By Myra Lee Adams Goff —

Soon it will be the annual Comal County Fair which had its first event in 1894.

When I was doing the research at the Sophienburg for the book It’s Fair Time for the Fair Association, there was one particular era in its development that intrigued me. It was the period beginning in 1923 for about 10 years. It was a period of extreme success, followed by almost complete failure and then success once again. To me, it showed the tenacity of the directors to keep this “the largest County Fair in Central Texas”.

Here’s how it happened: After some slack years, the Fair Association reorganized into a corporation in 1923, bought more land, put up more buildings, repaired the grandstand and then the unexpected happened; a fire totally destroyed the new grandstand. The choice was to rebuild or close up; they rebuilt. Then they took out rain insurance, and as luck would have it, rain came on Friday and Saturday. On Monday the insurance adjuster handed over $5,000 and with the additional gate receipts that year, the fair was in good shape financially.

The success of this fair spurred on spending for the next few years. Additional buildings were built and the land was improved. Write-ups in the New Braunfels Herald showed an overall optimistic spirit. Two gigantic pageants were held at the fairgrounds, the biggest with over 300 performers was called “The Gypsy Rover”.

The first fair queen, Alvina Vogel, was crowned in 1929 with much pomp, circumstance, and expense. The parades were getting bigger and so were the carnivals and rodeos. Slowly the Great Depression crept south but the local economy was looking good (so they thought) and the Fair Association decided to hold the 1931 fair despite economics. The depression was having a bigger effect than they realized and unfortunately, the fair went in the hole to the tune of $2,250, a big amount at that time.

Now here’s where they showed their tenacity. The FA decided to make some drastic changes in order to hold a fair in ’32. First they sent a letter to all those winners who would have received cash prizes in ‘31 stating that they were sending a certificate that could be redeemed “only after we have the money”. Secretary Edwin Staats suggested that they might want to consider just donating the unpaid certificate as many others had done. Then they cut out all activities that cost big bucks, like the queen’s contest. Elsie Meyer in ‘31 was the last fair queen until 1967. In addition, as much home talent as possible was used.

Of course, the carnival had to be engaged and a professional rodeo had to be hired. For entertainment, the arena was converted into a western ranch with ponies, steers, and broncos. Then there was a home talent rodeo in which only Comal Countians could participate.

Pageants that had become a big draw were eliminated. They called on the community to provide free entertainment, like the NB Unicorns football game and polo games. There was even a burlesque polo game on donkeys as a comedy act. On this team were Ernst Stein, Charles Scruggs, Paul Jahn, Pete Nuhn, Coach Rode, Red Babel, Barney Koepp, Dr. Rennie Wright, and Jack Eiband. There were no cash prizes for anything.

By far, the biggest innovative change was the practice of giving gate passes to exhibitors in order to attract large crowds. This practice has been carried on ever since. The strategy worked! The fair not only kept afloat, but it made a whopping profit of $150. When all was done, a Herald reporter observed,”No depression that ever existed can depress the fair spirit in Comal County”. If you would like to know more about the history of the fair, purchase their book It’s Fair Time at the fairgrounds or the Sophienburg.

(This article first appeared SEPTEMBER 18, 2007)

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Keva Hoffmann Boardman –

Soda pop? Soft drink? Soda water? My family just says “soda.” Whatever you call it, the soft drink industry is huge. When did New Braunfelsers first get a taste for the sugary yet satisfying beverage?

As early as 1872, Otto and Theo. Simon were bottling ice cold soda at their home. They bought a new ice machine in 1875 and, with partner L. Paggi, they opened and ran an ice cream/soda water parlour until 1881. Imagine how amazing an ice cold soda was back in the days of no air conditioning and dusty streets.

Others soon jumped into the increasingly popular drink business. Dr. Grube teamed up with Bruno Voelcker to start their own soda water factory in 1881 but it was short-lived.

Eduard Naegelin Sr. (Naegelin’s Bakery opened in 1868) added soda water, candies, cigars and ice to his bakery enterprise in 1883. According to his grandson, C. F. “Buddy” Naegelin, Eduard also had a license to produce wine. He used 50-gallon barrels and sold one gallon bottles for 25 cents to 50 cents. Now we’re talking!

