wurst­fest. The event of­fered a lit­tle of every­thing — Ger­man food, mu­sic and rum­mage sale all in one. That is where that great Con­ser­va­tion So­ci­ety tra­di­tion of “Kartof­fel­suppe” and Iron Brew be­gan.

Chase Bank gifted The Hin­man House to Braun­fels Foun­da­tion in 1999. The Hin­man House was des­ig­nated a Texas His­tor­i­cal Land­mark in 2009 and is cur­rently used by Com­mu­ni­ties in Schools free of charge. Our city is lucky to have such a won­der­ful spec­i­men of early Ger­man Texas ar­chi­tec­ture on full dis­play in our down­town.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum and Archives; Handbook of Texas History Online.

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

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How easy we ladies have life today compared to the old days in the 1850s. “You’ve come a long way, baby” is the understatement of our time.

A woman’s role in society has changed dramatically due to not only modern technology but changes that occurred in society such as the equal rights to all humans, including women’s right to vote. Since World War II, a large percentage of women work outside the home. One hundred sixty years ago, women worked at home starting early in the morning until late at night.

Women in the old days were primarily in charge of the living quarters, food, clothing, and children. The typical woman would start her work day very early working all day to accomplish all that was necessary for survival. The one room log house she lived in with her family was cold in winter and hot in summer, but it was better than the tent the settlers lived in on the coast and while traveling to New Braunfels. Floors were added later to keep bugs from invading the house. Furniture legs were placed in dishes of water or kerosene, like a small moat. Bedbugs were kept out or in, using the same method on the legs of the bed.

As the family expanded, so did the house. A second room was added separated by a dogtrot, a covered, breezeway between the two rooms. Originally cooking was done outside but the two-room house allowed cooking to be indoors. The children typically slept in a loft above the dogtrot. The handmade furniture was made of oak, cypress, cedar or pine. Cedar was the choice wood because it repelled bugs. Trunks held the meager supplies that each immigrant was allowed to bring from Germany.

Electricity didn’t appear on the scene until the beginning of the 20^th century. Wood-burning stoves were not only used for cooking but also for heating. Most early houses had no window panes but had openings that were covered with animal hide. With no electricity, homemade candles and oil lamps took the place of lights but the “early to bed” philosophy made light unnecessary.

There is a reason that settlements sprang up around water sources. New Braunfels had two large rivers, the Guadalupe and the Comal. Drinking water was plentiful as a necessity for human survival. A very early water source in New Braunfels was the Comal River from which water was hauled by individuals in wooden buckets. At one time there was a path from Seguin Ave. crossing over to Comal Ave. and down the hill to the river. Piped water was a long time coming.

Clothes were washed outside in large iron pots heated on coals. Homemade soap was made by mixing ash and lard and then slicing it into chunks. The clothes cleaning process took up a lot of a woman’s time. People had very few clothes and tending to animals and the garden was dirty business.

At the Sophienburg Museum, there are many examples of clothing, some even brought over from Germany in the 1840s. Clothing was made of linen woven from flax. Cotton was available for making thread and yarn with a spinning wheel. Notice the picture of the thread or yarn measuring machine called the weasel. When the desired length was obtained, the machine made a popping noise, hence the children’s rhyme “Pop Goes the Weasel.” Sewing was a skill most women learned in Germany.

Growing and preparing food was the job of women. Gardens were mostly tended by women, using the very popular modern concept of growing food called “organic.” How? There were no chemicals and animals supplied the fertilizer.

Raising corn was a matter of life or death. Cornbread was made every day and took the place of the black bread that the Germans were used to. Nut trees, mulberry trees, blackberries and grapes were abundant. The Adelsverein provided coffee, salt, vinegar, and sugar.

Letters were sent home from Texas requesting that immigrants bring plows, axes, scythes, rakes, sewing needles and seeds of all kinds.

Most immigrants had small amounts of cattle. A small pen that was attached to the house held the milk cows and their calves. The calves were left in the pens and the cows were released to graze out on the open land since there was no fencing. At night the cows would come back to their calves and so it wasn’t necessary to round them up. Milk, butter and cheese of all kinds were made from cow’s milk. Another important food came from chickens mainly because of eggs but also meat. They scratched around the yard eating bugs not realizing that they were performing a service.

Spoilage of food was a big problem in the Texas weather. Meat had to be smoked or packed in lard for preservation. Crockery was important for this purpose but oak barrels were cheaper and larger than pottery. The barrels were constructed from large tree trunks and the crocks made from local clays.

Dr. Ferdinand Roemer told the story of the Shawnee Indians that would bring bear meat and bear oil for sale to New Braunfels. Supposedly bear meat was very tasty and contained a lot of fat right under the skin. The Indians brought the bear oil in skins and this oil was preferred in place of lard or other oil. Roemer said that when the Indians came to sell their bear oil they would each bring about 60 gallons. Bear oil needed no refrigeration.

Isn’t it interesting that the latest concept of food production is called “farm to table?”

Child bearing and care were primarily a woman’s job. In old New Braunfels, a sign of a woman’s worth had to do with how many children she had. There was another side effect of multiple children and that was that they helped men in the fields and women in the home.

At the Heritage Village with the Museum of Handmade Furniture there is an authentic kitchen from the 1800s. This free-standing rock kitchen was originally on the Breustedt house property. Most of the contents of this kitchen were donated to the museum by David Hartman. An icebox dates around the 1880s after the first railroad came to town and ice was available by rail. This kitchen and its contents can be viewed when the Heritage Society holds its annual Folkfest on April 9&10. Many of the old methods of survival and living are demonstrated at the festival like sausage making, open hearth cooking, sauerkraut making, quilt making, hand washing of clothes and many other exhibits.

