e c&ntributions made
cultu.re of this state.
1't> /
1~
1749
"Wanderlust"-the adventurous urge to
see far places-brought a few Germans to
Texas before 1800. Felip de Sandoval,
who explored parts of Texas in 1749, told
of finding a German living at La Harpe's
trading post on upper Red River (in what
is now Bowie County, Texas ) . Later,
he came upon a Comanche rancheria in
the Texas Panhandle, where he found "a
German hunter and French Protestant"
trading with the Indians.
THE DURST BROTHERS
1800
Early in the 1800's three brothers, John
Durst, Joseph Durst, and Jacob Darst (the
latter used the original family name) en­tered
Texas from Louisiana. Born of Ger­man
immigrant parents in Spanish Mis­souri,
at least two of them were to leave a
sharp imprint on T exas history. Joseph,
oldest of the three, was alcalde (mayor)
at Nacogdoches in 1826 and a member of
the local Committee of Safety and Cor­respondence
at the beginning of the Texas
Revolution. He was active in Indian af­fairs
of the Republic. John Durst became
the protege and heir of wealthy Peter
Samuel Davenport, merchant and land­owner
at Nacogdoches. When Davenport
died, leaving Durst his Texas properties,
the young man became one of Texas'
wealthiest citizens. He operated from
Davenport's headquarters in the Old
Stone Fort at Nacogdoches. He became
active in public affairs, and was elected to
the Legislature of Coahuila-Texas in
1835. At Monclova (the capital) he was
warned of Santa Anna's plans to invade
Texas and in an unbelievable horseback
ride, r eached East Texas with the report
tJI . ..lJ Sib I(j E ro 12. T In tA$ /Ctun
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in twelve and a half days. He commanded
troops in East Texas during the Revolu­tion
and was a leader in Indian wars
which followed.
1
2,
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
1804
Following the Louisiana Purchase, a suc­cession
of filibustering expeditions were
mounted against Texas, each of which in­cluded
a few German adventurers. A scat­tering
of German settlers, who had be­come
Spanish subjects in Louisiana, also
moved into Spanish-held Texas after the
Purchase.
THE GUTIERREZ-MAGEE
EXPEDITION
1812
Several German soldiers of fortune were
in the Gutierrez-Magee expedition, which
"liberated" Texas in 1812-1813, and es­tablished
The Republic of the West, with
its green flag flying over the capitol at
San Antonio.
THE LONG EXPEDITION
1821
German names appear on the roster of Dr.
James Long's ill-fated expedition of 1821,
which declared Texas' independence, set
up a short-lived republic, and occupied
Nacogdoches and La Bahia before the
Spanish captured most of the invaders.
Later that year, five German names ap­peared
among the original 300 families
brought to Texas by Stephen F. Austin.
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ROSTER OF DR. LONG'S EXPEDITION IN 1821
J. VALENTINE HECKE
1821
Apparently the first known effort to pro­mote
Texas as a possible area for German
settlement was in the book, Reise durch
die Vereinigten Staaten von Nord Ameri­ka
in den lahren 1818 und 1819. Its
author, J. Valentine Hecke, had traveled
in Texas. He urged the Prussian govern­ment
to buy the territory from Spain as a
colonial venture. He pointed out political,
agricultural and commercial p()ssibilities,
and noted that it would provide an outlet
for the surplus population of Germany.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
SMYTH
1830
George Washington Smyth, son of a Ger­man
millwright, came to Texas from Ten­nessee
early in 1830. He settled at Nacog­doches,
taught school, became a surveyor
and attained wide influence as a public
figure. Smyth was surveyor for Bevil's
Settlement on the Sabine, and for the
colonial grants of Lorenzo de Zavala,
Joseph Vehlein and David G. Burnet, all
in East Texas. He represented his district
at the Convention of 1836, signed the
Texas Declaration of Independence, then
joined his family in the Runaway Scrape.
Smyth was appointed to survey the line
between Texas and the United States in
1839; the next year he was a member of
the commission to fix the boundary. He
served in the Congress of the Republic of
Texas, as Commissioner of the General
Land Office, and as a member of the Unit­ed
States Congress. He died while serving
as a delegate to the State's Constitutional
Convention of 1866.
