The story of the capture of children in 1800s Texas is told through the research of Scott Zesch in his book “The Captured”. Many children were captured by the Plains Indians. In his book, he studies in depth the life and eventual release of nine children, mostly boys under 14, who were captured in the Hill Country by Comanche and Apache tribes.

Remember that the original land grant that the emigrants had with the Adelsverein was that they were granted 320 acres for a family and 160 acres for a single male in the three-million-acre Fisher-Miller grant between the Llano and Colorado rivers known as the San Saba. Now remember that Prince Carl found out from Ranger Jack Hayes that this piece of land was way too far from the coast and it was dangerous because it was the prime hunting grounds of the Comanche.

Prince Carl decided that he needed to make arrangements for a stopping place. New Braunfels was chosen but instead of just a stopping place, it became the final destination. Here the emigrants were given a half-acre lot and 10 acre farm lot. This decision led to the unhappiness of the settlers due to the discrepancy of the number of acres that they were promised.

John Meusebach who took Prince Carl’s place as commissioner general, lead a group to what would become Fredericksburg. Many more emigrants had landed at the coast and he had to find a place for them.

Fredericksburg was located south of the San Saba grant. To open up this territory, Meusebach called for a treaty between the Comanche chiefs and the Germans. Meusebach was the one qualified to do this – smart, charismatic and persuasive. He was successful with these 20 chiefs. The problem was that the treaty was only with a small number of chiefs and not all of them. In other words, each chief was autonomous for his tribe only and there was no “big chief” for all of the Comanches. Around the Civil War and immediately after, the Hill Country faced many Indian atrocities.

In New Braunfels and Comal County, there were Lipan, Tonkawa, Karankawa, Waco, and occasional visits from the Comanche. A few killings were recorded, but locals found most of the behavior more frightening and annoying than dangerous.

Hermann Seele witnessed a gruesome scene as he was traveling from the coast to New Braunfels in 1845. Right outside of Seguin, he experienced a Texas rainstorm which broke up a cannibalistic orgy by Tonkawa Indians in the Guadalupe River bottom. They had boiled and fried flesh and feasted on a Waco warrior. The squaws said that by eating this delicious meat of a warrior, their own offspring would be as brave as the Waco.

Lt. Oscar von Claren who was later murdered by Comanches on his way back from Austin writes to his sister of visiting the encampment of the Tonkawa, some 500 men, women, and children. Witnessing a ceremony inside a tent brought a menacing feeling to von Claren – the monotonous lamentations, the dull hollow drum, the senseless rattle of gourds and the earnest faces of the Indians brought on this foreboding. He went outside only to witness happy children playing around a tall pole on which hung the arm and leg of a Waco warrior.

Ferdinand Lindheimer tells of a Tonkawa camp on the Guadalupe above New Braunfels. One day the Tonkawa were celebrating because they had killed an enemy warrior and they cooked the flesh.

In spite of these cannibalistic practices, most of the relations with the Indian tribes in Comal County were tolerable, but not so in the Hill Country.

Zesch’s book tells of the captivity of children in the Hill Country, some for only months, and most for years. In spite of the terrible lives these children endured,all had a hard time readjusting to their family life once they were returned. Some even voluntarily reunited with their Indian captives.

Zesch tells the story of Rudolph Fischer (13), Banc Babb (10), Dot Babb (14), Minnie Caudle, released after five months, Temple Friend (7), Adolph Korn (10), Hermann Lehmann (11) brothers Clinton (10), and Jeff Smith (8). He covers subjects such as where and when they were captured, their individual lives in captivity, readjustment to white society, religious views, and more.

Understanding the “Indianization” of the captives has long been a subject of study. One reason that seems feasible is that the captive liked the freedom and adventure of the Indian culture. Their life on the frontier was monotonous labor. Zesch says, “The Comanche and Apache not only received the child captives warmly and without prejudice, they also spent much time training them, making them feel significant in tribal society”. Anyone who has a child who played “Cowboys and Indians” would understand this fascination of Indian life over frontier life.

These captives had mostly good things to say about the Indians who became their adopted families. They seemed to understand the motives and superstitions of the Indians. They admired the Comanche character and tribal laws.

Zesch tells the captives’ stories in a straightforward way and makes no judgment. Read the book and see what you think.

