“Sprechen Sie sausage?” I love it! It’s this year’s Wurstfest advertising gimmick. I want to add another expression for those of you that are so inclined: “Sprechen Sie history?” Well, maybe not, but if you are interested, read on. A good way to find out what Wurstfest is all about is to read the book “Wurstfest, New Braunfels, Texas; The First Fifty Years” by two long-time Opas, Alton Rahe, with photographs chosen by Darvin Dietert. This book was written to celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of Wurstfest.

Let’s take a walking trip through the Wurstfest grounds beginning at the entrance on Landa St. Outside of the gate to the left is a historical marker dedicated to Wm. Meriwether, the first to purchase the property from the Veramendi family. The marker, however, commemorates Meriwether’s invention of snake wire fencing. Right behind this marker stands the Maibaum Maypole dedicating the 150^th Anniversary of New Braunfels by the NB German-American Society. It depicts 20 important German contributions to the city.

To your right outside of the gate is a brick building that was once the Landa Power and Light Company. Landa installed generators in the building run by water power and sold electricity to the community. Also on our right is the rock, original Landa Flour Mill building.

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE AREA:

The property on which Wurstfest finally located belonged to Maria Veramendi Garza and her husband, Rafael Garza. Maria originally inherited it from her father and then sold the 480 acre Comal Tract to Wm. Meriwether from Tennessee in 1847. In three years, Meriwether’s slaves dug a canal parallel to Landa Park Drive, continuing into the millpond and then spilling down several tail races or spillways into the Comal Creek (now considered the Comal River). Here he set up a sawmill and gristmill, and later a cotton gin, using water power. The only remnant of Meriwether’s mill structures is the Meriwether Mill House at 133 Landa, behind you to the left.

In 1860, Wm. Meriwether sold his holdings to Joseph Landa. Landa and his son, Harry, eventually operated flour and cottonseed oil mills, an ice company and an electric light company, all using hydro-electric power. Landa sold the entire operation in 1925 to J.E. Jarrett who soon declared bankruptcy. Dittlinger acquired Landa Roller Mills and Feed Mills from a bank in Dallas that had obtained the mill in bankruptcy. The rest of the property was closed in 1933, and in 1936 the city acquired the land that would become Landa Park. The city purchased the Cotton Oil Mill in 1946. The Wurstfest Association later purchased the Landa/Dittlinger Roller Mill property.

BACK ON OUR TOUR:

Looking behind you from the Landa Street entrance is a Landa Industries warehouse where a railroad spur from the IGN main railway crossed Landa Street and followed the path you are now walking. The spur ended at Elizabeth Street and had several smaller spurs providing access to some of the buildings. The tracks were removed from the grounds in 1978.

Continue through the gate and you will see the millpond on the left and at the end of the millpond, the spillway gates on the left and the spillway on the right. At one time there were as many as four waterfalls or tail races generating hydroelectric power for the mills and plants. The two buildings on the left after the millpond are the Power Plant and Landa Steam Power Plant now owned by New Braunfels Utilities.

After passing the big tent, you will see the Wursthalle which was the Landa cottonseed storage for the Landa Cotton Oil Company. Next to the Wursthalle on the left is the Kleinehalle (which also includes Circle Arts Theater, the Wurstfest Offices and the Spass Haus) which was the Landa oil mill. The Landa Recreation Center was the Landa cottonseed oil storage building and the NB Park Department rock maintenance building was once the Landa cottonseed hull storage.

WURSTFEST’S BEGINNING:

Rahe traces the beginning of the sausage festival to the present. Dr. Ed Grist, local veterinarian and NB meat inspector, was well aware of the fact that Comal County had an extraordinary number of companies and individuals who made their own sausage. In August of 1961 Dr. Grist presented his idea about a sausage festival to the City Commissioners and Mayor Joe Faust proclaimed the week of December 11-16 as Sausage Festival Week. A city sausage band organized for out of town advertising, and Joe Chapman, owner of the Smokehouse, mailed out 5,000 invitations to friends announcing the festival.