CHARLESFORDTRAN~;p
ERNST AND ~O
1831
The beginning of German settlements in
Texas can be dated with the arrival in
1831 of Friedrich Ernst and Charles Ford­tran.
Ernst, former head gardener for the
Duke of Oldenburg, and Fordtran, a tan­ner
from Westphalia, had joined forces in
N ew York in their search for a new home.
A married man with a family, Ernst was
eligible for a full league of land in Aus­tin's
colony. He selected a league 17 miles
northwest of the colonial capital of San
Felipe. This league was astride the Gotier
Trace, main road from Austin's old col­ony
to his new one around Bastrop. Ford­tran,
a single man, was eligible for only
a quarter league. The two settled as
neighbors.
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FRIEDRICH ERNST ~ .
1832
Ernst, who was to become known as "The
Father of German Immigration in Tex­as,"
was ill-equipped for pioneering. He
did not know how to build a cabin, hated
guns, and had brought none of the neces­sary
equipment for clothing his family on
the frontier. Still, he had an unbounded
love for this new country, with its rich
land, favor a ble climate, political freedom,
and unlimited opportunities. All of this
he poured out in an eloquent letter to his
friend, Schwartz, back in Oldenburg, urg­ing
him to come to Texas at once.
Schwartz turned the letter over to his
local paper. It was published throughout
Oldenburg and many other German prin­cipalities.
Ernst's contagious enthusiasm
spread through the German states, start­ing
the first steady stream of migration to
Texas.
4.
GEORGE B. ERATH
1833
George B. Erath was a well-educated Ger­man
youth who had fled his native Aus­tria
to evade compulsory military service .
He landed in Texas in 1833 and soon was
working as a surveyor's helper . As a sur­veyor
he eventually contributed much to
expanding the Texas frontiers, but he is
also frequently remembered as a great
soldier and Indian fighter. Erath fought
as a private at San Jacinto and was a
member of the Somervell expedition
against Mier. Surveying on the frontier,
where it was nec~ssar, to keep one eye
GEORGE B. ERATH C ~ -b ~ I
peeled for Indians while the other sighted
the line, he gained a solid reputation as a
man of daring and skill. Erath laid out the
towns of Waco, Caldwell, and Stephen­ville,
as well as many headrights along
the Brazos. He served two terms in the
Texas Congress and was twice elected to
the Legislature after Statehood. He was in
uniform again during the Civil War, but
soon had to resign his commission because
of poor health. Back in Waco, he organ­ized
a company of Minute Men to guard
against marauding Indians. Erath Coun­ty,
which he explored, and to which he
led the first group of settlers, is named for
this German immigrant.
...--.........../.t 2 ;C~ 5 S'ifl 7(3 L/BRIt~f
ROBERT JUSTUS KLEBERG
1834
The German who established one of the
most famous Texas ranching families,
Robert Justus Kleberg, was one of the
thousands inspired to settle in Texas by
Friedrich Ernst's glowing letter. A well­to-
do young lawyer, Kleberg left his na­tive
Westphalia in 1834 with a group of
immigrants, including many of his wife's
relatives, the wealthy and titled von
Roeders. Shipwrecked off Galveston Is­land,
they underwent numerous hard­ships
before settling on a league fourteen
miles out of San Felipe, near Ernst and
Fordtran. The settlement of Germans
which grew up around them is known to­day
as Cat Spring. At the outbreak of the
Revolution, Kleberg and his kinsmen
joined the Texas army. They gave a good
account of themselves at San Jacinto.
Their women mounted horses and drove
their cattle to Louisiana until the war was
over. After the war, Kleberg served on the
Board of Land Commissioners for Austin
County before moving to DeWitt County.
R. J. Kleberg became a leading rancher
in his area before his death in 1888. His
descendants today own and operate the
famous King Ranch, of one and a quarter
millon acres in Nueces, Kenedy, Kleberg
and Willacy counties.
