Phoenix Saloon applies for historical designation
By Myra Lee Adams Goff Another downtown building, the Phoenix Saloon owners Ross and Debbie Fortune, are applying for a Texas Historical Marker. The Phoenix Saloon history really does live up to the story of the Phoenix, a legendary bird that builds its own funeral pyre, throws itself into the fire, lays an egg in […]
Statues on plaza honor soldiers
By Myra Lee Adams Goff The first July 4 celebration in New Braunfels took place in 1845, just four months after the first emigrants crossed the Guadalupe into what would be the “Neu Heimat” (New home). A lot has happened historically since that first Independence celebration. For one thing, two statues were placed on the […]
Historic Kindermaskenball Parade This Coming Saturday
By Myra Lee Adams Goff Eleven years ago Rosemarie Gregory and I wrote a book called “Kindermaskenball, Past and Present”. It’s about an event here in New Braunfels that goes back to the early days of the settlement. At the beginning of the book we made this statement: “Kindermaskenball is about tradition and make-believe. Children […]
A joyful Christmas of Lions, angels and firemen
By Tara V. Kohlenberg — Have you ever experienced a Christmas where you thought you would get nothing from Santa? I am sure that there are several good children that have worried about getting gifts due to their parents’ circumstances. During the Great Depression, it was the generosity of angels that helped out needy children […]
Tale of two markers
By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — This is the story of two markers. One was put up at Comal Springs in 1968, and the other was placed outside the yard of Franz and Mary Joyce Coreth on Hwy 46 (it now stands in front of Chick-fil-A). They both mark the location of Mission Nuestra Señora de […]
History is everywhere
By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — This past March I was in Macedonia, Greece with my eldest daughter. No matter where we walked the ground was literally littered with history — bits of marble, colored tesserae from mosaics, tiny pieces of bronze and always, always pieces of pottery. History was everywhere. I remember going to elementary […]
Arriving Germans found native tribes in area they settled
By Myra Lee Adams Goff — Prince Carl in the diary of his sojourn to Texas writes about sleeping on the ground, using a pistol case as a pillow. Even before the emigrants arrived, he feared an Indian attack. He recalled a patriotic drinking song called “Deutschland Hoch.” Rewriting his own words to this song, […]
New Braunfels forty-eighters
By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — The forty-eighters were refugees of the failed German Revolution of 1848. They were idealists. They fought to establish a liberal and unified Germany using liberty, democracy and unity as their main tenets. The designation “forty-eighter” excludes the hundreds of thousands who emigrated from 1848-1852 for mostly economic reasons. It also […]
Mom’s cousin was an Indian captive
By Keva Hoffmann Boardman — In May I traveled to Mason, Texas, with my mom and dad and met with some aunts, uncles and cousins to watch a 45-minute documentary: “Herman, der Apache: Ein Deutscher unter Indianen” (“Herman the Apache: A German among Indians”). The film, made by a German film crew for TV viewing […]
“Tenax propositi” or “finish what you begin”
By Myra Lee Adams Goff Baron Otfried Hans von Meusebach (later John O. Meusebach) and Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels represented two philosophies and cultures of Germany in the early 1800s. Prince Carl was a feudalistic, aristocratic, ultraconservative wanting no change in the politics of Germany. It was a collection of feudal kingdoms. Prince Carl was […]
