By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

The first ever 4th of July celebration was held in Philadelphia on July 4, 1777; it included an exhibition which began and ended with 13 rockets — one for each state of the new United States of America.

New Braunfels’ first July 4th celebration was in 1846, after Texas had officially become the 28th state of the Union. A large American flag was raised and flown at the Sophienburg. The two cannons were fired to announce the beginning of festivities.

The first mention of a local celebration with fireworks was in 1859 at the Schillerfest. This was a festival honoring the German poet, Friedrich Schiller’s 100th birthday. The festival included poetry readings, a performance of a Schiller play, songs by the singing society and also a dance — with a fireworks finale. The first recorded use of fireworks in New Braunfels on July 4th was in 1866, after the end of the Civil War.

Fireworks became increasingly incorporated into all kinds of local observances throughout the late 19th century. Many of the large gathering halls (Halle) in New Braunfels and Comal County advertised firework displays for all kinds of festivities. Some of them were Germania Halle, Breustedt’s Halle, Matzdorff’s Halle and Saengerhalle. Lots of the shows also featured cannonades.

So where did they get the fireworks? The local pharmacist was the man in town whose profession was rooted in the alchemy and compounding of chemical ingredients. Most of the elements needed for fireworks doubled as medicinal components as well. The pharmacist, or druggist as he was then known, had shelves full of the necessary ingredients and the knowledge to put them together in the right amounts.

Fireworks require saltpeter, sulphur and charcoal, which are the basic ingredients found in gunpowder. The addition of potassium chlorate to the mixture allowed chemical colors to be enhanced and brightened. Red was the first color made by adding strontium nitrate. Green came next with the addition of barium nitrate.

New Braunfels’ 25th Anniversary in 1870 had a midnight fireworks show at the old Saengerhalle; the fireworks committee was led by Mr. Loep, Mr. Rohde and Mr. Brandt. In 1877, Friedrich Heidemeyer was in charge of firing the cannons and the fireworks on the 4th of July celebration; July 4th always included firework displays. Harvest festivals and Maifest (May Day Festivals) were commemorated at local schools with fireworks and dances. In May 1886, Mr. H. Fischer of Churchill, “a well-known authority in pyrotechnics”, was in charge of the city’s Maifest fireworks. Schuetzenfests (shooting club competitions) included fireworks at the end of shooting competitions. New Year’s Eve and Easter celebrations were observed with night parades using lit torches, lanterns, cannon fire and fireworks. Early New Braunfels did everything in a big way.

For America250, the Sophienburg Museum & Archives will have several exhibits reflecting New Braunfels’ pride in being American. The Pharmacy exhibit will display Mr. Rudolph Richter’s pharmaceutical “Recipe Book.” Along with hundreds of medicinal recipes, he had directions for making gunpowder, blasting powder and flash powder, There are many recipes for each color of fireworks which allowed him to use whichever chemicals he had on hand.

Stories and newspaper accounts link many early local pharmacists to gunpowder and fireworks manufactured for local festivals and celebrations: A. Forcke, H.V. Schumann, Rudolph Richter, and H. Fischer. Making fireworks was an exciting, albeit dangerous, job. August Forcke was badly burned in an explosion on July 2, 1876, while making fireworks for the U.S. Centennial celebration. He was mixing chemicals for “Bengal lights.” Bengal lights were hand-held sparklers that emitted colored flames and sparks; these were named for the Bengal region of India which was a major source of saltpeter.

Like today, businesses sometimes sponsored the making of fireworks and the firework shows. S.V. Pfeuffer, Ernst Gruene Jr., J.D. Guinn, Paul Engelhardt, Richard Gerlich, M.C. Church, Emil Galle and Dr. Garwood are often mentioned as sponsors and committee members for many city displays.

This year, as you enjoy the fireworks shot off in Landa Park, remember that they have been a major part of our country and our city’s celebration of our place in the United States of America. Remember with pride all the freedoms that come with being an American.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives; Neu Braunfelser Zeitung; New Braunfels Herald; KERA News: The Explosive Science Behind Fireworks.

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

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

Researching your family? Maybe you want to know about who lived in/owned your home? The Sophienburg Museum and Archives has resources to help you!

Research, of any subject, is basically detective work — analyzing the available records, searching through assembled stories and examining photographs and maps. The Sophienburg has been collecting these kinds of resources for more than 92 years and our staff can assist you in your quest.

So how do we begin the process? At the Sophienburg, we usually start with a surname or a location. If you are researching a property, we look for clues in the phonebooks and city directories. Our telephone book collection goes back to 1906. That’s pretty early in the telephone age. New Braunfels had 7,008 citizens in the 1900 U.S. Census; only 101 phone numbers appear in the 1906 telephone book and many of these are business numbers.

To use a phonebook, you look things up by name or subject. A city directory adds to our chances of finding facts because it also lists by street. For instance, you can look up your home by its address. The directory, depending on the year, can tell you who lives there, what they do, what race they are, if they are renting or own, and other information. The city directory is a little like the census and phone book combined only it is published more than once every 10 years.

City directories were first printed for large cities in Europe in the 16th century. Philadelphia was the first US city to have a directory (1785), followed by New York. The early directories were published by independent publishers who relied on advertisements to fund them. Consequently, most of the listings are from tradesmen and businesses instead of people.

The Sophienburg’s earliest New Braunfels City Directory is 1931 followed by 1940 and 1952-53. Directories from the 1960s-1990s are also available. With the directories, we can trace who lived at a specific address and when residency changed. Each resident change gives us new names to follow for more information. We also find out who their neighbors were, and can sometimes trace the demographic changes in the neighborhood. More property information from the Comal County Clerk’s office is available online.

