Have you heard of Sylvester’s Abend? Have you heard of New Year’s Eve? Two names for the same event. To arrive at the Gregorian calendar that we and most European countries use was not an easy process. Many changes took place before the final calendar set up by Pope Gregory XIII was adopted.

Sylvester’s Abend was what the German emigrants called New Year’s Eve, or Dec. 31st.The name “Sylvester” translates from Latin as “wild man”. The German “Abend” translates to “evening”. Sylvester’s Abend is named after a Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 314 A.D. to 335 A.D. Ever since the Gregorian calendar was adopted by most of the world, the feast day celebrated Sylvester’s death on Dec. 31st. The name Sylvester’s Abend was used locally for many years but eventually changed to New Year’s Eve. The local German American Society still uses Sylvester’s Abend.

Speaking of Sylvester’s Abend traditions, some of the interpreters at the Sophienburg who grew up in Germany remember a practice carried out on New Year’s Eve called Bleigiessen or “lead pouring”. It resembles the practice of reading tea leaves to predict the next year’s events. A small amount of lead is melted in a spoon over a candle. Then the molten lead is poured into a bowl of water and the pattern that forms predicts events of the coming year. There is a long list of what these forms could mean. Sounds like an entertaining game.

Advertisements in the old Zeitung newspapers give a hint of how New Year’s Eve was celebrated locally. Dances at halls in town and in nearby settlements were prevalent. A popular early hall was Matzdorf Halle which eventually became Echo Hall and then finally, Eagles Hall. There were dances at Sweet Home Hall at Solms, Walhalla at Smithson’s Valley, Teutonia Halle, Anhalt, Landa Park, Reinarz Hall, Schwab Hall, Lenzen Hall, and smaller ones. Downtown Seekatz Opera House, built in 1901, was a popular dance hall with its stage, dressing rooms, kitchen, and large main floor with seats that could be removed easily for dances. An added feature was a balcony for onlookers and private club rooms on the second floor in the front of the building. At midnight the fire siren would blow.

All of the dances furnished trappings of the celebration of the coming of the New Year with noisemakers and fireworks. Designed to ward off evil, fireworks and noisemakers go back to ancient times.

In a Sophienburg Reflections program, the late Kola Zipp recalls a custom in her younger years (early 1920s) that had to do with New Year’s Eve. She called the practice “New Year’s Callers”. Young men would hire a carriage from the local livery stable and go out on New Year’s afternoon to visit girls. Girls would stay at home to welcome them and offer the boys wine. (That’s a switch) These New Year’s Callers would visit and then move on to the next house.

Marie Offermann and her sister Jeanette Felger often went to dances at Echo Hall as children with their parents. There was even baby-sitting service in one of the back rooms. People brought food that was placed in the basement under the stage. New Years was a dress-up time. Look at the picture.

New Year’s Eve is celebrated around the world, often with strange customs, from throwing dishes, to wearing red underwear, to congregating in a cemetery to ring in the New Year with departed loved ones. In France the wind direction predicted the year’s crops and weather and in Spain if one could consume 12 grapes in 12 seconds from midnight, good luck would follow.

Since the invention of television and computers, millions watch the New Year’s celebration at Times Square in New York. Since its beginning in 1907, a huge 12 foot diameter ball suspended above Times Square is lowered. When it reaches the bottom of the tower, it is midnight.

No New Year’s Eve celebration would be complete without the ever popular traditional song, “Auld Lang Syne”. Poet Robert Burns is given credit for translating the Scottish song. Here’s the last verse of Burns’ rendition:

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere!(friend)
And gie’s a hand o’ thine!(give us your hand)
And we’ll tak a right guid-willie waught,(take a good-will draught)
For auld lang syne,(long, long ago)

Chorus:

For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

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The year 1898 was the year of the Comal County Courthouse and the year of the Spanish-American War. In 1998 Dr. Robert Govier translated the “Neu Braunfelser Zeitung” from German into English for the Sophienburg . The Govier and Adams families were old family friends. Before Bob died, he gave me a personal copy of many of his writings.

The war and the courthouse were the two most covered events of that year. Some of the trivia in the paper will give you an idea of how things stacked up here in 1898. The Zeitung was written in German, the editor was Eugene Kaiser and the once-a-week paper subscription was $2.50 a year and $3.00 if sent to Germany.

