I really haven’t lived through a major war, but my mom and dad did. I have heard their stories and they are very different because Mom lived on a ranch/farm north of Fredericksburg and Dad lived in New Braunfels. Myra Lee Adams Goff grew up with my dad and she described those times through the eyes of the child she was then. In light of the current world situation, I thought it would be good to reprise Myra Lee’s article and see how New Braunfels coped back then with the uncertainty and fear that such times engender. — Keva Hoffmann Boardman

Around the Sophienburg, December 27, 2006

By Myra Lee Adams Goff —

It’s the end of December and this pesky little song has entered my head again and won’t leave. “Let’s remember Pearl Harbor as we did the Alamo.” I’m back in Julia Odiorne’s fourth-grade class at Lamar School. Earlier, on December 7, 1941, a surprise attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor had suddenly plummeted our country into World War II. We sang this song with gusto because as Texans we would never forget the Alamo and now we would be called on to “Remember Pearl Harbor” forever.

Miss Odiorne tacked a map of the world on the wall that she had gotten from the Weekly Reader, a newspaper for children. Every time Germany won a battle, she would place a little swastika on the map and for Japan it was a little white flag with a red “rising sun” in the middle. Naturally when the U.S. won, there were stars and stripes. For all that first year, there were almost nothing but swastikas and red suns, and that was scary.

We kept on singing and doing our part as children. The Junior Texas Rangers, as the children were called, collected scrap metal and even gum wrappers. New Braunfels was cleaned out of scrap metal. Newsman Roger Nuhn wrote that school children collected over a half-million pounds of scrap, including the cannons on Main Plaza. My Girl Scout troop collected string and I never knew why. We folded bandages, and I did know why. The Red Cross was very active in that endeavor.

A Civil Defense League was formed under the leadership of Mayor Walter Sippel. Citizens were assigned to air raid shelters in basements of schools, churches and public buildings. Now get this: Lamar’s basement is about 10 x 10 and there were about 350 people living in the area. We would be mighty cozy. Mock air raids, announced by the fire siren, were conducted on a regular basis. We were, after all, close to the many military bases in San Antonio.

The PTA at Lamar installed blackout curtains in our auditorium so that if there was a bomb dropped on New Braunfels, the children would be hidden. I never really understood that either, because we never were at school at night, but at least once a week, we were able to see our geography movies without the interference of the sun.

Rationing had become a way of life. Sugar, gasoline and tires were all rationed. A family was issued ration stamps according to the size of the family. Cookies were not as plentiful, Hershey bars were not to be found, and no frivolous driving could be done. If a tire went bad, just park the car in the garage for the duration of the war. My friends and I walked everywhere.

Every family was encouraged to plant a Victory Garden and the water rates were lowered for that project.

Right down on Main Plaza there was a Center for Service Men in the old Landa Building (present day Commissioners Court parking lot). Open to all servicemen and women, they would arrive on buses from San Antonio on weekends. The downstairs had a radio, nickelodeon, piano, pool tables, card tables and lots of food provided by local clubs. Upstairs there were 100 beds. Dances were planned at the center as well as at Landa Park. Thousands of servicemen and women would come to New Braunfels on weekends. In the end, 73,000 servicemen and women registered at the center.

Making money for the war effort was a big thing. The selling of war bonds was a huge activity and each county was expected to sell an allotted amount.

We sat in front of the radio as we now do the television. The news was always bad and as young teenagers, we listened to the terrible problems of Stella Dallas and One Man’s Family, two popular radio soap operas. “If you think you’ve got it bad, think about their problems.” Father Barber solved his family’s problems with a calming, “Yes, yes.” That was it.

When the war was over in 1945, the newsreels of the concentration camps that were in the movie theatres were shockingly real, and we knew then the importance of sacrifice. Almost 1,500 men and women served their country from New Braunfels, and sadly 38 gave up their lives.

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

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The fall and failure of the Stock Market in 1929 was the beginning of an era in American history called the Great Depression. The statistics of this period are staggering. Almost half of the people in the United States had no jobs, homes or food.

Leading up to this period after WWI was a time of tremendous social change and all the turmoil that accompanies change. It was the 1920s. Women were demanding voting rights and ethnic groups were demanding equal rights.

Then the banks failed, the Stock Market fell and those who had saved or borrowed money, lost everything. Big cities seemed to be hit the hardest for that was where the factories were.

By 1931, the Great Depression was in full swing. Texas governor Ross Sterling declared a “Smile Day” in November of that year supporting the American Legion’s effort to alleviate the suffering that first winter. As if smiling could solve all the problems!

