By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

While scouring an old Herald-Zeitung for some trivial unrelated detail, I came across a photo of an early 20th century view of downtown New Braunfels. It was taken from a postcard of West San Antonio Street. The corresponding article described the names and locations of the businesses that would have been seen in that photo, alongside the same information from the view in 1973. I was able to find the color version of the postcard at the Sophienburg Museum and Archives.

Today, we will do a little time-travel Tour of West San Antonio Street. Get your time-travel goggles on and try to keep up as we go block by block. Looking down West San Antonio from Main Plaza, the first building visible on the left side where the old Texas Commerce Bank stands, was the Robert Krause Building. Built in 1860, the red brick building with a covered porch housed the O.L. Pfannstiel Racket Store and the F.C. Hoffmann Jewelry Store, with both families living upstairs. It was razed in 1931 to build the art deco First National Bank.

Adjoining the first Robert Krause building was the Piggly Wiggly store, Keinburgs Restaurant then Ed Moeller’s Cafe and Pete Wagenfuehr’s barbershop. Together, the spaces became Krause’s Fashions in the ‘60s and ‘70s. That whole building was taken in by Texas Commerce Bank in their early 1980s expansion/remodel of First National Bank.

The corner of West San Antonio and Castell was the site of the Oberkampf Saloon and Beer Garden. Jacob Schmidt built a three-story building in 1922, housing the Jacob Schmidt Company on the ground floor until the ‘80s. It is now occupied by the Phoenix Saloon.

Across Castell, on the corner was S.V. Pfeuffer & Holm Department Store and the post office. Woolworth’s occupied the whole first floor of that building until sometime in the 80s. The building now houses the Downtown Antique Mall.

Next in line at 223 W. San Antonio, was Willie Ludwig Saloon which became JCPenney, now home to Scores. Next, at 233, was Charles Wells Bakery, which became Plumeyer’s Bakery and eventually Poll Parrot Shoes. Mode O’Day ladies’ fashions occupied the 239 W. San Antonio building in the ‘60s-’70s. Both of the buildings housing Poll Parrot and Mode O’Day are home to the Art League. Next to that was Peerless Pharmacy, which became today’s Dancing Pony. Keep in mind that the upstairs of all of these buildings were occupied by doctors, lawyers, and other offices.

Close to the middle of the block was the original grand Seekatz Opera House, which burned to the ground in 1941. The replacement building housed the Jacob Mendlowitz Company before being taken over by Paul Bruner’s in the 1970s. Bruner’s was noted for the large floor-to-ceiling display windows and a center island of display windows out front. Ron Snider remodeled the retail space into a venue, calling it the Seekatz Opera House in the ‘90s. It is now the home of Traveling Gypsy Antiques.

The little narrow building, Elizabeth James Salon, originally housed Seekatz Butcher Shop followed by New Braunfels Candy Kitchen in the ‘30s and Great Western Finance in the ‘60s-’70s. Heritage Supply occupies the 1918 red brick building which in past years was home to Braunfels Studio.

The current Lone Star Lounge was originally Rahe Grocery. Over the years it became the Depot Drink Stand and Ortiz’s Recreation Center and more recently The Cork Wine Bar. On the end, before the railroad tracks, there was originally something called Seekatz Candy Store which is where Staunch Rugged Clothing is located.

Beginning back at the Plaza to time travel down the right side of the street, where Moody Bank now stands, was a different (new) Krause Building. In the early 1900s, it housed the Streuer Brothers Saloon with a bowling alley in the back. After that, a slick new modern building was built to house the United Gas Company with lots of windows over black, glass-like panels. It was remodeled by Guaranty State Bank.

Next to that, was Streuer & Hoffmann Co. groceries, followed by William Tays Saddlery and harness Shop. In 1910, R.B. Richter built a two-story brick building to house Richter’s Drug Store with the family quarters upstairs. A narrow part of the ground floor was parsed out for Imperial Barber Shop which maintained that spot until at least the late ‘70s. Every teen girl of the ‘70s will remember that the vacated drug store space became the Hang-Up apparel store. It is now Remax Realty. R.B. Richter built a smaller two-story building next door in 1920. It housed Shellaby’s for 20 years and is now occupied by Capital Title.