Following names is how we find out the stories that are associated with your family or your property. As an example, we are currently researching some ranch property for a family who have a log-built structure on their place. By using the resources available to both them and the Sophienburg, we can take their property all the way back to Republic of Texas days (1836-1846). We can find this information by using the Texas General Land Office records, also online. Their property is located on land granted to men who fought in the Texas Revolution. I have a New Braunfels First Founder in my family and on the TxGLO website I found scans of the original German immigrant land granted to my family — if only we still had it!

The Sophienburg has over 500 genealogies of New Braunfels and Comal County names. These are bound volumes of family genealogy that were generated by museum personnel and family members before Ancestry, Family Search and other databases. These volumes contain wonderful anecdotal information which is really what makes your ancestors come alive.

Along with the family histories, the Sophienburg Archives has an almost complete collection of the German-language newspaper Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung (1852-1957), the New Braunfels Herald (1895-1957) and the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung (1957 to present day). These are all on microfilm and can be referenced at the Sophienburg by appointment.

The German Zeitung was painstakingly indexed by volunteers prior to 2000. It can be searched by name or by subject. Of course, the articles will be in German. But that’s okay, because some of us can still read German and, if necessary, you can Google translate it. Newspaper articles will include birth, marriage and death information, as well as everyday occurrences in local, state, national and world news. We are unique in having an overlap in two languages — news is reported with different perspectives. The New Braunfels Herald and the Herald- Zeitung can also be accessed online at the New Braunfels Public Library’s digital newspaper archive.

The Sophienburg Photograph Collection has over half a million images of New Braunfels and the surrounding area. These images (prints, negatives and slides) span the history of New Braunfels and Comal County from the early 1860s to present day. The Photograph Collection illustrates people, homes, city streets, businesses, and farms. It immortalizes city and cultural events and celebrations like parades, festivals and weddings. The collection includes most of the negatives of the Seidel/Braunfels Studio which photographed city and citizens from the 1920s thru the 1970s. The collection is widely used by people searching for old family members, authors needing illustrations, homeowners wanting views of their property and businesses looking for images of New Braunfels in the old days. Copies can be purchased for use and display.

The Sophienburg’s Archive Collection includes early hand-drawn maps and later printed maps of the city, certain neighborhoods, and the county. We have several Sanborn Fire Insurance maps which wonderfully show the evolution of buildings and homes as they rise, are renovated and then replaced. These are my favorite because they include details of building construction, materials and even where the outhouses and wells were located. Other maps in the collection show topographical information which, when it rains again, will show why your street tends to flood after an inch or two.

The Sophienburg welcomes you to come and research in our spacious reading room. There will always be a friendly staff member available to help you find what you are looking for. Well, you might not find ALL you want to know. Research, like detective work, seldom finds all the answers to all our questions. However, it is really fun to try!

To do research, please contact The Sophienburg at 830-629-1572 during office hours (Tuesday–Saturday, 9 a.m,–4 p.m.) to make an appointment. Daily fee for the Archives is $25 and includes our helpful personnel and admission to the Exhibit Floor. If you need more time, your fee can easily be rolled into an individual membership that allows you unlimited entry to the archives for just $50 per year.

See you in the stacks!

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

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

What if New Braunfels was not named New Braunfels? I had never considered this, but of course the wonderful historian Oscar Haas did and recorded his findings in his book, History of New Braunfels and Comal County 1844-1946.

There are two occasions on record wherein New Braunfels nearly lost its place-name. — Oscar Haas

Many of you readers know that New Braunfels was named and founded on March 21, 1845, by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels. He chose to name this town after his hometown of Braunfels on the Lahn River in Germany. The first time the name “New Braunfels” was in jeopardy was just prior to the creation of Comal County by the First Texas Legislature.

There was much talk of creating a new county with our town as the county seat. There was some dispute as to whether the county seat should be called New Braunfels or Comaltown. — Oscar Haas

The Republic of Texas began creating counties in 1836. Rusk County was the 36th and the last to be formed during the Republic. In March 1846, Comal County became the 44th county and was formed from the eighth precinct of Bexar County. Bexar County was the third county created by the Republic of Texas and it was beyond enormous. Between 1845 and 1876, the Texas Legislature formed over 120 new counties from what was originally Bexar County. Just FYI: there are 254 Texas counties.

New Braunfels kept its name. It is interesting to note that a lot of county seat cities are located near the center of the county so it is reasonably accessible to the whole county. New Braunfels sits on the southeast boundary of the county as it was, and still is, the largest city in Comal County.

The second time New Braunfels found its name in danger was in 1918. The October 31, 1918, edition of the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung published an article first published in the October 29, 1918, edition of the Galveston News.

The war with Germany has set a movement on foot aimed at changing the name of the City of New Braunfels. It could be that the loyal descendants of the German colonists of the year 1845, who settled there … [would] under present circumstances consider it a disgrace. It may be true that Prince Solms-Braunfels was not possessed of great aptitude. It is said that he left the colony in the lurch at a critical moment and that his successor had to pay some of the Prince’s debts in Texas and that he never returned.However, New Braunfels is an established name that has grown estimable to the highest degree through the citizenship of that community among whom are many direct descendants of the colonists who landed at Galveston and via Indianola came overland to the Comal in search of freedom and opportunity. The name signifies a great deal with regards to history and cannot possibly have any bearing on the present international state of affairs.