Social changes involving women were a result of technological changes. Of one thing we can be certain: Technological advancements now will have a direct effect on the role of women in society in the future just as in the past. “How’re you going to keep them down on the farm, after they’ve seen Paree?” This song was written about men in WWI but I think the idea is appropriate for women as well.

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Besides the Plaza Hotel on the Main Plaza, another grand hotel was built around the turn of the century, the Comal Hotel (now Prince Solms Inn). What was the reason for more large hotels in the little town of New Braunfels? Hotels are built to fill a need. The coming of the railroad bringing visitors to the quaint little town, with its Landa Park, was actually the big boost to tourism. At one time Emilie and Theodore Eggeling ran the Plaza Hotel on the Main Plaza and decided that a second large hotel was needed. Let’s go back to the roots of the family that made this second hotel possible.

Joseph Klein

Immigrant Joseph Klein built a little German house in New Braunfels in 1852. That house still stands but not where it was built. It started its 115-year-old life on the property where the Prince Solms Inn is now located on the corner of San Antonio and Market Sts.

Joseph Klein, a single 26-year-old bachelor from Germany first lived with his parents, Stephan and Margaretha Klein who had built their small house next to the Naegelin Bakery on Seguin St. in 1845. This house is also still standing.

Stephan Klein helped his son Joseph construct his corner lot house on San Antonio St. Joseph married widow Johanna Freitag and they moved into the new house.

William and Friedricke Kuse

Records show that Joseph sold his house in 1859 to William Kuse who became a naturalized a citizen the next year. His family consisted of his wife Friedricke, his ten-year-old son Carl, a daughter Emilie, aged six and a son Friedrich, one year old. All the children were born in Prussia except Friedrich. Daughter Emilie would have a big impact on New Braunfels.

Theodore and Emily Eggeling

William Kuse was a shoemaker and had set up his shop in the house that he bought from Klein. About 40 years later the house was moved to the north of the same lot and resituated about 100 feet from its original location. Then it faced Market St. The reason for this move was an economic one instigated by Emilie Kuse now married to Theodore Eggeling. They had a general store across the street from her parent’s house on the corner of San Antonio and Market Sts. (Look at the photo) Theodore and Emilie Kuse Eggeling were successful business people. Together they ran the very successful Plaza Hotel around Main Plaza. Particularly Emilie was considered a successful business woman in New Braunfels.

Around the turn of the century New Braunfels began to attract thousands of visitors who often spent the night in local hotels. Emilie was familiar with what was happening in town and decided that another large hotel was needed. Her parents had been living in the little house on the corner of San Antonio and Market Sts. all this time. Her father had retired from the shoemaking business and she convinced her parents to allow her to move the house to the back of the large lot. Emilie and Theodore would construct a large hotel on this spot.

The Comal Hotel

The Comal Hotel, sometimes called the Eggeling Hotel, built over a period of two years from 1898 to 1900 was another masterpiece by builder Christian Herry. Built in Texas Victorian style, the two story brick building has maintained its original exterior walls to this day. The bricks were made in McQueeney where a certain clay was located. The walls are 18” thick, the window sills of white limestone with cypress wood boards are 20” wide. The building consists of a full basement, two floors and an attic.

Rooms had no closets but were provided with private basins, pitchers and chamber pots. In the back yard was a privy. At the front of the building on the second floor was a luggage hoist, a pulley used to raise and lower trunks to the upstairs porch. There was a large dining room/parlor that became a favorite of townspeople.

Upon completion of the hotel, the Eggeling family, consisting of four children, moved into the hotel. As these children grew older, they became a part of the operation of the hotel. Son Adolph drove a dray (stout cart or truck) to haul luggage from the train to the hotel. Two carriages were driven by family members. With time, family members were involved in running the hotel.

The Comal Hotel (now the Prince Solms Inn) is situated on a half-acre lot. The Eggeling family utilized the lot for their business. They would serve food from the garden and kept pigs, cows, and chickens. They had a feed store. Stories tell of guests wanting fresh milk, and Emilie would go out to the cow lot, milk the cow, and bring it to the guest.

For a brief time in 1919, a hospital was set up in the hotel by Ida Heulitte, R.N. complete with operating rooms, emergency ward, and private rooms. All doctors were welcome to use the facilities.

Bill and Nan Dillen

After the death of both Eggelings with Emilie in 1930, family members helped run the hotel until the property was sold to Bill and Nan Dillen They bought the hotel, the Klein house, and the feed store. The Dillens refurbished the hotel and brought the structure up to modern standards with electricity, heating, and plumbing. Bill and Nan Dillen were responsible for saving many historic buildings in New Braunfels.

Dillen was the one who named the hotel, “The Prince Solms Inn.” The Dillens added historic features from other structures. Cypress shutters inside were joined by wooden pegs and purchased from the original courthouse in Marlin, Tx. The doors leading to the basement were obtained from the Sam Bennett mansion in San Antonio. When the Dillens added a patio next to the outside basement entrance, stones from the old original Comal County Prison that was torn down were used. This prison building was located behind Chase Bank building and the words, “Comal County Prison” can be seen carved in the entry of the basement. For the cover of the patio, old cypress and cedar timbers were obtained from the first woolen mill-steam laundry on Comal St. Also from that site are two large doors that are used as entrances from the patio to the storage area.

The Dillens sold the property, but the sale was unsuccessful and the Dillens reclaimed the property in 1977. They sold it that same year to Betty Mitchell and Marg Crumbaker. Much of the information for this story came from research of these two ladies.

Present owner is Al Buttross who has owned the Inn since 2007. New Braunfels is so fortunate to have some of these original structures and thankful for the people that made that possible.

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