The current Callaghan’s Pub is a collection of buildings. Originally the Gruene Building sat on the corner of Castell housing the Baetge Saloon. When two newer one-story buildings were built, the Jacob Mendlowitz Company occupied them with a small shop parsed out for Rachelle’s Fashions.

Across Castell, the original Voelker Drug Store, became Shoeland, Ray Allen’s Mens Wear, Chollett’s and then Red Stag. The adjacent new rooftop bar, Cowboys and Cadillacs, sits on a long history of tenants including Ludewig Furniture, Stehling Brothers, Paul Bruner’s, Anthony’s and Seguin Beauty.

Elite Barber Shop spot was at one time the site of Buske Restaurant. In the ‘60s it was occupied by Goepf Jewelers and then Johnson Barber Shop. The Scoop Street slot was occupied by Plaza Meat Market at the turn of the century. The latest building on that site has hosted M&M Jewelers and James Avery Jewelry.

Before it was Moonshine and Ale, it was Fritz Schumann Butcher Shop, H. V. Schumann Drug, and in the ‘60s and ‘70s, Connie’s Shoes.

The 1893 Louis Henne building has always housed Henne Hardware. Sadly, after more than 130 years, it is no longer a hardware store. Across the alley is the original Henne Tin Shop, the stucco building previously the home of Kneupper’s Music in the ‘30s, Kickin’ K and now Le Petite Sweet. Gourmage occupies what was Goepf Jewelers in the 30s, and possibly where Hoerster Goodyear Tire was pre-1968. Both of those buildings housed H&H Sales (fabric) and is where Ducky’s started out.

The old First National Bank building later became City Bakery, Ye Olde Music Shoppe and eventually Mayo Investments. The Brauntex Theatre was built in 1942 on the site of the old John Faust Company.

Our city changes constantly, but we have managed to hold on to our downtown culture. I have only hit on the highlights of the past 115 years. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I am sure that no matter your age, you will recognize a few of these places on West San Antonio Street. Perhaps it will jar a memory loose, like cherry phosphates at Peerless Pharmacy or new Easter shoes at Poll Parrot.

Source: Sophienburg Museum and Archives.

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

The post West San Antonio Street — Now and then appeared first on Sophies Shop.

By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

Have you ever tugged at a loose thread only to find that the thread was not really loose, resulting in an irritating unraveling of sorts? I recently pulled at said “loose thread,” but the odd “thread” that I pulled exposed a beautiful tapestry with a surprising outcome. Last month, I wrote about the beautiful cut limestone house in Comaltown built by Johann Georg Moeller (spelled with an OE) that was finished in 1866. The home was purchased in 1881 by Johannes Mueller (spelled with a UE). When I checked it out to make sure that it wasn’t just a mix up of vowels, I found a whole lot more.

Who was Johannes Mueller spelled with a “UE”? Johann or Johannes, the German form of John, was a common name. There are a ton of Johns in the world, and so it was with Johannes. This particular Johannes Mueller was born November 22, 1823, in Welsch-Neudorf, Nassau (Germany). He, along with who may have been his maternal uncle and family (Stendebach), set sail for a new life in September 1845 aboard the Ship Auguste Meline. At the ripe old age of 22, he arrived in Galveston on December 9, 1845, and made his way to New Braunfels, in what were the waning days of the Republic of Texas.

About that same time, a young woman by the name of Maria Magdelena Rheinlander arrived in Galveston on the Barque B. Bohen, December 22, 1845, with a man destined to become her husband. She wed Gottlieb Heldberg in New Braunfels in May of 1846, but her “happily-ever-after” was short-lived. Gottlieb was killed by Indians in August 1847 when Magdelena was pregnant with their daughter, Anna. Johannes and Magdelena met in 1847 and married in December 1848.

Johannes appeared to be an ambitious soul. In his first years in Texas, Johannes engaged in the freight hauling business. Freight by wagon was the only way to get goods into and out of New Braunfels for a number of years since the railroads did not arrive until 1880. Johannes was in business with Mr. John Halm until 1869 before dissolving the partnership. Besides the freight business, Johannes had opened a store, which was known as the Hannes Mueller Store selling dry goods, groceries, shoes, boots, and cutlery to name a few things.

