By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

In this day and age, most everyone has heard of “planned communities.” They are essentially little towns (or subdivisions) that are perfectly engineered to have just the right ratio of houses to businesses to green space, carefully packaged to attract more people to a region. We see the advertisements all the time. Would you believe that New Braunfels, along with nearly every community established by the Adelsverein, is actually a planned community … right down to the “planned open spaces”?

When Prince Carl arrived with the first immigrants, he had Nicholas Zink, a civil engineer, survey the area, lay out town lots and blocks, and designate “planned open spaces” for future use such as churches, meeting areas and other town properties. Immigrants under the auspices of the Verein were to receive a town lot, a farm lot and assistance with basic supplies and food to help them get started in Texas.

Originally, the food was distributed from the Vereinsgebäude (headquarters buildings) und Magazin (warehouse) on Sophienburg Hill. The Magazin, once located approximately where the Dittlinger home stands, is how Magazine Street came to be named. As more and more immigrants arrived, it became clear that the provisions held by the warehouse were not sufficient to support them all. So, like all good people in Texas, they bought cattle!

Cattle to provide the daily provision of beef. Cattle for survival. I know what you are thinking … where did they keep them? Downtown, of course. On a wonderful little “planned open space” just a stone’s throw from the center of town, the Verein set up a meat distribution center for immigrants. That sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Except, the whole “hoof-to-table” operation was right there on the space of one downtown block — combination stockyard/slaughterhouse/butcher shop in August heat. Mmmmm.

The Verein engaged butcher Henry Burkhart to run the slaughterhouse. Initially, the new immigrants were not charged for the butchering service until the successful establishment of the town was assured. The only charge was for the cost to purchase the animals for butchering. People had to arrive early in the morning to receive their ration of meat for the day.

A late 1840s map shows that the unnamed town lot had a building called the Fleischhalle located on the south end of the open lot, right at the edge of Comal Avenue. Fleischhalle translates literally as “Meat Hall,” but “Meat Market”, “Butcher Shop” or “Market House” would be a more recognizable to us. It was described as an open air shed for butchering. The area around the Market House became known as the Marktplatz, now Market Plaza.

As the town grew, so did private enterprise. In 1857, city ordinances regulated butchering and required meat to be sold only through the Market House. Multiple butchers, each with their own cutting blocks, rented space in the butcher shed that was said to be 20 feet wide and 40 or 60 feet long. Holding cattle in town was no longer necessary. In the afternoons, the butchers would go out to the farms to purchase the beeves, then they would butcher and field-dress and skin the carcasses there in the country. They would bring the carcasses to the shed to hang and cool overnight, dropping the skins off at either of the two tanneries. Incidentally, one of those two tanneries was Tolle Tannery. The Market Plaza faces Comal Avenue and is bordered on three sides by Tolle Street. Tolle Street leads down to the Comal River and former location of Tolle Tannery.

What began as a short-term solution to supply the immigrants with provisions evolved into a long-term commercial success lasting more than 60 years. New Braunfels continued to grow and became more “worldly” with the arrival of the railroad in 1880. The smelly business of butchering, complete with flies, was no longer welcome by downtown residents and businesses. (There was no AC!)    In 1908, a petition by citizens on Market Square was presented to the city, calling attention to the unsanitary condition of the surroundings and things began to change.

After serving the area as a central market point, Market Plaza was rented out for various activities. It was the perfect location for storing various crops, such as cotton, until they could be processed in the mills. The site was also the perfect location for a variety of entertainment, including amusement rides, carnivals, music shows and traveling tent theaters. It was close to the center of town, but away from any “traffic” or noise from horse-drawn carriages and automobiles of the day.

It is possible that one of the first movies shown in New Braunfels was at the Market Plaza. In a 1973 New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung article, Frederic Oheim shared remembrances of the first film being shown in New Braunfels. It was a series of short subjects shown as part of a traveling carnival set up on Market Plaza, although he did not see it. He was a kid, and the topic was a little risque.

Just like now, any open space becomes attractive to those who want to build. The Market Plaza was considered as a building site for several projects through the years, but none were carried out, including: an American Legion Memorial Hall (1921), a New City Hall (1929), a Community Center (1934), and a parking lot (1956). In 1937, Emmie Seele Faust offered to fund the building of the first free-standing public city library if they built it on Market Plaza. The citizens of the surrounding streets complained that it would create too much traffic. Emmie Seele Faust Library was then built on the corner of Coll and Magazine, on a lot offered by the Sophienburg Memorial Association.

Even­tu­ally, af­ter failed at­tempts to build on the Plaza for any use, it be­came a park. The Mar­ket Plaza park on Tolle Street is ap­prox­i­mately 500 feet long and 60 feet wide. The City of New Braun­fels has taken steps in re­cent years to make the park even more invit­ing by adding side­walks, pic­nic ta­bles, shade per­gola, land­scap­ing and a wa­ter foun­tain.

The Comal County Historic Commission has designated Market Plaza at 292 Tolle St. as an historic site, the significance of which helped ensure the survival of New Braunfels founding families in 1845. The importance of this historic site will be commemorated with a Texas Historic Marker ceremony to be held in the coming months. Stay tuned.

Sources: Comal County Historic Commission; Sophienburg Museum & Archives.

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

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If you believe that all of the earliest settlers of New Braunfels were of German descent, then you will be surprised to learn how many European natives were represented. One of those Ausländers (a person not originally from New Braunfels with a German heritage) was James Ferguson from Scotland, about whom I will tell you in this article.

