From Union St., turn onto Common and drive straight to the Guadalupe River. At the bridge and on the east side of the river, as far as you can see, look left and right. You are looking at Hortontown. Down river to the right of Hortontown was Neighborsville. These two areas are referred to by these names only historically. Beginning in 1846, when sickness was rampant on the coast and in New Braunfels, and emigrants were still arriving, Hortontown was settled to avoid going into the sickness- infested town. Neighborsville followed a few years later. Both areas were originally in Guadalupe County but were added to Comal County and also to the City of New Braunfels.

From the bridge, you will notice a gradual incline up to Loop 337. Turn right on the loop, and right before the railroad overpass, turn left on Church Hill Drive. Across the road from Conservation Plaza, a church was built in 1852. It was the St. Martin’s Evangelical Lutheran Church and next to it, in 1870, a school was built. The Church Hill School served the children of both Hortontown and Neighborsville.

Hortontown was named after Albert C. Horton who came to Texas from Alabama in 1835. He became an active supporter of the Texas Revolution. From 1836-38 he served as senator in the 1st and 2nd congress of the Republic of Texas. He became the first Lt. Gov. of the new state of Texas. Leopold Iwonski became the agent for Horton’s land grant.

The settlement of Neighborsville was laid out by Jacob de Cordoba who designated a lot for the establishment of the church and parochial school. In 1870 the church congregation decided to build a separate building for their school. And that school became the Church Hill School.

The Church Hill School was built of 18” thick hand- cut limestone blocks brought by wagon from a hill country quarry. The doors and floor are also original. The appointments are from other rural Comal County one-room schools.

Martha Rehler, Exec. Director of the Conservation Society, took me on a tour. There is nothing as empty as an empty classroom. Going into the abandoned school, that strange feeling returned. A classroom needs children.

There were wooden desks of all sizes with a hole in the top for an ink bottle. They still had those when I was in elementary school. Our fountain pens had a little bladder that had to be filled with ink. What a mess! In this old classroom the teacher sat in the back of the room by the door. I’m surprised she didn’t notice the initials carved in the older students’ desk, probably by a pocket knife which I’m told, was every boy’s toy. Slate boards were on each desk taking the place of paper. The large chalkboard (black, later green) had the lesson for the day in German script (Fraktur).

Other relics are a long table from the Ursaline Academy in San Antonio displaying photographs of groups of school children. Water was drawn out of a well or a cistern and put in a portable water fountain. There are two large bells. The smaller of the two at one time stood in front of the Guadalupe Hotel (Plaza) which was a stagecoach stop. The bell was used to welcome arrivals. The larger was a school bell to call students.

Rehler gave me a “Texas Public School’s Report Card from 1925 that parents had to fill out about their own child. It was for a 7th grade girl going into the 8th grade. I put myself in my mother’s shoes, evaluating her only chick on a scale of 1 to 100. Knowing that I was a “city girl” in New Braunfels, I would have failed miserably. I would have a “0” in canning, care of stock, care of poultry, cooking, gardening, general farm work, milking, providing fuel, sewing, and sweeping,. I would have done fairly well in dusting, washing dishes, obedience, neatness, reliability and special work. In my case, special work would have been socializing.

The St. Martin’s Church, originally adjoined to the old Church Hill School, was moved in 1968 next to the Hortontown Cemetery on Loop 337. The school remained and was eventually donated to the Conservation Society in 1975 to be used as a museum.

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New Braunfels. Fast-growing Central Texas city. Most likely the only American city founded by a Prince. Settled by Germans. If you live in or near New Braunfels, you probably know this. Here at the Sophienburg Museum and Archives, we tell the story of New Braunfels every day, but did you know our beloved “Beauty Spot of Texas” was a Plan B?

