Much has been written about the Indians of Texas, especially the Comanches. No one has given us more information than Dr. Ferdinand Roemer. In the field of research, Dr. Roemer becomes a primary source in which a person is actually present at the event being researched. All other sources are secondary in nature. Dr. Roemer gave us a first-hand account of the Comanches in his book “Texas 1845-1847”, published two years after his sojourn in Texas.

Roemer’s first person account was made possible by Prince Carl who contacted the Berlin Academy of Sciences and requested, on behalf of the Adelsverein, a survey of the geology of Texas. The Berlin Academy responded by sending 27- year- old Ferdinand Roemer on the recommendation of famous scientist, Alexander von Humboldt.

After arriving in Texas in 1845, Roemer made the acquaintance of other scientists in the area such as Ferdinand Lindheimer, Nicholas Zink, Louis Ervendberg, and John Meusebach who took Prince Carl’s place as Colonial Director. All of these men played a major part in the early days of New Braunfels.

It was on the sojourn with Meusebach in 1846, that Roemer made his personal observations of the Comanches. Meusebach was attempting to open up the land on the Llano and San Saba Rivers to emigrants by making a peace treaty with the Comanche chiefs. Roemer was at this important accomplishment by Meusebach and had the opportunity to observe the Comanches first hand.

Meusebach traveled to Fredericksburg, followed by Roemer who had been slightly delayed. Roemer stayed in Fredericksburg a few days before he left with the agent of Indian affairs for the U.S. Government, Major Neighbours. Neighbours was told to warn Meusebach to abandon his plan to meet with the Comanches, but Meusebach had already left Fredricksburg.

Roemer and Neighbours eventually caught up with the Meusebach group on the outskirts of the San Saba valley. They set up a camp and soon after entering the San Saba valley, a group of Comanche warriors visited them and inquired as to their purpose. After mutual greetings were exchanged, a royal reception was accorded the Meusebach group with 80 to 100 Indians, dressed in their festive war attire.

On the other side of the river, Roemer visited the camp village of the Comanches. The tents arranged in an irregular fashion with several hundred horses nearby, were made of 14- foot high poles crossing at the top with an opening to let the smoke out. These poles were covered with buffalo hides and a small door made of bearskin. The nomadic Comanches never settled down in one place because hunting buffalo was their main activity. These tents could be taken down quickly, placed on the poles, and then pulled by horses. Many early roads were made by the dragging of these poles.

Comancheria, as the hunting ground was called, was located generally between the upper course of the Red River and the Rio Grande. These most powerful of Indians at one time, numbered 10,000. The “lords of the prairie”, as they called themselves, used horses brought by the Spaniards for their buffalo hunts and warfare .They mastered the art of hanging on one side of the horse, using it as a shield as they used their bow and arrow and long spear. Keeping control of this large area of Comancheria was their main occupation in order to keep other Indian tribes and whites from infringing on their territory.

Roemer had an opportunity to view the habits of the Comanches. Their clothing was much like that of other Indian tribes – leggings, moccasins, breech clout (curtain), and a buffalo robe. (By the time of Roemer’s visit, many presents of cotton shirts and woolen blankets had been given by the U.S.) The wives were slaves to their chief and their main function was to take care of the children and sew decorations on the costumes for the men. The men wore their hair in a long braid on the back of the head, but the women’s hair was cropped. The Comanches scorned the use of alcohol and believed that the use of it would someday be the inevitable extinction of the “Red Race of North America”.

In his book, Roemer recalls a famous Comanche story from 1840. The small village of Linville was on Lavaca Bay. The inhabitants were few and when they heard that the Indians were coming their way, they abandoned their homes and stores. The Indians seized everything they could get on their pack horses and retreated towards the hills. The news spread and a number of armed settlers pursued them to retake the plunder. As the makeshift army found the Indians, they were wearing the stolen silks, top hats, and umbrellas making quite a comical sight. The Indians were finally overtaken close to San Marcos. Many were killed on both sides and the cotton and silk goods were scattered over the prairie. This became known as the Battle of Plum Creek. Local author, Janet Kaderli, wrote a book about the Battle of Plum Creek in her children’s story, “Patchwork Trail”. This battle was the last large battle of the Comanches in South Texas.