The store, located on the corner of Main Plaza and San Antonio Street, was a two-story structure which later became the Streuer Brothers. When I was young, it was the site of the United Gas Company (now Entex) and eventually a bank building (Guaranty State Bank, Mbank and Moody Bank). Like many store owners in 19th-century New Braunfels, the Hannes Mueller family lived on the second floor above the Hannes Mueller Store (and there were a lot of people in that family).

Hannes really had his fingers in a bit of everything. While still involved with the freight company, he also served as both town Marshall and County Treasurer from September 1863 to July of 1865. In his later years, he was elected city Alderman (precursor to our city council members) from April 1881 to October 1883.

He somehow earned the nickname “MuellerHannes”. Literally translated it would be “MuellerJohnny”. MuellerHannes was said to be a very humorous man. His friends told many anecdotes about him. One of his friends was Anselm Eiband, editor and publisher of the New-Braunfelser Zeitung. He printed his anecdotes about MuellerHannes in the newspaper. Nice friends.

Johannes had developed quite the business acumen and accrued quite a bit of land in their lifetimes. In 1881, they bought the beautiful rock home in Comaltown and six adjacent lots. In 1882, their son, Henry, joined the family business. They also sold two acres of land west of town to the trustees of Three Mile School. It later became Lone Star School in 1901.

Johannes and Magdelena shared 62 anniversaries (62!) together. He died in 1908 at the age of 85 and she, the following year at 82. Their lives and the lives of their thirteen children, 59 grandchildren, and 26 great-grandchildren played out in the newspapers: births, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, deaths, funerals. It was the long listing of their family members at each gathering that caught my eye. I know those names. I know those people. In the story about the Moeller House, I told how the youngest Mueller daughter, Emma, married a grandson of Georg Moeller. What I did not tell you was that Johannes and Magdelena’s third child, daughter Marie, born 1853, who married Theodor Meckel, is my great, great grandmother. Little did I know I was writing my own family history when I first started the Moeller House story. Pulling the thread that leads to another branch of your family tree is pretty cool. And very addicting.

The Sophienburg Archives is an absolute gold mine for finding things like this. Even if you use Ancestry.com, there are things found in the Red Family Surname Books and the hanging files that most people don’t know about. And if you are working on a family history, I would strongly recommend giving a copy to the Archives, both for safe-keeping and as a resource for others. Digital records/photos may be great, but paper documents are priceless.

Sources: Sophienburg Archives: Red Family Surname Books; Rural Schools and Teachers of Comal County, Texas, 1854-1956; Alton J. Rahe.

The post Mueller family history tapestry appeared first on Sophies Shop.

It’s been reported that Texas has more buried treasure than any other state. There are 229 sites within our borders with an estimated total of $348 million in unclaimed treasure.

Generations of Texans and starry-eyed treasure hunters have sought for the hidden loot of famed robbers like Sam Bass, secret Spanish gold and silver mines, or even buried Confederate gold. I’ve stumbled across a couple of treasure finds that have occurred right here in our neighborhood. Here’s a good on from long ago.

Johahn Steiner had chosen his 320 acres at the upper spring of Coyote Creek on the Guadalupe River watershed near Cibolo. One day in October 18–, while hunting turkey, he stopped to look at some unusual rock formations and noticed the entrance to a cave about six feet above the creek bed. Scrambling up to take a look, Johahn (as all good Texans do) first poked inside with a big stick. Sure enough, he heard the loud rattling sound of a coiled up rattlesnake. He killed the rattler with one well-aimed shot, then carefully reached in to obtain the rattles for a trophy (again, how Texan!). His hand fell upon a smooth rounded object. Bringing it out into the daylight, Steiner was greeted with the hollow eyes and toothy grin of a skull.

Johahn carefully crawled into the cave and found the complete mummified remains of a Native American. An assortment of arrows lay near him — stout ones with heavy stone points good for buffalo hunting and lighter arrows for use in warfare. There were also two bows, a spear, a tomahawk and “a buffalo-hide shield fringed with scalps of coal-black straight hair.” Just a little away from the body, lay a buckskin-wrapped and tied bundle. It was heavy!