Naegelin bottled “Squeeze” brand soda waters and IronBrew. IronBrew tasted a bit like a full-bodied cream soda and sported a label of a man with his arm raised showing off his bicep. Several New Braunfels doctors are said to have prescribed IronBrew to their anemic patients. I can’t verify its efficacy.

“Squeeze” brand syrups, used in Naegelin’s soda water, were mainly citrus and fruit flavors like lemon, lemon-lime and orange. A case of bottled soda sold for 40 cents. Naegelin made his own ginger flavor to bottle ginger ale. In those days, ginger ale was a seasonal drink for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

Naegelin handed the bakery/bottling business over to his son, Edward Jr., in 1924. The bottling business was kept until the building was remodeled in 1937.

Back in 1886, John Sippel opened St. John’s Bottling Works. No one remembers why, but people called John Sippel, St. John, and so the company got that name. Sippel bottled soft drinks of all flavors and a seltzer (sparkling water) called Sippel’s Water. St John’s Bottling Works was first located on the property where the old Main Fire Station stands. Sippel also acquired the Anheuser-Busch beer franchise for the area.

In 1894, St John’s Bottling was put up for sale. Robert Posey bought it at auction in 1903. He sold the business to the Neuse brothers in 1906 who moved it to the corner of Castell and Church (Coll) streets. At this time, there were three bottling works in New Braunfels: St John’s, Naegelin’s and Feltner’s Comal Crown.

Albert Staats bought St. John’s from the Neuse’s and turned around and sold it to his brothers Edwin and Walter in 1914. The Staats’ sold soda and seltzer water. (Seltzer water could be bought and taken home to make your own flavored soda or ice cream sodas.) Trade was brisk. They were selling to 20 local saloons. Their top flavors were “Cherry Blossoms” and “Orange Julep”. Naegelin’s was selling “Orange Squeeze”. Feltner had sold Comal Crown to Hugo Weidner who had franchised “Orange Crush.” Apparently, orange was popular.

The Staats brothers obtained the coveted Coca Cola franchise in 1915. Basically, soda water is a flavoring syrup mixed with carbonated H20 which is capped to keep in the fizz. Edwin Staats reported that in the first year he bottled Coca Cola, he used less than one 55-gallon drum of syrup; by the time he sold the bottling business in 1972, he was using three 55-gallon drums of syrup each day. In 1921, the company was moved to 203 S. Castell. Edwin bought out his brother Walter in 1932; Walter became NBFD fire chief and fire marshal.

Lucky for me, a born and raised Texan, the Weidner’s Orange Crush Bottling Works obtained the franchise for Dr Pepper and became the Dr Pepper Bottling Works. They bottled that “nectar of the gods” for New Braunfelsers. In 1963, Edwin Staats also bought this franchise and boosted his soda water sales by 30 percent that year.

Edwin Staats provided a few aneccdotes to the NBHerald in 1966. Staats would take orders for ginger ale prior to the holidays. Harry Wagenfuehr (Pearl Beer distributor) would delay returning empties to the brewery and loan the bottles to Edwin for use. These were picked up after the holidays and returned to Wagenfuehr and THEN back to the brewery in San Antonio.

Staats also explained about the old bottles. A spring stopper was attached to the bottle and was put into place when the bottle was filled (so you could refill it). The popping sound it made when opening inspired the term “soda pop”.

And speaking about “pop” … My kids made root beer once. All the filled capped bottles went into the pantry cupboard to process. Several weeks later, what sounded like a gunfight came out of the pantry. The entire experiment ended up coating the two bottom shelves with a sticky brown liquid.

At least it did taste like root beer.

Sources: “Reflections” oral history recordings: #80 – Buddy Naegelin; #209 – Preston Staats; #180 – Homuth “Lops” Weidner 100th Anniversary edition of the New Braunfelser Zeitung, Vol. 100, No. 53; NB Herald – Dec 29, 1966, “Edwin Staats Celebrates 50 Years of Coca Cola”.

Photo Caption: Robert Posey, right, looks over damage to St. John’s Bottling Works after severe freeze on Feb 13, 1905.

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