Records show that locally there were approximately 400 people affected known to be unemployed and in desperate condition. Jobs were mainly for men so there were many more people affected.

An organization calling itself the Associated Charities Group was organized to help those in need. This organization included a group of organizations that could easily be applied to today’s world, for these civic-minded groups have always been active: American Legion and Auxiliary, Concordia Singing Society, First Protestant Church and Sunday School, Jacob Schmidt Store, Women’s Civic Improvement Club, Comal County, Christian Science Church, Masonic Lodge A.F.A.M., St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Business and Professional Women’s Club, NB Fire Department, A.J. Rabe, Child Welfare Club, Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic Church, Eastern Star, First Baptist Church, Methodist Church, Retail Merchants Association, and Lions Club. During that first year, 45 families were regularly helped.

Clothing drives were instigated by the Associated Christian Charities of America. Well known humorist Will Rogers performed in San Antonio and the proceeds were shared locally.

The local Lions Club was particularly busy. They distributed 1,400 pounds of beans that they had raised on their own experimental farm at the Comal County Fair Grounds. In addition, the club pledged a minimum of six full grown and fattened hogs a month. These hogs would be slaughtered and ready to be delivered to needy families.

Individuals and businesses had their own ways of helping out. For example, Kneuper Bros. Music Store next to the old Post Office did not repossess merchandise but allowed customers to pay what and when they could, sometimes as little as 25 cents a week. The brothers had added appliances to their merchandise so it was very important that customers could retain stoves, ice boxes and washers.

By the way, the Kneuper Bros. Store was the first business in town to have a television set in the early ‘50s. At night people would sit in front of the store window and watch the test pattern and a 5 minute film over and over.

Back to the 1930s. In my dad’s family there was a Depression story. Louis Adams, my grandfather, owned a butcher shop. During this terrible financial time, people would come in to buy meat without money. My grandfather told them that he would just write it on a slip of paper and they could pay when they could. I think he was able to do this because his source of meat was from his brother Bill Adams and the Adams Ranch. The Adams family helped a lot of people that way.

In 1931 Louis Adams died suddenly. My dad, who was left with the care of his mother plus his own family, was left penniless. Before Louis Adams died he had bought a three bedroom house on Comal St. which my grandmother then turned into a boarding house, mostly for her nieces. Their country school did not have a complete high school education, so they had to come to New Braunfels to finish school. The parents of these nieces brought ample produce from the farm to feed everyone at the house. Like my grandmother used to say, “You do what you have to do”. During this terrible time, President Herbert Hoover kept a message of resourcefulness as a way to solve problems. I think my family did that, but it wasn’t that easy for everyone.

One group of people that were affected were the farmers. Those who relied on crops and livestock were dealt another blow, the Dust Bowl and the boll weevil. The Dust Bowl was preceded by a long-lasting drought. Pictures of areas affected by this dust are hard to comprehend with clouds of dust moving across the land, pulling up plants by the roots leaving nothing but scorched earth.

Many of these farmers who had lost everything attempted to move towards the cities where they thought they had an opportunity to work and feed their families. When they got to the cities, there was no work and no transportation to return home. They survived on bread and soup lines supplied by various organizations, mainly the Red Cross. At the first opportunity they hopped on open train cars and moved from one place to another. These Hobos set up camps along the tracks, built fires to keep warm or cook whatever they were handed out in the cities.

Every big city had make-shift communities right outside of the city limits. They were called Hoovervilles because most Americans blamed the whole Great Depression on Pres. Herbert Hoover.

Here in New Braunfels, much of what we knew about the Depression came from newspapers and movies. Subtle little hints of the times can be found if you look hard enough at photographs of NB children at school during the 30s. No “store bought” clothes but dresses made of material from flour sacks. NB was fortunate to have the textile mill and Dittlinger Roller Mills. My generation even today sometimes suffer from what we call “Depression thinking”. We spent a long time appreciating handmade clothing articles. There’s a long way in between Homemade and Handmade.

Boys were lucky if they had cut-off pants from an older brother. None of the boys wore shoes and the girls went barefooted in the summer. I always wondered why, when we were constantly stepping on glass, sticker beds and rusty nails. We could have solved that problem by wearing shoes.

At the end of the 1930s the Great Depression was over, but taking its place in history was a period of much more magnitude when the US entered WWII.

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

Reaching a certain age and lifespan in New Braunfels entitles me, and others like me, to call buildings/places by other names and not sound crazy. It is like a secret code. We can use the “old” name when referring to a current building, and not many will know what we are talking about. Recently, we were talking about the New Braunfels Social Club building located at 353 S. Seguin Ave., which has nothing to do with the current establishment by that name on West San Antonio Street.

