By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

Request from Fargo, North Dakota: Do you know anything about a New Braunfels photographer named J. Serdinko? “Uhhh…yeah,” I thought to myself, “but not enough to answer this request!”

The Sophienburg photograph collections contain several hundred thousand images; about 300 of those are impressed with Serdinko’s name. These take the form of carte de visite (small business card-size photos), cabinet cards (hardboard-backed photos larger than a postcard) and stereoviews (two-image cards for use with a stereoptican viewer).

Yes, Serdinko was a photographer in New Braunfels. But who WAS he?

John, or Ivan, Serdinko was born in Bohemia in 1849 and emigrated to Texas in the 1860s. He became a naturalized citizen in 1867. I found him, and his partner Alonzo Newell Calloway, setting up a photo studio in a tent in Columbus in 1875. By January 1879, Serdinko had set up shop in New Braunfels and in November of that year he married Ernestine Fernanda Reich, daughter of Julius Reich of Hortontown. The couple moved to Fredericksburg to set up a studio.

In July 1880, John and Ernestine were back in New Braunfels and opened a studio on Seguin Street across from the woolen manufacturing company. The quality of his work was highly praised in the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung.

Serdinko proved to be more than a good photographer; he was also an inventor. In February 1882, John received his first patent for “a portable darkroom for dry plate photography.” Serdinko was thinking of ways to improve and adapt his profession to the changing times.

In March of that same year, John and Ernestine put down roots and bought a house in New Braunfels. He purchased all new, up-to-date equipment and life for the couple looked bright. Tragedy struck in January 1883. The Serdinkos lost their 14-month-old son. That September, the studio moved closer to Main Plaza, two buildings down from the NB Zeitung office on Seguin Street.

John seemed to settle into life in NB and his studio did well. There had been photographers in New Braunfels as early as 1855, when a man set up a studio to produce daguerreotypes. You will find many photographers’ names on carte de visite and cabinet cards made in New Braunfels from the 1860s to the early 20th C: Carl Iwonsky (who was also a painter), William DeRyee, J.M. Slater, Doerr, Ranney, Winther, Jacobson, Jakobi & Parks, J.H. Chapman, Hoffmann, Schwarz and Klenke are a few.

Serdinko received a second patent, this time for a “rotary force pump,” in April 1885. He got a third patent in February 1886 for a “wind machine.” Like so many of the early citizens, he was a highly educated man with many interests, very much a man living up to the ideals of the Victorian Age and the industrialization it brought. With glowing reports that the quality of his work was “as good as anywhere in the States,” Serdinko purchased all new photographic equipment.

The Serdinkos were blessed with a second child, Rosa Lee, in 1887. John was mainly producing cabinet cards and selling them for $3.50 per dozen. He became a trustee in the newly formed fraternal organization, Knights of the Golden Rule (sort of a mutual aid society). Folks dropped by his studio to have both posed and candid photos taken. Serdinko photographed the first members of the Six and Sixty-six Card Club.

In November of 1887, trouble was brewing in the domestic life of the Serdinkos. Mrs. Serdinko had a sale which included household items, a windmill, pumps, and handwork, to be paid in cash. Ernestine then informed the public on March 1, 1888 that she was leaving NB in two weeks and was selling what was left of her furniture, picture frames and more. She also said she would finish all her photos at a very low price; she must have been doing some of the processing for her husband. She left and the studio on Seguin Street was rented to J.W. Writer who came from the studio of Serdinko’s friend, Alonzo N. Calloway, in San Antonio.

In April, John Serdinko returned from travelling to California and reopened a studio. When did he leave? Where did he go? I followed his trail west, and I found the reason for the North Dakota request. During 1887, Serdinko somehow met up with F. Jay Haynes of Fargo. Haynes was the official photographer of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He had his own railcar fitted out as living quarters and photography studio and is best known for his early views of Yellowstone National Park. There are several stereoviews, from the “Northwestern Pacific Views” series, depicting Native Americans and one view of Yellowstone that are published by Serdinko in Fargo. There are also cabinet cards with “Serdinko, New Braunfels” found in Fargo.

John may not have been the best husband, but he was shaping up to be an interesting man.

When the new IG&N railroad bridge across the Guadalupe River collapsed in 1891, John Serdinko was the photographer who chronicled the tragedy. In 1892, Serdinko designed and fabricated “an excellent telephone apparatus” which was installed to connect Henry Streuer’s Two Brothers Saloon on Main Plaza with the Streuer home in Comaltown. This was the first telephone in New Braunfels!