The post “The Captured” tells story of captured children appeared first on Sophienburg Museum and Archives.

By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

The Hinman House, the first stone house built in New Braunfels, is more than 150 years old. To tell the story of any great house, we must begin with the family’s story. Before the Hinmans came the Arnolds.

Peter Arnold arrived on the ship Ferdinand with the German Emigration Company in December 1844. He and his family were some of the original settlers of New Braunfels to arrive in March 1845. Through his contract with the company for the Fisher-Miller Grant, he drew Town Lot No. 76, which is the property located at 161 S. Castell. Most of the lots in town had a street frontage of 100 German feet (about 90 English feet) and a depth of 200 German feet. In my non-math brain, that is a little more than a one-third acre.

On his lot, Arnold, a blacksmith by trade, built a blacksmith shop and a log house where he lived with his wife and family. In 1855, Peter Arnold sold the property to Heinrich Hinmann (notice it is a double N on the end) for $550.

Heinrich Hinmann was born in 1819 in Lower Saxony in Germany. At the age of 17, he immigrated and travelled through America for several years before settling in New Braunfels. Hinmann, who was also a blacksmith, purchased Lot 76 the year after he married Therese Sickold. They went on to have 10 children, eight of whom survived.

The Hinman House was built in 1868. It is quite a step up from a log cabin. The builder of the cut limestone home is not recorded but was clearly an immigrant stone mason trained in the traditional construction methods of his German homeland. It is surmised that it was built by Heinrich Hinmann himself. One article I found purports that it was built by his son Charles Hinmann, but according to census records, Charles was only 7 at the time.

The original two-story home is rectangular with a small cellar and porches. It sits on a foundation of mortared stone walls to a depth below the cellar floor. The exterior walls are twenty-inch-thick stone masonry of squared, hammer-dressed local limestone with wide lime-mortar joints. The first floor sits on 7-inch-by-7-inch” rough-hewn joists … basically, cedar tree trunks.

The architectural feature that absolutely makes this house, in my humble opinion, is the porches. On the southwest side, facing the street, there are two porches running the length of the house. The lower porch is open with six wood columns supporting the upper porch. On the second-floor porch, solid wood columns support the roof. The upper porch is surrounded by a wooden railing. The original railing was lattice work. Now the railing is in a geometric pattern. There may have been similar porches along the back of the house.

Although the main structure of the Hinman House has remained the same, there have been wood-frame-additions made to the rear of the house to increase functionality. It is possible that rear porches were closed in to create those additions. It is thought that the home was originally heated with wood stoves as there has been no evidence of chimneys. With later renovations, a fireplace was built in the main room and a gas-fired furnace was installed in the cellar. Renovations also moved and reconfigured the interior stairwell.

Heinrich (Henry) Hinmann was a man of many talents. As a blacksmith, he made and repaired most anything made of metal, including farm equipment. He was also the inventor and manufacturer of the Hinman Plow, created specifically for the black soil of Comal County.

Heinrich was also a marble cutter. In the late 19th-century New Braunfels, marble was used for headstones. When Heinrich died in 1899, his son, Adolf, also a marble cutter, returned to New Braunfels to continue The Hinmann Marble Yard at the Castell address. His mother, Therese, lived in the limestone house.

Alexander J. Hinman (he officially dropped the extra N off the end of his name) was a well-respected physician and a prominent businessman in the New Braunfels community. He, his parents and siblings had moved into the Hinman family home to live with his grandmother after his grandfather Heinrich died. On October 1, 1913, Dr. A.J. Hinman bought the two-story home and surrounding property from his grandmother, Therese Hinmann. There, he raised his family, practiced medicine and lived until his death. It is believed that the bulk of the house renovations and additions were done to accommodate his medical practice in the early 1920s.

Hinman was notable not only for the care he gave to his patients, but the impact he had on New Braunfels. He was recognized for being president of the New Braunfels Independent School District school board, founding member of the New Braunfels Rotary Club and the first president of the New Braunfels Hospital. The Hinman Family owned what is known as Hinman Island, which is now part of Landa Park.

