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.

The post The saga of the Six Shooter Ranch appeared first on Sophienburg Museum and Archives.

In my travels in Comal County researching history, I have met some interesting individuals that tell great stories. One of them was Wilbur Bill “Big Willie” George, age 91, 92 in April. Herb Skoog, who interviewed George a few years back for the Sophienburg Reflections Program, called him a Renaissance Man. A Renaissance Man can be described as an outstandingly versatile, well-rounded person. I think you’ll see why Bill George, entrepreneur, fits this description.

Bill was born to Haydn and Elsa Nowotny George in New Braunfels in a house on Union Street. The home belonged to his aunt and uncle, Hedwig “Artie” and Hollis George. Remember that up until the 1940s almost all babies were born at home. Bill’s parents Haydn and Elsa lived near Fischer on Potter’s Creek so they came to town for Bill to be born. Aunt Artie was a nurse who assisted in home births.

Bill and his younger brother, Otis, grew up on family property near Fischer. It was on Potters Creek and was at one time 750 acres. Seventy acres of that property is now under Canyon Lake. Bill’s father was a WWI veteran and after the war, farmed and ranched the land. They raised cattle and goats for mohair which they sold in New Braunfels at the Co-op. New Braunfels had a large mohair processing facility near the Co-op.

Bill attended grade school through the seventh grade at Sorrell Creek School and Rebecca Creek School which were small country schools in the area of their home. For eighth and part of ninth grade, he rode his horse to Fischer Store School until the school burned down. It was a wooden school and during the fire, Bill remembered that he and a friend moved the large piano out of the burning building. The students then went to school in the old Otto Fischer home until the new rock school could be built. That school is still standing and serves as the Fischer Store School Community Center.

During his ninth grade a twist in his education took place. Since the country school went only through the ninth grade, students had to transfer to a large school if they wanted to graduate from High School. Because of the location of the George property, Bill could choose between New Braunfels and San Marcos.

The San Marcos football coach, Milton Jowers, had heard about Bill and his athletic ability and he convinced him to come play football at San Marcos High School. Bill attributes much of his athletic ability to hay hauling. Bill managed to be awarded All District designation. Many of you remember Milton Jowers who went on to become an outstanding coach at Southwest Texas University.

After Bill graduated from high school in 1942, he joined the navy. As a “naval fly boy” he was on active duty until 1946 and then was in the reserves. He started flying solo on the Cub Cadet, flew many types of planes and eventually served as an instructor. He spent five years in the military. A love of flying prompted him to continue to fly with the Weekend Warriors after the war.

After his military duty, his 1^st job was doing road work for Comal County and eventually the state. He started at 23¢ an hour. Bill had several jobs and then finally in San Marcos, Bill opened Spudnuts Donut Shop. It was a franchise and featured donuts made from potato flour using an old folk recipe originating in Germany. One day a man came into Spudnuts and offered Bill cash for the business. He took it and then opened “Big Willies” Drive-in. This famous hot spot was across the street from San Marcos High School and became a favorite of students in San Marcos.

Bill had an interest in plants and bought a business called the Garden Center in San Marcos and was lucky enough to land a big contract with Lady Bird Johnson’s beautification program. One of the results of this business still lives on. He planted trees along Highway 35 in Hays County and many can still be seen today.

It was during this time in 1962 that Bill and friend Frank Brown wondered if they could make a trip from San Marcos to Corpus Christi in a boat. Frank was head of the San Marcos Chamber of Commerce and they decided the trip would be a big publicity stunt to promote San Marcos and the San Marcos River. They tried out all kinds of boats and came up with a semi v-hull aluminum boat for the trip. Bill’s father said the boat would never float, but they patched up the holes and attached a sail. They launched their boat on the San Marcos River with a final destination of Corpus Christi Bay. They brought only a few food items with them: salt, pepper, cornmeal, coffee, and lard. Bill brought a 410 shotgun, a spinning rod and a frying pan. They depended on their hunting and fishing skills for food along the way. They ate a lot of fish and shot squirrels and deer. They took along a little tent with a bottom to keep out the snakes. A twisting and turning river turning back on itself like a demi-john made it very narrow in places where they had to carry the boat.

The course of the river was laden with danger. Trees hung in the water, dams had to be crossed, and swamps had to be conquered. They met with alligator gar, water moccasins, fire ants and mosquitoes along the way. They traveled down the San Marcos River that converged with the Guadalupe River around Luling. then proceeded down the Guadalupe River until they reached the San Antonio Bay. From there, they traveled to Corpus Christi Bay. The 330-mile trip took 20 days and they arrived in Corpus during the Buccaneer Days. Upon arriving, Miss Buccaneer gave Bill a kiss although he throught he probably was very smelly. Each of the men lost 40 pounds on the trip.

Frank and Bill enjoyed the trip so much that they had the idea of creating a boating competition called the Texas Water Safari. They took the idea to the San Marcos City Council for support and they got the approval from the council. In 1963 the first competition was held. The competition is now in its 53^rd year.

Rules had to be set up. Boats could only be propelled by human muscles. Competitors could receive only medical supplies along the way. They would put a little twist to the trip, making it a competition and the Texas Water Safari was born. Only two competitors reached Corpus Christy that first year but the Texas Water Safari was here to stay. The endpoint is now Seadrift and there are 12 check-points staffed with officials. It is held the 2^nd Saturday in June and is now 262 miles long.

Bill returned to Canyon Lake where he still lives on a portion of the family ranch overlooking the lake. Bill had invested in road building equipment and was part of many projects around Canyon Dam, including an airfield.

Bill George involved himself in the political life of the Lake. He became their commissioner for four years.

In 1983 Bill George was instrumental in starting River Gardens, an intermediate care facility for the mentally challenged. The facility has 160 beds and is located on the Guadalupe River at 750 Rusk Ave. He is still very much involved in the support of this facility.

This year, Big Willie George looks back on his 92 years. He lives by his beloved Potters Creek at Canyon Lake. He is indeed a Renaissance Man, an outstandingly versatile well-rounded person.

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