By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

New Braunfels citizens have never been shy in expressing their opinions in print or in demonstration. No other subject was more hotly contested than the issue of prohibition.

In December 1917, the 18th Amendment – the Prohibition Amendment – was passed. It banned the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquor. However, the political, moral and constitutional fight over prohibition in Texas began when The Republic of Texas passed the first local-option law in 1843. This allowed towns and counties, not the Republic, to decide the issue for themselves. The ensuing years saw the slow swing from anti-prohibition to prohibition.

In 1887, prior to a statewide prohibition referendum, the local newspaper ran many articles and editorials against prohibition. The referendum failed spectacularly across the state: 220,627 votes against, 129,270 in favor. After the referendum’s defeat, Bulverde made it known that there was not one vote cast in favor of the referendum in their precinct. Clear Springs held a huge victory dance. One local establishment even refused to sell a beer to a local prohibitionist telling him to “go drink water”. In the following month, the “Victory Banner of 1858” was delivered to New Braunfels from the States Executive Committee of the Anti-prohibitionists. The banner, featuring Sam Houston and his motto “Texas and Freedom”, was given as an award for the staunch anti-prohibition feelings displayed at the polls. The banner also commended Comal for being the leading democratic county of the State.

Prohibition gained ground after the turn of the century. Texas “drys” tried to pass prohibition legislation again in 1908 and 1911.

The most colorful and “heartfelt” demonstrations Comal Countians have ever undertaken were anti-prohibition events. In October 1908, several rallies were held in the county with the largest taking place on Main Plaza. Symbolically empty beer kegs and planks performed the job of bench seating. Participants needed to be comfortable while listening to the several important and influential men speaking in German about the loss of personal liberties from prohibition laws. German speaking events were very popular and drew people from all the neighboring counties.

Then in 1909, New Braunfels made headlines across the state. Prohibitionist Texas Governor Thomas Mitchell Campbell declared war on the counties not enforcing the 1907 Baskin-McGregor Act. The act mandated that saloons in Texas be closed on Sundays and prohibited women (waitresses, bartenders or prostitutes), musical entertainment and gambling from barrooms. “Sunday closing” or “Blue laws” meant that establishments in urban areas selling alcohol had to close at midnight on Saturday and stay closed until Monday morning. For New Braunfels, the part of Baskin-McGregor that applied was the enforcement of the Sunday closing law. It was a true infringement and violation of their personal liberty; never in 63 years had local businesses been forced to “put the lid on” Sundays.

The governor issued ultimatums to towns with large German populations like Galveston, San Antonio and New Braunfels. These were followed by threats to enforce the Baskin-McGregor Act by sending in the Texas Rangers. Governor Campbell put on more pressure and considered holding back money from the County Commissioners until they agreed to comply and enforce the law. Men from Austin came to talk to the locals and local leaders went to Austin to talk. December 29th was set as the day of reckoning. With Rangers enroute, New Braunfelsers locked the doors of their drinking places at noon and participated in a very formal, very somber “Funeral for Lady Liberty and Lady Freedom”.

Hundreds of local men, donned in their best black suits and top hats, met on West San Antonio Street. Following the famed “Victory Banner of 1858”and the “Banner of 1887” carried by Ferdinand Paulus and Julius Wills (both famed for their acting abilities), the men walked slowly and purposefully in mourning behind a decorated caisson carrying life-size coffins fashioned from heavy paper. Inside were paper “corpses” of Liberty and Freedom. Local leaders were pallbearers. On either side of the funeral wagon were large signs flaunting the words, “We close of our own accord and not by force” and “Farewell to our local self-government”.

A 25-piece brass band followed the hearse playing a specially composed, “Baskin-McGregor Waltz”. The waltz was “pronounced by music critics to be a gem in its own way.” Straight rows of male mourners walked in stately manner behind the band. Black draped bicycles, wagons and carriages of more mourners made up the rest of the parade. Another draped wagon filled with an orchestra brought up the rear.

The funeral march made its dignified way three quarters around the Plaza. The male mourners then joined women and children already gathered around the Bandstand. The newspapers estimated that a crowd of more than a thousand attended the demonstration.

Incredible photos of the event show that a long paper banner was unrolled which was covered with a tongue-in-cheek German poem and illustrations. After the obligatory speeches and obituary, the townspeople cremated the effigies of Lady Liberty and Lady Freedom. Yes, they were burned right there on the Plaza.

You have to wonder if the Texas Rangers were standing there watching this truly remarkable example of First Amendment freedoms along with the reporters. I am certain many out-of-towners agreed with the New Braunfels citizens.

You will be able to learn more about this event in a special exhibit at the Sophienburg Museum & Archives opening this summer.

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

The post Last call for liberty appeared first on Sophies Shop.

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

The best part of the local newspaper, for me, has always been the “society pages”. Since the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung’s first issue back in 1852, there was always a section for local news called Lokales (German for local). This section described events, weddings, the births of babies and funerals. It told you who visited town and of people’s visits to other towns, states and countries. Lokales touched on everything from fishing stories and new building projects to accidents and criminal activities — – in short, all the noteworthy incidents which happened during the week preceding publication.

