By Myra Lee Adams Goff —

“Have you heard? Old Squire Moeschen is dead!” So begins Hermann Seele’s narrative of a murder here in New Braunfels in 1855. Seele spun this true, gruesome tale in his book, Die Cypress, which is available at Sophie’s Shop.

Here’s the background: Christof Moeschen, born in 1806 in Thuringia, came to Texas along with his wife, Johanna, and a 9-year-old daughter, Friederike. The year was 1844. Seele says their small log cabin built in 1845 was on Comal Creek, and consisted of one room and a porch surrounded by a fence of cedar posts.

For all one knew, the family of three lived a quiet life, but all that changed in 1854 when the Moeschen’s only child, Friederike, married the shoemaker Carl Riebeling. The mother approved of the son-in-law, but the father did not. Hermann Seele performed the wedding and the young couple lived with her parents.

Unaccustomed to outdoor work, Riebeling became sick. Moeschen believed the son-in-law was just lazy.

When a baby was born to the young couple and died, Moeschen was so distraught about the death that any harmony that had come about because of the baby disappeared. Moeschen became abusive toward his family. The daughter no longer loved her father. She resented his abusiveness toward her mother and husband. As a result, Mrs. Moeschen and the Riebeling couple contrived a plot to get rid of the old man.

On the day of the murder in early September, 1855, the father returned home exhausted, called his son-in-law a loafer and then fell asleep in a drunken stupor. In the dark of evening, the daughter provided a light, and her husband and mother killed the old man with an ax. All that could be heard was the autumn wind wafting the withered leaves from the trees and a few raindrops.

The mother laid the father, who she said was “kaput,” on a mattress and sewed him into a bedspread so no one could see him. The ax was dropped to the bottom of a pond formed by the creek.

Day dawns. Outside, Mrs. Moeschen called to her neighbor G. Holzmann, a laborer going to work. She tells him her husband has died and gives him a string to give to Gerhard, who is to make the funeral arrangements. The string is the length of the body.

Gerhard went to the Moeschen home to make some arrangements and asked to look at the body. The family refused because they said he had already been sewed into a shroud. Upon returning to town, Gerhard said to Justice of the Peace Hermann Seele that he was suspicious, and Seele called for a coroner’s inquest because of the sudden death.

Funeral arrangements continued and friends began to arrive at the house for the funeral. Present were Pastor Eisenlohr of the German Protestant Church where the family were members, the choral society, many townspeople and the carriage with the empty coffin.

Inside, the inquest was performed. The corpse was unwrapped from a dark brown checkered bedspread (shroud), and then carried outside and put on a large table.  Drs. Remer and Koester prepared for an autopsy. (Yes, right there.) Since it was getting dark, lanterns had to be brought from town. After the autopsy, it was determined “the old man has been murdered. Arrest the people.” The three family members were put under arrest.

Through the dark woods, a ghastly procession carrying the casket, proceeded to the sheriff’s home in town. In the spring of 1856, the trial found all three guilty punishable by imprisonment with hard labor for nine years each.

Additional information to Seele’s narrative was written by Everett Fey in his research about the First Founders of New Braunfels. Volunteer Tom Call researched the trial and found that Johanne Moeschen died in prison, Friedrike was paroled in 1860 and Carl Riebeling paroled in 1862.

Picture this: The funeral is at the home, the body is brought outside under a tree, an autopsy is performed right there, and all the while, family, friends, jury, doctors, singing society are all witness to the whole macabre scene. Forensic science has come a long way.

This first appeared in 2012, but we decided to run it again under our True Crime Series.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum and Archives.

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

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

The cool-headed, businesslike determination of the mob which killed King; the fact that the assault, for which he paid the penalty, was attempted within 100 yards of where the little girl’s father and mother were seated on their front lawn; the confession of King to the Sheriff and to a fellow prisoner; the homely story of the grief-stricken father and the life of King who was a foundling and who died because he was a boy not liable to a man’s punishment had he been regularly convicted, were some of the startling and unusual features of deep-seated human interest which developed during a day that will forever stand out as unequaled in criminology in this peaceful little German town.
— Southern Mercury United with the Farmers Union Password, July 27, 1905

So ends a newspaper account of the murder of Sam King. This is a sad story, one that played out too often in other towns and other states, but this was unique for New Braunfels. On Wednesday, July 20, 1905, 16-year-old Sam King, an African-American, was shot and killed by unknown persons as he awaited arraignment in a Comal County jail cell.