With the place-name New Braunfels, which stems from an ancient place-name of the old country, with its street names, Texas possesses an aesthetic treasure. In New Braunfels one finds Spanish, Mexican, Indian, German, and unalloyed Texan street names, in a manner that reveals beauty and meaning. The picturesque historical names of Texas cities, which came into existence since the Republic, are Texan. Names should never be changed just because of a foreign country origin whose behavior we do not sanction.

To the above article, the editor of the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung added:

The Galveston News has eminently reasonable views in such matters. Besides, here, no one thinks of changing the name of our city, which, moreover, is not named for a prince, but an especially pretty little city which has furnished our country with admirable citizens. Loyalty is not proven by name-changing or through vandalistic destruction of historical characteristics, but through disposition and performance, and on these standards New Braunfels can confidently be surveyed.

New Braunfels has kept her name. People get it wrong, but locals will always proudly correct them to its true pronunciation.

Just for grins, Oscar Haas listed a few of the before-mentioned multi-cultural street names in early New Braunfels:

• Hispanic — Guadalupe, Nacogdoches, San Antonio, Seguin, Veramendi
• Native American — Waco (Caddo), Comal (Nahuatl), Comanche (Ute)
• German — Baden, Basel, Becker, Castell, Clemens, Coll, Dittlinger, Eickel, Faust, Giesecke, Gruene, Guenther, Hampe, Jahn, Karbach, Klingemann, Kuehler, Lindheimer, Meusebach, Seele, Tolle, Zink
• Scottish — Ferguson, Murchison
• Irish — McGaugh, McKenna
• English — Torrey, Lincoln, Water, Mill, Bridge

What multi-cultural street names can you add to the list?

And, if you are interested in more fun, unusual and “make-you-look-clever” historical facts, Oscar Haas’s book can be purchased at Sophie’s Shop in the Sophienburg Museum for $40 plus tax.

Sources: History of New Braunfels and Comal County 1844-1946, Oscar Haas; Handbook of Texas.

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

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

For more than 90 years, the Sophienburg Museum and Archives has maintained artifacts and archival documents to keep the history of New Braunfels alive. Part of our mission is to not only preserve the history of New Braunfels, but to share the stories with the generations that follow. It is both exciting and necessary for the next generation to come back and share with us.

In an effort to promote the love of history, the Sophienburg Memorial Association established the Sophienburg History Award honoring Myra Lee Adams Goff for her dedication to the community and her steadfast love of history. The award, established in 2013, recognizes a student who demonstrates a love and passion for New Braunfels history. The 2025 recipient chosen by the Sophienburg Memorial Association is Rebecca Zuniga. She is a senior at New Braunfels High School and will be attending Endicott College in Massachusetts in the fall. The following is an essay about a historically significant event or person in Comal County submitted as a requirement of the scholarship application.

By Rebecca Zuniga

On the heels of Women’s History Month, I want to recognize someone who has worked together with our community to pave a pathway to honor and dignify those who have come before us and perhaps easily forgotten through the rigors of life. New Braunfels has had many great people who have worked to mold and shape its community to be what it is today and left a profound impact on our identity as a community and on us as individuals. One person near and dear to my life and a living historian, has been at the forefront of a grand partnership with the Sophienburg Museum to expand the documentation of the rich history and cultural heritage of New Braunfels, and carry out its mission of telling the stories about real people in our community.

Estella Delgado Farias is my grandmother. She is a humble woman who has always had a giving heart, especially when it comes to family. Growing up, she would ensure I understood that family had existed before me who shaped who I was, even if I didn’t know who they were directly. She ensured that I knew where our ancestors had come from, and how far my family and I have been able to get today because of them, and the many partnerships they developed in our community along the way. Her passion for ancestry and heritage, has been a driving force for her work in establishing a genealogy database for people in New Braunfels that are of Mexican descent. She had a vision, and through the work of equally visionary community members, she brought it to life. Because of her leadership, she gave our community time to pause and reflect upon the many Mexican American New Braunfelsers, whose families transcend generations, and lived to lay the foundation to the New Braunfels we know today.

As a young child in elementary school, my own experience through her efforts seemed minimal at the time, but as I have researched, interviewed and learned more about her work, I have been in awe of all she has accomplished. One weekend, my grandmother asked my sister and me if we would like to help her with a project she was working on. Not thinking much of it, we said yes, and so she took us along with our cousins to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Cemetery. At the time, none of us truly understood why we had to tell her the names on gravestones as well as that person’s birthdate and death date, however, I now understand what she was doing. She was completing records for the cemetery and securing the resting place for the many people who were lost because of incomplete records. There were some graves that hadn’t been formally documented, but she knew that leaving the records as they were was not an option. She wanted to ensure that everyone was accounted for and had their special resting place known. She validated the many lives of people she did not personally know. My grandmother believes that no one should ever be forgotten and their work has shown exactly that.

Through the years, she has been able to give a voice to a section of the New Braunfels community that has always felt forgotten. Estella Farias’ work isn’t only of historical preservation, but of also giving hope to the Mexican-Americans of New Braunfels that their history is important enough to be documented and recognized along with all others.

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

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

Have you ever tugged at a loose thread only to find that the thread was not really loose, resulting in an irritating unraveling of sorts? I recently pulled at said “loose thread,” but the odd “thread” that I pulled exposed a beautiful tapestry with a surprising outcome. Last month, I wrote about the beautiful cut limestone house in Comaltown built by Johann Georg Moeller (spelled with an OE) that was finished in 1866. The home was purchased in 1881 by Johannes Mueller (spelled with a UE). When I checked it out to make sure that it wasn’t just a mix up of vowels, I found a whole lot more.