Legend claims that the Comanches were direct descendants of the subjects of Montezuma in Mexico and migrated north when Cortez destroyed the Mexican Empire. Supposedly when they came to the Rio Grande, they looked across the river to the other side and called out “Tehas!”. In the Comanche language, this word means “happy hunting ground, the home of departed spirits”. Thus Texas was their new home. This is one of many legends about the origin of the word.

After Meusebach made the treaty with several Comanche chiefs, he is given credit for opening up this area to settlement. Roemer was sent to give a report of the geology of Texas. He did this, plus a description of the animal and plant life. Most of all, he provides us insight with the Comanches.

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On Tuesday, September 10, the Sophienburg Museum and Archives will open its exhibit about a literary form referred to as fairy tales. Eighteen Brothers Grimm fairy tales will be incorporated into the displays that are already present in the museum.

Keva Boardman, Director of Exhibits at the Sophienburg Museum, has used her imagination and expertise to show off the Sophienburg’s vast collections, seldom seen by the public.

There are some important facts to know before you come to the exhibit. First of all, the “Brothers Grimm”, Wilhelm and Jacob, did not write the fairy tales; they wrote them down. Drawing from a collection of writers such as Charles Perault, they utilized the stories that were passed on by word of mouth, mostly from Europe. Most stories date back to the Middle Ages. These tales are in modern times totally bazaar and full of the evils that man is capable of inflicting on mankind.

Life in the early European days were indeed harsh and fairy tales reflected what children were exposed to and feared the most. The Grimm brothers told the stories they heard from people but modified them to reflect the times. (1800s) Writers of fairy tales for children today do basically the same thing, that is, change the tales to reflect these modern times. Walt Disney did much to keep the fairy tales alive, but in a much more acceptable way to modern children.

Even today the themes of the fairy tales still reflect the underlying fears of children and adults. Think about the fairy tales you know. They play on the themes of evil (the evil stepmother), abandonment (Hansel and Gretel), and fear of becoming a victim. Most children are quick to pick up on these themes in literature and for that reason, they are often fearful of the story itself.

One Christmas when I was eight years old, I received a very large book that contained 100 fairy tales. Each story had an illustration of that particular story. I would turn the pages very slowly and look at the beautifully illustrated pictures. When I got close to the middle of the book, I would hurriedly go past the 50^th story and its illustration. This story was “Bluebeard”, a story about a king who warned his many wives to never enter a certain room in the castle. Of course, the female finally gave in to her curiosity and she opened the door only to find that all the other wives had been beheaded. Needless to say, that story is no longer in fairy tale books and hasn’t been for about 50 years.

The Grimm brothers cleaned up the earlier tales, and Disney cleaned up the Grimm tales. The Sophienburg exhibit is for adults and children. The Grimm brothers were professors of linguistics. Learning about the change in the sounds of words was best accomplished by them by requesting that everyday people tell them stories that they had heard as children. The brothers wrote down the stories which eventually led to their publication in 1814. Consisting of tales from Germany, they were not intended for children, as they were full of witches, wolves, and goblins in dark forests. The original tales make no attempt to be fright-free.

Eighteen fairy tales have been chosen to display and here is an example of what you could see in the exhibit: a “Snow White” dress on a mannequin originally worn by Mitzi Nuhn (Dreher), age six, as she played that part in the Enchanted Hour Kindergarten’s program of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” in 1937 at the Seele Parish House. The teachers of this private Kindergarten were Bessie Baetge and Lucille Staats Jett. The silk and velvet dress was reworked by the Sophie Sewers who worked on several projects from the collection, including handkerchiefs from “The Goose Maiden”.

For the “Cinderella” exhibit, 39 right-footed shoes from the collection are shown, even a red leather Moroccan slipper. “Star Money” features a collection of German coins and “Brother and Sister” features things made of antlers, because in the story the brother turns into a deer.

A loaned display for “Brementown Musicians” shows eleven handmade German folk guitars dated 1870 to 1990 and loaned by Troy Tidwell. The musicians in the story are a donkey, a dog, a cat, and a rooster.

“Hansel and Gretel” features children dressed in German costumes and “Reponses” shows decorations made of human hair. There are about ten examples displayed in shadow boxes. This was a popular art at the time the emigrants came to New Braunfels.