When Dr. A.J. Hin­man passed away in Oc­to­ber of 1960, an­other chap­ter opened for the Hin­man House. Of­fice space was leased out to var­i­ous en­ti­ties over the years, in­clud­ing real es­tate firms, med­ical prac­tices and United Way.

The Hin­man House was pur­chased by First Na­tional Bank (now Chase Bank) with the in­ten­tion of build­ing their mo­tor­bank fa­cil­ity on the ad­ja­cent prop­erty; how­ever, they se­lected an­other site. The bank opened the Hin­man House to var­i­ous or­ga­ni­za­tions for meet­ings and events.

In the early ‘70s, the Hin­man House was the venue for Garten­fest, a fundraiser held by the Con­ser­va­tion So­ci­ety dur­ing Wurst­fest. The event of­fered a lit­tle of every­thing — Ger­man food, mu­sic and rum­mage sale all in one. That is where that great Con­ser­va­tion So­ci­ety tra­di­tion of “Kartof­fel­suppe” and Iron Brew be­gan.

Chase Bank gifted The Hin­man House to Braun­fels Foun­da­tion in 1999. The Hin­man House was des­ig­nated a Texas His­tor­i­cal Land­mark in 2009 and is cur­rently used by Com­mu­ni­ties in Schools free of charge. Our city is lucky to have such a won­der­ful spec­i­men of early Ger­man Texas ar­chi­tec­ture on full dis­play in our down­town.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum and Archives; Handbook of Texas History Online.

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

The post The Hinman House: First stone house in New Braunfels appeared first on Sophienburg Museum and Archives.

By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

New Braunfels historians have told us that the first immigrants arrived with very little in the way of belongings. And, unlike today’s new arrivals in New Braunfels, our founding ancestors had a lot to do before settling into a house. They had to secure materials (chop trees for lumber, make mud bricks, cut stone) to be able to build their own places to live. We are very fortunate to live in a place where so many of those early homes still exist. One of my favorites stands on a lot at 212 W. Austin Street in Comaltown, exactly where it has stood for over 150 years.

The story? It begins with people making life-changing decisions to build a new life, sell everything, move across the Atlantic Ocean and settle on the Fisher Miller Grant in the Republic of Texas. Like many, that is exactly what Johann Georg Moeller did.

Georg Moeller left Bremen aboard the ship Weser, arranged by Henry Fisher for the San Saba Colonization Company, in May of 1844. Once he arrived in Galveston in July 1844, he learned that the Fisher & Miller land grant had never materialized. He was stuck along with several others from his hometown of Michelsrombach, Hesse. Moeller did eventually end up in New Braunfels in late 1845.

Meanwhile, on similar track, Johann Peter Hoffmann boarded the Garrone, arranged by the Adelsverein, with his wife and children. They arrived in Galveston in December of 1844 and finally reached New Braunfels with the First Founders. Mr. Hoffmann died shortly thereafter, leaving Elizabeth Hoffmann to fend for herself and her two children, Charlotta and Alex. (Soap operas got nothing on true history!).

So fast forward to 1848, when Georg Moeller and widow Elizabeth Hoffmann married. Their instant family of four eventually totaled seven with the addition of twin sons, Franz and Johann, in 1849 and Louis in 1852.

The Moellers settled in Comaltown. At one time, they owned/farmed most of the Landa Estates area. Georg Moeller began building my favorite limestone house in 1859. He built it all by himself. The beautiful two-story is constructed of hand-cut hard limestone that was quarried locally. All the walls are constructed of hard limestone, cut into squares and rectangles with stone lintels across the top of each window.

The wood beams and roof rafters are of hand-hewn cedar logs and the floors are hand-hewn cypress planks. Although the outside walls are perfectly square and the floors and ceilings are perfectly level, there are no two rooms the same size, no two walls the same thickness and no two rooms with the same size floorboards. The walls range from 8 to 18 inches in thickness. The original house had two staircases: one leading to the basement, the other to the second floor. Each wood tread of the steps going upstairs is smoothly fitted into grooves in the supporting side boards. No nails were used. The stairs to the basement are solid rock. It is truly amazing that no cement was used to put the stones together. In some places, it is said to be plain black dirt mixed with straw; and in others, a mortar made of sand and lime was used.