1831-1848
From the coming of Ernst and Fordtran in
1831 to the beginning of organized im­migration
in 1845, many Germans came
to Texas, singly, or in small groups. They
settled generally at Galveston, Houston,
or in the fertile valleys between the
Brazos and Colorado Rivers, where Ernst
had established a foothold. There were
only 218 Germans reported in the Texas
census of 1836, but by the 1840's there
were thousands. Gradually they moved
into Central Texas where they sought
good farmland. The reason the Germans
came in such numbers went far beyond
the mere wanderlust of earlier times.
There was the desire for economic and
social improvement. Many people be­lieved
that overpopulation in Germany
had produced too much competition for
available job openings. Others were un­happy
over the extremely uneven distri­bution
of wealth. Heavy taxation was an­other
complaint. Finally there was the
prospect of cheap land and higher wages
in the new world. Immigration was also
stimulated by political agitation in Ger­many.
In the 1840's university students
were demonstrating, and sometimes riot­ing,
in favor of more personal freedom.
As violence spread, the government took
oppressive counter measures. The climax
came in 1848 when thousands of the bet­ter
educated people left Germany. Many
of these came to Texas.
s-
"TEXAS AND HER
REVOLUTION"
1835
One of the most colorful personal accounts
of the Texas Revolution was first pub­lished
in Germany. It was the work of
Hermann Ehrenberg, a seventeen-year­old
adventurer who landed in Texas in
time to fight at the Siege of Bexar, late in
1835. Early the next year he and six Ger­man
friends were with Fannin's ill-fated
army at Goliad. Fannin's entire command
was captured and condemned to death.
Three of the Germans, including Ehren­berg,
were spared from the massacre and
eventually released by the Mexicans.
Ehrenberg returned to Germany in 1842
and became a teacher of English at the
University of Halle. There he edited the
journal of his experiences in the Texas
Revolution and completed an account of
the founding of the Lone Star Republic.
His Texas und seine Revolution went into
many editions in Germany and has since
been translated into English. Ehrenberg
returned to the United States and settled
in Arizona as a surveyor and map-maker,
road builder and mining engineer. He
was reportedly slain by Indians at an iso­lated
stage stop east of present day Palm
Springs, California, but a strong suspicion
persists that he was slain by the station­master
for the large sum of money which
he carried. Ehrenberg was buried at the
scene by his dear friend Mike Goldwater,
a noted Arizona pioneer who subsequent­ly
named the town of Ehrenberg for him.
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TITLE PAGE FROM Tee ~.t..H:;R4!EVOLUTION , BY HERMAN EHREN~G T£XfrNA- (!.Ol-Lct!Ttt:lN
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WILLIAM LANGENHEIM
1836
An inventive young German who helped
develop one of the standard parlor enter­tainments
of the 1890's, the stereopticon
slides, almost lost his chance for fame in
the Texas Revolution. William Langen­heim,
who had been in Texas since 1833,
was twenty when he was captured by the
Mexicans as a member of Francis W.
Johnson's scouting party in the battle of
San Patricio. When he was released from
a Mexican prison in 1837, Langenheim
went to New Orleans and enlisted with
the United States forces in the Seminole
War. When his fighting days ended, he
settled in Philadelphia, opened a photo­graphic
studio, and experimented with
many of the new processes being devel­oped
at that time. Langenheim greatly
improved the crude stereopticon process
for showing scenes in three dimensions.
He became one of the principal creators
of the dual slides for viewers which soon
graced practically every parlor in the
land.
WILLIAM LANGENHEIM &g-&G~
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FERDIN AND LINDHEIMER
New Braunfels Conservatiun Socieiy
FERDINAND LINDHEIMER
1836
As a member of a company of volunteers
from Mobile who landed in Texas a day
after the battle of San Jacinto, Ferdinand
Lindheimer missed his chance at military
glory. He started immediately on a course
which brought him international fame in
far different circles. A trained botanist,
Lindheimer collected specimens of Texas
plants, identified, dried, and shipped
them to leading museums. Working in an
area unexplored by scientists, he made
many valuable discoveries and was hon­ored
by having twenty species named for
him. For fifteen years Lindheimer roamed
the coastal plains, the Hill Country, and
other parts of Texas with his dogs and
botanical cart, collecting specimens
which he sent to George Englemann of
the Missouri Botanical Gardens and Asa
Grey of Harvard. In 1851 he settled down
at New Braunfels and started a new ca­reer
as editor of the Neu-Braunfelser Zei­tung.