During the 1840’s, Europe was in turmoil both economically and politically. Noblemen from several German states decided to “help relieve” overcrowding by colonizing the new Republic of Texas (as England had done in America). They created the Verein zum Schutz deutscher Einwandrer in Texas (Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas) or simply, Adelsverein (Society of Noblemen). Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels was selected to go ahead to secure the needed lands and provisions. The Adelsverein was able to recruit many countrymen who desired a new life in Texas. The first three ships sailed in October 1844, with one trunk per family (and you thought our airline bag fees were tough!). Many emigrants had sold all they had to pay for the trip which was to include passage, transportation from coast to settlement, 320 acres of land, housing, warehouse of provisions, implements, seeds, farm animals, education and churches in the Fischer-Miller Grant. Prince Carl, arriving in Texas ahead of the group, learned that the Fischer-Miller Grant was out in the middle of Commanche hunting territory and too far from the coast. He seriously needed a Plan B. On March 16, 1845, he purchased a 1265 acre tract nestled on the edge of the Balcones Escarpment between two rivers for the bargain price of $1111. With the ink barely dry on the land deal, the Prince and his entourage met the first immigrants at the Guadalupe River on Good Friday, March 21, 1845. Each immigrant was offered a half-acre town lot and 10 acre farm lot, quite a let down from the promised 320 acres. The Adelsverein’s rating went down from there.

The next wave of German immigrants arrived between the fall of 1845 and April 1846. More than 5200 people landed in Galveston and Indianola and were left to fend for themselves. There were no wagons because they were hired out to haul for the Mexican War. There was no housing, forcing some to camp for more than six months under tents, exposing them to harsh winter weather conditions on the coast. An epidemic broke out, with more than two-thirds of the immigrants falling ill. Of those who decided to travel onward to New Braunfels, proportionately few made it. They brought the epidemic with them, losing family members along the road and infecting their new town. Instead of being greeted by a Prince, the sick and starving immigrants arrived to see the river swollen from floods, unable to cross. They were promised provisions of food, finding instead nothing on hand but cheap “unwholesome beef”.

How do we know these things? Whatever did we do before Ancestry.com? Much like people document their lives in photographs or on social media, people wrote accounts of their travels in diaries, journals and letters back home. And just like today, important actions were recorded in the minutes of meetings of government and social organizations, providing us all a wonderful treasure trove of what early New Braunfels was like. Except, it is all in old German. Enter Oscar Haas and his curiosity.

Oscar Haas was born in October of 1885, at Cranes Mill, a third- generation descendant of German colonists in Texas. His ancestors were among the 5000 immigrants landing in Indianola in the fall of 1845. He moved with his family to Blanco County and then in 1897 to New Braunfels at age 12. He attended the old New Braunfels Academy for third through sixth grade before going to work in a grocery store. He worked his way to a dry goods business partnership. In 1934, at age 49, Haas was elected Comal County treasurer. For twenty-eight years he served the county. It was during his time in the courthouse that he discovered the original Commissioners Court minutes book of 1846. His discovery immediately sparked a lifelong interest in our history and sharing it with others. He began writing articles about the details of the court minutes for the Neu Braunfelser Zeitung (German) and the New Braunfels Herald. Now remember, the minutes were in old German script. He actually copied and hand wrote the full translations of the documents on whatever scraps of paper he had – the backs of calendars, old election ballots, etc. before writing the articles. In 1944-45, he wrote the columns “99 years ago” and “100 years ago” before the city celebrated its Centennial. He continued to write articles until his retirement in 1962, when he focused his energies on writing a book, History of New Braunfels and Comal County, Texas 1844-1946. Published in 1968, it was the most comprehensive book written about the founding of New Braunfels, becoming the bible of local historians and genealogists. 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the book. It is still in print (fourth printing) and can be found at Sophie’s Shop inside the Sophienburg Museum and Archives. Here’s to Oscar Haas, successful businessman and public servant, and most notably a “history geek” extraordenaire.

Sources:

• History of New Braunfels and Comal County, Texas, 1844-1946 by Oscar Haas
• Sophienburg Archives

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How many times have you said or thought, “I wish I could remember what my grandmother told me about that.” If you have letters or a diary from your family, you are one of the fortunate ones. Our history of New Braunfels is almost totally based on the writings of Prince Carl, Hermann Seele, Ferdinand Roemer, Ferdinand Lindheimer and all those who told us our history because they were here. From them we learned what the town looked like, what people were doing, what they ate, how they felt, and what they thought. Even from the Spanish period in Texas we are told about routes along the Camino Real through the Comal Springs and about the missions established along the routes and how the explorers lived.

We live in what is called the communication age but you have to wonder how much of our “communication” today will be left for future generations to discover where we were and who we were. Remember that when you hit “delete” on your computer or cell text. Wonder if there is some kind of “cyber diary” out there that will be tapped in the future or will it all just be transported into outer space?