Lokales carried longer articles by a part-time employee of the paper named Bohemian John. Bohemian John travelled extensively around Comal and neighboring counties riding horseback or with a horse and buggy. He represented and sold subscriptions to “Die Tante” or “the aunt” which folks back then fondly and regularly called the Zeitung; I’m not sure why. Bohemian John wrote weekly reports of his travels which included publishing of the names of new subscribers but more importantly just what the heck was happening out in the County. He knew everything that was going on. Over the years, I have read many of Bohemian John’s contributions and for some reason or other, I never thought about who the man behind the pseudonym was. Now, suddenly, I am curious.

I did a little scatter-plotting research. Bohemian John was John Mickesch or Mikesch. With a name, I could now learn about the man and so onward and upwards or perhaps sideways….

In 1854, John, a newborn infant, accompanied his father Jacob, mother Marie nee Weselic and his two older sisters on a three-month voyage which took him from Sobeslav, Budweis, Bohemia (in today’s Czech Republic) to Texas. The family left behind five dead children. His father Jacob became a farmer but added to the family coffers by also freighting; basically, he was a truckdriver only he used a wagon and team of 10 oxen. By the time John was 13, he was periodically joining his father in the freight business. He wrote about those times in some of his newspaper articles. On one particular trip in 1869, his father had taken ill in Victoria and he went to help.

What we experienced was no joking matter. We had ridden several miles in rain and came to a creek. When I said “Say, John (Nowotny), I believe that is a deep creek!” he laughed and urged his horse into the water. Plump! His horse disappeared from under him. Luckily, he was a good swimmer and his horse also got out again. But our provisions and bedding were gone. What to do now? A Negro on horseback came to us and told us that the water was 25 to 30 feet deep and we needed to go several miles upstream to a new bridge. Walking on the sleepers for this new bridge, we carried our saddles and what little effects we had across to the other side and pulled our horses after us. We caught up with Valentine Schumann, Ed Schertz and Oswald Jung and camped on this side of the Guadalupe (near where Cuero would be established).

The next day we rode through rain until we came to Victoria. My father still lay very sick. Mr. Schumann had recuperated and could drive his own team again. My father did not recognize us. John rode back to drive my father’s team. Some of the 10-oxen team had died. I stayed until Thursday. The next morning, I found my father sitting up in bed. It was, I believe, the happiest moment of my young life.

I now drove father’s team and John Nowotny rode on home. He soon came back with Adam Daum of Mission Valley whose brother John had also become ill down in the Indianola Prairie. John had already been buried. Several other waggoners died that year down there. It took a month to get back to New Braunfels. To list all misery and hardships endured on that one trip would take up all the space in the “Tante” and I believe that the youth of today (1903) cannot have any conception of the hardships that were endured on those trips.

The youth of 1903? Pshaw! John, the youth of today might not even listen to your story.

For a taste of Bohemian John’s basic style, I give you a bit of his folksy banter from his report published January 26, 1903.

Everyone knows that a sort of rheumatism has had me by the “Schlaffitcher” (collar?). However, my Bohemianess has quickly subdued the evil, and I now again feel good so that I want to tear trees out by the roots. If only trees weren’t so big and deep-rooted. Readers, you can admire me this week as [I am] the bailiff for the Grand Jury.

Met Rudolph Gloff of Clear Springs last week in New Braunfels. He is moving to Brenham and instructed me to have the “Tante” sent to him. Also saw Mr. Alfred Klein in town. He is the son of our “Rittergutsbesitzer” (Lord of the Manor) Carl Klein, and who, on the 17th of January was married to Miss Frieda Link. That the “Tante” will go weekly to visit the young couple from now on is “eine alte Sache” (“an old thing” or self-evident).

John Mickesch married Karoline nee Fenske in 1881, and they had five children. He lived most of his life in the Bracken and in the Schönthal area where he farmed. He died in New Braunfels in 1934. This staunchly Catholic man had served the community as a school trustee and county commissioner as well as newspaper reporter and was held in high esteem. He is buried in New Braunfels Cemetery near his father and mother.

In 1899, Bohemian John was heralded as the first Zeitung correspondent. His articles on the state of the county continued almost weekly well into 1907. They create a vivid picture of everyday people in the rural hill country landscape of the time. Bohemian John’s style and passion make this early social/gossip columnist’s reports on life’s myriad details fascinating and a joy to read.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives collections; Oscar Haas collections; Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung collection.

The post Bohemian John appeared first on Sophies Shop.

Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

When nine young men from Frankfort emigrated to Texas in 1849, they were given the nickname of “Die Neunköder” or “the Nine Lures” or “the Niners.” One of them, George Weber, described the group of adventurers:

“Taking a sailship at Antwerpen, we finally landed at Indianola after a 57-days voyage…after a four-weeks trip reached our destination New Braunfels shortly before Christmas 1849. We were a group of nine who in jest were called “die Neunköder”. After a number of trips into the surrounding country in its yet primitive state, we bought 400 acres of raw land on the left bank of the Guadalupe between New Braunfels and Seguin and began early 1850 to put it into cultivation. It soon proved that our plan “one for all and all for one” was a miserable failure. Ability, views, skills, etc…, are so dissimilar apportioned. And so after 4-months of labor it was decided to sell the land and each go his own way…”

Tradition has it that the nine bachelors first worked for Jacob de Cordova at his home, Wanderer’s Retreat (south of present day Clear Springs), before they bought 400 acres from him and named their new community Neu Frankfort. Hermann Seele named all but one of them in his Gesammelte Schriften: J. August and Ferdinand Michael Dietz, J. Halm, Rudorf, Behr (or Boer), Buss, Heinrich Bauer, and George Weber. Oscar Haas thought possible names for the ninth “lure” might be Fertsch, Deisler, Grossmann or Meimoro.

After the collapse of their communal farm project, the Dietz brothers bought out Bauer, Behr, and Buss and by 1853, the community was known as Dietz. Oddly enough, two of my dad’s ancestors, Johahn Phillip and Jacob Stautzenberger, bought some of August Dietz’s land in 1861 and 1871.

I started following up on George Weber and found out that in 1869 he invented a machine to clean castor beans. He then set up the first castor oil mill in our area in 1870. He sold the oil as a medicine and a lubricant. Ok, now I have to know more about castor oil. I remember my mom saying they had to take spoonfuls of castor oil as kids. Just what is it and why did they have to take it?

Humans have harvested and used the castor plant for 7000 years. Castor oil (known as kiki by the ancient Greeks) was an early commercial product used by many ancient cultures as a medicine, lamp fuel, in wick-making, leather lubrication, fabrics, and varnish. Egyptians used castor oil to prevent eye irritations. It was used in India as a laxative. The Chinese used it both internally and externally in medical treatments. You can find it mentioned in the Book of Jonah in the Bible. Folks in the middle ages used the oil for its skin healing properties. Travelling salesman of the 19th C hawked castor oil mixed with as much as 40% alcohol as a cure for many things including heartburn, constipation and to induce labor.

The castor plant (Ricinus communis) is a perennial shrub which grows between 6’-8’. Dorothy Kypfer Constable, a staff member at the Sophienburg, brought me some seed pods from a wild castor plant growing on the Kypfer Farm out past the NB Airport and in the area of the old Dietz community. The seeds or beans, encased in spiny pods, are silky smooth and shiny grey to brown in color with intricate mottled designs. They actually look a little like cow ticks.

The plant contains three poisons so it is classified as a toxic plant. You think? The seeds contain about 50% oil by weight. The poison lectin is extracted from the seeds during the oil-making process. We’ve all heard of terrorists using ricin, right? Well, this is where it comes from!

There is science behind the use of the castor bean oil. Castor oil contains a high amount of ricinoleic acid, a fatty acid that is the source of its healing properties. It prevents bacteria and virus growth by increasing white blood cells and antibodies. Rub it on arthritic joints and it increases blood circulation to those areas. Castor oil also contains salts and ethers which act as skin conditioners and it can assist the body in expelling toxins.

Grandmas and moms don’t sound so mean now for making kids take the oil, do they? The seemingly cruel doling out of castor oil, was really doing a lot of good. If you were constipated, it was a laxative. If you had PMS, it helped absorb hormones. It also strengthened your body’s viral and bacterial resistance by increasing the production of lymphocytes.

Today, people are using this ancient homeopathic medicine to treat skin infections — – its antifungal, antibacterial properties remove toxins and reduce swelling. It fights acne — – it kills bacteria that causes breakouts and hydrates the skin. It relieves arthritis — – used as a massage oil, its anti-inflammatory properties ease pain in joints and muscles. And it promotes healthy hair growth — – its omega-6 acids help hair grow and give it shine.

Castor oil also has the ability to “cling” to very hot moving parts so it is utilized in high performance engines (Castrol-R). It was used extensively in WWI, WWII and Korea in hydraulic fluids, greases and lubricants for military equipment. Castor oil is added to paints and varnishes to help them dry faster, and it is a basic ingredient in the making of nylon and other synthetic resins and fibers. The castor plant is currently being researched as a product plant to use in rotation with cotton and studies are testing its use as a biofuel.

Cool beans, right? Just be aware that It grows wild in our area and remember, the castor bean plant is poisonous.

Sources: Neu Braunfelser Zeitung and New Braunfels Herald newspaper collections – Sophienburg Museum & Archives; The New Braunfels Sesquicentennial Minutes, ed. Roger Nuhn, 1995; Edna Faust and Oscar Haas collections — Sophienburg Museum & Archives; www.tshaonline.org; www.dovebiotech.com; The Agriculturist, “The Perfect Storm”, Fall 2011; FarmProgress, “Castor an oilseed crop that can cure, kill you”, Oct 9, 2012.

The post Die Neunköder and the castor bean appeared first on Sophies Shop.