The original CC Courthouse was located on the corner of the plaza where the Chase Bank stands. Plans were presented by six architects from Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. The plans of architect J. Riely Gordon were chosen. Judge Ad. Giesecke voted against the plan, as did Commissioner Schulze, Jr. Commissioners Marbach, Startz, and Adams voted for Gordon’s plan. Contractors chosen were Fischer and Lambie. Fischer was a New Braunfels native.

In May, the cornerstone was laid. Bands played, and flag-waving school children marched from school to the plaza. City and County officials marched in step. The cornerstone was suspended over the southern corner of the completed ground floor. Historical items were placed in a metal box and with three ceremonial hammer strokes, the stone was consecrated by pouring corn, wine and oil on it from a silver chalice. (Incidentally, Schulze refused to have his name on the cornerstone)

After the ceremony the crowd made its way to Gottlieb Oberkampf’s garden where children were served lemonade and adults were served beer.

The other big headliner was the Spanish-American war between Spain and the United States. The US intervened in the Cuba Libra war against Spain for independence. Conflicts between Spain and its possession, Cuba, had been going on for years and American sentiment towards the Spanish atrocities had reached a high point by 1898.

Pres. McKinley sent the USS Maine to Havana to protect American citizens. The Maine suffered a massive explosion in Havana Harbor. The cause was unknown but with the death of 266 sailors, American opinion demanded retaliation against Spain. War was declared by the US on Spain in April of 1898.

After four months of conflict, the war was over. The US gained almost all of Spain’s colonies – Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. Cuba formed its own government and gained independence in 1902. During this war, Theodore Roosevelt and his Rough Riders trained in San Antonio.

The paper was not without its trivia about this war. The Naval Dept. was acquiring 10,000 carrier pigeons. In Key West, a special building for three weeks of training was built. The birds would be trained until they were capable of covering points near Havana to Key West.

Local news reflects the social aspect of the town. In that year, all babies that were born were listed throughout the paper but in a different way than today. “The mayor Carl Jahn and his wife had a baby girl.” The father’s name was listed in that way, not giving any credit to the mother.

There was an abundance of entertainment, particularly in the form of masked balls-Thorn Hill, Orth’s Pasture, Vogel’s Valley, and Children’s Masked Ball. The shooting club was active and the Men’s Singing Clubs celebrated with the “clinking of glasses”. A famous diver named Felton, would perform at the garden by diving from the roof of the high building into a basin of water 3½ feet deep. For sports lovers, one can travel on the International train between NB and Austin for $1.25 round trip to attend the “Base Ball” game.

New downtown: Sylvester Simon built a two story handsome pub right next to the new courthouse. Hmm. Also downtown, a sidewalk was built in front of the Gruene building on San Antonio St. (Calahans) A night watchman was hired to ” get around by bicycle”. (Horses were the main means of transportation) The city purchased a water wagon to sprinkle the streets. I’m sure that was a big thing since the streets were not paved.

Here it is, 114 years later. We still have a lively downtown, war, pubs, entertainment but hallelujah we don’t have a water wagon!

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

“There was a little custom that, I think, has completely died out. It’s called New Year’s Callers.” So began a story told by local New Braunfels resident, Kola Albrecht Zipp. She was born in 1899 and remembered her older sisters participating in New Year’s Day Calling in the early 1900s.

Like me, you may wonder just what New Year’s Day Calling is. “Calling”, an old custom, was when one paid an informal visit to family friends and acquaintances. Its purpose was to renew old friendship ties or settle family differences. It required a calling card which announced the visitor’s name. It was rather restrained and elegant. Think about the young heroines meeting men in Jane Austen’s novels.

In the mid-1800s, it seems that the “Dutch” population in New York began a new custom which combined this old one of “calling” with what can only be described as the equivalent of a 19th-century dating app. Let me explain.

It became a New Year’s Day tradition for young single men to “call” on young single women during the afternoon. Often, a group of two to four men would visit a home where two or more women had gathered in anticipation. The men were welcomed into the best room of the house and served refreshments. The visit only lasted 10 to 15 minutes because there were a lot of “calls” to make. And that meant, there were more eligible young women with whom you made acquaintances. Yes, the guys were checking out the girls and vice versa. The calling cards made perfect tour tickets into the ladies’ homes. They would be left at the home and remind the women who had made the visit.

By the late 1800s, the New York New Year’s Calling scene began to look a lot like “speed dating.” It became a competition between the men as to who could visit the most houses and between the women as to see who would collect the most calling cards.