The limestone house, begun in 1859, took 6 years to build. The family lived in a modest home where Our Lady of Perpetual Help is now located while their limestone home was being built. It was finally completed in 1866. Sadly, Johann Georg Moeller died in 1867, just weeks after the family moved into the new home.

In 1881, ownership of the house changed. Okay, this is where it gets sticky. Pay attention to the “OE” and “UE” here. The home was sold by the Johann Georg M”oe”ller family to Johannes M”ue”ller, known as “Mueller-Hanas” in 1881. He owned a freight company. Mueller-Hanas was a very interesting guy, but I will save that for another day. He raised his family in the home. Johannes Mueller died in 1908 followed by his wife in 1909. Oddly enough, Emma, daughter of Johannes Mueller, married Henry Moeller, the grandson of Johann Georg Moeller.

In 1910, the home was sold to Mr. & Mrs. Albert Nowotny. Their son Jerome, who was born in the home, bought it in 1947. He eventually built a very successful tourist attraction/restaurant around it — Bavarian Village. By coincidence, Jerome Nowotny’s son, Lionel, married Mary Lou Mueller, a great-granddaughter of Johannes Mueller, second owner of the house. The Moeller House is now owned by Schlitterbahn Waterparks/Cedar Fair.

There were many descendants of the Moellers in the area and many were builders. Most of the structures are still standing as they are very well built like the Moeller House. The following is a list just to name a few: Garden Street Bridge, Mission Valley Mill Dam, Old Fire Station, Richter Buildings, Wagenfuehr House, Celebrations, Comal Flower Shop, The Black Whale Saloon, Lamar School, Seele Parish House, Johnson Furniture, Main Plaza Gazebo, Gerlich Home (Borchers Office), Fischer House (next to the Civic Center), Corner Coffee Shop, Old New Braunfels High School, Citizens Ice House (Conway’s), numerous curbs and sidewalks, and hundreds of homes in the area and surrounding counties. They truly lived well-built lives.

The Moeller House became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1970; however, at some point the marker was removed. A new marker was sponsored by a Johann Georg Moeller descendant, Myra Lee Adams Goff.

The Moeller House Marker Rededication ceremony will take place Sunday, March 3, 4:00 p.m. at 212 W. Austin Street. The public is invited.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives; Comal County Historical Commission.

The post History of the Moeller House appeared first on Sophienburg Museum and Archives.

The history of every area reveals that there are many individuals who live lives that help their community without fanfare. They don’t have schools or streets named after them, but they make an impact, nevertheless. People and places come and go, and their significance often is only recorded in books, buildings, photographs and gravestones, but their stories endure. Two of these individuals were brothers, Hermann and Louis (or Ludwig) Willke. They were leaders on the coast, founders of New Braunfels, founders of Fredericksburg, and important to Spring Branch, Kendall County and the State of Texas.

Louis and Hermann Willke probably came to Texas for the same reasons that most other immigrants did. The bottom line was a search for freedom in a land that offered great opportunity. They were born in Collberg on the Baltic Sea in Northern Germany. Louis was born in 1818 and Hermann was born in 1822. Both had been trained as officers in the Prussian Military. Louis was called Lieutenant Willke I and Hermann was called Lieutenant Willke II. They must have had a good education, for both spoke several languages.

Hermann arrived on the coast at Galveston and traveled from there to Carlshaven. He traveled as a single man on the ship Ferdinand. It was one of the first three ships to arrive with the Adelsverein in Texas. He transferred by schooner to the Adelsverein’s meeting place at Carlshaven to wait to begin the trek inland.

Louis and his wife, child and mother-in-law must have met Hermann at the coast. There is some evidence that Louis and family arrived in Texas “by land” on October 1, 1843. He worked at the Adelsverein’s Nassau Farm in Fayette County, but by 1844, he was at Matagorda Bay. Both brothers were at the coast together and they made a favorable impression on Prince Carl. At the first meeting of the Colonial Council, the prince announced that he was appointing Hermann Willke as an assistant to Nicholas Zink with the plotting out of the community of New Braunfels. Hermann was a surveyor and well qualified for the job. This skill would aid him in the future. He was also put in charge of supplies in the warehouse at Carlshaven. The supplies had to be protected so that a fair distribution would be made with the immigrants.

