By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

With the Comal County Fair over and done, we look forward to the other fall community events. Dia de los Muertos comes next and will be followed by the granddaddy of them all, Wurstfest!

For me, a first founder descendant, Wurstfest is my favorite. It is much more than beer and sausage. It’s the time families and friends, old and new, gather to have Gemütlichkeit. Translated loosely, that means a time of warmth, friendliness and good cheer amongst people. Wurstfest is also a time we get to dance to the music and songs that have always been a special part of our lives.

The polka music that our grandparents taught us to dance to at weddings and dances have a nearly 200-year-old history. Mystery surrounds the true beginnings of the polka. Some say the name comes from the Bohemian word pulka, which is the half-step dance movement one uses. Others claim that the dance was invented by a young Polish servant girl and named “polka” in reference to the word for Polish woman.

History only knows that around 1830, in villages around Prague, the polka rhythm and steps were noticed and became a sensation in Prague itself. The upbeat tempo, catchy tunes and often humorous lyrics then took Paris by storm in the 1840s. Well, all of that and the added bonus that a man could hold his lady friend deliciously close when spinning her around the dance floor. The polka was a far cry from the formal and staid minuets, quadrilles and waltzes of the 19th century.

The major emigration of Europeans in the 1840s brought the sound, beat and steps of the polka to North America. Texas, with its high concentration of Germans, Czechs and Poles, became a hotbed and haven of the polka. As Germanic immigrants settled throughout east and central Texas, they tended to band together for their common good. They formed vereins. These associations or clubs promoted their members’ general welfare as well as preserving their culture. Music — and the polka — always played an integral part.

Dance halls were basically mandatory in these communities and bands were readily available since there were many men who knew how to play at least one instrument. Stringed and brass instruments came with the immigrants. Woodwinds like flutes, clarinets and saxophones were also prevalent. But the most distinctive instrument was the accordion.

The accordion is a wind instrument comprised of two reed organs connected by folding bellows. Sound is made by expanding and compressing the bellows forcing air through the reed organs. A keyboard of keys or buttons is used to play the melody.

The earliest accordion was invented by Friedrich Buschmann of Berlin, Germany in 1822; Buschmann called his instrument the Handäoline. In 1828, Armenian organ and piano maker Cyrill Demian created the Akkerdeon and chose that name based on the German word Akkord, which means chord.

The Germans, Czechs and Poles loved their accordions and the polka, and the music was heard often. In a wonderful turn of events, Texas-born Tejanos in the San Antonio area took the accordion, the polka sound and dance steps they heard and saw and invented the unique musical genre of conjunto. Conjunto blended the sound and rhythms from both German and Hispanic communities and remains popular in Texas music today.

The same beat, similar dance steps and the all-important sound of the accordion still echos in dance halls and street festivals. Even if you are new to the polka or conjunto sound, I guarantee that if you listen to the beat your foot will start tapping. If you listen closely to the words, you will often find yourself giggling. If you really listen to the music, I’m going to bet that you will get off your chair, grab yourself a partner and dance deliciously close in circles around and around the dance floor.

Sources: PBS Western Reserve: The History of Polka: From Europe to Northeast Ohio; Appalachian Freunde Polka Band; Handbook of Texas.

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

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Tourism has been an important economic facet in New Braunfels for many years. All can agree that the beauty of natural springs bubbling out of a rocky hillside to form the crystal clear Comal River, Landa Park, historic homes and businesses, music venues in century old dance halls, and the beer, sausage and Gemütlichkeit of Wurstfest are not really a difficult sell. But who started it all? Who was the very first tour guide of New Braunfels?

After a quick search through the Archives, I found that it might be a man by the name of Karl Klinger. Okay, so this might need a little background. In 1845, New Braunfels was settled by German immigrants led by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, Commissioner General of “The Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas” or Adelsverein. When the townsite was surveyed and laid out, the Prince chose a large section of land for the Adelsverein. According to the earliest town maps, the land was bordered by what is today Hill Street, Guenther Street, Cross Street and Butcher Street. A three-room log cabin with large doors was built on the crest of the small hill overlooking the settlement to serve as both the Adelsverein headquarters and guest quarters for visiting dignitaries. The building was also to be the beginning of a fortress to protect the colonists. Now, Prince Carl was already betrothed to Princess Sophia of Salm-Salm, so he did not stick around long in New Braunfels (actually only about 6 weeks). Before he left for his homeland, he dedicated the property and named the log structure “Sophienburg” (Sophia’s Fortress) in honor of his fiancée. A couple of other structures were erected on the site including a supply warehouse (or magazine) for foodstuffs and farm implements (thus the street named Magazine Avenue). After the Adelsverein went bankrupt in 1847, the whole Sophienburg Hill property was sold & divided to satisfy debts. The original headquarters building fell into disrepair, standing as a decaying memory of the Verein for over forty years until it was destroyed in a storm (that’s another story for another time).