Who was Johannes Mueller spelled with a “UE”? Johann or Johannes, the German form of John, was a common name. There are a ton of Johns in the world, and so it was with Johannes. This particular Johannes Mueller was born November 22, 1823, in Welsch-Neudorf, Nassau (Germany). He, along with who may have been his maternal uncle and family (Stendebach), set sail for a new life in September 1845 aboard the Ship Auguste Meline. At the ripe old age of 22, he arrived in Galveston on December 9, 1845, and made his way to New Braunfels, in what were the waning days of the Republic of Texas.

About that same time, a young woman by the name of Maria Magdelena Rheinlander arrived in Galveston on the Barque B. Bohen, December 22, 1845, with a man destined to become her husband. She wed Gottlieb Heldberg in New Braunfels in May of 1846, but her “happily-ever-after” was short-lived. Gottlieb was killed by Indians in August 1847 when Magdelena was pregnant with their daughter, Anna. Johannes and Magdelena met in 1847 and married in December 1848.

Johannes appeared to be an ambitious soul. In his first years in Texas, Johannes engaged in the freight hauling business. Freight by wagon was the only way to get goods into and out of New Braunfels for a number of years since the railroads did not arrive until 1880. Johannes was in business with Mr. John Halm until 1869 before dissolving the partnership. Besides the freight business, Johannes had opened a store, which was known as the Hannes Mueller Store selling dry goods, groceries, shoes, boots, and cutlery to name a few things.

The store, located on the corner of Main Plaza and San Antonio Street, was a two-story structure which later became the Streuer Brothers. When I was young, it was the site of the United Gas Company (now Entex) and eventually a bank building (Guaranty State Bank, Mbank and Moody Bank). Like many store owners in 19th-century New Braunfels, the Hannes Mueller family lived on the second floor above the Hannes Mueller Store (and there were a lot of people in that family).

Hannes really had his fingers in a bit of everything. While still involved with the freight company, he also served as both town Marshall and County Treasurer from September 1863 to July of 1865. In his later years, he was elected city Alderman (precursor to our city council members) from April 1881 to October 1883.

He somehow earned the nickname “MuellerHannes”. Literally translated it would be “MuellerJohnny”. MuellerHannes was said to be a very humorous man. His friends told many anecdotes about him. One of his friends was Anselm Eiband, editor and publisher of the New-Braunfelser Zeitung. He printed his anecdotes about MuellerHannes in the newspaper. Nice friends.

Johannes had developed quite the business acumen and accrued quite a bit of land in their lifetimes. In 1881, they bought the beautiful rock home in Comaltown and six adjacent lots. In 1882, their son, Henry, joined the family business. They also sold two acres of land west of town to the trustees of Three Mile School. It later became Lone Star School in 1901.

Johannes and Magdelena shared 62 anniversaries (62!) together. He died in 1908 at the age of 85 and she, the following year at 82. Their lives and the lives of their thirteen children, 59 grandchildren, and 26 great-grandchildren played out in the newspapers: births, birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, deaths, funerals. It was the long listing of their family members at each gathering that caught my eye. I know those names. I know those people. In the story about the Moeller House, I told how the youngest Mueller daughter, Emma, married a grandson of Georg Moeller. What I did not tell you was that Johannes and Magdelena’s third child, daughter Marie, born 1853, who married Theodor Meckel, is my great, great grandmother. Little did I know I was writing my own family history when I first started the Moeller House story. Pulling the thread that leads to another branch of your family tree is pretty cool. And very addicting.

The Sophienburg Archives is an absolute gold mine for finding things like this. Even if you use Ancestry.com, there are things found in the Red Family Surname Books and the hanging files that most people don’t know about. And if you are working on a family history, I would strongly recommend giving a copy to the Archives, both for safe-keeping and as a resource for others. Digital records/photos may be great, but paper documents are priceless.

Sources: Sophienburg Archives: Red Family Surname Books; Rural Schools and Teachers of Comal County, Texas, 1854-1956; Alton J. Rahe.

The post Mueller family history tapestry appeared first on Sophies Shop.

By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

I often think about living in New Braunfels and how fortunate we are to have wonderful century-old buildings everywhere. I don’t necessarily think about that when I am trying to dodge tourists crossing the streets of downtown or hurrying to be on time to some destination, but I do think about it. I love how the downtown buildings have evolved over time and taken in new businesses. A recent visit to Myron’s Steakhouse on North Castell Avenue reminded me of visits to the same building many years before, piquing my curiosity about its history and how my memories match up.

The sleek stucco building was built in 1924. The Palace Theatre, owned by A.J. Loehman and John H. Stahl, was one of several movie and entertainment houses in New Braunfels. The partnership dissolved by October of 1925, but Stahl continued to run the theatre for a few more years. By June of 1932, the building was sold to R.B. Gode to satisfy debts. Clearly, I was not around in 1924, but we need to back up even further to pick up the details of what came after the theatre.

Just before the turn of the century, a young girl named Milda Richter moved to New Braunfels with her mother. Money was scarce, so the girl began doing housework for the Gruene family at a very young age. She later worked for a restaurant in town. In 1912, Milda met and married a young man and they set about their life’s journey.