Several fairy tales used the idea of a princess under glass. That even survived in the Snow White story by Disney. The exhibit is using their Scloss Braunfels Boyhood Home of Prince Carl of Solms/Braunfels under glass sculpture, created by Jonas Perkins. In the foyer of the museum is a permanent statue of “Little Redcap” or “Little Red Ridinghood”, donated by the Emmie Seele Faust family.

“The Seven Ravens” is about a baptism. The Sophienburg has been the recipient of many old church Baptism certificates. They are beautifully crafted, some using gold and exquisite colored flowers.

This exhibit is for those who want to know about the historic root of fairy tales. Museum hours are 10:00 to 4:00 Tuesday through Friday. The Bruder Grimm Kinder-Märchen Exhibit will be on display for a year.

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Now everybody sing:

“You better watch out, you better not pout,

Join us at Weihnachtsmarkt Nov. 18-20 and help the Sophienburg Museum and Archives keep alive the history of the settlement of New Braunfels.

More about Weihnachtsmarkt…

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By Myra Lee Adams Goff

This week the Sophienburg Museum and Archives will present a great shopping experience to the public. It’s called Weihnachtsmarkt, or Christmas Market, at the Civic Center. It begins Friday, Nov. 19th through Sunday, the 21st.

The market offers 60 plus unique booths, plus Breakfast with Santa and a charming café called Sophie’s Café. It features freshly prepared food in a European outdoor café setting. Sophie’s Shop moves down from the Sophienburg to offer German-made Christmas ornaments and unique decorations. Many local authors are offering their books for sale.

The Sophienburg Museum and Archives is a not-for-profit organization that derives its operating funds from individual donations, memberships, and much from Weihnachtsmarkt. When you purchase at Weihnachtsmarkt, you are helping the Sophienburg keep its doors open.

The Museum displays the rich history of New Braunfels with occasional special exhibits. The present exhibition is the Civil War. A volunteer group works diligently on the collections stored in the old museum building. There is constant work involving organizing and restoring items and papers donated by individuals.

The Archives are a rather complicated collection of records. Let’s suppose you would like to find out something about your family or something about an historical event like WWI or something that happened in NB. In old journalistic terms, you can find out “who, what, where, where, when, why, and how”. Make an appointment to work with a helper.

Here is what is available to the public:

What the Genealogy Society has done for the Sophienburg records will “knock your socks off”. They have collected over 1,000 research books, have compiled burial records from the Comal Cemetery, New Braunfels Cemetery, Comal and Guadalupe County cemeteries and small family cemeteries. They compiled birth, marriage, and death records for Comal County, extracted from the CC Courthouse.

There is a large collection of obituaries and related documents put on the computer by genealogy, collected from 574 donated family history books. They compiled the census of 1850 and every 10 years thereafter to 1930. There is an index of Probate records and Commissioner’s Court minutes starting in 1866 through 1937. Many of the aforementioned records are available for sale in Sophie’s Shop. Genealogy has maintained the Herald-Zeitung on microfiche up to the present.

Recently First Protestant Church allowed the Sophienburg to copy their original German records from 1845 and their translation in English. There are other church histories as well, plus directories, telephone books, and high school annuals.

Now this is a big one: There are over a million photographs in the Sophienburg collection. An attendant can enter a name or event on the computer and tell you if a photograph is available. For a small fee, you can have the photograph copied. Over 200 maps, going back to 1836 are in the collection.

The Reflections program began in 1976 for the purpose of interviewing NB citizens about what they remember about the past. These programs are played on the local radio station. A list of people interviewed is available and a list of subjects is being compiled. About 1,100 interviews have been recorded and you may listen to them at the Archives or purchase a particular interview in CD form. This is an ongoing program and anyone interested in participating is welcome.

For serious historic research, there are the 65 Prince Solms Archives in German, with a few numbers translated into English. There are two volunteers available to do German translations, including the elaborate German Fraktur.

To bring us up in the technological world, the Sophienburg has a web site that you can log in at home. It’s chock full of information about what’s going on with the organization. In addition the column that I write for the Sophienburg that appears in the Herald-Zeitung every other Sunday is on the web.

The Sophienburg asks for your support in keeping this institution up to date by supporting Weihnachtsmarkt. See the website for details.

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