Sam King was an orphan raised by a Mexican family in Comaltown. Sam was often in trouble and had already spent a couple of overnights in the county jail for petty theft and disturbing the peace. He was well-known by Sheriff Nowotny.

William Karbach Jr., also of Comaltown, had employed Sam to do odd jobs on his farm. At dusk on Tuesday, July 19, Karbach had ordered Sam to bring in some cows from the brush about 100 yards from his yard. Newspaper accounts say Karbach’s four-year-old daughter Elsa, ran “playfully” after Sam. Karbach later testified that Sam pulled a little wagon with Elsa and her little brother behind him as he went for the cows. Too much quiet, too much time passed and Karbach went to look for them. He testified that he thought maybe Sam was hiding a cow back in the bushes.

Newspaper accounts say that Sam had told Elsa he “would kill her if she dared to give him away,” and then went out to meet Karbach. Karbach testified that his little girl was crying and that he hit Sam and told him to leave. Sam ran off and Karbach reported the incident to Sheriff Nowotny. Sam was found hiding in the home of a friend, arrested and taken to the county jail for safe keeping. After midnight, a crowd of people assembled at the jail. Three sets of doors were battered down and within minutes Sam King lay dead on the cell floor.

News accounts say that feelings in the town over the incident at the Karbach’s were “running high” that evening. No doubt. Every instance I have come across in NB history involving criminal assault on a minor has been met with anger and high emotions. It didn’t matter what race or age the perpetrator was. Rape of a child was a very big deal.

Newspapers across Texas picked up the story and I have read them; however, the Neu Braunfelser Zeitung published the transcript of the inquest which is literally like the script from a movie. Much of the following information is from this incredible document.

On Thursday afternoon after the murder of King, Justice of the Peace George Weber and County Councilman H. G. Henne conducted the required inquest. Witnesses were interrogated to determine how Sam King had died and who was responsible.

The first witness was Juan Meza. He was in the jail cell with Sam King and he testified that “King admitted to him that he intended to rape the little girl but had found her to be too young.” Juan said that he heard the noise of the jailhouse doors being battered and broken. Three masked men came in; it was impossible for him to recognize them again. He said they had lanterns but just used matches to make light. The men tried but could not open the cell door. Juan was then “told to go to the back of the cage away from where the Negro was. I did. I feared being shot.”

Having failed to get their hands on Sam, one man fired a gun though the iron grid of the cell door and shot Sam hitting him in the head; he fell to the floor. According to Juan, the men stayed for a moment, left the cells and then came back in about 15 minutes later. The same man fired a second shot, this one went into King’s chest area.

The second witness was City Marshal Joseph Arnold. “Around 1 a.m., Mr. Hofer, the night watchman, came to me and said he was expecting a disturbance in the town tonight; Dr. Garwood had told him that a mob was coming in to lynch Sam King.” Marshal Arnold sent Hofer to go get the sheriff, then he dressed, saddled his horse and rode to within thirty yards of the jail. (The jail at this time was a lovely limestone building standing behind First National Bank [Chase] and next to what is now The Black Whale Saloon.) A crowd of 20 to 30 were assembled and someone in the group told Arnold to stay away or “he would shoot me dead. I replied, I don’t think you would shoot.” Seeing that he couldn’t do anything against so many, he rode towards the sheriff’s home in Comaltown. “I told him that the front door of the prison had been smashed in. Then we rode back together.”

Sam King was dead by the time the sheriff and Arnold returned. Not a soul remained near the jail. The lock on Sam’s cell had been bent so the two men had to break the door open. “We didn’t touch King,” Arnold said. When asked if they recognized anyone in the mob, Arnold answered “No.” When asked if he recognized the man who told him to stay away, Arnold answered “No.”