In 2013, I wrote an article about the life of Ferdinand Lindheimer, however, recently I read again A Life Among the Texas Flora by Minetta Altgelt Goyne, and decided to write more about this exceptional man. The book is a compilation of letters from Lindheimer to botanist George Engelmann.

Dr. Goyne, a descendant from some old New Braunfels families (Altgelt and Coreth), was teaching at the University of Texas at Arlington and could translate the old German script. She also knew a lot about New Braunfels history, Lindheimer and the history of Germany, all contributing to her insightful analysis published alongside the letters. The original letters are housed at the Missouri Botanical Garden at St. Louis. In 1979, the president of the New Braunfels Conservation Society approached Dr. Goyne to translate the letters. Copies of the letters had been acquired from Carlos Lindheimer, great-grandnephew of Lindheimer and native of Argentina.

Lindheimer came to New Braunfels in 1845 with Prince Carl at the age of 43. He did not travel to Texas on the ships with the first contingency of immigrants. He was already here in Texas. He was born and raised near Frankfurt, came to the United States in 1834, entering at New York. He traveled to Belleville, Illinois to the Hilgard Farm where he joined friends that had already emigrated from Germany. One of the friends was George Engelmann. Engelmann had studied medicine in Germany and had a practice in St. Louis but continued his plant studies. Engelmann and Lindheimer had studied botany together in Germany.

In the fall of 1834, Lindheimer set out from Illinois to travel south. His destination was Texas but it was considered dangerous to travel south directly into Texas from the northern route. He decided to travel to Mexico and then enter Texas from the south. He took a steamboat from Illinois down the Mississippi and arrived in New Orleans. then took a schooner to Veracruz, Mexico. He traveled to a German colony not far from Veracruz that he considered one of the most beautiful areas on earth. The German colony grew and exported sugarcane, coffee and tobacco. Lindheimer stayed there for a period of time working and observing the plantation. At that point, he thought he wanted to be a farmer.

We know that he left Mexico and enlisted in the Army of Texas, arriving with his company at San Jacinto one day too late. He received an honorable discharge at Houston on December 5, 1837. Apparently his commanding officers allowed him to collect botanical specimens while his fellow soldiers were performing drills. In 1939, he purchased a ten-acre farm near Houston not far from White Oak Bayou.

The letters to Engelmann beginning in 1841, indicate that he was accumulating equipment for his first botanizing in Texas. In 1835, while in Mexico, Lindheimer wrote to Engelmann about his interest in plants. Now in Texas, he was going to be paid to collect plant specimens and ship them to Engelmann in St. Louis.

Engelmann later organized the St. Louis Academy of Science in 1856 and what is now called the Missouri Botanical Garden. The archives house Engelmann’s plant collections and papers which include the Lindheimer letters. Many of the plant specimens collected by Lindheimer were also be sent to the famous botanist Asa Gray and actually all over the world. The Texas plants had never been collected and catalogued so completely before this time.

In the early 1840s, Lindheimer collected plants in the Houston and Galveston area, making little use of his home and living in a tent. His equipment consisted of paper, plant pressing equipment, magnifying glasses and botany textbooks. Specimens were shipped to St. Louis in wooden crates. Engelmann and Gray paid Lindheimer eight dollars per 100 specimens.

In 1842, Lindheimer wrote to Engelmann from Houston concerning the “Texas Star” flower (Lindheimeria texensis), “Did you write my name among the stars with this little Asteroid? Did I serve botany in that way? Not by knowledge of it but rather by love of this sleeping, dreaming daughter of Flora.” He continues, “So, if I die childless, then I shall nevertheless leave a little immortal daughter, the Lindheimer texensis!”

In 1843 and 1844, we find Lindheimer collecting specimens in (Wild)Cat Springs, San Felipe, Brazoria, Liverpool, the Brazos basin, Industry and the Chocolate Bayou. Wildcat or Cat Springs was established in 1834 by Robert Justus and Rosalie Roeder Kleberg. The 1831 settlement of Industry where Lindheimer visited is considered the cradle of German settlements in Texas. There was a small influx of German emigrants during most of the Republic of Texas period until the last year, when the major immigration to Texas occurred with Prince Carl.

