One of the more exciting stories concerning the early settlers of New Braunfels was that of Betty Holekamp charging across the Guadalupe on a horse after Prince Carl’s spectacular show of bravado. The story was probably somewhat embellished over the years, but nevertheless it’s a good one.

Prince Carl was of the highest class of aristocracy and I doubt seriously if he appreciated anyone trying to upstage him, much less a woman. He would not be leading the parade for women’s sufferage, but I think Betty would have.

Here’s the story: Georg and Elizabeth Holekamp had married in Germany on March 17, 1844. They set out for Texas to make a new life for themselves. They were on the brig Johann Dethart which was the first ship of the Adelsverein. They arrived in Galveston November 24, 1844.

Georg Holekamp, the son of the royal architect Daniel Holekamp, was educated at the University of Hanover and could speak German, English, French and also studied music and medicine. His father discouraged him from being a musician. He couldn’t have gone farther away from that career – a brick maker and a farmer. Music did become his hobby. For that matter it was while pursuing this hobby that Georg met Elizabeth Abbenthern. While playing the piano, Georg asked for a vocalist and Elizabeth (Betty) came forward. She was 10 years younger and he was impressed.

Betty’s father was the ministerial accountant in the royal court of the King of the state of Hannover. Betty was educated along with the king’s daughters to become a governess.  She had been around the aristocracy before so that may explain her willingness to challenge the prince.

Georg and Betty married and set out for the Republic of Texas. They arrived in Galveston on November 24, 1844. They made their way to New Braunfels and when they could, crossed the Guadalupe to get to the settlement.

Now Betty is the one that tradition says would not want to be outdone by Prince Carl. Supposedly he was riding a white horse and   plunged into the raging flood waters. This white horse story made me question the accuracy of the story. After all, “good” cowboys ride white horses. We don’t know what color Betty’s horse was but she followed suit in true pioneer fashion. Don’t you know Georg was impressed?

In New Braunfels they enrolled in the German Protestant Church. Their town lots bordered Garden St., from Comal St. to the Comal River.

When Texas became a state of the Union, Betty Holekamp sewed a 6 ft by 3 ft United States flag with the 13 red and white stripes and a lone star on a field of blue in the left corner. This earlier Texas flag was known as the Texas Lone Star and Stripes flag. Tradition says that the Holekamp flag was flown on the Plaza and believed to be the first American flag flown in town. Some think that the flying of this flag could have been a message to the aristocratic Prince Carl. What do you think?

Two years after arriving in New Braunfels, the Holekamps moved to Fredericksburg where they received property and Georg became an administrator in property settlement. They never gave up their properties in New Braunfels. Georg built a home and a saw and grist mill on the Comal River at the foot of Garza St. It was also a paper pulp mill and an ice plant. A flood nearly totally destroyed the mill in 1869. This property became Camp Landa and finally the property of Schlitterbahn.

In 1854 the Holekamps moved to Comfort as one of their first settlers. A small rock house is still preserved by the Comfort Historical Society. They also lived in Sisterdale and San Antonio. The Sisterdale house still stands also.

When the Civil War broke out, Georg enlisted in the Confederate army as a surgeon. His  small amount of medical training qualified him to do that. He was the company’s band director at the same time. Unfortunately he was killed in Brownsville in 1862 and neither the cause or burial site was revealed.

Betty Holekamp continued living in Comfort and raised her seven children alone. She outlived her husband by 40 years. What a woman!!

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Thanks to some early settlers, we have pictures painted with words of what early NB looked like from writers like Roemer, Lindheimer, Brach and the most prolific of all writers, Hermann Seele. Let’s not forget all those personal letters that were saved by families.

One of the best descriptions of the early Mission Valley area was written by Wilhelm (Bill) Adams, the older brother of my grandfather, Louis Adams. In 1937 Bill Adams told his story to his son, Harold Adams, who fortunately for us all, typed Bill’s story as he was speaking.

The paper was copied in its entirety in Alton Rahe’s book, “History of Mission Valley Community”. Excerpts from that paper bear repeating.

