Methodism is a Protestant religion whose roots can be traced way back to a preacher named John Wesley in England. John Wesley and his brother Charles, while at Oxford University in 1739, began a movement devoted to helping the underprivileged. Fellow students called them “Methodists” for the methods they used to carry out their evangelistic religion. Evangelism is the process of preaching to spread the word of Christianity.

Wesley did not have in mind to start a new religion. Both brothers were ordained ministers of the Church of England but because of their evangelistic methods, they were barred from speaking in most public places. They then resorted to preaching in homes or anywhere they could find an audience.

Another leader of Methodism was George Whitefield, also a minister of the Church of England. Eventually there was a parting of ways between the Wesley brothers and Whitefield over the subject of predestination. Whitefield was an advocate of predestination and the Wesley brothers were not.

In time, several branches of Methodism developed with these in particular: Methodist Protestant Church, Methodist Episcopal Church and Methodist Episcopal Church South. In its long history, by 1930 these three branches united and then merged with another group called the Evangelistic United Brethren. This union eventually led to the formation of the United Methodist Church.

Locally, a man named David Karbach, and a circuit riding Methodist preacher, John Wesley DeVilbiss, are given credit for starting Methodism in New Braunfels. David Karbach had heard the glowing reports about Texas given to newspapers by Prince Carl after he visited Texas in 1844. Due to bad conditions in Germany, Karbach believed his family would have a better life in Texas. So in December of 1845, Karbach with his second wife and their children, set sail on the ship Johann Dethardt and landed in Indianola. With all their worldly goods they had boarded the ship just before Christmas and arrived in Texas in March, 1846.

In New Braunfels, each settler was given one lot in town and a ten acre plot to grow vegetables and feed. It is believed that this 10 acre plot was in the vicinity of the later Locke Nursery near the Comal Springs. A need for expansion led Karbach to buy ranch land on the Hancock Road (present FM 306), about five miles from town. They kept the house in New Braunfels so that the children could go to school and they would join him on weekends. Three of the Karbach children, Fritz, John, and Emilie (later Klingemann) bought land in the area that became known as the Karbach Settlement. With time, this settlement encompassed over 2,400 acres.

While he was still in Germany, David Karbach had affiliated with the Lutheran Church, as many other Protestants did at that time. After arriving in Texas, the family began attending meetings held by the circuit riding Methodist minister, John Wesley DeVilbiss. Due to the lack of ministers in early Texas, circuit riding ministers were those who became ministers on horseback, traveling from one town to another. The New Braunfels Methodists were in a circuit that included Castroville, Cibolo Settlement, Solms, the area above Landa Park hill called Geberge and finally, Schumannsville. DeVilbiss divided his time between these four settlements.

Initially the first Methodist Church held their services in New Braunfels at the home of J. Hirschleben located in the Comaltown area.

By 1858 the group had built a small wooden church on the corner of now Union and Common Streets. Abram Gentry and Conrad Seabaugh, owners and developers of Braunfels Subdivision in Comaltown conveyed two lots to the trustees of the German Methodist Society of New Braunfels.

David Karbach and his family, particularly his son Fritz, became very active in this little church. Sunday School was held frequently in homes in the Karbach Settlement and at the church. Fritz in particular was instrumental in starting the Sunday School. Family tradition has a delightful story about Fritz and his marriage to Emilie Erck. It seems that when Fritz returned from the Civil War, he and Emilie were married in the Comaltown Church. The army band of occupation heard there was to be a wedding and they came and played the Wedding March. Fritz was the superintendent of the Sunday School for 25 years.

By 1890, the Comaltown Church was no longer used and the Karbach Settlement became the center of church activities. A new pastor, Rev. Merkel and his wife, then opened a Sunday School in the unused church and it was very successful, so the church building was once again used. This building served the Methodists for over fifty years until 1913.

Then in 1928, the old first church building was dismantled. Currently a SAC-N-PAC is located on the site with only an oak tree remaining, reminding people of the past.

In 1913 the Karbach Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South was built at its present site on San Antonio St. The Karbach name was included, indicating that family’s involvement in this church. In 1940 another name change took place to Karbach Memorial First Methodist Church. The last renovation took place in 1952 and the church took its present name: First United Methodist Church.

Sixty pastors have served the Methodist church, 45 of which were circuit-riding ministers. The present minister is Rev. Jason Adams. As one of the oldest mainline churches in New Braunfels, it has been a congregation of Christian service to others, no doubt fulfilling the vision of John Wesley. Records show needs being met in the community, all the while tending to the needs of their own members. The church responded to times of tragedy in the community and was very active during the Great Depression and the two World Wars.

Aware of their historical role in New Braunfels history, the church has preserved its records from the start. Although they were written in German, they are being translated.