For a good part of those forty years, the original Sophienburg building was occupied by Christian (aka Karl) Klinger as a sort of caretaker. Klinger had immigrated to Texas in 1845 as a servant of Prince Carl from the Province of Bavaria. He is listed in census records as a “joiner”, which is an antiquated term for someone who joins wooden building components like stairs, doors, and window frames. He also served during the Civil War in Captain F. Heidemeyer’s Company of Infantry, Texas State Troops, 31^st Brigade with the rank of Private. According to an 1888 New Braunfels Zeitung article, Karl Klinger lived in the “only rainproof corner” of the dilapidated old Sophienburg headquarters building until it collapsed (now that’s dedication!). So, what do you do when your historical hilltop home is blown away? What Klinger would do — build a small cabin to operate out of, keep on showing people around the site, keep telling the history of the Prince, Sophienburg Hill and stories about his time as a bugler in the Prussian Regiment of the Guards. To support himself, he sold such items as candy, soda drinks, homemade cider and postcards… the first tour guide and father of tourism in New Braunfels! Klinger was so well known that he was even included in an anonymous poem lovingly penned in German and submitted to the Zeitung in 1877:

The Sophienburg in New Braunfels

At New Braunfels on the hill
An old ruin perched;
There once dwelt the knight
Where now the Klinger lives.
He planes there all day
He tends to play the flute,
His beer is good, the cider clear
For Little money, one gets a lot.
And if you step out in front of the door,
One sees a friendly picture’
There lies the town in green adornment
Shrouded with gardens.
Prince Solms, a good knight,
Had this house built
Thirty-two years ago
To see something different.
After his much loved Lady
Did the Prince name it.
Sophienburg was its name,
So it is still known today.
There in the valley below swayed
The grasses back and forth,
Where you see the manicured farms
Was in those days, bare and desolate.
Wherever the eye turns
One sees today the fruits of Labor
What the parent’s diligence provided,
Was a blessing for their young.

Fast forward to 1928 and when S.V. Pfeuffer, along with a handful of very civic minded people, raised money during The Great Depression to acquire part of the Hill property and build a museum and library. The Museum, built on the original Hill Property, was dedicated on October 8, 1933. New Braunfels Herald accounts of the dedication reported “this was the first instance in the Southwest, at least, where a memorial has risen on the exact site where a city or town had its birth.”

Almost 84 years to the day, the Sophienburg Hill will be recognized by The Texas Historical Commission as a significant part of Texas history by awarding it an Official Texas Historical Marker. The designation honors Sophienburg Hill as an important and educational part of local history. As an added bonus, The Lindheimer Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas will also recognize the Sophienburg Hill as an Historic Site of the Republic of Texas.

A ceremony to commemorate these two events will be held on Tuesday, October 10, 2017 at 401 W. Coll at 5:15 pm. The Comal County Historical Commission invites the public to share in and witness this exciting dedication of the historical Sophienburg Hill.

Sources:

• Neu Braunfelser Zeitung
• New Braunfels Herald
• The First Founders, by Everett A. Fey
• THC application for site status

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Rural communities in Comal County outside of the City of New Braunfels formed mostly around land for farming and ranching. Stores, post offices and dance halls sprang up around these farming communities. Around Comal County roughly 30 of these small settlements developed. One of those communities was originally called Fischer’s Store. It was one of the largest and luckily it still exists because it wasn’t swallowed up by Canyon Lake.

One of the reasons for the success of this community was a social but cooperative organization called the Agricultural Society of Fischer’s Store organized in 1875. As you will see, as time goes by, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for this group.

Go back to 1853 when two brothers, Otto and Hermann Fischer emigrated from Germany to Texas and made their land claim. A few other families made their claims in this area in the late 1850s but up to that point, it had no name.

Due to the difficulty of clearing land for agriculture in the hill country, the Fischer brothers started their cattle ranching business. They encountered many hazards, such as Indians, wild weather, wolves, and rustlers. This was a time of open ranges (no fences) and the cattle roamed from the Pedernales to the San Antonio Rivers. During the Civil War, cattlemen had to have a pass to move from one county to another to retrieve lost cattle. Neighbors worked together to round up cattle to send on the trail drives to markets in Kansas. A trip to Kansas took about three months. Trail drives did not last very long due to these hazards.