A scholarly, aggressive editor, Lind­heimer
made his newspaper a force
throughout the growing German settle­ments
of Texas. He was a leader among
the Texas Germans who called for pub­licly-
supported education in the State
many years before it was to become a
reality.
INDUSTRY, TEXAS
1838
The first German town in Texas was
founded in 1838, by Friedrich Ernst who
laid out the town of Industry on his head­right
league. Having learned he could
successfully produce fine tobacco in the
area, Ernst planned to open a cigar fac­tory
that would provide employment for
the residents. Ernst wanted his town to
have a German population and offered
special inducements to his countrymen
to settle there. It became a favorite stop­ping
place for immigrants, on their way
from landings at Galveston and Houston,
to their new homesites in the interior.
,. 7.
L. C. ERVEND~G Sophienburg Museum
IS f IJfNDf)£l q
~ .
LOUIS ERVENDBERG
1839
Another highly educated immigrant who
left a lasting imprint on the life of Texas'
German settlements was the Rev. Louis
Cachand Ervendberg, who arrived in
Houston in 1839. He settled at Blumen­thal,
near Industry, ministered to German
congregations in that area, and led a move
to establish a German-English University
there in 1844. The supporters of this en­terprise
issued a charter, sold stock, re­ceived
a league of land from the state, and
built a two-story structure, but the school
never opened. Selected by Prince Solms­Braunfels
as minister for the Protestants
among his German immigrants, Ervend­berg
helped establish New Braunfels and
built its first church. In 1846, when hun­dreds
of immigrants became ill and died
in a trek from the coast, Pastor Ervend­berg
ministered to the sick, then esta b­lished
an orphanage near New Braunfels
for the children of those who had died on
the way. In 1850 he secured a charter for
a Western Texas University, to teach
scientific agriculture, near New Braun­fels.
When this plan failed, he left for
Mexico, where he was killed by bandits.
THE GERMAN UNION
1841
The German Union, founded at Houston
in 1841, was the first of many Germanic
fraternal, charitable, singing, dancing,
athletic, agricultural and political socie­ties
to be formed in Texas. It was char­tered
by the Texas Congress to assist the
sick and needy among German immi­grants
to Texas.
THE ADELSVEREIN
1842
German migration to Texas entered a new
phase in 1842, when a group of noblemen
met at Biebrich on the Rhine, near Mainz,
and formed a society to promote German
settlements in Texas. This poorly organ­ized,
uninformed, badly underfinanced
organization had a number of names, but
is best known as the "Society for the Pro­tection
of German Immigrants in Texas,"
or the M ainzer Adelsverein. In a series of
comic-opera business deals, th~ naive
noblemen were fleeced by several sets of
Texas scoundrels and wound up with a
tenuous claim on vast but uninhabitable
lands. Despite the great misery their
bumbling caused thousands of immi­grants
under their "protection," the
Adelsverein made the Germanic influence
the most important European factor in
early Texas development.
LEININGEN AND
BOOS·WALDECK
1843
The Adelsverein sent Prince Victor of
Leiningen and Count Joseph of Boos-W al­deck
to Texas in late 1843 to seek grants
for their settlements. After stops in Hous­ton
and Industry, the Prince went to Aus­tin
to seek concessions from the Texas Re­public.
None were granted, but Prince
Victor was so impressed with Texas that
he still made a favorable report to the
Society.
Count Joseph, staying at Industry, bought
a league of land a few miles north-
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DUKE ADOLPH OF NASSAU
west of the town, on Cummins Creek, in
what is now Fayette County. He named
it Nassau, in honor of Duke Adolph of
Nassau, Protector of the Society. Though
it was never used for settlers, Nassau
Farm served as a rest and recreation cen­ter
for the nobility who represented the
Adelsverein, when they were in Texas. It
was sold to Otto von Roeder when the
Society went broke.