There was an establishment at that time, on the corner of San Antonio Street and North Castell Avenue (where Callahan’s stands now), that sold wine, liquor and cigars, otherwise known as a saloon. If patrons wanted food, they were directed through the saloon to a restaurant connected in the back. There was also a door facing Castell Avenue. The young couple bought said restaurant from Mr. Edmund Runge, the owner, for $175.

The couple opened their new business under the name Fritz Bloedorn’s Restaurant. It was hard work. Everything was cooked on a wood-burning stove. No gas or electric ovens. No microwaves. Plus, they had two children to care for. Fritz soon left. When they divorced in 1921, Milda retained the restaurant. Milda lived above the restaurant, raised her children and ran the restaurant by herself. Milda was friendly, outgoing, and compassionate in caring for her customers. She earned the name “Ma” from Walter Faust, Sr. and the name stuck. She built a great reputation; she built a great business; and she survived the Great Depression.

By the end of 1932, Milda had a terrific opportunity to rent the much larger space right next door in the former Palace Theatre. The building renovations allowed enough space for the restaurant and one other tenant, the Central Meat Market, owned by A.G Startz and Erwin Startz. Bloedorn Café opened in the renovated Palace Theatre building on February 1, 1933. It eventually became known as just “Ma’s Café”.

Restaurants in New Braunfels were a little different than today. There were a lot of people who lived in a boarding situation. In other words, they rented a room with no kitchen, so they had to take their meals at a café. Every meal. Ma cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner. There was usually a special of the day with limited choices. Many of the patrons ate there several times a day.

Ma was an innovative cook. She bought fresh vegetables from farmers who came to the back door. Fresh chickens were delivered on Fridays, LIVE, which then had to be plucked and butchered to cook for Sunday dinner. On one occasion, someone brought soft-shell turtles to the back door and she made turtle soup.

When Prohibition was repealed in 1934, Ma’s was one of the first restaurants in New Braunfels to get a beer license to better serve her customers. Before that, beer was only consumed in saloons.

Food was rationed during World War II. The purchase of meat, sugar, coffee, and butter required ration stamps. Restaurants were required to take their menus and the sales book for the month in order to obtain food stamps for the coming month. Ma survived many hardships — single motherhood, the Great Depression, and World War II — and yet was very generous with others. She never turned away a hobo, but she would give them something to do to earn their food. Ma was known to open the café to boarders on Christmas Eve. On New Year’s Eve, she would start her day early in the morning, preparing the day’s meals as usual, before hosting a huge New Year’s Eve dinner and after-dance meals. There were a lot of people that even showed up during intermission from a nearby dance for a bite to eat. Then she would start all over again at 5 a.m.

Milda’s children Arthur and Erna helped their mother a lot. She operated the café for 47 years until her death in 1961. Her son, Arthur, and his wife, Louise, ran it for 19 more years. People are more likely to know Arthur by “Schimmel”, which in German means “white horse.” He was given the nickname because as a child he had very white blond hair. I remember Schimmel as a gregarious man who served the biggest, best hamburgers ever.

It was during Schimmel’s time at the helm that a group of men began meeting after work to discuss the affairs, events and politics of the day. This group was composed of local bankers, businessmen, doctors, dentists, lawyers, and salesmen. Their camaraderie developed into a Stammtisch table. For those who do not actually know what a Stammtisch is (even though you might see the word as a heading above the events in the Herald-Zeitung) it is a “regulars’ table”. Twenty-six men routinely met at Ma’s to enjoy discussion and a round or two of adult beverages. Besides meeting regularly, the group took a page out of Ma Bloedorn’s playbook and sponsored a yearly feast for the people who worked downtown. Ma’s generous soul fed the community for many years from downtown New Braunfels.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum and Archives; Dennis Schwab.

The post The story of Ma’s Cafe appeared first on Sophies Shop.

By Myra Lee Adams Goff —

A young German count, Arnold-Henkel von Donnersmark, came to the New Braunfels settlement in 1845 with Prince Carl. He built a large frame building where he lived and conducted his hotel and saloon business. In less than a year he had accumulated several thousand dollars.

This is how he did it: he bought a barrel of whiskey in San Antonio, set up a tent in New Braunfels, and sold it to emigrants that had money. These early emigrants, having just arrived and not yet established homes, stayed in Donnersmark’s hotel, for it provided a comfortable place to stay. Besides, they liked the idea of being served by a member of the aristocracy. This would never have happened in Germany. (Source: Roemer’s “Texas”)

Donnersmark’s house, hotel, saloon, was located on the corner of Castell and Mill Sts. which is now a parking lot across the street from McAdoo’s Restaurant. Donnersmark’s house itself served a very important role in early New Braunfels because it was designated as the first post office. It was dismantled in 1904 by Louis Henne who then used the lot for a customer camp yard for his lumber, hardware, and tinning business.

C.W. Thomae was the first postmaster in 1846 and then Donnersmark took over in 1847.

In 1851 the post offices moved to the Adolphus Benner store. Benner was the postmaster and when he died, Mrs. Benner took her husband’s place, thereby having the distinction of being the first woman postmaster. She served until after the Civil War, when she was replaced due to the fact that she served under the Confederacy. (All of those positions were replaced if they had served during the Confederacy).

Next, post offices were in the bus station, Courthouse, Hermann Seele residence, and Pfeuffer store. Then in 1915 President Woodrow Wilson signed a law appropriating $50,000 to build a post office building in New Braunfels. This is the building that now houses McAdoo’s Restaurant. Guess who the U.S. Secretary of Treasury was at that time? William G. McAdoo! The present post office on Seguin Ave. was built in 1984.