Bill Adams and my grandfather Louis were sons of Heinrich and Katarina Doeppenschmidt Adams. Katarina’s father was Jacob Doeppenschmidt, Sr. whose ranch was in the Honey Creek area. Heinrich’s ranch was in the Mission Valley. Both families were ranchers from the beginning. Honey Creek Ranch is now under the care of the Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Heinrich Adams, as a single man, came to Texas and New Braunfels in 1850 from Prussia. A family tradition states that Heinrich was educated in Germany and was in an elite military unit – elite because one had to be over six feet tall to be eligible. That was tall for Europeans in those days. Supposedly he had to leave Germany because he hit an officer. In 1856 he married Katarina Doeppenschmidt, daughter of Jacob and Anna Marie Doeppenschmidt. There were six children; my grandfather was the youngest.

In 1894 after both Heinrich and Katarina had died, second son Bill bought the ranch from his sisters and brothers. My grandfather, Louis, being a minor, went to live with his uncle, Jacob Doeppenschmidt,Jr. Bill was a successful rancher and eventually expanded the ranch to 1100 acres.

Bill was also involved in politics. He served as a Deputy Sheriff and then Comal County Commissioner for eight years and then was elected Sheriff and Tax Collector in 1908-1920. (Source of above by Marilyn Thurman and Jane Brummet, granddaughters of Bill Adams).

Bill’s paints a word picture of the early Mission Valley area. At one time there were no fences and sedge grass was as high as a horse “waving in the wind like waves of the ocean” with no brush and cedar and an occasional live oak. The game was deer, wild hogs, wild turkeys, javelinas, geese, ducks, swans, pelicans, flamingos, wild pigeons (an extinct bird sometimes referred to as the wandering dove because it would drift south in the winter and return in the spring.) There were panthers, various wolves, coyotes, bears, leopards, wild cats, raccoons, opossums, ringtail civet cats, skunks, armadillos and other smaller animals.

Farming in the area started when the settlers arrived and they needed tanks and waterholes. This explains all the types of waterfowl. The most remarkable of all the watering places was the Post Oak Sea, a mile from Adams’ ranch house. It was a large body of water never known to go dry until 1887 and since then held water for only a short time following a series of heavy rains. When all other watering holes were dry and the Guadalupe was down to a trickle, this large body of water was full. If you want to see it, drive out Hwy. 46 and from the intersection of Loop 336, on the right side about four miles, you will see a large tank near the road. That’s not it! Drive a little further and off in the distance you will spot the “Sea” with a small amount of water. Speculations about the “Sea” going dry have gone on for years; some thought there was an earthquake, some felt it had to do with a storm in 1886.

“We young fellows from our neighborhood would get together at the Sea all on horseback with several trained dogs, and waited for the wild hogs to come to the water. The lake was several acres across and a mile in every direction. Good rodeos would take place there between the dogs and hogs.”

Other Bill Adams stories are reprinted in Rahe’s book that can be purchased at the Sophienburg.

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman –

Did you read my Herald-Zeitung article on Herman Lehmann? If not, you should, because this dovetails into it. To recap, Herman Lehmann was captured by Apache in 1870, when he was 11 years old. He published an autobiography, Nine Years Among the Indians, in 1927. It’s a fascinating story and considered to be one of the best captive narratives. What makes it even more special for me is that he was a distant cousin my mom and his niece were first cousins. The icing on the cake is that Cousin Esther, who died in 2016, was considered to be the last person who knew an Indian captive.

Herman lived in the Squaw Creek and Loyal Valley area north of Fredericksburg. You might think he has little connection to New Braunfels, but you would be wrong. Esther would say, “the Indian never left him.” And because it didn’t, I can write this story.

You see, Herman did a lot of odd jobs and tried a lot of things as he was readjusting and becoming “civilized,” but he loved his Apache way of life and the skills he learned. He was an adopted member of both the Apache and Comanche. People would come from all around to “see a real Indian” and Herman did not disappoint. Cousin Esther told stories of men who would bet Herman that he couldn’t put an arrow through their hat. They would place the hat far away on a stump and Herman would nail it with an arrow every time. One time a guy folded his hat several times to make the target smaller he lost the bet and had a hat full of holes to prove it!

Herman also went around to county fairs and pioneer/settler reunions and put on an Indian version of a wild west show. One of his feats was to show how the Indian killed buffalo. Herman would dress head to toe in a fringed buckskin suit with a breastplate of bones hung from his neck. He wore a buffalo hat with horns that jutted out above his ears; those ears retained the marks of ritual piercing. His outfit was completed with a floral-beaded belt at his thin waist and moccasins on his feet.