The first event was to be held in Landa Park, but because of rain, was moved to the National Guard Armory. It was then held in Landa Park for the next two years. In 1963 the festival moved to a downtown hole left by the burned out Eiband and Fischer building on the plaza (burned in 1947 and left that way for 16 years). 1967 began the move toward the present property. Half of Wursthalle was leased for the event and tents were set up on the grounds.

The not-for-profit corporation has enjoyed enormous success over the years and helps many organizations by allowing them to sell food and souvenirs. Speaking of souvenirs, Sophie’s Shop of the Sophienburg has a new pewter Christmas ornament, a spoon with the Wurstfest Opa. Every time you look at it hanging on your tree, you can remember the “Spass” (fun) you had at Wurstfest and “Ja, wir sprechen history”.

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By Keva Hoffman Boardman —

The Six Shooter Ranch. The name evokes something rather wonderful in an old-Western-movie kind of way. However, dear reader, the history around the Six Shooter Ranch is anything but romantic. There are tales from different time periods which give us clues to its story and with some sniffing around, I think I have got the gist.

I first found a paragraph in the Marjorie Cook files. She was a feature writer/editor for the NB Herald.

Six Shooter Ranch was owned by Coreths and got its name from a man named John Sippel (who married a daughter of Ernst Gruene, Sr. Sippel lived in the house there and used to get drunk, lie on his bed and shoot flies with his six-shooter. The ceiling was full of holes as a result. The house stood on top of the hill adjoining the Eden Home. This was levelled for crushed rock by Landa on a lease from Coreth. Just before the house was torn down, it served as a bordello.

Is your interest peaked? Are there facts to back up any of this tale?

A transcript of an interview with Coreth Family descendants fills in some details of the location.

At one time they [Coreths] owned property from Mission Hill all the way over to the Eden Home. My uncle Rochette Coreth referred to it as the Six Shooter Ranch. There was a quarry there on the edge. That was in 1913, when Landa wanted to establish a rock quarry on the Coreth property and [paperwork] refers to it as the Six Shooter Ranch.

I looked into the land area a little closer and it seems that it was first owned by Ernst Gruene. His daughter Johanna and husband John Sippel lived on the property when they got married in 1873. In 1887, Sippel opened a rock quarry on the hill to get rock and gravel for the construction of the Guadalupe River Bridge (Faust St. Bridge). Sippel later recovered an 8-pound mammoth tooth at the site. The Coreth’s then acquired the land and they leased it to Landa to quarry gravel.

Olinska Sippel Posey, one of the daughters of John and Johanna Sippel, shared a very personal insight on her family. John built a home on the corner of Academy and Coll in 1881, and that’s where she lived so she didn’t live on the Six Shooter Ranch. She did remember that her father was a little bit crazy and dangerous. Olinska remembered that father John took her to visit her Gruene grandparents who lived on Rock Street one day. They crossed the San Antonio Street bridge, went through Comaltown and at the railroad tracks there on Rock Street, John told her to get out and walk the rest of the way. As she walked, he shot his gun several times over her head to hurry her along.

Olinska’s mother Johanna had a mental breakdown in 1893. Olinska said her mother felt she had to file for divorce in 1894. After her husband shot himself in the head on the second floor of his Phoenix saloon in 1900, Johanna Gruene Sippel lived until 1942.

Doesn’t this recollection just break your heart? Here is a bit more of the Sippels’ story.

John was the son of Valentin Sippel, one of NB’s first founders. John was quite the entrepreneur. He and father Valentin built the first Phoenix Saloon — same location, different building — in 1873. Off and on he lived on the 2nd floor of “Sippel Hall” and rented out the first-floor saloon. He also added an alligator pond and a bowling alley. In 1885 he became the local distributor for Anheuser-Busch. John set up a soda and mineral water bottling works, St. John’s Bottling, in 1886. In 1887, he opened the quarry at the Six Shooter Ranch. He added an ice factory to his line of businesses and became the distributor for Lone Star Beer in 1890.