In addition to the post offices in New Braunfels, there were about 20 rural post offices, two of which are at the bottom of Canyon Lake (Cranes Mill and Hancock). Each of these post offices had an individual postmark signifying that the letter had been mailed from there. Eventually all small sites were closed except New Braunfels, Spring Branch, Fischer, and Canyon Lake.

Originally stamps on letters were postmarked by the postmaster writing the cancellation date and place. Then cancellation progressed to hand stamping. Can you imagine the post office doing either one of those methods now? Cancellation then moved to digital postmarks.

These postmarked letters have become collector’s items, as everything does when it becomes obsolete. One can learn a lot about history by collecting these cancelled letters. Collectors look for old hand-cancelled letters and specific postmarks. I have seen a 28th Wurstfest postmark dated Nov 4, 1988, and a New Braunfels Sesquicentennial postmark of April 14, 1995, with the Sesquicentennial seal. A most interesting one to me is a New Braunfels Centennial celebration envelope which says “mailed from Landa Park.” It has a picture of the old Sophienburg, Las Fontanas, with the message “Because of these, the now famous Comal Springs, the German emigrants chose the site of New Braunfels.” The official postmark is New Braunfels.

Permission for special postmarks have been granted, like the commerative Pony Express rider in 2006. I have seen two stop stations, one in Gruene and one at the Schmidt Hotel.

Growing up in New Braunfels, I remember the socializing that took place on the post office steps on Castell St., especially on Saturday. Maybe this form of socializing had its roots in Arnold-Henkel von Donnersmark’s hotel and saloon across the street.

Excerpt from Around The Sophienburg by Myra Lee Adams Goff, Sophienburg Museum & Archives.

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg and Mark Rahe —

I love the buildings in New Braunfels. I especially like the ones in downtown New Braunfels and Comaltown. Built over a period of 150 years, each building tells a story in every little detail of each window, porch, and roofline. They are a snapshot of the historical development of New Braunfels. Of course, I have my favorites, but then there are those that just break my heart because they look so sad.

The white house on the corner of Seguin Avenue and Garden Street is the perfect example of a heartbreaker. It has tragically deteriorated before our eyes. Even in its current state, it is captivating. So, what’s the story with this forlorn looking beauty?

For starters, it is known as the Blumberg House, so named because it was built by F.G. Blumberg, businessman and former mayor of New Braunfels, for his bride Bettina Scholl. Built about 1900, the Blumberg House is a typical example of the Queen Anne style Victorian house, generally built between 1880 and 1910. With its steep roof form, the cutaway bay window and asymmetrical placement of the rounded, wrapped porch, the house presents as a classic example of the Queen Anne style, even though there were a number of odd additions made to the house sometime after 1922 that do not necessarily fit the style.

The roof styles changed slightly over the span of the Queen Anne period. The pitch of the hip roof was initially very steep about 1885, becoming only slightly less so around 1895, as seen in the Blumberg House. After 1905, the pitch became much less steep, making the gable roof the more predominant feature. The Blumberg House’s steeply hipped roof and lower forward facing dominant cross gable, is common to over half of all Queen Anne-type houses. In addition, the Blumberg House’s overwhelming hip roof is ornamented with a cool decorative bay window dormer, topped with a simple pediment roof.

Another characteristic of the Queen Anne style is decorative detailing. The fanciful style seems to abhor flat, boring surfaces; therefore, they overly decorated absolutely everything, including the porch with its decorative trim spindlework suspended around the top. The repetitive pattern of wood lathe-turned sticks are called spindles because the design resembles wooden sewing thread spindles or “spools” used at the time. While the Blumberg House spindles are each the same, the simple knob-like beads, when designed in staggering patterns can resemble the notes found on a sheet of music. Spindlework has also been referred to as “gingerbread,” or Eastlake-style detailing, named for the 19th century English furniture maker Charles Eastlake. The porch columns and balustrade are composed of beautifully detailed period-styled turned wood. Even the cutaways at the front bay window and brackets at each porch column contain intricate wooden fret-sawn patterns.

By the time the Blumberg House was under construction, the railway was well established in New Braunfels, making possible delivery of all sorts of goods, including construction materials, ordered through catalogs. Decorative house ornamentation like spindlework was mass-produced and sold in pattern books with names like Anna Marie, The Lisa, The Mary Elizabeth. It’s likely the spindlework and possibly other ornamentation and turned wood constructs on the Blumberg House were sourced in this way.

Queen Anne s

tyling actually uses many other decorative devices to break up flat surfaces. They either do it spatially by the addition of bays, towers, overhangs or wall projections, or texturally by the use of varied wall materials with differing patterns and textures. Though the house does not have the tower structure so often identified with this style, the dominant feature of the Blumberg House is the asymmetrically placed cutaway bay window “cut away” from the overhang above it. The bay window provides the same function as inclusion of a tower, adding an intentional randomness. Likewise, the broadness of the hip roof plane that dominates the front of the house is broken by the elegantly proportioned dormer window noted previously. As for a textural contribution, they added chamfer-cornered horizontal bands of wood shingles that look like fish scales on the gables of this particular house.