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

It’s happened again. While looking for an old house address in the archive, my eyes strayed across the page to an unknown item, and my curiosity got the best of me. I needed to solve the mystery of a street named Pecan. I had no idea where that was. Having lived nearly my entire life in New Braunfels, with the exception of a few years away at school, I thought I could tell you where almost every old street was in this town, but it seems that was not the case.

With magnifying glass in hand, I headed for the map drawers. I went for the earliest representation of New Braunfels as surveyed by Nikolaus Zink in 1845. Zink was an army officer on leave and at the disposal of Prince Carl. He is responsible for laying out the newly established colony in the manner of European towns, with streets and town lots arranged around a large open main plaza. Zink even added a smaller market plaza a little further from the center of town. For his efforts, Zink was granted 25 acres along the Comal Creek along with his own named street designated along the edge of his property. Early street names were in German. The two main ones, San Antonio Strasse and Seguiner Strasse (strasse means street), obviously marking the direction to those cities, intersected at Main Plaza. I also found Berg (Hill) Strasse, which ran along the base of the hill where the Sophienburg sat. There was Brücken (Bridge) Strasse, which led to the pecan tree bridge across the Comal: Fahr (Ferry) Strasse, which led to the ferry crossing on the Guadalupe; and Sack Gasse, (sack alley), which led from Lindheimer’s garden to the ferry crossing. No Pecan Street on that map.

Moving on to an 1868 map, I found it. Pecan Street was short, only two blocks long, located between Zink Street and the Comal Creek. But that mystery led to others with more streets that I did not recognize, many names of which are now different. New Braunfels more than tripled in size in just twenty-three years, challenging the numbers of today’s rapid population growth. Prince Carl settled New Braunfels on 1285 acres purchased from the Juan Martin de Veramendi Family. The Veramendis in turn, hired an agent named Murchison to develop and sell lots in Comal Town, situated across the Comal River, but that’s another story.

The two settlements were quite separate, as it required a ferry to cross the river. Two separate cities easily explains the duplication of street names: Commerce, Liberty, Washington, Union, Ferguson. It looked like a patchwork quilt, where the subdivisions and streets did not quite line up. It seemed that each developer did not take into account that it had to connect to other already existing streets. So, in October 1926, the City Commissioners voted to change all that, marking the streets in a uniform manner for city delivery.

In downtown New Braunfels, Grand Avenue, was somewhat in line with Hill and therefore changed to Hill Avenue. Both sides of Market Plaza, parallel to San Antonio St. were changed to Tolle Street. Ferry Street, one block long, was made an extension of Jahn Street. Pecan, Market and Solms (a little short street by Boy Scout Hut) were sort of in a straight line, so they all became Market Avenue. Coll Street, Church (the piece of Coll that ran beside First Protestant Church) and Warnecke (may have been the little street running from Solms to river) streets were all changed to the Coll Street that we know now. They also took Yankee (beside the mill, supposedly named for Torrey, who was from Connecticut), Gilbert and Ferdinand (possibly the short street perpendicular to Warnecke) and made a very disjointed Gilbert Street. Sack Street became Simon (See-mon) located near Lindheimer Plaza.

The 1926 action also included changing Prinz Road, where Prince Carl is said to have once owned 100 acres, to Landa Street. There is now a Prince Drive in the subdivision in the same area. High became Willow Avenue. Hoecke Street became West Bridge Street. An unnamed street in the Schulze addition on the west side of town was designated Katy Street. The street running north of Comal Creek was named Floral Avenue, as it ran along the Locke Nursery property from the hill to the creek. Later, maybe in the 70’s, a railroad crossing was put in connecting Floral and Walnut. The whole street became Walnut, except for the little dead end piece of Floral on the hill. They also changed South Union in the Kuehler addition to Kuehler Avenue.

And what of the other duplications mentioned earlier? They were not addressed in the 1926 reports, so it is not clear when the changes happened. The new names do appear on the 1936 map. Comal Town retained Commerce, Liberty, Washington and Union. In New Braunfels proper, Commerce became Clemens (named for businessman Johann Wilhelm Clemens of Clemens Dam fame) Avenue. Liberty became Hampe Street; and Washington became South Guenther. Ferguson, a one block long avenue connecting San Antonio and Mill streets, was retained by New Braunfels. In Comal Town, Ferguson Street, so named because it was adjacent to Ferguson-owned property, along with an earlier version of Basel Street, went away when Liberty Street was extended to East Dittlinger/San Antonio Street.

There is so much information to be found in these old maps, some of which can be found in articles by Myra Lee Adams Goff on our website or in her book, Around the Sophienburg, available at the museum. If all of this street information is more than you can absorb, just know that the Commissioners tried to make it simple for us when they adopted the ordinance stating that San Antonio Street is the dividing line between north and south and Seguin Avenue the dividing line between east and west. All streets parallel with Seguin Avenue would be known as avenues, and all streets parallel with San Antonio Street would be called streets. Easy, Right?

Sources: Sophienburg Archives, Around the Sophienburg by Myra Lee Adams Goff; First Founders by Everette Fey

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