Serdinko sold his studio and took off for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago — – THE perfect place for an inventor and photographer. After his return to NB in October, John received his fourth patent for “an automatic telephone exchange system.” He then rented his home on Seguin Street and moved to San Antonio in 1894. Serdinko got a patent for his telephone in April 1895.

The photographic business was sold to L. J. Wilson in 1899. Serdinko is listed in the 1900 Census for Colorado County and in March of 1901, Ernestine filed for divorce in the District Court in San Antonio.

And this is where I lost the trail for John, or Ivan, Serdinko. I found the last tidbit of his life in Ernestina Serdinko nee Reich’s family tree, “He died 11/15/1919 in Austria.”

How this free-thinking, intelligent, wanderlustig photographer and inventor made it to Austria remains a mystery.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives: Reich family genealogy; New Braunfelser-Zeitung; New Braunfels Herald; Lens on theTexas Frontier, by Lawrence T. Jones III; Nesbitt Memorial Library, Colorado County History, Part 8, by Bill Stein; 1900 Census, Colorado County, Texas; https://texashistory.unt.edu/explore/collections/TDNP/; https://dsloan.com; https://www.ha.com/; https://www.yellowstonestereoviews.com/

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Today, March 19, 2017, marks 172 years since Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels woke up to a snow storm in Texas. He was camping at the Guadalupe River getting ready to look over the land that he had just purchased for the Adelsverein emigration project. The date was Wednesday, March 19, 1845. In two days, the first immigrants would cross the Guadalupe into what would become New Braunfels on Good Friday, March 21, 1845. From that time on, that date would be designated as Founder’s Day for New Braunfels.

Prince Carl wrote eleven reports back to the Adelsverein telling them what he had accomplished for the organization that had chosen him to head the project. These eleven reports written in German have been translated by various historians and scholars. The reports have been published in both German and English. The information from these reports has been used by researchers for many years. But, as often is the case, other documents surface that are more personal in nature and sometimes contradictory to the original documents available.

The diary

Historian, Theodore Gish, came across the personal diary of Prince Carl while researching in Rheinland-Platz, Germany. The diary was one of two documents discovered and was called “Diary of a Trip to America in 1844-45.” W.M. Von Maszewski, the past-president of the German–Texas Heritage Society, agreed to translate the diary. The diary consists of 88 pages and begins with Prince Carl’s departure from Rheingrafenstein, his family castle. The date was May 14, 1844. The last entry was upon his return to Europe on June 20, 1845. The diary contains biographical data not found in the Adelsverein reports and contains humanizing comments about his own nature.

In the diary, the prince reveals much about his own personality and how he sees his role as “fearless military leader, mounting a defense against Indians.” This attack never came about. Prince Carl through Gish’s book, reveals himself as an aristocrat who exercised his skill in the arts. Even with the serious responsibility of the emigration project, he took time out to read the classical German authors such as Goethe and Schiller.

Diaries have a way of opening up what the writer really feels about people and places; in this case, much of it is uncomplimentary. Solms praises von Coll but not the rest of the first council that he appointed, particularly Zink. They were Dr. Theodore Koester, Nicholas Zink, von Coll and Rev. Louis Ervendberg. The prince makes some very serious charges against Zink. Also, the prince revealed his anti-American views and why he was against Texas becoming a state of the United States.

Historic background of the diary

Here is the background of the point in time the diary was written:

Prince Carl arrived in Texas on July 1, 1844, and traveled to collect information about Texas. On March 6, he rode on horseback to San Antonio with Friedrich Wrede and Gustav Hoffmann. In San Antonio, Johann Rahm, a member of Texas Ranger Jack Coffee Hays’ Company, told the prince about the Comal Tract and Las Fontanas. On the 15, Prince Carl purchased this tract from heirs of the Veramendi family. On March 18, the prince went to inspect the tract. He was accompanied by 25 men. The group set up tents at the Guadalupe and that night there was a snow storm. They woke up to the snow on their tents. This was March 19, 1845.