So, back to Kola Zipp and the New Braunfels rendition of New Year’s Callers. “The young men would hire a carriage from the livery stable and they’d go out on New Year’s afternoon and they’d go calling. The girls would stay home to welcome them and they just made the rounds of their girlfriends … the girls sort of expected them, you know?”

As for refreshments, “The girls would offer the boys wine. Mother always bought a gallon of wine for Christmas and a case of ginger ale. Oh, that was a treat, you know! And the New Year’s Callers would come in, and oh, they were a happy lot. Of course, by the time they’d get all around, they had a lot to be happy about!” (Wink wink!)

“This was from the time of my very oldest sisters … and some of their friends that came were Udo Hellmann, Herbert Voss, Ben Nuhn and Paul Jahn.” Check out the photo of the card to see their names.

Erna Heidemeyer Rhode, born in 1896, was also a local lady who remembered this interesting custom. “I was thinking back on an activity which happened on New Year’s afternoon. A boyfriend, of course — by that time we were teenagers and we each had a boyfriend — would rent a buggy or surrey from the livery stable. There were no cars at that time; maybe one or two boys had them. They would bunch up in fours or fives or whatever amount they could get into the rental buggy and they would come to the different houses and call on the girls. Usually, two or three girls would go together and be at somebody’s house. [The boys] would stay for maybe an hour or so, and if the house had a piano and one of the girls could play the piano, then we’d sing and we’d have refreshments for the boys. They’d stay for about an hour and then they’d go back … I mean, they’d leave and would go back to somebody else’s house where they got the same courtesy and entertainment.”

“I have pictures of two or three of these boys who used to come: Julius Voelcker, Erwin Shaw, Herbert Haus, Paul Young and Oliver Eikel. We’d dress up in long dresses, evening dresses, because it was a very special occasion. The house was decorated, flowers and everything, and it was quite an event.” If you look at the photo of the card with young men, you will find Julius Voelcker on the far right.

I wondered if these were chaperoned events for the young ones. It was a time when stricter conventions were in place for the interactions of men and women. Erna Rhode answered my question. “They might come in and shake hands and say hello … maybe bring in the refreshments, but it was all very permissible. This was the New Year’s custom.”

New Year’s customs sure have changed.

This year, while munching on snacks and watching football games, think back on those gentle times when young men and women set their sights on new relationships in the new year. Not a bad idea.

FYI: These memories and others have been collected and recorded at the Sophienburg Museum & Archives through the “Reflections” oral history program and can be accessed at the Sophienburg or the New Braunfels Public Library.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum’s “Reflections” programs #8 and #202; https://friendsppm.wordpress.com/2019/12/09/the-long-lost-custom-of-new-years-day-calling/; https://nycpast.org/2016/12/29/calling-in-new-york-a-new-years-day-tradition/.

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

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By Keva Hoffmann Boardman —

I have heard some murmurings in town lately about a place called The House that Jack Built. As often happens at the Sophienburg, I had already done some research into this business. Let me share some facts and a couple stories that I discovered along the journey.

In February of 1927, Albert Nowotny began working on improving his cold drink/confectioners stand located at 1413 West San Antonio Street. Over the next couple of years, he enlarged the nice wood-framed confectionary to accommodate his collection of Native American artifacts as a little museum. Behind that, he constructed a tourist camp which included little cottages facing a central court and a modern bath house and restroom for tourists to use. A tourist court was a fairly new idea that came with the proliferation of automobiles and building of the highway system.

Nowotny’s business was good and in 1930, the little attractive wood-framed confectionary gave way to a new “fireproof” structure. The carpenter on the job was Jack Gill, so the name of the business became The House that Jack Built. The House that Jack Built was designed to mimic the Pueblo-style architecture found in New Mexico and Arizona which better suited Nowotny’s burgeoning Native American collections. The new multi-level building featured a stucco exterior with exposed, extended roof beams and natural pole ladders between the levels for authentic detailing.

The interior had a unique, multi-colored broken tile-and-concrete patterned floor. Cases lining the walls were filled with Native American artifacts collected by Nowotny in the New Braunfels area as well as other examples from the American Southwest, Mexico and even head-hunter axes from the Philippines. Displayed were large quantities of painted pottery, stone tools and points, and shell and bone jewelry.

The “free” museum also contained “a part of Chief Geronimo’s poisoned arrows and water jug.” Amongst the many antique pistols, guns, swords and daggers from the Texas-Mexican War, the Spanish-American War and the Civil War, were “Jesse James’ pistols, a dueling sword lost in 1541 belonging to Coronado and bullets fired by Zachary Taylor into the walls of Mission Obispado at Monterrey on his way to Mexico City.”

