Recently, the Ludwig Leather Company on Seguin Avenue was purchased by Terri Moore Cocanougher, originally from New Braunfels. The new name of the company is Ludwig and Marglin. Why Marglin? Marglin is the French name for Mergele and First Founder Peter Mergele is Terri’s ancestor. Steve Moore, her father is the ggg-grandson of Peter Mergele (Pierre Marglin). The Marglin family hailed from the French area of Alsace. Terri and her parents, Steve and Marlene Moore, are very interested in the Mergele family history.

Terri graduated from New Braunfels High School, got a degree from A&M University and is dealing with what she has always been interested in, horses and ranching. She spent 20 of the past years living in Decatur, Texas, raising children and working at the Cocanougher Feed Stores. The building next to the leather company that now houses Water to Wine, was originally the Mergele Building where Terri’s ancestor had a butcher shop. Directly behind the Mergele Building is a restored brick home at 166 Comal Avenue that was built by the Mergele family on their original lot. Even though Terri did not buy the actual Mergele building, being next door is meaningful. When Terri bought the Ludwig Leather and changed it to Ludwig and Marglin, she also bought a Victorian home directly behind Ludwig’s at 184 Comal Avenue. She is in the process of restoring this home.

Before we talk any more about Peter Mergele, here’s a little background:

The first Adelsverein immigrant ships from Germany to Texas were the Johann Dethardt, the Herschel, the Ferdinand and the Apollo, and we know these immigrants as First Founders of New Braunfels.

Would it surprise you to find out that many ships arrived before the above? Four of them were the Jean Key de Teau, the Heinrich, the Ocean and the Weser. Although these ships carried immigrants, they were not initially sponsored by the Adelsverein. The Jean Key de Teau, the Heinrich and the Ocean were bound for a land grant given to Henri Castro whose purpose was to establish a settlement west of San Antonio near the Medina River. When established, the settlement would be called Castroville. The immigrants were from Alsace and they were French, Swiss and German. The fourth ship, the Weser, arrived under the colonization contract of the San Saba Company of Henry Fisher and Berchard Miller.

The Jean Key de Teau was the ship on which Peter Mergele arrived. This ship departed from Antwerp in Belgium. In Everett Fey’s book, The First Founders Volume I, he prints a letter from Edward Mergele, a descendant of Peter Mergele, one of the Castro immigrants. He tells of stormy weather causing the captain to tell the immigrants that the seasickness that they were feeling would quickly pass and sure enough, as soon as the brig passed by Puerto Rico and Dominique in the West Indies, the seas became calm. After arriving in Galveston, the water was too shallow to allow the passengers to disembark. Eager to get ashore, 30 of the immigrants boarded the small pinnace and started rowing towards the shore. The pinnace began leaking and the immigrants on the over-crowded little boat began bailing out water with their hats and shoes. Since the water was only four feet deep, the new Texans waded proudly ashore.

Family tradition fills in information about the Mergele family. Alsace, their home, became part of France in 1789, after being a part of the Swiss Confederation. It was taken by Germany in 1871, and remained with Germany until 1918. The World War I Armistice settlement gave Alsace back to France. During World War II, Germany again took over this area. Back in the 1800s, after much strife in the area, Peter Mergele probably read posters that Count Castro was distributing in the area. He was looking for 7,000 immigrants to sign up to go to Texas. By 1843, many had signed up.

The fifteen original immigrants of the Jean Key de Teau were Blasius Albrecht, Jacob Ernst, Peter Mergele with four family members, and Joseph Schertz with seven family members. Peter Mergele was born in Habsheim, Haut/Rine, France, in 1810. He married Barbe Schertz and they emigrated from Germany in 1843. After arriving in Galveston, they made their way with other immigrants to San Antonio and there they camped on the Alamo Mission grounds for over a year. They had heard rumors of other settlers having trouble with the Natives near the Medina and the Texas Rangers could not guarantee safe passage to the grant. Many became ill and some died. Castro was not sympathetic to their plight and the settlers realized that Castro would not live up to his promises. They decided to travel back to the coast to Indianola and then back to Germany. During this period of time, they met Prince Carl and he convinced the Mergeles and others to join the Adelsverein.

There is little information on the Castro immigrant ship, the Heinrich, as much of it has been lost. The main families that joined the Adelsverein from this ship were Gabriel Sacherer and five family members, Sylvester Simon and Nicolaus Zercher and wife. The third Castro ship, the Ocean, transported nine immigrants that joined the Adelsverein, Johann Lux and three family members, Carl Brockhuisen, George Humand, Jacob Kaderli and his brother Johann Kaderli, Germain Moritz and Jacob Schmitz. Like others, these settlers joined with Prince Carl and were granted lots in New Braunfels by the Adelsverein.

The Weser arrived in Galveston on July 8, 1844. My g-g-grandfather Johann Georg Moeller was in this group. They were part of the ill-fated San Saba Colonization Company. Weser immigrants that joined the Adelsverein included Thomas Schwab, Peter Reis, Johannes Schneider, Johannes Arnold, Andreas Eikel, Sebastian Moesgen with wife and daughter, Valentin Fey and Johann Schulmeier with wife and children. It was unknown where my ancestor Johann Georg Moeller was located after arriving in Texas but he arrived on his own in New Braunfels very early.

Some of the immigrants listed as First Founders were already in Texas before the March 21, 1845, Guadalupe River crossing. They joined the Adelsverein group with the encouragement of Prince Carl. This group included Louis Ervendberg, Ferdinand Lindheimer, Daniel Murchison, George Ullrich and Jean von Coll.