Two days later, the first group of German immigrants crossed the Guadalupe at the Camino Real crossing (Nacogdoches Street). A settlement was established called the Zinkenburg located where the Sts, Peter & Paul Catholic Church now stands. In February, Prince Carl had organized a militia to protect the settlers from Indian attack. These men were capable of bearing arms. The total number of men was 208, 36 with rifles, 39 with shotguns and 33 unarmed. On March 21, 1845, the immigrants crossed the Guadalupe.

Excerpts from the diary

February 26, 1845: Arrived at Carlshaven after being lost. Ate oysters and fish.

February 27, 1845: Bad roads to Victoria. Supper with Zink and Wedemeyer. Played the piano.

February 28, 1845: Rode to camp. Joyful welcome with cannon fire. Played the piano. Rain and storm.

March 2, 1845 Birthday of my mother. Departed on the way at 10:00 o’clock. Nice beautiful hilly trail. Met Romer, von Coll, Lűntzel, Hoffmann and Assel on the trail. Supper and grog.

March 3, 1845: Storm and rain. Zink arrives. Lengthy discussion.

March 4, 1845: Colonial Council meeting. Champagne in the evening.

March 6, 1845: A discussion with Dr. Kὂster. He was suspended. Cloudt is becoming uncouth. Baur is less than nothing, very malicious. Too late to ride.

March 7, 1845: Inspection of company. I praised Heidtmeyer because of training them. They need additional training on foot and field.

March 8, 1845: Departed for Gonzales. Supper at Kings. Slept on porch, saddle for pillow. American tobacco, chewing and spitting.

March 9, 1845: Cold norther at the San Jeronimo. 4.5 miles to Don Antonio Navarro’s. Interesting man. He describes the march to Santa Fe. Mr. Veramendi introduces me. Lodging with many fleas and a hard bed of feathers on wood.

March 10, 1845: Waited for Veramendi. He did not come. High ground view of San Antonio. Lodged at Rahm’s favorite old hotel.

March 11, 1845: Looked at the Alamo. Visited Veramendi and Garza.

March 12, 1845: Had discussion with Veramendi and de Vine. Companions were Wrede, Anton, two orderlies from Lindheimer’s company and from the militia of Hoffmann and Lűntzel. Mexicans no longer made brash demands.

March 13, 1845: Completed business with Mexicans. Rode to San Pedro Springs and the Powder House.

March 14, 1845: Completion of the document with Maria Veramendi-Garza, beautiful woman. Rode with Lűntzel and Lindheimer to Mission La Conception.

March 15, 1845: Signed the document.

March 16, 1845: Breakfast along Cibolo. Wrede and Hoffmann arrived in the evening.

March 17, 1845: Zink and Coll arrived with 13 men. Camped at a spring not far from the Guadalupe. Bitterly cold.

March 18, 1845: Arrived on the Comal tract. Put up tents, ate late then went to bed.

March 19, 1845: We awoke to a snowstorm. I rode out to outline the horse exercise area. Afterward I went with Rahm, Wrede, Lűntzel, Zink into the woods, with hunting knives and axes we cut a trail to the spring. 4 miles. Stopped where we came to a meadow. Bitterly cold. Snow on the tents in the morning.

March 20, 1845: With Coll, Lindheimer and five men I went on a long ride through the country. On horseback, we climbed up to an outcropping through cedars to the top of a plateau.

March 21, 1845: Beginning of spring and Good Friday. Crossing of the first 15 wagons, but what toil and what difficulty it was. Finally, they are here. Change of the camp to higher ground.

Diary continues

Prince Carl’s diary continues through the time he left New Braunfels on May 14 and then left Texas in June for Germany. The book containing this information and much more can be purchased at Sophie’s Shop at the Sophienburg. It is called Voyage to North America 1844-45.

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“Rip Van Winkle” is a short story written by Washington Irving. Rip lives in a village by the Catskill Mountains. He is an easygoing, henpecked husband. One day he wanders into the mountains to go hunting and he meets and drinks with Henry Hudson’s legendary sailing crew. They are bowling 9-Pin. Rip falls asleep and sleeps for 20 years. He wakes up to the sound of crashing 9-Pins. Everything has changed. Irving uses 9-Pin bowling as an example of change. Bowling was very popular in Europe, then Germany, and now small settlements in Central Texas, the Comal County community of Bracken being one of them.

