Agricultural Society of Fischer’s Store history sometimes violent

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Rural communities in Comal County outside of the City of New Braunfels formed mostly around land for farming and ranching. Stores, post offices and dance halls sprang up around these farming communities. Around Comal County roughly 30 of these small settlements developed. One of those

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Brenda Anderson-Lindemann’s new book a real treasure

By Myra Lee Adams Goff 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

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Settlement of New Braunfels prompted by Republic of Texas Constitution

By Myra Lee Adams Goff The banner year in the history of Texas was 1836, the year that the Republic of Texas declared its independence from Mexico, drew up its first constitution and declared itself independent. This constitution with its generous land policy would be the driving force leading to

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Startz Café receives Texas Treasure Business Award

By Myra Lee Adams Goff The Startz Café has the distinction of being one of the only small businesses in Comal County still in operation by the same family for over 50 years. They just received the Texas Treasure Business Award in 2014. They were nominated by Representative Doug Miller.

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Slumber Falls on the Guadalupe

By Myra Lee Adams Goff We know a lot about our Comal River but not so much about the Guadalupe. Did you know that the Guadalupe is 226 miles longer than the Comal? It’s a tumultuous and erratic river. The Comal, on a flooding rampage, affects New Braunfels; the Guadalupe,

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Sophienburg scholarship winner chosen

By Myra Lee Adams Goff The Sophienburg Museum and Archives and an anonymous donor established a yearly scholarship called the Myra Lee Adams Goff Sophienburg History Scholarship. It would be awarded to one senior from among our six high schools in Comal County. The way the scholarship was set up

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The rise an fall of the Darmstadt

By Myra Lee Adams Goff Called by some, “a catastrophic failure of dreamers”, the organization of about 40 intellectuals, university fraternity members and freethinkers banded together with a common cause. They were called “Darmstadters”, or the “Society of the 40” and their plan in 1847 was to organize a communistic

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Journals are important to history

By Myra Lee Adams Goff A designated post office can reveal a great deal about an area and about who lived there. In Comal County the Spring Branch Post Office was at one time headed by Gottlieb Elbel and he had the forethought to keep a journal from 1867, when

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“The Captured” tells story of captured children

By Myra Lee Adams Goff 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

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Wo in Himmel ist Anhalt?

By Myra Lee Adams Goff The third weekend in May I realized how hard it was to preserve historic customs. We can remodel, renovate and preserve buildings, bridges and artifacts. Even history is preserved when we write it down. But the arbitrary laws of custom are transient. In other words,”

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