On their ranch, the Fischer brothers not only raised cattle but also Merino sheep, a breed that was introduced by George Kendall. When fencing became possible, they were able to raise a better brand of cattle. At this same time, Hermann Fischer began a general store and the area became known as Fischer’s Store and finally, just Fischer. Hermann Fischer eventually became a successful mercantile business man and Otto became a successful rancher. This store is still standing at Fischer.

The Fischer Agricultural Society was formed to promote agriculture and animal husbandry and to acquaint families in the area through social activities, like dances. Dances were held outside or in someone’s home. A mixture of alcohol and the ability to carry a fire arm resulted in sometimes violent behavior at the dances. The first incident was an altercation between attendees in 1877 at which time a fiddle player was killed by a stray bullet. Can you just picture the scene? This caused the Agricultural Society to close down.

A few years later, the Society reorganized but in 1892 when a dance was held at the Andrea Kuhn place, a few miles from Fischer’s Store another shooting took place, resulting in the decision for the society to try and find a permanent home.

While Hermann Fischer was busy with the mercantile business, Otto Fischer had become a very successful rancher and he eventually owned over 2,000 acres. Otto’s interest in having an Agricultural Society is easy to understand. He gave a portion of his property to the Society to construct a permanent home which they did in 1897. A building for the dance hall would provide more security for Society activities. Society minutes before the last 1897 tragedy were not found and so the society’s minutes officially began in 1897 even though the Society was much older. A dance hall called Fischer Hall was built and still stands.

It is thought that members built the hall with some outside help. It is positive that most of the lumber was purchased at Henne Hardware in New Braunfels, as that name can be seen stamped on the inside boards. Like other dance halls in the county, this hall was built utilizing a lamination of pine and curved into arches, vaulting the ceiling. The wood for the arches was soaked in water and then bent in the form of an arch.

Immediately, activities and dances were held and in the first two years there was a July 4 Ball with Guenther’s Band providing the music, a costume Ball, an Easter Ball with the Bird’s Band, a Festival Ball and the Fischer Store Band performed.

Everything went well at the dances. Right? Wrong! In 1917, at a society dance a Comal County Sheriff’s deputy was shot by a man named George Burkhardt whom the deputy had suspected of robbing a watch in a recent burglary. Burkhardt had a gun in his boot, pulled it out and shot the deputy. Ironically and sadly, the deputy Alfred O. Fischer was the son of Otto Fischer.

Fast forward. The dance hall didn’t close but became the site of weddings, anniversaries, reunions, plays, school functions and masked balls. Best of all the hall became famous because it was the site of some famous western bands. Adolph Hofner started his career at Fischer Hall and Bob Wills who was named to the Music Hall of Fame in 1968, played there. His songs like “San Antonio Rose”, “Take Me Back to Tulsa”, and “Ida Red”, spilled out of the hall into Comal County.

In 1978, a Texas Crossover artist decided that Hollywood would use the hall in the movie, “Honeysuckle Rose, starring Willie Nelson. Although the scene in the hall was only a few minutes long, everyone enjoyed being entertained by Willie Nelson after shooting the pictures, where he sang for the crowds that had gathered.

In 1897, the Society built a nine-pin bowling alley adjacent to the Fischer Hall. The alley has expanded to four lanes and is still in use today. The dance hall is still used today also.

Bryan Weidner has done extensive research on the Fischer family and the Agricultural Society of Fischer’s Store. He is the son of the late Homuth Weidner and Thelma Fischer Weidner. He lives in the Fischer homestead in Fischer, where his grandfather Arnold B. Fischer lived and his mother, Thelma, grew up.

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In 1998, the late Dr. Robert Govier, native New Braunfelser and volunteer at the Sophienburg, translated the 1898 Neu Braunfelser Zeitung, one hundred years later. The weekly newspaper is on microfilm at the Archives and had to be translated from German script to English.

Govier was looking for outstanding national and local events that might give clues as to how people lived in the very late 1800s. In additional other notable events, two events stood out, one being the Spanish-American War and the local big event which was the building of our present Comal County Courthouse. Stories about the shortest war in American history that began and ended in 1898 took up more space in the paper than all the other stories put together.

Spanish-American War

Here’s the Spanish-American War history in a nutshell:

Cuba was one of many colonies of Spain. Revolts broke out in 1895 in Cuba. Spain sent an army to crush the revolution. In the US, people were shocked by what was happening to the Cubans. This conflict in Cuba was a threat to American property owners who had invested vastly in Cuban sugar plantations. When the battleship, Maine, was blown up in Havana Harbor, the US Congress declared war against Spain on April 25, 1898. Spain ultimately lost the war plus all its other colonies in North America. The US took temporary control of Cuba as a protectorate.