Dr. Garwood was the third witness interrogated. He said he arrived at the jail about 1:30 or 2 am “and found a dead Negro there.” He did not examine him. When asked how it was he came to the prison, Dr. Garwood said he “had heard that a mob was about to storm the jail and went downstairs. I heard some gunshots and when I got there the Negro was dead. There was no one in or near the jail at that time.” Garwood also said that he didn’t remember who had warned him and that he had heard it spoken of in general.

County Doctor Leonards then testified that King’s death was caused by gunshot wounds to the head and the heart area.

Sheriff Nowotny was the fifth called to testify. He had been riding through town around 9:30 PM Tuesday night and saw nothing suspicious nor had he heard anything about a mob assembling. Riding back across the Comal River bridge he met Willie Karbach, father of the little girl who had been molested. Nowotny said that Karbach had said, “Give me the keys; that Negro should be put to death.” Nowotny said he answered, “No. If he is not convicted, there are still opportunities enough later on to have him killed. Willie, hear what I say. Let there be no trouble.” Karbach promised him that no disturbance would occur and Karbach followed the sheriff across the bridge back to Comaltown.

I read that statement and thought, “Whoa….”, but then I realized that that is exactly the response most parents would have if their child was hurt like this. I have to keep in mind that it is different hearing a story and actually living it.

Sheriff Nowotny went on to say that night watchman Hofer knocked on his door around 1 am saying that it looked like a riot was going to happen. The sheriff still felt these were just rumors because the town was so quiet, but he got dressed and met Marshal Arnold as he left his home. Together they went back into town finding about a dozen people there telling them that the Negro was dead. Arnold, Hofer and Nowotny broke down the cell door, placed Juan Meza upstairs and left two men to guard the body of Sam King. Nowotny testified that “he found a rope in the hallway in front of the cells.” It appeared that the men had wanted to hang King but were forced to shoot him instead when they could not gain entrance to the cell.

Nowotny also said that he had arrested Sam King on Tuesday prior to midnight after Mr. Karbach came to see him and told him what had happened. They had searched, found and arrested King. King had admitted to him that he had tried to harm the little girl. Nowotny then testified that Sam had no parents and was raised until the age of 12 by a Mexican family; he had the reputation of being a thief and had been in jail before.

The last witness to testify was Elsa’s father, William Karbach, Jr., whose story was related at the beginning of this article. Karbach also testified that he knew nothing of the death of Sam King until he heard it talked about in the morning.

Justice of the Peace Weber issued the following verdict: “I find that the deceased, Sam King, was killed at about 1 am on July 20 in the Comal County Jail by a mob of unknown persons.”

I don’t know what to say. This was a terrible day in the life of this town. King didn’t get to go to court. The man who shot him didn’t get arrested. The Karbach family had to live with the trauma. But it happened … and life went on in New Braunfels.

History, good and bad, needs to be told so that we don’t commit the same sins over and over.

Sources: July posts in: New Braunfels Herald, Neu Braunfelser Zeitung, Houston Post, Fort Worth Record & Regular, Palestine Daily Herald; Sophienburg Museum genealogical collection.

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

Joske’s of Texas.

For many of us, hearing the name “Joske’s” conjures up memories of trips to downtown San Antonio for a day of shopping at the well-respected department store. My favorites were the trips during the Christmas holidays to visit the Fantasyland exhibit on the 4th floor and ride the miniature train through the animated village. This was free and was a brilliant ploy to get shoppers into the store. Joske’s also had a for-real bargain basement with bins full of discounted handkerchiefs, unmentionables, household items and toys.

Joske’s and Sons was established by Julius Joske in 1857. By 1900, his son, Alexander, was sole owner. The family was one of the many influential entrepreneurial families in Central Texas of Jewish ancestry. Amongst them were the Joskes, the Franks (Frank & Bros.) and the Marcuses and Neimans (Neiman-Marcus). New Braunfels had their own Jewish merchants: the Schmidts (Jacob Schmidt’s & Sons), the Mendlovitzs and, of course, the Landas. The Texas Jewish community was a close-knit group of like-minded men, so it wasn’t a surprise to find that Joske family members visited our town and had company parties at Landa Park.

The Joskes, like so many other San Antonians, participated in local singing, shooting, bowling and card societies. They also visited Landa’s park and came to picnic on the banks of the beautiful Comal and Guadalupe rivers. This is why Harold, Alexander Joske’s only son, came to enjoy a day on the Guadalupe River in 1921.