I think his world started falling apart in 1892. His 18-year-old, first-born son Henry was shot and died while at business college in Dallas. The Sippels’ had already lost a two-year-old daughter in 1883. Henry’s death caused Johanna to have a mental breakdown and require several months of hospitalization. John was having a hard time financially as well. The bottling works went bankrupt after a bad freeze and it and the ice factory were put up for sale. Johanna filed for divorce and six years later, most likely depressed and drinking, John shot himself.

Perhaps this is the origen of the “drunk and shooting the flies on the ceiling” story; so much trauma and heartache for this man and his family to handle.

My last reference to Six-Shooter Ranch is later in time. Hanno Welsch Sr. recorded an oral history at the Sophienburg and told an interesting story. His family lived on a farm out on River Road and Rock Street. Remember that the ranch house of the Six Shooter Ranch was located about where the Eden Home and Dean Word’s pit is now.

There was a fella by the name of Clapp, of Clapp Shoe Company. He was living up there. He was a playboy. I imagine they gave him lots of money to get him away from their business. He hooped it up! He had some nice black horses and a buggy; well-groomed. He’d go to town and meet these girls. He’d get a pretty girl from off the train and have big parties there. And he liked six shooters, pistols and stuff like that. He was shooting at the fella that was working in the field on Rock Street, and, of course, once in awhile this fella would shoot back too you know. I don’t know but I think they were both drunk. They couldn’t hit a target.

Finally. I think I understand the bordello reference in Marjorie Cook’s notes. Mr. Welsch also talks about the “pretty ladies” which came in on the train. Behind the depot was a one-story house about 30 feet long with a porch along the sidewalk of Mill Street. The mostly dark and shuttered house was “verboten to us youngsters” but Welsch and his friends would slip over to the windows and listen to the “sweet talk”. Hanno describes how the ladies would come in by train, pulling up their skirts above the ankle as they stepped down onto the ground. There were always a lot of cowboys ready to help and then escort the ladies to the “entertainment house”. I think the Clapp gentleman at the Six Shooter Ranch would bring “these girls” to the ranch house to party.

So it looks like I’ve figured out quite a bit of the story. But Mr. Welsch gave me one more tantalizing tidbit connected to Six Shooter Ranch. One day Hanno’s father was plowing in the field down on the corner of Rock Street and he plowed up an old pistol.

It was a very peculiar pistol. It was originally a rim fire and it had been converted into a center pin fire pistol. It had beautiful engraving on it and a nice wooden handle. It must have come from the Six Shooter Ranch somehow.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum: Neu Braunfelser Zeitung; New Braunfels Herald; Marjorie Cook Collection; Myra Lea Adams Goff Collection; Hanno Welsch Sr. “Reflections” oral history.

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A week of fun at the Comal County Fair really started off yesterday with the B-B-Cook-off and the Queen’s Contest today.

There is something for everybody at the fair. A giant carnival is the highlight for the kids. Even watching the crew set up the rides is a treat. The carnival literally rolled into town and began it’s set-up. With eager anticipation, kids watch the rides assembled like giant puzzles.

Did you know that the Ferris wheel was introduced at the Chicago World’s Fair Columbian Exposition of 1893? George Ferris built the 280-foot-high structure having 36 cars. Each car could hold 40 passengers. The Ferris wheel became the standard for every carnival thereafter.

By the way, New Braunfels had a connection with this Chicago Exposition. The City of New Braunfels entered into a contract with the Chicago Bridge and Iron Co. to build two high water bridges in NB in 1894.The company would use the steel from the dismantled Chicago World’s Fair. One of these two bridges was built at the foot of San Antonio St. over the Comal River, and the other at the north end of Seguin Ave. over Comal Creek. The total cost of the bridges was $9,895. These bridges are no more. The San Antonio St. Bridge was replaced in 1923 by the present concrete bridge and the Seguin Ave. Bridge was replaced with the concrete bridge that is the railroad underpass.