So, just who is this F.G. Blumberg who owned such a magnificent home on the main thoroughfare of New Braunfels? Ferdinand Gustav Blumberg was the last of 11 children born to German immigrant farmers in Schumannsville, Texas, in 1879. He worked hard to move up in the world and had a lot of different kinds of jobs. He was listed as a dry goods salesman when he married Bettina Scholl in 1900. That is when their beautiful home was built on Seguin Street (changed to Avenue in 1926). By 1910 he was in the wholesale malt liquor business. He served as a director of the Chamber of Commerce and director of New Braunfels State Bank. He was listed as president of that same bank in 1920. Ferdinand was elected mayor in 1922 and 1924. In 1926, his fortunes began to change. He lost re-election in April of 1926, suffered financial misfortunes later in that year, and finally filed for bankruptcy. The bank sold off what was known as the Blumberg Building (the two-story building on Main Plaza now housing New Braunfels Coffee across from the courthouse) to satisfy debts.

About that same time, F.G. Blumberg left town. The beautiful Blumberg House passed to his wife, Bettina, in October of 1926. He married Elvira Tolle on February 14, 1927. Unfortunately, the notice of his divorce from Bettina was published four days later. Ferdinand went on to be a credit manager for car dealerships in San Antonio and Corpus Christi areas before returning to New Braunfels in the late 1930s to retire. Ferdinand died in 1952. His second wife, Vira, lived until 1981 on Tolle Street. He never produced heirs.

First wife Bettina maintained her residence in the Blumberg House until 1948 when she it sold to O.A. Stratemann Sr. It was utilized by the Stratemann family, as far as we could discern, as a rental property until a few years ago. The home has fallen into disrepair and was recently sold. I hope that magnificent example of Queen Anne architecture will go on living in New Braunfels for another 100 years.

Sources: A Field Guide to American Houses (1984, 2013), Virginia Savage McAlester; Sophienburg Museum & Archives.

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

Created by Augustus Koch in 1881, the “Birds Eye View of New Braunfels” is so much more than just an etching of early New Braunfels. An aerial view of the city lying nestled between the rise of the Balcones Escarpment and the black dirt farmlands, it is almost photographic in its detailed rendering of buildings and streets. It is also a phenomenal piece of late 19th Century city marketing.

Augustus Koch was one of a handful of skilled artists/draftsmen who walked the American landscape after the Civil War. These men drew at least 1,800 town and city maps by the 1920s. Augustus, born in 1834 in Birnbaum, Prussia, was well-educated when he arrived in America. He enlisted in the Wisconsin Infantry in 1861, was commissioned in 1863, and became an engineering officer to an African-American regiment. While in the army, he produced maps of Vicksburg and other places which were used for battle planning.

By 1868, Augustus had begun his career as a panoramic map maker. Koch had been mentored by Albert Ruger, another German immigrant in Wisconsin, who was one of the earliest panoramic map makers in America. Augustus produced views of Cedar Falls, Iowa (1869), 8 views of towns in California (1870-71), and views of cities in Tennessee, Illinois, Texas, New York, Nebraska, Nevada, South Dakota and Maine (1872-1875). In the 1890s, Koch made views for cities in Virginia, Washington, Georgia, Florida, Missouri, Colorado, and Minnesota. By the end of his career, Augustus had drawn 110 birds eye views of cities and towns in 23 different states. He had crisscrossed his way across America several times. Can you imagine the changes and growth he saw?

To produce a birds eye view was an intensely painstaking process. Koch first sent an agent, or went himself, to a prospective town to drum up business. He would talk with local businessmen and civic groups and get them interested in a map of their community and commit to buy subscriptions for the finished map. Augustus began with a large basic sketch set on a street grid. He often looked at photographs and other maps of the town if they were available. He and his assistants then walked every street making sketches of each building and noting details in field notes that included compass directions and the relationships of blocks to one another. Simple figures of people, wagons and trees were added to the grid map to make up a conceptual drawing to show new would-be customers and sell more subscriptions. To insure better accuracy in placement, smaller houses were rendered rather alike — accuracy was more critical than aesthetics. Important buildings were drawn in much more detail.

Augustus then worked with a lithographer to produce a final drawing which was transferred and etched into a limestone slab that was inked and used to print the highly detailed image. It took at least two weeks to sketch out the map before it went to the lithographer. The finished prints were delivered directly to the subscribers. Koch had to work quickly so folks would stay excited. Time was indeed money.

Most birds eye views show the town center and street grid. The street grid was always drawn at an angle to allow a better view of the buildings. The more details of buildings captured in the drawing, the more folks would buy it to see their home or business. The most important feature of the town was usually front-and-center in the drawing. Civic and personal pride was leveraged at every turn to encourage more buyers.

The 1881 Birds Eye View of New Braunfels is drawn from an elevation of about 2000 feet. It has a high horizon line so that more detail can be placed in the body of the print. Important buildings or businesses who paid for a subscription are emphasized. In the New Braunfels view, Koch highlights both the history and the progressive nature of the town. Center front above the title label, Augustus drew the old Sophienburg building, the original site of the city’s government by the Adelsverein; it was destroyed by wind in 1886. Koch conveyed the city’s growth and prosperity by adding the railroad tracks; steam engines belching smoke come in from two sides, one train carrying passengers and the other carrying goods. The rail line had been completed in 1880.

Koch drew many important buildings in meticulous detail and highlighted them in a numbered legend. These were specifically chosen to show off the town. The inclusion of the County Courthouse and prison proclaimed law and order. The tall-steepled churches and the cemetery depicted a town of morals and decency (note that the First Protestant church has a bell tower which was not completed until 1889). Factories, mills and cotton gins emit plumes of smoke indicating that industry is booming. Train stations and hotels showed that New Braunfels was big enough to encourage tourism and business trips. The inclusion of the New Braunfels Academy expressed the citizens’ passion for education. Amenities such as good bridges, wide plazas and orchards lent an air of comfortable living and prosperity.