Harold Joske was born in 1890 and raised in San Antonio. He was one of the young princes of the elite in the Jewish community. Harold began working at the family’s department store as a salesclerk supervisor in 1909. His father put him in charge of Joske’s 34th Anniversary celebration for the store’s over 500 employees. Harold planned and pulled off a banquet, musical program and dancing at the San Antonio Türnverein (Athletic Club), proving he was ready for more responsibility.

World War I intervened. Harold enlisted, like many Central Texans of German descent, and he served at Fort Sam Houston in charge of the government store. After the war, Mr. Joske promoted Harold to buyer of ladies ready-to-wear, then to assistant manager and finally to store manager and vice president. Thirty-year-old Harold was a healthy, wealthy, athletic, eligible young man who had definitely arrived on the San Antonio social scene.

On Monday, September 5, 1921, Harold drove up to New Braunfels with friends: two women and “a married man from Dallas.” The group decided on a picnic spot on the Guadalupe above Waco Springs about 9-10 miles from downtown NB. By Monday evening, the citizens of San Antonio were mourning the death of one of its best-known sons, Harold Joske.

The tragic story broke in newspapers across the state in English, German and Spanish. In fact, the most detailed account of the accident was in the San Antonio “La Prensa.” This, alone, testifies to the influence of the Joske family in Texas. Details vary in the different published accounts, but the basic storyline begins with a swim.

Harold Joske was a good swimmer and around 3 P.M. that Monday, he jumped into the Guadalupe to enjoy the cool water. Witnesses reported that Harold’s “lower extremities” became entangled in roots and plants on the river bottom. He was said to “have laughed and then submerged himself.” He disappeared and never resurfaced.

Harold’s companions, “one of the women in a swimsuit,” jumped into their car and headed for New Braunfels. Within sight of town, it was reported that the man from Dallas jumped out of the car and “pulled for tall timber.”

The Record of Inquest (September 6, 1921) states that at about 4 p.m., Myrtle Chalmers notified New Braunfels Justice of the Peace, Emil Voelcker, of the incident. He left for the location at once after securing an ambulance.

At around 5 p.m., Harold’s body was found in 10 feet of water by Fred Gardiner, a boy scout from Austin, who was camping nearby with several other scouts. The young men headed into New Braunfels with the body and met Judge Voelcker and the Baetge & Friedrich ambulance on the way. After another half hour, Voelcker accompanied the ambulance and body to San Antonio. They were met on the road by Joske family members and friends.

As all that was playing out, Harold’s two women friends reported to Comal County Courthouse officials before returning to San Antonio. They came back to New Braunfels the next morning to testify at the inquest. The man from Dallas was said to have been located in San Antonio, but there is no further mention of him.

Yes. There are a lot of unanswered questions in this account and this led to many rumors about what really happened. But in deference to Alexander Joskes’s wishes, the press went quiet in respect for the family. The inquest and Harold’s death certificate state cause of death as “accidental drowning.”

Unfortunately, the tragedy didn’t end here. In 1924, Alexander Joske donated property on Broadway near Breckinridge Park to the San Antonio Council of Boy Scouts for its first permanent headquarters. Was this perhaps a thank you to the boy scouts who had found and cared for his only son?

The grand opening of the Boy Scout Headquarters occurred in February of 1926. Mr. Joske did not attend. On July 8, 1925, Alexander Joske had been found dead at his home by his good friend Stanley Frank (Frank & Bros.). He had shot himself.

FYI: Joske’s of Texas, located at the corner of Alamo and Commerce streets, was sold in 1987 to Dillard’s which became the east anchor for Rivercenter Mall in 1988. Dillard’s closed its store in 2008. Developers reopened the old Joske’s store space with new vendors in 2016 as part of the reinvention of the mall as Shops at Rivercenter.

Sources: “The Promised Land”, Mimi Swartz, 1994; LaGrange Journal; Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung; San Antonio “La Prenza”; The National Magazine : An Illustrated Monthly, Vol 52, 59; The Granger News; New Braunfels Herald; www.expressnews.com/life/life_columnists/paula_allen/srticle/Joske-mystery-death-10858227.php

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