Stuffed animals peered from the corners and case tops. Trophy heads and horns hung above on the walls vying for attention amongst beautifully-colored, hand-woven Indian blankets. Nowotny also sold Native American and Mexican artifacts, jewelry and blankets as well as tourist trinkets made in Japan. At one point in time, according to Ogden Coleman, there was even a live bear on a chain!

The confectionary/café featured Mexican food, fried chicken dinners, hamburgers and sandwiches which were served at tables scattered in the center of the large room amidst the historic collections.

Albert Nowotny’s sons helped to run The House that Jack Built. Jerome described an interesting prohibition-era story in his oral history recording at the Sophienburg.

Local newspaperman, Fred Oheim once said, “… that the making of beer at home was legal. You could make up to 200 gallons of wine per family and a certain amount of beer per year, but, it required a federal license. Selling beer, wine, etc. to other folks was illegal … the Revenuers would come and put you in jail for selling not producing it.”

Businesses, also, could not sell alcoholic beverages, but during Prohibition, tourists would stop at The House that Jack Built for a hamburger and ask where they could get real beer. According to Jerome Nowotny, there were “many, many, many men” in New Braunfels that made and sold beer. The stills were usually hidden by hedges of Ligustrum which were commonly used around town in place of wood fences.

Albert would tell son Jerome, “Gehen mit die Leute, nicht der Herr.” (Go with the people, not with God.) He then gave Jerome an address for a local “small businessman”. Jerome would escort the tourists to that location where they would buy beer and then usually tip him $5 — very good money in those days. Albert never sent him to the same place twice in a row in order to make sure all “small businessmen” got a fair chance for a sale and to protect them by “spreading the risk, so-to-speak, of the illegal operators.”

In the 1940s, Percy and Norma Rose Richter rented and operated The House that Jack Built. My dad, Carroll Hoffmann, worked there as a busboy. It was no longer a museum but a very popular café and bar. It did, however, have a totem pole out in front of the building. Open 11 am to 11 pm, the café often ran out of food on Saturdays. My dad would ride his bike to work from Academy Street in the morning and Mr. Richter would put his bike in the back of the truck and take him home at night. Dad had to be there early to mop the colorful floor. He would always check for change beneath the tables and in the coin return slots of the little jukebox selection boxes on the tables. Does every little boy do this?

The building was altered again before my Dad’s time. The second-floor rooms had been enlarged into a banquet hall and the front half fenced in to create an outdoor terrace. Newspaper advertisements announce dance bands and society articles record parties that took place at The House that Jack Built. My dad said it was tricky for the waitresses to get food and drink up the stairs. He remembers that NB Highschool Head Coach Weldon Bynum took the ’48-’49 football team up there to eat steaks one night. Apparently even back then, football players were BMOC.

After the Richters, the café was run briefly as the Langston Café. In 1953, Felix and Harry Zoeller purchased the building and it became Zoeller Funeral Home until 1978. Harry Zoeller said that the unique tile floor was one of Nowotny’s selling points for the building. The Comal County Juvenile Residential Supervision and Treatment Center (Teen Connection) bought the building in 1981. The House that Jack Built/Zoeller Funeral Home presently houses Connections.

Sources: Sophienburg Museum & Archives; “Reflections” oral History program #21; NB Herald archive; Heritage Exhibit notes; personal interviews.

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Keva Hoffmann Boardman –

Soda pop? Soft drink? Soda water? My family just says “soda.” Whatever you call it, the soft drink industry is huge. When did New Braunfelsers first get a taste for the sugary yet satisfying beverage?

As early as 1872, Otto and Theo. Simon were bottling ice cold soda at their home. They bought a new ice machine in 1875 and, with partner L. Paggi, they opened and ran an ice cream/soda water parlour until 1881. Imagine how amazing an ice cold soda was back in the days of no air conditioning and dusty streets.

Others soon jumped into the increasingly popular drink business. Dr. Grube teamed up with Bruno Voelcker to start their own soda water factory in 1881 but it was short-lived.

Eduard Naegelin Sr. (Naegelin’s Bakery opened in 1868) added soda water, candies, cigars and ice to his bakery enterprise in 1883. According to his grandson, C. F. “Buddy” Naegelin, Eduard also had a license to produce wine. He used 50-gallon barrels and sold one gallon bottles for 25 cents to 50 cents. Now we’re talking!