Peter Mergele and family crossed the Guadalupe with the Adelsverein in 1845, and received lot #43. He built his cedar log home on Comal Avenue in 1845. The family lived in this cedar log home for years. Eventually Peter’s grandson tore it down and built a brick home that still stands. There’s lots of history in that small area downtown.

Terri Moore Cocanougher has developed a wonderful vision for her company, Ludwig and Marglin. She employs several of the long-time Ludwig Leather employees including a silversmith and leatherworkers that make all kinds of purses, tack, chaps, belts and more. They repair saddles and other leather items. Terri has deep roots in New Braunfels and is glad to be home.

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In our downtown New Braunfels, there is a pub at 367 Main Plaza on the south side of the plaza called the Black Whale Pub. Strange? Why would anyone call a pub a black whale? It’s not as strange as it seems because supposedly there are many pubs called “Zum Schwarzen Wallfisch” (Black Whale) in Germany and that’s what this pub was called in the mid-1800s. Now the Black Whale Pub has returned and is located where Zum Schwarten Wallfisch was located.

It is thought that these pubs referring to a whale were named after an old German student drinking song that can be traced back to the early 1800s. The first owners of the pub in New Braunfels had just “gotten off the boat” and no doubt they were familiar with this old song.

The song, “The Black Whale of Ascalon”, tells the story of a drunk being thrown out of a pub because he couldn’t pay. Here are the translated first four lines:

In the Black Whale of Ascalon,
a man drank day by day.
Till stiff as any broom handle,
Upon the floor he lay.

The last two lines to the song say:

And he who would drink in peace,
Must pay the money down.

I think the moral is that if you drink, you better be prepared to pay.

Lot #47, where the Black Whale Pub is located, was one of those lots set up by Nicholas Zink. Zink was chosen by Prince Carl to divide the tract into town lots. These lots were, in turn, drawn and claimed by the immigrants. Zink drew up the town lots and included in the plan several smaller plazas or lots designated for certain activities. He drew the Main Plaza (Marktplatz) as the center of the town. It became what Zink intended, the center and it remains so to this day.

Let’s go back to 1845, the beginning of New Braunfels. Three siblings of the Johann Riedel family of Nassau, decided to immigrate to Texas. They were Anton, Nikolaus and Catharine Riedel Arnold. The brothers and their families arrived in Galveston on the brig Herschel and their sister arrived at the same time with her husband, Peter Arnold. They made their way to New Braunfels along with the other first settlers. All three siblings were awarded one-half Bavarian acre town lots.

Nickolaus Riedel arrived with his wife, Magdalena, and their two children; Therese, aged 3 and Franz, aged 1. He received town lot #47, which faces the Main Plaza’s south corner. The original lot#47 stretched from the present Black Whale Pub to Seguin Ave. where the UPS is now located. Two and a half months after arrival, Nickolaus Riedel died, and his wife died a few months later. Anton Riedel, Nickolaus’ brother, was appointed guardian to the children and consequently protected the children’s interest in their father’s property. The children eventually received the rights to town lot #47. Over time, this lot would be divided up by the heirs and bought and sold by various individuals.

Then Ferdinand Simon Sr. entered the picture. Ferdinand Simon was given the job of contracting the first courthouse in New Braunfels finished in 1860. It was to be built on the corner of San Antonio St. and the south side of the Plaza, close to town lot #47. Simon built a small wooden house there and this small building became known as the Simon house or building and in time there were several small businesses located in this building. In 1885, Carl (Charles) Schumann moved his saloon, location unknown, but named Zum Schwarzen Wallfisch Saloon to the Simon building. An old story tells of prisoners singing along with saloon goers.

Now we enter the second half of the story, and historically what makes this site so important. The first English newspaper in town, the Herald, was located on lot#47 from the late 1800s until to the end of 1907, and then returned for 20 years beginning in 1924. The history behind the Herald was that the Neu Braunfelser Zeitung announced that on March 10, 1892, “our German settlement will get an English weekly newspaper.” The Messrs. J.D. Guinn, Harry Landa, B.F. Voelcker, S.V. Pfeuffer and Sharp Runnels Whitley of Austin spearheaded the project and chose Whitley as editor. There were several locations of this first English Herald before and after it first moved to lot #47. Publishers and/or editors following Whitley included E.M. deAhna, who first moved the Herald to the Plaza location, A.C. Coers, Fred Tausch and A.R. Ludwig. The last editor was D.O. Bell. It was he who purchased the Simon property and built the 1924 building. The Simon wooden building was removed and a 1924 brick building contracted by A.C. Moeller was built in its place. The Herald once again was relocated at this building site as it had been years before when it was in the wooden Simon building.

In 1952, the exclusive hundred-year-old German newspaper, Neu Braunfelser Zeitung, began writing some stories in English in its weekly edition. The large Zeitung’s 100^th Anniversary Edition was the last one to carry German on its front page and promised not to drop German altogether. Soon it became difficult to obtain linotype for the German section. When the English section became dominant, the name had been changed to the Zeitung-Chronicle.

Gradually the town was giving up its predominant German language. Finally in 1957, after WWII, when Claude W. Scruggs took over as owner-publisher, the Herald merged with the former German language newspaper the Zeitung-Chronicle.

Not only saloons and newspapers made the Simon house and that property their home. The Christian Science Society met at the Simon building from around 1912 to 1924.The Herald moved into their new building and stayed there until they built another building in 1944 on Castell Ave. After the move, the Dean Office Supply moved in there from 1945 and stayed until 1974. Until the Schwarzen Walfisch LP bought the property in 2002, various cafes located there.

The present owner of the lot#47 site is Donna Byrd. Realizing the significance of such an historic site, she is requesting to commemorate it with a Texas Historical Marker. The research for her request and the information for this article were done by John and Cindy Coers of the Comal County Historical Commission.

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