New Braunfels has seen several daring jailbreaks

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — I recently found a note in Oscar Haas’s archive collection, “Zeitung, Thursday, July 6, 1899. Use story some time concerning a jailbreak.” He never published the story. I felt like he was “speaking from the grave” and I should look into it. The first purpose-built Comal County Jail was a […]

Rancho Comal at Spring Branch

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — A Princely Estate — We learn that Maj Leland of New York, has settled among us, having purchased the Comal Ranch of Col. Sparks, fronting the Guadalupe River 9 miles, and laying 22 miles west of New Braunfels … all one body of some ten thousand acres with improvements thereon, […]

“Tante Emmie”

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — Emmie was not just any little girl. Born Sept 15, 1867, she was the daughter of civic and cultural leader Hermann Seele and his wife Mathilde nee Blum. Much was expected of Emmie. Hermann Seele was known as “The Soul of New Braunfels”, a name given him in honor of […]

Doeppenschmidt Funeral Home from 1923 to the present in the same family

By Myra Lee Adams Goff — It’s the same business, in the same place, run by the same family for 100 years. That’s Doeppenschmidt Funeral Home, now involving the fourth generation. And it doesn’t look like they are going to run out of clients any time soon. In the early 1900s, on the corner of […]

One heck of a House story

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Okay, time for another House story. This House is not a stately manor made of brick, (or straw or wood, nor is it coveted by a wolf). This House is of flesh and blood. Umm, no, not horror movie style. Today’s story is about George House and the property located […]

Snapshots of History: Blumberg House

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 […]

History mystery: South Seguin Avenue, Part II

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Part I of the history of 650 and 666 South Seguin Avenue properties was a story of immigrants who worked hard and expanded their family holdings. Now, on to Part II. Ysmael Zamora Isasi and Otila Martinez, fled the atrocities of the Mexican Revolution with their children to become permanent […]

Recollections of early New Braunfels

By Tara V. Kohlenberg — German immigrants crossed the Guadalupe River on March 21, 1845, setting foot in the next long-term waystation. When spring rolls through Central Texas, it is easy to see why the founding families sought to stay here, in New Braunfels, rather than move further along to the promised land of the […]

Albert Kirchner wins Cremo contest

By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — Last week, David Hartmann, the present-day unofficial historian of New Braunfels, brought some old telegrams to the Sophienburg Museum. In case some of you don’t know what that is, a telegram is a written message transmitted by using an electric device called a telegraph. The message was carried from its […]

1881 bird’s-eye view of New Braunfels

  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 […]