Herman would sit bareback astride his horse holding his bow and arrow. A man would release a calf, steer or cow. Lehmann would let loose a war whoop that made women scream, babies cry and grown men sweat. The whoop would also frighten the animal which would take off at break-neck speed. Herman would gallop close behind, holding on to his horse with only his legs. He would lean down under his horse’s neck, and with skill honed on many buffalo hunts, draw his bow and let his arrow fly. The crowd would hear a “thunk” and the animal’s cry as the point pierced its tough skin. It would run a little further before its legs buckled and it dropped in the dirt. Lehmann would let out another spine-tingling whoop as he wheeled his horse around and jumped gracefully off. Kneeling by the animal, he would raise his arm and plunge his knife into its belly. To the abject horror of the crowd, he would stick his hands into the bloody, steaming cavity and cut out the liver. Dramatically holding the liver above his head for all to see, Herman then began to eat the raw liver and when done would wipe the blood and bile off his face and remount his horse.

Pretty good show, right? OK, it’s a little graphic and was even more so to the audiences back then. Herman felt like, if they had come to see a man who had been raised by the Indians, they should get to see the real thing.

In November 1899, Herman Lehman came to New Braunfels to visit his friend Gustav Altwein and stopped by the Neu Braunfelser Zeitung office for a chat. The newspapermen were so enchanted that they published a story about it in the next issue. The next time I can find Herman in New Braunfels is in 1901. He was booked at Matzdorff’s Halle (now Eagles’ Hall) to speak about his experiences with the Apache and Comanche and share some artifacts from those days.

In 1928, the Comal County Fair Committee hired Herman to take part in the county fair. He was billed as, “Herman Lehmann, captured by Indians when a boy, now over 70, will show Indian sports and dances each day.” The description is more detailed in the German Zeitung and includes that he was the son of German immigrants in Gillespie County, and will be giving shows between the horse races, which will include Indian-style bareback riding skills, dances and shooting with “arrow and bow.” I do love the different journalistic styles.

Several days before the fair, which occurred on October 5, 6, and 7, Herman Lehmann visited with local school children talking about the lifestyle and customs of the Apache and Comanche. He told them his story: his terrifying capture, the torture and abuse and the special bond he eventually formed with his adopted families. Herman never held any anger against the Indians. He said God knew the hearts of each man and you were only held accountable for what you did that you knew was wrong. Every story has two sides and he understood and placed value on both. You might say he was an early advocate for Native American rights.

He then led the children outside where he demonstrated dances, shot arrows at targets, and rode his horse Indian-style. I bet the children were absolutely enthralled. I certainly would have been.

Sources: “Reflections” #292-Esther Lehmann and Gerda Lehmann Kothman, Sophienburg Museum & Archives; New Braunfels Newspaper collection – Sophienburg Museum & Archives; “Lehmann Show”, by Mike Cox – TexasEscapes.com.

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How would you like to watch the New Braunfels July 4^th fireworks from the highest point in New Braunfels? Maybe you could even see the fireworks in San Marcos, Seguin and Randolph Field from this spot. Well, you can’t do it this year, but maybe it will be possible in the future.

The New Braunfels Parks and Recreation Department is in the process of designing a new park which will be called Mission Hill Park. Off of Hwy. 46 right next to the HEB grocery store is a ten-acre piece of property obtained by the City for the development of a park. The name Mission Hill supposedly got its name from a Spanish Mission in the area from the mid-1700s. However, the description that is more accurate is “proposed site of the Mission Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe.” The mission that was established was short-lived in temporary quarters and really nobody knows exactly where it was located. Missions were established next to water sources and this property is a long way from the rivers. Whatever its origin, the name Mission Hill stuck.

One of the plans is to include a tower on the promontory point of the property reminiscent of a similar tower dating back to the early 1900s. Many New Braunfelsers remember the home with the tower.

The property where the park will locate has an interesting history about who owned it and what it was used for.

Go back to 1847 when the State of Texas issued a grant of land on which the Mission Hill is located to Andres Sanchez who transferred it to Daniel Murchison in 1854. The property was 320 acres.

In 1856 Murchison deeded the 320-acre property to Ludwig Kessler and shortly thereafter to Friedrich Ludwig Hermann Conring. The Conrings were the stewards of the land for almost three decades. Conring and his wife, Georgine Meyer, arrived in 1854 from Germany.