The State Fair of Texas was held in Dallas in 1886 and just a few years later the Comal County Fair organized in much the same way as the state fair. In Dallas, five businessmen organized the Dallas State Fair. Arguments over the location caused the group to be split and form two state fairs. One was the Dallas State Fair and the other was the Texas State Fair and Exposition. Both claimed crowds of 100,000 but both failed to meet expenses. In 1887 these two fairs merged and agreed to hold the fair at Fair Park in Dallas. They bought additional 37 acres. A series of problems forced them to sell the land to the City of Dallas in 1904. In 1930, the racetrack was removed to build a stadium later called the Cotton Bowl.

“Meanwhile back at the ranch” in New Braunfels in 1892, a hospital was being dedicated here and a small fair was held on the front grounds to raise money. People liked the idea and so a Fair Association was formed after the editor of the Zeitung, Anselm Eiband, asked why we didn’t have a fair in NB when Fredericksburg and Lockhart had one.

Right after this Krankenhaus Fair, the Comal County Fair Assosciation was organized. They elected Harry Landa as president and the fair was planned for 1893 on Landa’s pasture. Because of drought conditions, this fair was postponed until the next year. The amount of dust that would be stirred up by the horse races would be unbearable. Horse races were a big part of the early fairs. For that matter, horse races were big gambling activities in early Texas.

Four successful fair years passed and then the Fair Association bought their own land. In 1898 the organization purchased 11 acres in Comaltown on the Guadalupe River. Six hundred shares were sold at $20 a share. The land was cleared for a race track and a dancehall was built. For a few years the fair was financially successful but the situation turned around in 1905. Look back at what was happening in Dallas at the same time. Like Dallas, the CCFA decided to sell the property to the City of New Braunfels with generous lease options.

The fair was revitalized in 1908 and in 1923 the Fair Association was incorporated. Three more blocks in the Braunfels subdivision were purchased adjacent to the fair property. That same year the newly constructed grandstand burned to the ground, but the loss was covered by insurance. This helped the financial situation for a short time until the Great Depression of 1931. During this financially difficult time, the fair struggled to keep going but made some significant changes; prices for admission were reduced, no money for prizes was awarded, and most entertainment was voluntary. Local football and baseball teams put on games in front of the grandstand. For a few years the New Braunfels Unicorns held their first game of the season at the fairgrounds.

If I were asked to come up with a description of the fair, I would have to say “tradition and addition”. So many elements of the fair are as they have always been. The parade, the carnival, the exhibits, the rodeo, the queen’s contest, all are traditional.

I would have to say that the biggest change in the fair is the elimination of horse racing. One of the main events became the expanded rodeo. Some changes reflect society’s changes as well. The fair had a German flavor at the beginning and so German culture was emphasized. Then right after WWII the atmosphere of the fair changed and it became more of a western-style fair. The old Beer Garden became the Comal Corral and the music changed from oom-pah to “Cotton Eyed Joe”. The traditional Night in Old New Braunfels previously held on Thursday night has been moved to the last day of the fair on Sunday. Jeremy Richards will play music and the dance contests will still be held. The final Grand March will signal the closing of the Fair.

One big addition to this year’s fair is the unveiling of the Comal County Fair Historical Marker awarded by the Texas Historical Commission. The marker will be on display in the Comal Corral as it waits for its permanent location at the new front gate to be built soon. Being a marker sponsor shows the recognition of the historic value of the Comal County Fair and the Association’s interest in its history.

Another big additional change is the Cowboy Breakfast. It will be held at the Farmer’s Market downtown from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. the day of the parade. Donations will be accepted and are for the Comal County Fair Association’s Scholarship Fund and also the Sally Kingsbury Foundation. There will also be music.

At 10:00 o’clock when the parade begins, there will be a WWII Air Force Flyover. Leading the parade this year will be Parade Marshal Arlon Hermes, longtime volunteer and supporter of the fair.

The changes that have been made over the years still make the Comal County Fair the “biggest and bestes” Fair in Texas.

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