As you know, New Braunfels is known for being a social city, thanks to our founding fathers. When German immigrants came to Texas, they brought more than just tools and clothes to start a new life, they brought their culture, work ethic, music, and family values. They also brought their desire for socialization. They participated in organizations of all kinds — singing societies, shooting clubs, athletic clubs.

Eventually, athletic clubs became less about physical fitness and more about social activities — billiards, card games (skat) and nine-pin bowling. Bowling teams from various clubs around town would compete with one another, as well as travel to other towns to compete for prizes. One of the earliest organizations was the New Braunfels Social Club founded in 1864.

Unfortunately, much of the New Braunfels Social Club organization history has been lost. From what I can tell, they were more of what we now think of as a bowling team. They had no “lanes” of their own, so they bowled at established bowling alleys. They may possibly have taken their name from a hosting bowling alley. Advertisements posted in the Zeitung all-German language paper in 1890 noted that the Social Club Saloon Beer Hall and Bowling Alley, owned by Mangliers, was formerly known as Hasenbeck’s Saloon. The ads of the day gave no addresses, but Karl Hasenbeck showed up in the 1890 census as a barkeeper on Seguin Street.

In 1910, the New Braunfels Social Club organization built a building for their members at 353 S. Seguin Ave. The 1907 Sanborn maps indicate that two bowling lanes, a separate smaller building, and a beer garden had existed on that same property. The one-story Social Club building has many characteristics of the Richardsonian Romanesque period, including grand architectural elements of a heavy stone façade with columns, arched windows and stained-glass detail more like one would see on a large three-story courthouse. The new building had room for club activities and enclosed bowling lanes.

Nine-pin bowling was a team sport. As New Braunfels Social Club membership increased, their support for the community grew, holding fundraising events for Red Cross donations and to buy War Bonds. They did well. In 1930, they expanded, installing first-class billiards tables, card tables, and more bowling lanes for members. Initially, the lanes were set up for nine-pin bowling. Ten-pen bowling became more prevalent with the invention of mechanical pin setting machines in the 1950s. New Braunfels Social Club voted to install pinsetter equipment in 1959. They enjoyed success until a public bowling alley opened in the early ‘60s. Club membership dropped by 75 percent over an eight-year period and they could no longer keep up with expenses. The New Braunfels Social Club made the painful decision to close their doors for good in October 1968 due to overwhelming debt, a good deal of which was attributed to pinsetter equipment. The building would not sit empty for long.

The City of New Braunfels was looking for a site on which to build a new civic center. The City Master Plan recommended a convention site on IH 35 at Walnut (across from H-E-B). The city placed a bid of $35,000 for the Social Club property, only to have it rejected by the club’s membership. The city withdrew the offer but let it be known that it was prepared to initiate condemnation procedures to acquire the property. The Social Club received one other bid for $40,000 and accepted, even though the purchase price would not cover the club’s entire $51,000 debt. So, who outbid the City? The Elks!

A local chapter of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was chartered in 1963. The New Braunfels Elks Lodge No. 2279 leased the old Oasis Club property (current location of Microtel Inn & Suites on Business 35) for their new home. This fraternal organization, built on the tenets of “Charity, Justice, Brotherly Love and Fidelity,” fit right into the fabric of New Braunfels. Their membership grew quickly over the next five years and sought to build their own lodge building. The Elks had already purchased a piece of land on Highway 46 South for their new lodge. When the Social Club building came up for sale, they jumped on it and closed in January of 1969.

The Elks put in over 5,000 volunteer hours to remodel the old Social Club, including removing the bowling lanes and transforming the area into a dance floor. The eight maple bowling lanes weighing 56,000 pounds were painstakingly taken up and reassembled, pegged, glued and refinished to create an 1,800-square-foot dance floor. Think giant jigsaw puzzle. That’s commitment! The new Elks Lodge No. 2279 was dedicated in August 1969. The 114-year- old lodge building has been and continues to be one of the most popular venues in New Braunfels.

On a side note, the New Braunfels Social Club decision to accept the Elks’ bid over the city’s, to some was controversial, but ultimately, it was the membership’s call. They basically saved the 1910 treasure. Had the vote gone the other way, the Social Club bowling alley would have been torn down and the Civic Center would have been built on the other side of the street.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives.

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

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By Tara V. Kohlenberg —

May 11, 1972. It was a normal Thursday in May. The New Braunfels Herald was filled with promise for the future – announcing top graduating scholars and graduation parties; preparations for the next day’s Lions Carnival at Wursthalle; and numerous choices for that special Mothers’ Day gift. Spring rains over the past week brought much needed relief to the area farmers. It was a great day and it was going to be a wonderful weekend. Until it wasn’t.