Taking the bundle to the cave’s entrance, he unwrapped the buckskin and found 20 small metal bars, about 2 pounds each, with a brownish tint of dust and grime. Johahn took his knife, carefully scraped the grime off a bar and revealed shiny yellow metal — GOLD!

Steiner’s head began to swim with thoughts about what to buy. A stove? Cattle? A rocker and bed? A sombrero with silver conchos, silver spurs and a fine saddle with silver trim?

Steiner repackaged the small bars into two bundles. The next morning, he rode into San Antonio to see a dealer located near the Alamo. He gently placed the bundles on the counter. The dealer unwrapped the bars and thought for several moments.

“I’ll give you $8.” Steiner blinked, “You mean, $8000. Is it not gold?”

Without saying a word, the dealer placed a gold ring into a bowl and set it next to Steiner’s metal bars. He picked up a bottle of “saltpetresaure” (nitric acid) and dribbled the liquid over the ring and the bars. Nothing happened to the ring; Steiner’s bars began to dissolve.

“It’s bronze, a kind of brass,” explained the dealer. “The Spanish brought it in great quantities to trade with the Indians. The Indians, not knowing the difference in the metals, traded their Mexican gold rings and necklaces for the bigger bars of finely polished brass.”

Poor Mr. Steiner. But his was not the only story of gold treasure I found.

On August 24, 1964, Frank Luna was working with a water pipeline crew 10 miles south of New Braunfels. He spotted a corroded copper chest hidden under mesquite brush and called over his foreman, C. A. Ruppel. The men pulled the chest out of the bushes.

“We thought it might be a bomb,” Ruppel was reported to have said. However, the two men obviously thought it could be something much more valuable since they first agreed to split the contents 50-50 before they opened it. Cutting through the brass rod which made the lock, they forced open the chest revealing tidy stacks of gold coins under a metal grate.

The 84 golden coins on top were inscribed with “Hispan Arum Rex” and “Ludovicus 1 Dei Gra”. The Spanish coins of King Luis 1 of Spain covered stacks of 2, 436 — wait for it — brass washers with milled edges to give the illusion of stacked coins!

Luna and Ruppel contacted Sheriff Fellers who put the chest in his office at the courthouse. Folks came in the hundreds to gaze upon the mysterious treasure chest. Sheriff Fellers was reported saying that he wished, “someone would legally determine who owns it and get it out of my office!” The news went viral. Ruppel and Luna spent the afternoon smiling for photographers from TV stations and answering questions from reporters. Newspapers across the state and even one from Chicago, were asking the big question, “Are they real gold?”

Many believed that the coins were real, for hadn’t the chest been found on the El Camino Real? Surely each of the 84 coins was worth $2000 which made the whole chest worth over $1 million. By late afternoon, almost 300 “prospectors” were digging along the road near the site of the find.

Dr. William Burns came up from the Witte Museum. He examined the chest and found shiny screws. It weighed in at 122 pounds. “Too light,” he declared, “the chest an elaborate hoax.” Just in case, he tested the metal coins and found them to be brass. Still clinging to the hope of some reward, Luna and Ruppel placed the chest in Guaranty State Bank and hired themselves lawyers to keep track of each man’s claim. Two coins were reported to have been sent to the US Mint for further analysis.

A week later, the mystery of the “gold” treasure chest still made headlines. The hoax had been implemented with great skill: two dies had been engraved to make the coins and all those washers had milled edges to look like coins. Several thought that the chest must have been part of a Hollywood stunt or promotion. William Mahon, a professional gold digger from Garland, said it would have cost “$10,000 to pull off such a fantastic stunt.” He told Ruppel and Luna to get bids on the value of the chest and then call him, he was ready to buy the ‘truly worthless masterpiece of bamboozlery” for $500.

The mystery continues. After the first blush of excitement, the treasure chest hoax fades from the news. I would love to know the rest of this story, so if you can shed some light on this, please contact me at the Sophienburg Museum 830.629.1572 or post on the Sophienburg Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/sophienburg.museum/).

Sources:

• The New Braunfels Herald
• The New Braunfels Zeitung Chronicle
• The San Antonio Express-News
• The Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung Jahrbuch, Fred Oheim, Editor
• https://www.legendsofamerica.com/

The post All that glitters … appeared first on Sophies Shop.