BOURGEOIS AND DUCOS
1843
The first costly mistake of the Adelsverein
Sophienburg Museum
was the purchase of a worthless grant
near San Antonio from two Texas French­men,
Alexander Bourgeois and Armand
Ducos. Bourgeois was a typical early Tex­as
wheeler-dealer. Hearing of the Socie­ty's
interest in Texas, he caught a boat for
Germany, added a touch of royalty to his
name by calling himself Alexander Bour­geois,
Chevalier d' Orvanne, and charmed
the stolid Teutons into buying a grant
which had expired four months earlier.
Not satisfied with this, he had himself
named an officer of the Society, with sal­ary
and expense account.
Cj'
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THE fISHER·MILLER GRANT
1844
No sooner had the German noblemen di­vested
themselves of this worthless grant
than they fell prey to another pair of
Texas con men. These were, at least, of
German origin. Henry Francis Fisher
(Heinrich Franz Fischer) and Burchard
Miller (Brukart Mueller) had been in
Texas long enough to establish themselves
as land dealers and to secure a large acre­age
in West Texas. Their land, which lay
between the Llano and Colorado rivers,
was largely unsuited to farming and
wholly occupied by hostile Indians. With
only ten months left before their conces­sion
expired, Fisher and Miller peddled
their white elephant to the Adelsverein.
There were over three million acres, the
surveying of which would alone take
more than the Society's original capital of
$80,000. The Society acquired no title to
the land, buying merely the obligation to
settle a number of immigrants on it.
"The folly and short-sightedness that
characterized the leaders was almost
puerile. They possessed little business
ability, and were completely taken in by
intriguing adventurers."-German quote
of the time, relating to the Adelsverein.
t {,j- ii' IEc- If? SI1'17E '~,:"', :':;:/_ _
MAP OF THE FISHER-MILLER GRANT ': - - - ~ . -~ ~3 ,._------- ,- " :,! ~. ' II ~ , • I _. tit 4
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Sophienburg Museum
PRINCE CARL OF
SOLMS·BRAUNFELS
1844
Chosen by members of the Adelsverein
as Commissioner General for the colony,
Prince Carl arrived at Galveston in July,
1844, with Bourgeois as his assistant. The
dashing nobleman was no match for the
myriad practical problems which con­fronted
him during his ten and a half
months in Texas. By the time he had de­termined
that the Bourgeois-Ducos grant
was worthless and had dismissed Bour­geois,
the Prince was faced with the sec­ond,
equally disastrous, purchase by the
Society. Knowing the Fisher-Miller grant
could not be occupied until something
was done about the Indians, he started ne­gotiating
for lands in a more settled re­gion
where the onrushing immigrants
might be temporarily located. He bought
a tract on Lavaca Bay to use as a landing
place from which the new arrivals would
be supplied and organized for their jour­ney
to the interior. The Prince did his
royal best to care for the people entrusted
to him. Unfortunately, he considered it
beneath his dignity to worry about mon­ey,
or even keep an account of the obliga­tions
he made.
CARLSHAFEN
1844
Three shiploads of Germans arrived on
the Texas coast in December, 1844. They
debarked at the port which Prince Solms
had bought and named Carlshafen (later
known as Indianola) . A warehouse and
other facilities had been erected at Carls­hafen,
but there were no accommoda­tions
for the hundreds of immigrants,
weary and sick from a long sea voyage.
They camped on the open beach in wet
winter weather, and were impatient to
move inland to the homes which had been
promised them.
INDIANOLA
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Library of Congress
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NEW BRAUNFELS
1845
While his restless charges waited at Carls­hafen,
Prince Carl rode to San Antonio
and bought, from the Veramendi family,
a beautiful tract of well-watered, wooded
land on the Comal River. This was intend­ed
to serve as a temporary settlement for
the horde of immigrants, and a way-sta-
Ii-tion
on the route to the . Fisher-Miller
grant. On March 21, 1845, the Prince led
the remnants of his bedraggled party onto
the land and established a town, naming
it after his home province of Braunfels.
The temporary settlement became per­manent,
and the way-station one of the
most solid German towns in Texas. New
Braunfels is still one of the most charming
of Texas towns.