Bracken goes back to 1850 when Kentuckian William Bracken came to Texas to buy land. He was successful at getting a patent for 11 labors of land (177.1 acres per labor) from Texas Governor Peter Bell. This land was located on the Cibolo Creek where the El Camino Real crosses the creek. Two years later Bracken died and his children inherited the land. Twenty years later, 1,114 acres were sold to George and Christopher Pfeuffer who, in turn, sold 300 acres of the property to William Davenport. Davenport sold 54.7 acres to the I&GN Railroad Company that built a railroad on 12 acres of his property. The railroad sold the rest of the land to John Barnes and Jacob Wetmore. These two developed their land into the town of Davenport consisting of seven blocks. They initially named their community Davenport, but the name was denied by the U.S. Post Office because another town in north Texas already had that name. Therefore, they named the town Bracken in honor of the man who first purchased this land.

Now we get to the Bracken 9-Pin Bowling Club that celebrated 100 years of Kegeln (bowling) this year. It’s a 9-Pin bowling club which is different from a 10-Pin club. Pins for 9-Pin are set up manually, whereas pins for 10-Pin are set mechanically. Many of the small communities around New Braunfels have 9-Pin bowling alleys because the German immigrants brought the practice with them.

Most historians believe that the sport of bowling has been around for thousands of years in one form or another. The act of knocking down pins or bottles, or anything that will stand up, with a round object, whether it be a rock or a ball, has been a sport enjoyed by all ages.

Bowling balls and pins have been found in ancient Egyptian tombs. The Polynesians bowled on lanes 60 feet long, the same length as modern alleys. There is evidence that English kings bowled and also monks like Martin Luther.

The practice of throwing a ball to hit down 9-Pins instead of the traditional 10-Pins was brought to the U.S. by the Germans. In the 4^th century, bowling was part of a religious ceremony. The belief was that if you could knock down all the pins you were thought to be of good character. Those who missed the pins had to do some kind of penance. I wonder what happened when people kept on failing to knock the pins down.

Most ancient Germans carried what was known as a “Kegel” or club used for protection as well as sport. The Kegel would represent a heathen and if it could be knocked down with a stone ball the bowler would be cleansed of his sins. I suppose you could say that the more a person bowled, the more sins they had. Teddy Roosevelt, being of German heritage, probably said “Trust everyone but always carry a big Kegel.” Just kidding.

The Germans, English, and Dutch all brought their own version of bowling to the colonies. This 9-pin sport was banned in Connecticut in 1841 because of the gambling and crime associated with it. Supposedly the people in Connecticut just added another pin making it 10-Pin bowling, circumventing the law and that solved that problem.

Curt Schmidt, author of the book, “Oma and Opa” tells of the importance of 9-Pin bowling to our early settlers. Bowling has survived as a popular sport here even today. He described 9-Pin Kegeln this way: “A team game with four to seven players. Pins are set up and then each team rolls two balls at the set-up. Then if the team member knocks all down with the first ball, the pins are set up again. And he rolls again. If a bowler leaves any pins standing except the King pin in the middle, it counts 12 points. If any pins are left standing, then the next bowler rolls it at them and so on until they are all down. The captain calls the member of the team who is likely to ‘clean up’ the alley. There are full house bowlers, left side and right side bowlers and clean up bowlers.”

In Comal County there are still many 9-Pin leagues. Bracken Bowling Club is one. Bernice Friesenhahn researched and compiled information on the bowling alley with Karly Friesenhahn formatting the information into a booklet for the celebration of their 100^th year. Bracken Bowling Club was founded in 1914 by a group of men who enjoyed 9-Pin bowling. The club was built on the Bose brothers land. E.H. and Albert Bose and their wives gave the property of 1/3 acre. In 1977, a new eight lane facility was built on 1 ½ acres of land across from the old alley.

Rubin Moeller who was the secretary of the club for many years researched the minutes that were written in German. The original two lanes had a cost of five cents a game to bowl. Family member names of some of the founders were Bose, Bremer, Forshage, Friesenhahn, Gebhardt, Haag, Heitkamp, Hoffmann, Jonas, Marbach, Moeller, Reeh, Rosenburg and Wuest.

Women eventually became part of the bowling scene. Accordingly in almost all cases, the husband was a member of the club and his wife was allowed to bowl. If the husband died, his membership passed on to the wife and she continued to pay.

Washington Irving in “Rip Van Winkle” contends that change is inevitable, but sometimes it is slow. Bowling has been hanging around in Bracken for over 100 years with few changes.

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