Two of their sons fought in the Civil War. One son, Ernst, was a saltpeter maker which explains why the Mission Hill property contains a kiln similar to the one in Landa Park. During the Civil War the kiln produced gun powder used by the army. This family information was shared by Lorine Riedel (Calvin) who still lives in NB. She is the great-great-granddaughter of Hermann and Georgine Conring. The Conrings built a home on Mission Hill in the 1850s. Lorine’s grandmother, Clara Conring, told stories about her grandmother, Georgine, hiding in the home during the Civil War.

In 1883 the property was sold to Franz Coreth and from that time on, it was owned by the Franz Coreth family, his son Rochette, and his grandson Franz Ernst Coreth.

According to Kay Faust Specht, great-granddaughter of Franz and Minna Zesch Coreth, Franz’s father was Austrian Count Ernst Coreth. After emigrating from Germany, Ernst and his wife Agnes Erler Coreth purchased 280 acres from John O. Meusebach near Wald Road on the Comal Creek. They lived on the property the rest of their lives. Remember when I wrote the Altgelt Pond story? (Sophienburg.com) The house was very close to that pond.

Now back to Mission Hill. Franz Coreth ranched and farmed the land that he bought from Hermann Conring. He built an L-shaped house in the late 1800s but unfortunately it burned down to the ground. Family tradition states that there was a volunteer fire department in New Braunfels but its horse-drawn fire wagon was unable to pull the heavy water tank up Mission Hill. A second house was built on the same spot, very similar to the first one but with the addition of a porch and a tower.

One of the daughters of Franz and Minna Coreth was Lina Coreth Windwehen who shared information with her granddaughter, Kay Faust Specht. Lina grew up in that house and told her granddaughter many tales of living in the house on Mission Hill. She remembered a large screened-in porch. Of course, the tower with the “widow’s walk” was a favorite of all the children. So many events could be seen from that tower. Miles of the land below and early mapmakers came to survey NB from that tower. During WWI, in 1918, Gen. Pershing brought his troops to the ranch from Ft. Sam Houston where they practiced their maneuvers. He watched the troops on the plain below from Mission Hill.

Rochette Coreth was the son of Franz and Minna and he continued to ranch the land after his father died. When he married his first wife, Flora Bading, he built a second house on the hill next to the original house. It was actually the third Coreth house on the hill. Flora Bading died when their only child, Franz Ernst Coreth, was three years old.

The next segment of the Coreth story on Mission Hill began when Rochette married Melinda Staats. Relatives of Melinda’s that provided the following information were: Mitzi Nuhn Dreher, Judy Nuhn Morton, and A.D. Nuhn Jr. The A.D. and Irene Nuhn family lived in the tower house in the mid-1940s. The Nuhns remember seeing the Eiband and Fischer fire down on the Plaza in 1947. It was a huge fire. They also remember lightning striking the tower blowing out what was around the water faucets. When the lightening hit the chimney, the whole dining room filled with soot. The tower was the source of many adventures for the Nuhn children and their friends. I was lucky enough to be one of them.

Another source of information from a more modern observation was that of Joel Karl Erben, great-nephew of Melinda Coreth. His mother, Joline Staats Erben, was the sister of Melinda. As a young child he spent many hours at the Mission Hill homes and ranch. Joel recalls that with Hurricane Carla, considerable damage was done to the upper rails and shutters of the tower. That kept him from going to the top of the tower. It was possible to see things from that viewpoint that one could see nowhere else.

Joel remembers a story about a political cocktail party at Mission Hill. Rochette was on the board of directors of the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers Association. The Coreths gave a party for the directors which, incidentally, included Gov. Dolph Briscoe and his wife, Janie. As formal as these affairs can be, the Coreths asked the guests to park at the bottom of the hill by the barns and hike up the hill. He has a vision of the women struggling up the hill wearing pumps (high heels).

Imagine this: Joel remembers cloudy days when the tower was above the clouds. Now that’s a picture. From the tower it was possible to see the smoke stacks of LCRA sticking up over the fog line. He says that weather fronts take on a different view from up high.

Rochette Coreth was a very popular figure in NB. He involved himself politically and for that he was honored to be the grand marshal for the New Braunfels Centennial parade. Riding his white horse, he had a saddle embellished with sterling silver. The suit he wore and the saddle are at the Sophienburg. A video shows Rochette galloping up the side of Mission Hill after the parade.

The last Coreth to own Mission Hill was Franz Ernst Coreth. In the 1990s both of the unoccupied houses burned down.

The Parks Department is still in the planning stage for the property that will be enjoyed by the whole community. I would think that the whole Coreth family will be proud that this significant property will be honored as a park.

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