1845
Along with the hard-working peasants,
who made up the majority of the Society'S
immigrants, the German influx brought
many highly-educated intellectuals to
early Texas. They greatly enriched the
Texas heritage in music, science, art and
literature. Probably the first German
poem written on Texas soil was by Prince
Carl of Solms-Braunfels.
THE SOPHIENBURG
1845
One of the most imposing buildings in the
new town on the Comal was a fortified
headquarters for Prince Carl and his
staff, built on a low hill above New
Braunfels. Named for the Prince's fiancee,
Princess Sophia of Salm-Salm, the Sophi­ertburg
stood until 1866. On the twenty­fifth
anniversary of the founding of the
town, survivors of the original settlers
had their picture made in front of the
Sophienburg ruin.
JOHN O. MEUSEBACH
1845
When affairs of the colony became des­perately
muddled as a result of Prince
Carl's autocratic methods and non-exist­ent
accounting, the Society chose a well­educated,
wealthy, and idealistic young
jurist to succeed him. Baron Ottfried Hans
von Muesebach was a perfect choice­intelligent,
learned, and practical. The
day he sailed for Texas he dropped his
noble title and started in the new land
as plain John O. Meusebach. Arriving at
ORIGINAL GERMAN SETTLERS IN FRONT OF THE SOPHIENBURG ABOUT 1878 Oscar Haas
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JOHN o. MEUSEBACH b ~ ~ 7 ?;r~lrde K~ng
Galveston in April 1845, he had spent
most of the Society'S available funds to
free Prince Solms from his creditors.
At every stop, he found the affairs of
the colony in worse shape. The settlers
were disgruntled, unwilling to work,
poorly provisioned, and inadequately
housed. He knew more boatloads were on
their way from Germany. Meusebach
straightened out the tangled finances of
the colony, established credit in Texas,
and prepared to expand the Society'S
holdings to make room for the oncoming
flood of immigrants.
i3
HERMANN F. SEELE
1845
Soon after Commissioner Meusebach's ar­rival,
Hermann Friedrich Seele opened at
New Braunfels the first German-English
school in Central Texas. Seele had been in
Texas since 1843. He was one of the first
settlers at New Braunfels, and was a lead­er
in social and cultural activities. He
later served as County Clerk of Comal
County, Civil War mayor of New Braun­fels,
and as a member of the Texas Legis­lature.
HERMANN SEELE
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HOFFMANN vON ~-...
FALLERSLEBEN
1846
Early in 1846, when a group of Germans
headed by Pastor Adolf Fuchs of Meck­lenburg
were sailing for Texas, the fa­mous
poet, Hoffmann von Fallersleben,
wrote a song, "The Star of Texas," in
honor of the occasion. Soon he wrote a
score of other Texas songs, published
them in a small German songbook, and
sent them to his Texas friends. His "Tex­anische
Lieder" became quite popular
among settlers in the new country. Von
Fallersleben is best remembered as the
author of "Deutschland Uber Alles," the
German national anthem.
FREDERICKSBURG
1846
With New Braunfels occupied and more
immigrants on the way, Meusebach
sought land for another way station near­er
the Fisher-Miller grant. He bought on
credit 10,000 acres in the Hill Country, 80
miles northwest of New Braunfels. In
May of 1846 he led the first train of 120
immigrants to the site on which he found­ed
the town of Fredericksburg.
COMANCHE TREATY
1847
The goal of settling on the Fisher-Miller
grant was blocked by hostile Indians.
John Meusebach made peace with the less
warlike Waco tribe, then set out to deal
with the fierce Comanches. In January of
1847 he left with 40 men for the Coman­che
camps on the San Saba River. When
the time came for negotiations to begin,
Muesebach rode into the Comanche camp
emptying his rifle so that the Indians
might know that he W<;lS unarmed and un­afraid.
He won their respect with his
courage and their confidence with his
frankness. The Comanches agreed to al­low
the Germans to explore the territory,
and on March 2, 1847, signed a treaty
which allowed them to enter the grant
and make settlements. This remarkable
treaty was the only one made by whites
and Indians in Texas which was kept
rigorously on both sides.