In January 1845, Lindheimer wrote to Engelmann from the Adelsverein’s camp at Aqua Dulce. Many of the German Texans that had settled in Texas prior to the arrival of Prince Carl, joined with the prince at the coast. Then on April 18, 1845, we find that Lindheimer is writing his letter from the new German settlement on the Comal Springs. Lindheimer writes of New Braunfels, “Flower upon flower, richer than the richest Persian carpet. Fragrances that sometimes remind one of violets, often of vanilla, flow around the wanderer.”

In New Braunfels, Lindheimer reserved a piece of land for his botanical garden of Texas plants, arboretum and agricultural experiments. Under the employ of the Adelsverein, he received this farm and a house. By Christmas, he was living in a cold, poor, open hut and spending so much time on survival that he is having difficulty collecting plants. This situation was remedied when he met Eleanor Reinarz. Lindheimer described her as upright, understanding, diligent, solid, refreshing, generous and chaste. She shared in his interests and helped with his plant collecting. He wrote that in a couple of weeks, his weatherproof house will be ready alleviating the problem of moldy specimens.

From this home-base, Lindheimer traveled to the surrounding areas of San Antonio, Seguin, Austin, San Saba and the Pedernales to collect plant specimens.

Gray and Engelmann issued Plantae Lindheimerianae, Part I in 1845 and Part II in 1850, with many publications to follow. In the early 1850s, Lindheimer’s interests became more local and he spent more time raising his family with wife, Eleanor. New Braunfels was in need of a newspaper and on November 12, 1852, the first issue of the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung was published with Lindheimer as editor. He continued botanizing to the end of his days. He died in 1879, and is buried in the Comal Cemetery. The first log home he built on Comal Avenue is no longer standing but his winterized home stands and is maintained amidst gardens by the New Braunfels Conservation Society.

Without a doubt, the letters establish why Lindheimer is considered the Father of Texas Botany.

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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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Recently Brenda Anderson-Lindemann released her new book, “Bridging Spring Branch and Comal County, Texas.” What an interesting collection of true family stories of the people living in that area back to the early 1850s. Some of the subjects that she covers are rural schools and how the Comal Independent School District started. She has many stories of the early days, who’s in what cemetery, ranchland histories, obituaries, Canyon Dam, the Guadalupe, and history of floods in the area. The cover and title of the book are clever and appropriate. It is a picture of the U.S. Highway 281 Guadalupe River Bridge taken by Michael Krause.

This past week when we had so much rain, I knew immediately where to find information about floods, droughts and rainfall in Comal County. The book has so much information in it that it is impossible to give an adequate book review. I began reading the 474 page book and I was overwhelmed by a choice I had to make as to what to write about. Then almost at the end, I found my choice.

Pastor August Engel

Towards the back of the book my attention led me to Pastor August Engel. I had mentioned him before when I wrote about what was at the bottom of Canyon Lake, but Brenda had much more information.

My interest in Pastor Engel is because of my neighbor, Olive Marcel Georg Hofheinz. When she was a teenager and I was in Lamar Elementary, she lived in the house that my great-grandparents lived in and sold to her parents, Hollis and Hedwig (Artie) Georg. To this day, she reminds me that while I was visiting her mother, which apparently I did often, I cut up her brand new pajamas. Young girls are fascinated with and admire teenage girls. She had a small radio and she pasted her friends’ names out of alphabet soup on the outside. You never forget the teenagers who were kind to you when you were young.

Olive (Marci) and Will Hofheinz lived most of their married life in Dickinson and when Marci’s parents died, the Hofheinzs moved into the house next to ours. Our friendship continued. During the summer when my teaching career was on vacation, Marci and I would walk to the Comal Cemetery. Through our conversation, I became acquainted with the residents of this cemetery. She told me stories of the people and really got me interested in who was related to whom, a skill that I have perfected to this day.

Marci wrote what she remembered about her great-grandfather, August Engel. I immediately knew that his life would be interesting, remembering Marci’s ability to tell a story. I chose Engel’s story to write about based on what she told Brenda in an interview. I knew it would be informative because Marci’s family, the Engels and the Georgs, are from old families in the Spring Branch area and buried in the Cranes Mill Cemetery.

August Engel was born March 16^th, 1818, in Wurthemberg, Prussia. He was schooled at the Evangelischam Akademy Bad Bol Stuttgart. He was ordained a Methodist Episcopal minister. His parents owned a woolen factory in Germany. At that time, factories in England were able to make products out of wool at a lesser cost than the Engels could in Germany. Consequently, the parents decided to send their two sons, August and Wilhelm, to England to investigate the English woolen industry. Apparently their conclusion was that they would not be able to compete with the English companies.