These specifics are not random. Koch intentionally illustrated New Braunfels at its best. People were proud to hang the view in their homes or businesses and be able to point out their buildings. The city leaders used the panorama to sell the city to new businesses to promote growth. New Braunfels now stood out from other towns; Koch had drawn birds eye views of San Antonio and Austin and now New Braunfels was among the big guys.

The Sophienburg Museum sells prints of the 1881 Birds Eye View of New Braunfels in Sophie’s Shop. You can purchase your own sepia-toned or colored print. Be it Landa’s Rolling Mill, Rennert’s Brewery or the Turnverein’s equipment fields, you will have fun recognizing buildings and places and finding out more about New Braunfels history from Augustus Koch’s unique incredible view.

Sources: “Patterns of Progress: Birds Eye Views of Texas”, Amon Carter Museum, 2006; View and Viewmakers of Urban America: Lithographs of Towns and Cities in America, by John William Reps, p 184-186; Brenham Daily Banner May 29, 1881; Geographicus Rare Antique Maps, Koch, Augustus (October 15, 1834-1901); News+Media, “Cover Artist: Augustus Koch”, Saturday Oct. 1, 2016; Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc., “Antique Maps by Augustus Koch”; https://texasartisans.mfah.org/digital/collection/p15939coll5/search/searchterm/WM-TA-KochAugustus; https://www.Geologywriter.com; https://preservingperkasie.com; https://www.illinoistimes.com/springfield/a-matter-of-perspective/Content?oid=11439594; https://www.boisestate.edu/sps-cihp/atlas-2/idyllic-settlement/

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

As a child, were you ever told that wanting a special toy or dress or bike would land the whole family on the poor farm? I’m not sure it was said specifically to me, but I have heard it said. I wondered where these farms were and who had to go there, but never really got an answer, until now. Did you know that New Braunfels had a poor farm? I certainly didn’t, and I grew up here.

I think the farm location shocked me the most. A farm. In town. Okay, it was actually located in Comal Town, close to what is now Landa Park, but only a mile and a half from Main Plaza. The area was rural farmland when the county commissioners created it, and Comal Town was not part of New Braunfels. Let’s start over.

As long as people have inhabited the earth, there have been people of lesser means – the indigent or poor people. Many were poor because of unfortunate circumstances, illness or old age. Continental Europe followed Spanish traditions where families and the church charities were responsible for helping the needy. Within English society, responsibility for care of the poor was given to local authorities and families, but with government oversight.

Pauper care in Texas was rooted in Spanish tradition that expected the church, charities and families to care for the needy. The churches did the best they could. With the formation of the Republic of Texas 1836, care for those in need changed to a system rooted in English poor law. The new republic enacted laws that organized courts and defined their duties. One law specified that it was the “duty of said board of commissioners to provide at the expense of the county, for the support of indigent, lame, and blind persons, who are unable to support themselves.” Support came as both outside support (money to help them in their homes) or inside, which meant living in an almshouse or on a poor farm. After Texas gained statehood, the act was modified in 1846 to include a provision for responsibility of pauper burials.

Those who came to Texas from Europe banked all they had to make a new life in this wonderful land. The risk was high and there was no Plan B. If things went wrong, they were in trouble. Illness, snake bites, childbirth, even riding a horse could create a traumatic change of events. Losing a spouse to childbirth or illness often split up families. Those with frailties, no means of support and advanced age were sent to the poor farm and children went to an orphanage. The indigent of early New Braunfels were usually widows or of very advanced age. They were granted support of about $6 monthly.

After the Civil War, there was much suffering that churches and charities could hardly keep up. The Texas Constitution, amended in 1869, provided for the establishment of the county labor poorhouses. It was not until 1897 that Comal County Comissioners voted to establish a poor farm in New Braunfels. They voted to purchase fourteen acres of land from Louis Moeller for $1350. The land was located in the vicinity of the Landa Estates, bordered by Market (now Torrey), LibertyAvenue, Mulberry Avenue and the Comal River. The county authorized the building of three houses of board and batten construction. The houses were located on Lots No. 74 & 82 up front on Market. Mr. George Lang was hired to be the manager of the poor farm. He was allowed to live rent-free in the middle house and was expected to feed all of the paupers sent to the farm on 20 cents per day. Approximately eleven and a half acres of the property was leased back to Mr. Moeller for cultivation.

The poor farm continued to operate over the years in spite the MKT Railroad cutting through the property. Albert Marion was manager for twenty-four years. After his death in 1934, his nephew Milton C. Marion took the job. The poor farm had been very important in helping many people make it through the depression, being able to work and support the families.

In 1934, the Social Security Act changed indigent care forever and the need began to dwindle. I could still find M.C. Marion was listed as poor farm manager in 1940, but not after that. In 1936, Harry Landa sold his park to the City and the Landa Estates developed on property that was once poor farm. People still resided in the old poor farm houses in the ‘40s and ‘50s.

Time moved on and in 1961 the City County Health Department took up residence in one of the white board and batten Torrey Street houses. If you had to get vaccinations or health cards between 1961 and 1974, that is where you went. At the same time, the county warehouse occupied barns on the same poor farm property between the railroad and Torrey Street. After the Health Department moved to the old Naval Reserve building on Comal Street, the County Probation department had some programs there. The two-acre poor farm property changed hands in 1980 when Henk Paving moved in. The last board and batten structure was recently destroyed to make way for parking.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives; https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1467&context=ita

Caption: Map indicating the location of the Comal County Poor Farm

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