No list, I don’t care for what purpose, is entirely accurate, and in the case of New Braunfels, the first official list we have of inhabitants came from the 1850 census. According to the census, those of German descent far outnumbered inhabitants of other countries. There were people from Ireland, England and Scotland and there were people from other states who settled here also of Irish, English, Polish and Scottish ancestry. These transplants came to Texas from New York, Connecticut, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Maine, Indiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and then many from other areas of Texas. These non-Germanic people engaged in businesses, merchandizing, ranching, farming, milling and real estate. Most were given land grants and many bought land. They must have had funds to invest. Also on the census were two children native of Mexico and several children born “at sea.”

James Ferguson of Pershire, Scotland is listed on the 1850 Census as being 30 years old. Also in his household was Marie Hessler Ferguson, 32, native of Germany and wife of James; Alexander Ferguson, 24, native of Scotland, brother of James; Margaret Ferguson, 22, native of Scotland and sister of James; and Euphemie, three- months-old born in Texas, daughter of James.

James, as head of the household, not only acquired a vast amount of real estate, but was a successful merchant, and also involved in civic affairs. Scotsman James and his brother-in-law, Heinrich Hessler, from Stuttgart, Germany, were early merchants in New Braunfels. They purchased lots #3 and #4 fronting on San Antonio St. where the Red Stag store is located, and also the lot immediately behind this business, fronting on Castell Ave. Here they put up a two-story building for a mercantile store with their residence upstairs.

Writer Victor Bracht said in his book, “Texas 1848”, that caravans from Mexico stopped at Ferguson & Hessler Store to make purchases and that the brothers had transferred their business from the islands of St. Thomas. Ferdinand Roemer in his book, “Roemer’s Texas”, described the store as containing articles of food, ready-made clothing, shoes, saddles and harnesses, cotton and silk goods, and implements of all kinds.

Heinrich Hessler died in 1849 at the age of 28 as a result of being struck by lightning. His death brought about a partnership between James and his brother, Alexander, and the store then became Ferguson & Brother. Both became naturalized citizens in 1849. The meaning of this is that they did not come directly from St. Thomas to New Braunfels, but that they were in the U.S. or Texas before coming to New Braunfels.

James Ferguson took an active part in civic affairs. He became a city alderman from 1851 to 1854 and a Comal County Commissioner from 1854 to 1856. In 1853 he headed a committee of five men appointed to circulate lists for voluntary contributions to establish a municipal school. He was very successful at collecting these funds which were to augment money appropriated by the city council for the purpose of establishing a city school. This was the beginning of the New Braunfels Academy.

As a county commissioner, Ferguson worked for the building of a courthouse. Heretofore court business had been transacted in various rented buildings, including houses. Abandoning the idea of building a courthouse on the city-owned Comal River, and the other idea of a courthouse in the middle of the Plaza, the Commissioners Court decided to purchase half a lot from James Ferguson located where the Chase Bank is now for the courthouse. Later, on the steps of this old courthouse, Sam Houston made his pitch to Comal County citizens to vote against secession. This courthouse was built in 1860.

James Ferguson died June 11, 1858 and at the time of his death, he was the owner of vast real estate in New Braunfels and the counties of Comal, Gillespie, and Bexar. He not only owned the property on San Antonio St. and Castell Ave. but the lot where McAdoo’s Restaurant is located. He owned 2,046 acres of Potters Survey north of New Braunfels.

James and his brother-in-law purchased 305 ½ acres in Sattler from Jacob de Cordova in 1847. James named the property Marienthal after his wife, Marie, and “thal” in German meaning valley. This property is located on Farm Road 306 about ten miles north of New Braunfels. In those early days this road was just a dirt trail for wagons.

In 1857 the Ferguson brothers deeded Marienthal to Theodore Koester who, acting as agent, sold this farm to Carl Baetge. Carl built a two-story home on the property. This Carl Baetge is the same person whose previous home on Demi John Bend was dismantled and rebuilt at Conservation Plaza. If you haven’t seen the Baetge Home, it’s worth the visit. It is maintained by the Conservation Society. Carl Baetge from Uelzen, Germany, was certified as a civil engineer and went to work for a privately owned engineering company specializing in railroad building. In 1840 he was in Russia as chief civil engineer of the construction of a 420 mile railroad line between St. Petersburg and Moscow for the Russian government. Czar Nicholas I was eager to have the line because it would connect the summer and winter palaces of the royal family. The line was completed in 1846. The Czar awarded Baetge an honorary title for his railroad construction. The plans for this railroad are preserved in the Baetge Home.

Back to other pieces of property owned by Ferguson, there were two lots on Seguin Ave. near the old depot. This property was sold and became the location of the “Orphan Mother Felecites von Fitz” who conducted a Roman Catholic female school, according to historian Oscar Haas.

In Comaltown, he owned 12 lots and a 13 acres tract called “Amistad” farm. The location of this property was along the Comal River. He owned two lots in Fredericksburg, two lots in San Antonio plus 15,860 acres in head-right lands grants in Texas.

Ferguson leaves behind a block-long street or alley called Ferguson Avenue connecting Mill and San Antonio Streets. In 1856 Ferguson owned a 9 ½ acre tract of land outside the city limits that the county needed to construct part of a road. This little road became Ferguson Avenue. His name remains prominent in two places, the name of the street and his name on his tombstone in the Old New Braunfels Cemetery.

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