Naegelin bottled “Squeeze” brand soda waters and IronBrew. IronBrew tasted a bit like a full-bodied cream soda and sported a label of a man with his arm raised showing off his bicep. Several New Braunfels doctors are said to have prescribed IronBrew to their anemic patients. I can’t verify its efficacy.

“Squeeze” brand syrups, used in Naegelin’s soda water, were mainly citrus and fruit flavors like lemon, lemon-lime and orange. A case of bottled soda sold for 40 cents. Naegelin made his own ginger flavor to bottle ginger ale. In those days, ginger ale was a seasonal drink for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

Naegelin handed the bakery/bottling business over to his son, Edward Jr., in 1924. The bottling business was kept until the building was remodeled in 1937.

Back in 1886, John Sippel opened St. John’s Bottling Works. No one remembers why, but people called John Sippel, St. John, and so the company got that name. Sippel bottled soft drinks of all flavors and a seltzer (sparkling water) called Sippel’s Water. St John’s Bottling Works was first located on the property where the old Main Fire Station stands. Sippel also acquired the Anheuser-Busch beer franchise for the area.

In 1894, St John’s Bottling was put up for sale. Robert Posey bought it at auction in 1903. He sold the business to the Neuse brothers in 1906 who moved it to the corner of Castell and Church (Coll) streets. At this time, there were three bottling works in New Braunfels: St John’s, Naegelin’s and Feltner’s Comal Crown.

Albert Staats bought St. John’s from the Neuse’s and turned around and sold it to his brothers Edwin and Walter in 1914. The Staats’ sold soda and seltzer water. (Seltzer water could be bought and taken home to make your own flavored soda or ice cream sodas.) Trade was brisk. They were selling to 20 local saloons. Their top flavors were “Cherry Blossoms” and “Orange Julep”. Naegelin’s was selling “Orange Squeeze”. Feltner had sold Comal Crown to Hugo Weidner who had franchised “Orange Crush.” Apparently, orange was popular.

The Staats brothers obtained the coveted Coca Cola franchise in 1915. Basically, soda water is a flavoring syrup mixed with carbonated H20 which is capped to keep in the fizz. Edwin Staats reported that in the first year he bottled Coca Cola, he used less than one 55-gallon drum of syrup; by the time he sold the bottling business in 1972, he was using three 55-gallon drums of syrup each day. In 1921, the company was moved to 203 S. Castell. Edwin bought out his brother Walter in 1932; Walter became NBFD fire chief and fire marshal.

Lucky for me, a born and raised Texan, the Weidner’s Orange Crush Bottling Works obtained the franchise for Dr Pepper and became the Dr Pepper Bottling Works. They bottled that “nectar of the gods” for New Braunfelsers. In 1963, Edwin Staats also bought this franchise and boosted his soda water sales by 30 percent that year.

Edwin Staats provided a few aneccdotes to the NBHerald in 1966. Staats would take orders for ginger ale prior to the holidays. Harry Wagenfuehr (Pearl Beer distributor) would delay returning empties to the brewery and loan the bottles to Edwin for use. These were picked up after the holidays and returned to Wagenfuehr and THEN back to the brewery in San Antonio.

Staats also explained about the old bottles. A spring stopper was attached to the bottle and was put into place when the bottle was filled (so you could refill it). The popping sound it made when opening inspired the term “soda pop”.

And speaking about “pop” … My kids made root beer once. All the filled capped bottles went into the pantry cupboard to process. Several weeks later, what sounded like a gunfight came out of the pantry. The entire experiment ended up coating the two bottom shelves with a sticky brown liquid.

At least it did taste like root beer.

Sources: “Reflections” oral history recordings: #80 – Buddy Naegelin; #209 – Preston Staats; #180 – Homuth “Lops” Weidner 100th Anniversary edition of the New Braunfelser Zeitung, Vol. 100, No. 53; NB Herald – Dec 29, 1966, “Edwin Staats Celebrates 50 Years of Coca Cola”.

Photo Caption: Robert Posey, right, looks over damage to St. John’s Bottling Works after severe freeze on Feb 13, 1905.

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Dr. Ferdinand Roemer in his book “Roemer’s Texas,” when he arrived in the village of New Braunfels in 1846, wrote that a speculative American had laid out a new city in between the fork of the Comal and the Guadalupe within view of the city of New Braunfels and it was called Comaltown. This American citizen was Daniel Murchison, a land agent for Maria Antonia Veramendi and her husband Rafael Garza. Maria Veramendi Garza was the daughter of Juan Veramendi, governor of Texas under the Mexican regime who had received this land grant.

