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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A windfall of big proportions happened to the New Braunfels Conservation Society. They now own a piece of property that is known as the Arnold-Rauch-Brandt Homestead that goes back to the mid-1800s, located northwest from New Braunfels in an area known as Mission Valley. The house, barn and smokehouse are on a ten acre tract that Conservation Director Martha Rehler says “literally stood still in time.”

This historic piece of property shows how Gottlieb and Maria Arnold and their descendants lived and utilized everything possible in the way of materials available to construct buildings and make use of the land.

The year was 1846 when the widower Gottlieb Arnold and his three children first arrived in Texas from Germany. They were lured by the generous land policies of the state of Texas. After arriving in Galveston, he moved to Guadalupe County where in 1848 he married Maria Koch. In 1854, Gottlieb received a 160 acre Comal County land grant from the State of Texas. On this land, Gottlieb and Maria farmed and ranched and raised nine boys and one daughter. Land in the hill country was not suitable for large scale farming but small plots were cleared for gardens. Notice the photograph of Hulda Arnold Rauch, granddaughter of the Arnolds sitting next to a large pile of rocks that she cleared from her garden. There is still evidence of the rock piles presently.

The last child born to Gottlieb and his wife was Friedrich Arnold and he became the only occupant of the family after the death of his parents. His niece, Hulda Arnold married Albert Rauch and they had five children. Albert died and he left Hulda and the children without a place to live. Friedrich took in his niece and five children, Edna, Elvira, Hedwig, Almon and Agnes, and they lived on the ranch.

Time went on and eventually Agnes Rauch married Arno Brandt. They continued to live on the ranch in order to help Agnes’ mother and uncle. Agnes Brandt was the last descendant of Gottlieb and Maria Arnold to live in the home. Agnes died in 2010 and her family was able to furnish much information about how the family lived. The family said that the Producers Co-op was one of Agnes’ favorite places where she bought supplies for her productive garden. She set up the garden wherever the cows had last been. The gardens were restricted by rock fences many of which are still on the property. The rock fences held in the livestock. Wells and cisterns provided water and there was no indoor plumbing. Electricity was added much later.

The New Braunfels Conservation Society received the property in March of 2015 after five years of negotiations. Members of the Conservation Society, along with their director Martha Rehler, spent countless hours cleaning, identifying and deciphering, hundreds of objects in the house. Those members who are responsible for the clean-up are Randee Micklewright, Luke Speckman, Marvin and Ann Gimbernardi, Pam Brandt, and George Holmans. The inside and outside of the house reflected what it was like to live in the 1800s.

Very little modernization had taken place. Electricity in the form of hanging lightbulbs was added recently. The full and intact limestone barn and smokehouse are in perfect condition. Rattlesnakes had inhabited the barn but soon felt unwelcome when cleaning began. A smokehouse was an absolute necessity in the 1800s due to the lack of refrigeration. Artifacts like old tools have been left there for years. There were molasses tubs and a hand-dug well.

The limestone home began as a one-room structure and eventually evolved from one room to six rooms. The front doors and porches face southeast to take advantage of prevailing breezes. Doors and windows appear to be original. The walls are from 10 inches to 2 feet deep and many are double walls filled with rubble acting as insulation. Window openings are larger on the inside than the outside, making a large window sill and allowing light to filter in. Many windows are original glass. Stenciling at the top of the walls is still visible and the floors are likely long-leaf pine.

There was no bathroom inside the home. With no toilet, one just took a toilet seat outside anywhere. For a shower, there is a spigot in the kitchen with a hose attached to it over a pan to catch water. The house is warmed with free-standing wood-burning stoves.

Inside the house there are dozens of deer horns and cases full of canning supplies. A light bulb hangs over the sewing machine. Christmas decorations, including artificial snow made from shaved asbestos, fill one wardrobe. There is a large collection of vintage clothing, material, feed sacks and hosiery from the mills in NB. Antique toys and trophies from the Comal County Fair are there.

Winding from the bottom floor to the attic are steps that lead you to massive amounts of artifacts and personal items that show the home life of the families. It became obvious that even if the items were no longer used, they were saved. The family kept everything in case it would be needed at a later time. Collections evolve from that philosophy. Books, magazines, material for sewing, old clothes, and a curious item that workers were contemplating: a football unassembled and wrapped up to reassemble at a later time? There are milk separators, sausage stuffers, ax handles, lye soap, deer heads and large 1860s pottery jugs made by the famous Wilson Pottery in Seguin.

As you might expect, canning jars and 14 boxes of powdered sugar waiting for the next canning season. Numerous Pabst Blue Ribbon and Grand Prize beer bottles and a powder puff box full of rattlesnake rattles were real finds. Mice and raccoons for several years have lived in the attic, leaving piles of evidence of their presence.

The Arnold-Rauch-Brandt Homestead is one of the few remaining properties showing German immigrant farm life in the Texas hill country. A mile off the main road, the Conservation Society hopes to make it a living example of early farm life open to the public. The property shows the resourcefulness of this family and the love of family, plants and animals. Conservation is applying for the homestead to be a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark and hopes to share it with the public soon.

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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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