Louis too was given a responsible position at Carlshaven by the prince. He was put in charge of the powder magazine (guns and ammunition). With his military background he was selected to be commander of the station of Carlshaven.

You ask, “Where is Carlshaven?” In 1846, the area on Matagorda Bay was known as Indian Point and near this area was Carlshaven, named partly for Prince Carl. In 1849, the site was named Indianola. The area was the second main port in Texas and most immigrants to Texas from Europe and America came through this port city. It grew rapidly with a population of 5,000 until the hurricane of 1875. Up until that time, it had hotels, large homes, businesses and a steamship line terminal. The city rebuilt after the 1875 hurricane only to be nearly wiped off of the coast by another hurricane in 1886. If you visit the area today, it is much different than the bustling port city of the 1800s. Hermann Willke is also credited with making an accurate map of Indianola.

After the trek inland, the immigrants arrived at the Guadalupe crossing on March 21, 1845. At that time Hermann Willke was 22 years old and Louis Willke was 26 years old with a wife and children. Hermann drew lot 128 on Comal Avenue between Coll and Garden Streets. Hermann also bought lot 161, paying only $14 for the whole lot. Louis was granted lot 135 next to his brother’s where he built a house for his family.

When John Meusebach decided to move some of the immigrants to the Fredericksburg area, he asked Hermann to plot the trail. With the help of Louis, Hermann followed the El Camino Real from New Braunfels toward San Antonio, over the Cibolo and then followed an old Indian trail, the Pinto Trail, to what would become Fredericksburg. On the arrival at the site of Fredericksburg, Hermann laid out the lots of that future city.

Meusebach wanted to claim the Fisher-Miller grant that the immigrants had been originally promised and never received. He asked Hermann go with him because, as he said, “he was one of five educated men to accompany him to sign a treaty with the Comanche.” The Fisher-Miller grant could not be inhabited until this treaty was signed. Hermann surveyed the San Saba and stayed there for eight years at a salary of $100 a year paid by the Adelsverein. He made a map of the route from New Braunfels to Fredericksburg including the land grant. The map is in the Texas Archives in Austin. When the Adelsverein ran out of money, Hermann lost his salary. He was offered a job by the Texas General Land Office at a salary of $1,000 a year.

Now to Louis Willke and family. Louis built a fachwerk house on his town lot in New Braunfels (on Comal Avenue) for his family. By 1849, the family moved and was living on 40 acres, six miles outside of town. They had left town, as many did, to escape the epidemics. The 1850 census lists Louis as a farmer and a wagoner. This was a lucrative business that transferred goods from the coast to the inland settlements. Then in 1858, Louis moved his family to the Hill Country. He was a farmer and worked part-time in the Porter Store in Spring Branch. He is responsible for applying for the post office under the name of Spring Branch and by doing so, put the name of Spring Branch on the map. He became the first postmaster of Spring Branch from 1858 until 1860. The family then moved to Kendall County. Louis and wife, Elizabeth had seven children all born in Texas with the first being born in 1843 at Port Lavaca.

Not surprising, both brothers became officers in the Civil War. Capt. Hermann Willke served on the Texas coast in Galveston and Lt. Louis Willke was an officer in Julius Bose’s campaign in Arkansas. After the Civil War, Hermann left the Hill Country and settled in Galveston where he went into the surveying business. He lived there until he died.

Louis is listed in the Kendall County history as a surveyor. The family had moved to Kendall County and settled there on 160 acres. The 1880 Kendall County census lists him as a merchant and farmer. He died on the ranch and he and his wife are buried in a Willke family cemetery located on the Willard Dierks property.

In all of the references found on the Willke brothers (Fey’s New Braunfels, The First Founders and Anderson-Lindemann’s Bridging Spring Branch and Western Comal County, Texas), all of the descriptions of their work and character were complimentary.

Leo Scherer describes the house on Comal Street as actually four separate structures. It was a common practice to add on to a home as more space was needed by a family. Visible from the road, is the Victorian-style home built after 1881. Attached to the back of this home are structures built in the mid-to-late 1800s. The oldest fachwerk home originally built by Louis Willke when he arrived in New Braunfels, was attached to these structures but no longer stands.

The post Willke brothers make significant contribution appeared first on Sophienburg Museum and Archives.