By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

The summer I graduated from high school, I think the New Braunfels city limits signs boasted a population of 19,000. The county had a whopping 34,000. Since then, the city limits signs have moved further out, taking in the wonderful little communities that existed peacefully “in the country” for more than a hundred years. One such community is Freiheit.

Freiheit was first known as the San Geronimo School community. The school was in operation before 1883. In 1891, for the sum of one dollar, Henry A. Rose donated land for a school about three and a half miles northeast of New Braunfels. Located on the east corner of Prairie Lea Road (now Freiheit Road or FM 1101) and Barbarossa Road, the San Geronimo School was named for the nearby San Geronimo Creek. It was also known as Rose’s School. It was originally a one-room school, expanding to two rooms that taught first through 10th grades. In 1949, the San Geronimo School was consolidated into the Goodwin Rural High School along with Austin Hill, Church Hill, Hunter, Thorn Hill, and Watson schools. The San Geronimo school house was moved to the Goodwin Rural High School campus. It now resides at Conservation Plaza. That still doesn’t explain the Freiheit, but hang with me.

Near the San Geronimo School, at the crossroads of Eberling Lane and Prairie Lea Road, a store was opened in about 1898 or 1990 by Robert Schuenemann, the son of pioneer Fritz Schuenemann, to serve the farmers of the area. The community was known as Schuenemann Settlement. The store changed hands among Schuenemann family and ended up with Ernst Schuenemann. In 1906, Alonzo and Bessie Nolte bought the store. In January of 1910, the Noltes leased to the Freiheit Kegel Verein (Freheit Bowling Club) a 22-foot by 108-foot strip of land adjacent to their store at the cost of one dollar for 99 years. The Freiheit Kegel Verein drew up formal by-laws and elected officers in August of that same year.

This is where I tell you that the Freiheit Kegel Verein was a 9-pin bowling club. There are many differences between 9-pin and 10-pin bowling. Bowling began in 200-300 A.D. when German monks introduced bowling as a religious ritual, whereby one’s ability to knock down cones (Kegel in German) representing sins determining the need for penance. Martin Luther called the game “Kegels” and standardized it to nine pins. Nine-pin bowling was popular up until the late 19th century. Nine-pin was outlawed to stop people from gambling, but a tenth pin was added to get around the law and now we have 10-pin bowling.

In 10-pin bowling, each individual bowler throws ten frames, in the same order each time. The individual scores count. Pins are set up in a triangle where the goal is to knock down all pins. In 9-pin, it is a team sport with six team members who throw six frames. The pins are set up in a diamond configuration with the goal to knock down all but the center “kingpin”. The team captain decides the order based on the skill of each member since the frame is not reset until every pin is down. Only the team score counts. 10-pin alleys were found mostly in saloons and places frequented by men. 9-pin bowling alleys were most often built by clubs that catered to families. Freiheit Kegel Verein became synonymous with the area, and Freiheit, Texas was born.

The first Freiheit bowling building was built by club members of wood on cedar post foundation with wood shingles. The two lanes were constructed with 1-by-8 maple lumber purchased from Henne’s Hardware. Lighting was by kerosene lamps. Heat was provided by a potbelly stove. Cooling was provided by opening hinged push-open board windows.

In 1946, the club built a new, bigger building using the two old maple lanes installed in the new building along with two lanes that were purchased and moved from a San Antonio church basement. In 1963, the club broke ground on a third (current) building on adjacent acreage. Even though it is a modern facility they still use human pinsetters.

And the store? Noltes sold the store to Max and Bertha Meyers. After Hermann Ludwig returned from World War I in 1920, he and his wife Linda purchased the store from the Meyers and called it Ludwig’s Store. There was a store and a house with dance hall between. In 1927, the dance hall burned down. The store survived the depression and prohibition. In 1949, the Ludwigs tore down the old store and built the current Freiheit Country Store out of the salvaged materials. Both the store and the neighboring bowling alley often served as a polling place for Election District #16. In 1975, Kermit and Laverne Kraft bought the store, doing away with the dry goods part and promoting the bar. The next owners were Shorty and Rosie Haas in the ‘80s, who began serving burgers and promoting the family atmosphere. Freiheit Country Store was purchased by Mike Reimer and partners in 2006. They expanded the food menu and added music, becoming a restaurant and popular music venue. While being surrounded by the New Braunfels urban sprawl, the Freiheit Bowling Club and Freiheit Country Store continue to keep the community’s past alive.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives; Sophienburg Reflections Oral History Program #849; Freiheit Kegel Verein 100th Anniversary by Karen Saur Lackey; Rural Schools and Teachers in Comal County, 1854-1956 by Alton J. Rahe; www.tshaonline.org/handbook.