That same Thursday evening the rains came again, falling mostly below Canyon Dam and above New Braunfels. Rainfall totals reported were anywhere from 10 to 12 inches between 8:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. That is roughly 3.5 to 4 inches per hour or for clarity, 1 inch every 15 minutes! The torrential downpour fell on already soaked ground, running swiftly toward the lowest points – the creek beds. A massive amount of water plunged through the Comal and Guadalupe River channels in two separate waves.

The runoff collecting in Blieders Creek rose quickly, becoming a huge wall of water hurtling toward New Braunfels. The torrent washed over the Loop 337 bridge and blasted through the city road works yard at the base of Lakeview Blvd. It took out large utility trucks and ruptured tanks of liquid asphalt, all of which swept through Landa Estates toward the park and Comal River.

Residents of the Estates began noticing water lapping at their doors shortly before 11 p.m. prompting them to scramble to safety. Within minutes, the wall of water hit, blasting the cabins of Heidelberg Lodge off the foundations before making its way through the Estates. Further downstream, Camp Warnecke cabins were lifted off of their foundations washed over the Garden Street bridge. Power, phone and gas services were knocked out. Many people were left stranded on rooftops or clinging to trees, some lost their grip in the swift current. Screams for help and gunshots fired into the air could be heard for hours, adding to the horror of the dark night.

Similar events took place on the Guadalupe. By 1 a.m. on May 12th, a raging wall of water hit the Guadalupe, taking out multiple homes in Rivercrest and on Rio Drive below the I-35 bridge. People climbed to the rooftops, only to have the houses broken apart by the force of the water and anything carried from upstream, including trees, trucks, pieces of buildings. Several did not survive the night.

The Herald-Zeitung and KGNB radio were in the same building downtown. KGNB, required by FCC rules to sign off at sundown, signed on that night with Herb Skoog broadcasting emergency information. When Alan King, Herald Zeitung photographer learned what was going on, he called his dad, assistant manager of HEB, to open the store at 2 a.m. The morning of the 12th, food from HEB helped feed 600 people at Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic Church.

The next morning, people who lived on the hill or anywhere NOT near the river were blissfully unaware of the tragedy that had unfolded in their town. The sun rose on a disaster the likes no one ever hoped to see again. Bare slabs were left where brick cabins and homes once stood. Landa Estates was covered with mud and debris. There was a layer of sticky oil and asphalt on everything. There were cars lodged against trees and underwater in the Estates and Landa Park pool.

Helicopters plucked people from rooftops and trees. Rescuers from San Antonio came with boats. Some searched for the missing through muddy debris, stranded fish, snakes and household goods. New Braunfels firemen, utilities workers, Texas National Guard, the Red Cross, Salvation Army, Mennonites and tons of good neighbors came to help those in need. Donations came for those who had nothing left.

Wet, dazed, in shock, some covered in asphalt tar, the survivors filled the shelters. Some had lost children, wives, husbands and parents. There were many who shared harrowing stories of how they survived the night. More importantly, there are tragic stories of those who were lost: Hobart Gillmore, 65; Mrs. James Moos, 24 and her 1 year old son, Brian Moos; Clarence Knetsch, 51; Mrs. Joseph (Jean) Faust, 49; Leslie Engler, 42; Mrs. Leslie (Elaine) Engler; Carl Biesele, 49; Joseph Fowler, 34; Sarah Teague, 4; James Medford Hendry, 34; Lt. Col. (Ret) Charles Koons, 52; Mr. Melvin Nolte, 57 and Mrs. Nolte, 58; Carl Richter, 65; Julie Downs, 13; Mrs. Henry (Juanita) Parker, 63.

This flood event by the numbers? Sure. In 1972, the population of New Braunfels was approximately 19,000 people. Damages capped out at $15 million, which is $103.7 million in today’s dollars. 3000 people were affected/evacuated to shelters. At least 250 families lost their homes and 17 people lost their lives.

What’s different? Well, there are still big storms, rain events and floods, which we cannot control. But there are improvements. Shortly after the flood of ’72, Blieders Creek flood control dam was built. We now have warning systems along both Guadalupe and Comal rivers (listen on Tuesdays at noon!) and reverse emergency calling. We also have better weather services on every device known to man. Plus, the government has been a little more attentive to the FEMA flood maps. The flood of ’72 impacted New Braunfels residents and the economy for some time as they tried to recover. Those who lived through that night fifty years ago may have recovered but will never forget.

For more information, look for copies of the May 18, 1972 HZ on our website soon.

Source: Sophienburg Museum & Archives; Alan King.

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