When Prince Carl laid out the city of New Braunfels on the west bank of the Comal, the Garzas laid out their inheritance on the east side of the Comal. Although Comaltown was separated from New Braunfels by water, it was soon annexed to the city of NB.

There has been very little history written about this thriving community so David Hartmann and I have begun a research project about Comaltown. We are collecting information on people, businesses, schools, churches, recreational activities and much more. David and I have a lot in common, including sharing a common ancestor here in Comaltown, Johann Georg Moeller (1844). We both grew up in this area and attended Lamar School. But when David went to Lamar, I was teaching there. David was in my music class at Lamar and so was Angie Morales, the daughter of Charlie and Francisca Morales who owned Morales Funeral Home on Common St. The funeral home was the first business that we researched in our new project.

The Morales Funeral Home, which was located at 171 Common St., was a thriving business until it was closed. Angie Morales (Kieny) was its last director and mortician. Her parents were Charlie and Francisca Sanchez Morales. Charlie was born in 1897 in Gruene and Francisca in Laredo in 1903. Together the couple had seven children. Angie, who was born in 1945, was the youngest. The other children are Carlota, Alfonso, Virginia, Francis, Martha, and Henry.

In 1921, Charlie Morales bought the property on which the Morales Funeral Home would be located. On the property was a small Sunday House and next to that was a two-story structure which, over the years, had served as a saloon downstairs and a small hotel with rooms for rent upstairs. There was a full basement for making wine and beer. Attached to this two-story building was another one-story addition probably used as a residence for the innkeeper. The buildings were constructed in the true German fachwerk style of clay bricks and cross timber. The clay used was plentiful in the Comaltown area, as many buildings were made of this easy-to-get material.

There is no information on the early owners, however, on the 1881 bird’s-eye view map of New Braunfels, the buildings can clearly be seen. They probably date back to the mid-1800s. They were at one time considered the oldest surviving buildings in Comaltown.

When Charlie Morales purchased the property, he removed the second story of the two- story building, probably due to the fragility of the clay. Other buildings in the area were converted to one-story due to the same situation. The basement became a cellar for can goods and vegetables. The Morales family lived in the remodeled structure and the other side became a funeral home in 1922. All of the Morales children were born at home.

Before buying the funeral home property, Charlie had worked for local contractors along with Rich Moeller. David Hartmann speculates that they worked for the Moeller Brothers Contracting firm consisting of Adolph and Alvin C. Moeller. All lived in the Comaltown area and Rich Moeller was a relative of the brothers.

Charlie Morales had several brothers who owned funeral homes in San Antonio, Austin, and Houston and so the mortician occupation was not new to him. Over the years over 30 family members were involved in the funeral business.

Angie grew up helping her dad and learning from him. She graduated from New Braunfels High School in 1965 and received her mortician’s license from the Commonwealth College of Science in Houston, doing an apprenticeship at Earthman’s Funeral Homes in Houston. Then in 1969 Angie returned to her hometown, New Braunfels, to help her father who retired, but remained active in the business. She became the first female funeral director and mortician in New Braunfels. She remembers some interesting times and she remembers hard times. Many families, due to lack of money, paid Charlie by bringing eggs, chickens, and even a goat. Some could not pay but received the funeral service anyway. Charlie Morales died in 1975.

To Angie, being a full time mortician and raising a family was no easy job. She remembers driving the hearse that the family named “Nellie Belle” hauling around young children that she helped raise.

Angie Morales maintained the funeral director position until 2006 when she closed the funeral home and turned the property over to her son. The buildings were subsequently torn down to make room for condominiums.

Most of the funeral records have been retained by Angie. Her former classmate at NBHS, Estella Delgado Farias, asked to make copies of the funeral home records. Estella was the person who did the research on the West End Hall and Baseball Parks. Angie agreed and Estella said that most of the 7,000 people in the records were buried in the Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Panteon Hidalgo Cemeteries. She also related that most of the funerals were conducted by the Morales Funeral Home. Estella and her husband, Robert Farias, are now working on the information which they are entering into a database. They are also searching for missing information and eventually will make all of this information available to the public at the Sophienburg Museum and Archives.

David and I are off to a running start. Well, maybe not exactly running, but we’re getting there. If you have information and pictures of Comaltown, we would love to use them.

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