The two brothers took off traveling around Europe and while they were traveling, they heard about the emigration movement to the United States. They decided they wanted to emigrate. August was married at the time, but his wife refused to leave Germany, so August and Wilhelm left alone. They arrived in America and Wilhelm stayed in Pennsylvania and became a newspaperman. Ironically, years later August’s son August W. became a journalist and eventually owned the “Arkansas Democrat” newspaper in 1926. His nephew, Marcus Georg (Marci’s brother) worked with his uncle and eventually owned the newspaper. He sold the newspaper and bought a TV station.

Back to the brothers August and Wilhelm. August was the one who emigrated to Texas. Coming to Cranes Mill in the mid-1800s, he opened a store and after the Civil War he became a postmaster in that store from 1873 to 1904. He also began his profession as a Methodist preacher. He found that most of the Protestants in the Hill Country were German Lutherans. He was granted permission to change to the Lutheran faith and become a circuit riding preacher in a tri-county territory of Cranes Mill, Rebecca Creek, and Twin Sisters in the Guadalupe Valley. Marriage records show that he also served people of Bulverde, Smithsons Valley, Spring Branch and Kendalia.

August Engel married Katherine Ernst. Remember that August was married in Germany? Because August had been away from his wife for nine years, he was granted a divorce. Katherine was a midwife, nurse, and she prepared bodies for funerals. She charged $3 to help deliver a baby and then would stay as long as ten days helping with what needed to be done around the house so that the mother could recuperate. Pastor Engel would drive Katherine in a buggy to the home where she was needed and then come back to pick her up.

Together the couple took care of burials. Katherine would bathe and dress the body and place two silver dollars over the eyelids. Within 24 hours the body had to be buried, as there was no embalming fluid at that time. Pastor Engel performed the burial service, usually on private land of the deceased. The coins were removed before burial. Hundreds of burials were conducted and Pastor Engel kept records of all births, baptisms, weddings and funerals.

The photo is an example of the kind of baptismal certificates issued in the early days. It is in German script and translated it says:

Birth and Baptism
The two parents are August Jonas and Sophia Yablsey Jonas
14^th December 1873
A boy in Blanco County, State of Texas, United States of North America
Baptized in 1875 by Pastor Engel
Pastor Engel named him Benjamin Adolph (this is the first time the child is named in the document)
Godparents are Adolph Jonas, Heinrich Braemer, Miss Matilda Rochau
Signed August Engel in Twin Sisters Blanco Texas

August Engel died in 1904. Several years before his death, many records were lost as a result of an Indian confrontation where his satchel was stolen (a brutal story that you can read in Brenda’s book). Mrs. Engel lived on in the house after he died and years later during a very cold winter, she used many of the remaining records to burn in the wood burning stove. She had run out of firewood and probably didn’t know the value of records like that.

To purchase Brenda Anderson-Lindemann’s book, you may contact her at 830-228-5245 or purchase it at Sophie’s Shop at the Sophienburg Museum and Archives.

The post Brenda Anderson-Lindemann’s new book a real treasure appeared first on Sophies Shop.

It’s the same business, in the same place, run by the same family for almost 92 years. That’s Doeppenschmidt Funeral Home, now involving the fourth generation. And it doesn’t look like they are going to run out of clients any time soon.

In the early 1900s, on the corner of Seguin Ave. and Mill St. where Doeppenschmidt’s is located, Balthesar Preiss operated a livery stable, feed store and transfer service. They met trains and rented carriages for shopping, balls, and weddings. By 1912, a new building housed Baetge & Stratemann livery, transfer, feed and stable. Also in the same building on the left-hand side was Ed. Baetge and Gus Stollewerk working for Balthesar Preiss & Co., undertakers. By 1916 the double business advertised Ed. Baetge and Mrs. Otto Stratemann running the B. Preiss & Co. livery and feed stable and Baetge and Curt Ruedrich as undertakers for B. Preiss & Co.

Oscar Doeppenschmidt bought out Baetge and bought the building from Otto Stratemann in 1923. Up until that time Doeppenschmidt had a “pressing parlor” (cleaning and pressing) on W. Castell St. located in a building in the parking lot across from the Convention Center. He also operated an auto service station at 400 W. Seguin Ave. which was the vicinity of the former Hollmig’s Drive Inn. There he advertised as an agent for Chandler and Hupmobile cars, oil and gas.