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Education was of paramount importance to the German immigrants. Basic education classes were started for their youth in the more populated areas soon after their arrival to Texas. However, this was not the case for rural settlers where more formal education was slower in coming.

There are four phases of formal education that existed in the rural area of Comal County during the past one hundred seventy-two years.

In the first phase, rural settlers were kept busy clearing the land, building shelters and planting crops. Many times “book learning” was considered a luxury when compared to the necessities of making a living of the land. Many of the settlers had a good education and soon realized that their children did not have the same opportunity in the rural setting. After a while, usually some respectable individual took on the responsibility of teaching children in his immediate surrounding during the approximate 1845 to 1868 time period. A list of some of the dedicated individuals follows: Rev. August Engel (Cranes Mill), Albert Wunderlich (Potter’s Creek near Fischer), Adolph Schlameus (Herrera, Spring Branch, Fischer), Ferdinard Nehls Sr.(Solms),Carl Ohlrich (Smithson Valley), Rev. Louis C. Ervendberg (Orphan Home, Gruene area) and Anselm Eiband (Schoenthal). These dedicated teachers received no outside support except for appreciation and a few stipends from the neighbors for their loosely structured periodic classes.

The advancement of formal education throughout the years was very dependent on technical and social advances that existed during the time period. During the first phase of education, walking, riding horseback or in a wagon was the primary mode of transportation.

The second phase of education started in 1854 when the law establishing the first public system in Texas was enacted. At this time the county was divided into school districts with three trustees in charge of each district. Many of the schools were established by the local participants, and the State paid each district according to the number of students in the district. There were essentially 29 rural “one-room” schools in 21 “Common” districts in Comal County. The County Superintendent with the help of the County School Board managed all of the rural schools in the County. This era ended in the 1940s.

During this phase students used State issued text books and the use of community telephone became rather common. Cars were being added to the transportation system while many homes were still without electricity.

The third phase began when the rural population of the County grew smaller since next generation families were smaller in number or found work elsewhere. Many of the scattered rural schools no longer had a sustainable student base to exist. Individual small schools were not able to offer the variety of subjects needed for a well-rounded education. Thus, in 1944, the first Rural High School District (Sherwood Rural High School) was formed in northern part of the County by consolidating eight of the rural schools in the area. The next year, 1945, the Bulverde Rural High School was formed by consolidating six rural schools. The Goodwin Rural High School was formed from seven rural schools in 1949. The final Comal Settlement Rural High School was formed from five rural schools in 1958. The remaining three of the 29 rural schools became part of New Braunfels Independent School District (NBISD). The rural high schools offered instructions through the tenth grade.

By the 1940s, the roads had been greatly improved and busing transportation became more practical.

The fourth phase of education in the rural County began when NBISD had grown to the point when it could no longer accept the county school transfers to complete their requirements for an accredited high school diploma. Up to this point the New Braunfels High School was the only high school in the county. In November of 1956, the citizens of the county approved the creation of the Comal County Rural High School District with the County Superintendent as its administrator and a single board of trustees. In 1968, the district became the Comal Independent School (CISD). Now the district is independent of municipality, county or state lines, and the board is allowed to hire its own superintendent and deal with the State directly.

In 2016, the Comal Independent School District celebrated its 60^th year of Excellence is an Attitude motto.

As it is well known, many technical changes have occurred during the past sixty years. Community telephones were practically replaced with electronic devices (i.e. cell phones). Electronic communication, with easy updates, has practically replaced books, while television and computers made instant communication possible from almost anywhere in the world. Who knows what the fifth phase of education may be like.

More details on the phases of education can be found in the book entitled Rural Schools and Teachers in Comal County, 1854-1956 by Alton J. Rahe. The book, published in August 2017, is sold at the Sophienburg Museum and Archives and all proceeds from the sales of the book go to the Sophienburg.

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