New Braunfelsers were well aware of this war through the newspaper. The paper asked for volunteers to fight in the war and there was a list of items needed in Cuba. Most of the items I can understand, but not all of them. The list included summer dresses, quinine, lard, and various dried foods. Texas Gov. Hogg says he intended to enlist in the army. “One surmises he was rejected by being overweight” (Editor Kaiser). Hogg was known for his large size.

During this time, Lt. Col. Teddy Roosevelt trained his Rough Riders in San Antonio and the Zeitung congratulated him for their performance when they charged unswervingly toward the hidden enemy, forcing them into open combat and finally to flee. After training in San Antonio, the Rough Riders were sent to Florida and then taken to Cuba. Author James Adams from his book, “The March of Democracy” said: “The most noted minor engagement was at San Juan Hill where Roosevelt under C. Leonard Wood led the Rough Riders on foot (their horses were still in Florida) against the enemy.” Roosevelt made a name for himself as a rough and tumble leader with this battle which no doubt led to his being elected president later.

Roosevelt’s reputation was really enhanced in New Braunfels in 1905, five years after the end of the war, when he made a train stop here on his way from Austin to San Antonio. When State Senator Joseph Faust found out that Roosevelt was coming to San Antonio for a reunion of his former Rough Riders, he invited him to stop in NB to hear a song in his honor sung by 1,000 children. The president accepted the invitation and said he had always been interested in NB because of its unique history. The song by the children was written by Prof Baumann of the NB Academy. All Academy students plus students from Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School, plus all area school children were invited to sing to the president.

In addition, a group of young girls in Rough Rider costumes greeted the president. This was really a big thing because the girls had to sew their own costumes and history shows that these costumes showed up at many dances and parades at later times. For more information on this event, log on the Sophienburg.com and look for the column on June 30, 2009.

Comal County Courthouse

From beginning to end of the year, the war was covered in detail in the Zeitung. The other well-covered event was the building of our present courthouse. Every decision that was made about the contracts made headline news. The Commissioners Court had the responsibility of choosing an architect and a plan. This led to a spirited debate which was really big news. The conflict was finally settled but not until one of the commissioners refused to have his name on the cornerstone.

The cornerstone laying was May 19^th and the paper reported that the event was like a folk festival. Two bands, Schuz’s and Waldschmidt’s accompanied a long procession of flag-waving children to the old courthouse and then on to the new courthouse. The contractor was given all the items that were to be placed in a metal box and fitted into the cornerstone. This cornerstone was opened 100 years later. After this, all went to Gottleib Oberkamp’s Garden for lemonade and beer.

Recreation

As far as recreation was concerned, NB was a hopping place in 1898. Dances were held every weekend in dance halls all over town and in the country. A masked ball sponsored by the Fire Dept. #3 advertised an evening of “folly and tom foolery” at Matzdorf’s Hall, or how about a Children’s Masked Ball sponsored by the Women’s Support League, offering free coffee for children and adults paying 10 cents a cup. Possibly this dance, since it was on May 5, was the Kindermaskenball which in the past was traditionally held the first Saturday in May. Also at Matzdorf’s was a performance of all children, the purpose being to pay for starting a library. A surprise to me was the holding of at least six dances on Easter Sunday and two more on the Monday after Easter.

If dances were not your thing, you could take a train trip from NB to Austin to attend a Baseball game for $1.25 for the round trip.

If none of this entertainment appeals to you, I’ll bet the last one will. At the Gottlied Oberkamp’s Garden (Next to the Phoenix), a famous diver, Fenton, performed by diving from the roof of the high building into a basin of water only 3 ½ feet deep.

Then you could attend the Comal County Fair which organized this year.

Prejudice

Newspaper articles reflect the prejudice against minority groups, Native Americans, and particularly against women. All public offices were held by men, and women were not permitted to vote. That brought on some street demonstrations later on. Notice the subtle insult in this advertisement:

“B.E. Voelcker advertises Electric Bitters for the woman of the future who visits her clubs while her husband stays home taking care of the kiddies, as well as the woman who stays at home cooking and cleaning. A miraculous cure.” By the way, birth announcements were in the father’s name only.

Miscellaneous

Gold had been discovered in the Klondike and there were mentions of local farmers finding gold when they were digging water wells. Petrified mammoth were found in a gravel pit. “Circa Trova” or “Seek and you will find”.

These are just the highlights that stand out to me for the year 1898. If you want to read the rest of the story, the book, Neu Braunfelser Zeitung 1898 is for sale at Sophie’s Shop at the Sophienburg. You will definitely be entertained.

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