After Doeppenschmidt took over the business where it is now located, he hired A.C. Moeller in 1928 for the first remodeling of the building for $10,000, no small amount at that time. Now look at the photograph dated 1927 and you can see what Doeppeschmidt’s business included. The man on the far right is Oscar Doeppenschmidt in front of a hearse. Notice the curtains and urn in the window. Next to that is an ambulance. It looks like the hearse, but has a red cross on the window. Originally these vehicles could be changed from hearse to ambulance and vice-versa. The other vehicles in the lineup were used as taxis and buses. Bus service was provided daily between San Antonio and Austin. In the center of the building are two archways and inside is a waiting room. Drivers of the vehicles were Richard Moeller, Marvin Rheinlaender, and Alvin Winkler.

Notice also the two gas tanks with the Magnolia Oil Company display. The two story building was constructed with apartments upstairs. Possibly there was also a saloon, not at all unusual in New Braunfels.

Another remodeling took place in 1972. The business by this time was solely Doeppenschmidt Funeral Home. Doeppenschmidt’s advertisement in the Herald was “Everybody wants a neat funeral for a small fee, a blessing to the poor and a help to the rich.” The advertisement claimed, “No commercialism, a chapel for 200 people and has the appearance of a quiet corner of a cathedral.” And it claims that the embalming room is not the gloomy den Dickens pictured in one of his novels, but has white tiling and bears the resemblance of the operating room of a modern hospital.

Why is the building called a home? An advertisement in the newspaper shows that “home is a real concern to their patrons.” You enter the parlor, like in a house for an atmosphere of homelike comfort. Services held as if they were held in one’s own “home”. Wonderful floor covering was laid out by Johann Jahn. Otto Rabenaldt was the licensed embalmer, assisted by Alice Dickerhoff.

Some old-timers and some not so old remember some of the funeral practices here in New Braunfels. Before television and radio, a rather ominous looking notice was printed on a small 4×7 inch white card with black borders. These cards with the deceased name were distributed around town. The early, early ones were in German script. Homes were draped with the colors of mourning – black or shades of dark grey. Funeral wreaths were hung on the outside door and inside the house over pictures, doors and windows. Sometimes mirrors and portraits of the deceased were covered with light veils.

Thousands of years ago all over the world, there is evidence that black was the color of funerals. Fear of the departed, not respect for them, was the reason. Covering oneself with black garments protected the person from spirit possession by the deceased. Widows wore a veil and black clothing for a year to hide from her husband’s spirit. These color practices have been all but forgotten by the younger generation and a majority of the older generation say “thank goodness”.

Going against these customs of wearing black brought social ostracism to the widow. Remember how Scarlett O’Hara was ostracized in “Gone with the Wind” when she abandoned the black clothes for brighter ones? Customs influence many of our actions and sometimes we don’t even know why, but I would never wear a red dress to a funeral, but not because of fear of the spirit possession.

Since the spirit domain was darkness, candles were lit to keep the dark spirits away. This practice comes from ancient people’s use of funeral torches around the body. The word funeral comes from the Latin “fumus” meaning “torch”. Doeppenschmidt used to turn on a light outside when there was a body inside.

The term “funeral home” no doubt comes from the importance of the home for funerals long before funeral homes. When a person died, the family would lay the body somewhere in the home, usually the parlor. Relatives and friends were invited to view the body. Then a casket was chosen from the undertaker’s supply or one could be ordered. The first NB undertaker, Balthesar Preiss, made his caskets. Some caskets were closed and some were open with a glass covering. By the way, the word “casket” comes from the Greek “kophinos” meaning basket. You can guess why, can’t you? The body was restrained in a basket with a rock on top to keep the spirit from escaping. While burying six feet under was thought to be a good practice, the basket, and finally the coffin was even safer. After the six feet under practice, a large stone was put on top of the coffin to keep the soul inside, hence we have the word “tombstone”.

Four generations of the Doeppenschmidts have run the business started by O.A. Doeppenschmidt in 1923. After he died, his wife, Emmie, and their son Bennie and wife Ruth, ran the business. The last two generations are Carl and his daughter, Michele.

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