THE FREDERICKSBURG
EASTER FIRES
1847
An enduring Hill Country tradition came
about as a result of the Meusebach-Co­manche
negotiations. While Meusebach
and his men were traveling among the
Indians, the Indians themselves placed a
watch on the town of Fredericksburg to
insure against treachery. They built sig-
SIGNING OF THE MEUSEBACH-COMANCHE TREATY
nal fires on the hills around the town. As
long as the fires blazed high, the tribes­men
in the distant camps would know
that all was well. The children in the
German settlement were frightened when
they saw the fires, but a pioneer mother
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fa bricated a story that it was only the
Easter Rabbit at work-cooking eggs in
great cauldrons and then dying them with
wildflowers gathered from the hills. The
pageant of the Easter Fires has been con­tinued
at Fredericksburg since that time.
Mrs. Clyde King
/6
BETTINA COLONY
1847
Opening of the Fisher-Miller Grant al­lowed
for rapid expansion of the German
settlements. The towns of Castell and
Leiningen were founded within limits of
the grant. One of the most interesting set­tlements,
at the junction of Elm Creek and
the Llano River, was the Bettina Colony.
It was organized along communal lines
by a group of German University schol­ars,
and named for Bettina von Arnim, a
leading German intellectual of h er day.
"The Forty" (Die Vierziger) who made
up the founding group were brilliant pro­fessional
men, artists, and musicians.
None were farmers or craftsmen. With
"too many chiefs and no Indians," the
venture soon failed. Its dispersal scattered
much finely trained talent among the
German towns. Co
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BETTINA VON ARNIM b Z ':/ho6f...) &,fin4. vt>J,atNlnr.
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GUSTAV SCHLEICHER
1847
Gustav Schleicher, one of the Bettina
founders, was educated in engineering
and agriculture. When Bettina collapsed,
he moved to San Antonio. There he prac­ticed
law and supervised construction of a
railroad. He served in the Texas Legisla­ture
before the Civil War, was an engi­neer
for the Confederacy, and in the post­war
period went to the United States
Congress for three terms. Schleicher
County in West Texas was named for
him.
DR. FERDINAND HERFF
1847
Another very talented member of the
Bettina group was Dr. Ferdinand Herff,
a highly skilled surgeon who had made a
distinguished record in the Hessian Army.
Although the Bettina Colony soon failed,
Herff had one highly unusual experience
there. Following a successful cataract op­eration
on the eye of a Comanche brave,
the Indian promised 19 bring Dr. Herff a
young girl as an expression of his grati­tude.
The promise was not taken seriously
until six months later when the brave re­turned
with a Mexican girl. Not knowing
what else to do, Dr. Herff turned her over
to the only other woman in the colony
as a cook's helper. Subsequently, the girl
married Hermann Spiess who had suc­ceeded
John o. Meusebach as commis­sioner
of the Adelsverein.
When the Bettina experiment collapsed,
Dr. Herff moved first to New Braunfels,
then to San Antonio where he became the
leading pioneer doctor. Many of the sur­gical
operations he performed were medi­cal
"first's." A man of great intellectual
force, he was influential in the political
and cultural circles of San Antonio ,
throughout his career. He continued the
practice of medicine until the age of
eighty-seven. At the time of his death,
he was one of the most widely respected
and loved persons of his community.
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NIMITZ HOTEL
1847
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A Texas landmark for many generations
was the quaint Nimitz Hotel at Freder­icksburg.
It was built and operated by
Capt. Charles H. Nimitz, who had come
to the town in 1847, after a career on the
riverboats. Nimitz built a series of hotels
in the town, each larger and more splen­did
than the last. His establishment,
which included the hotel, casino, saloon,
/i
Fredericksburg Historical Society
general store and brewery, as well as
stables, became a favorite stopping place
on the main military road from San An­tonio
to El Paso. Its register contained the
names of such famous guests as R. E. Lee,
U. S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes and the
infamous "Mr. Howard," better known as
Jesse James. Nimitz was a genial host, a
power in the German country, and a
friend of many of his distinguished
guests.
VIKTOR BRACHT
1848
Viktor Bracht, a native of Dusseldorf, had
genuine enthusiasm for Texas and Tex­ans.
He arrived in 1845 as an employee of
the Adelsverein. Landing at Galveston,
he promptly headed for New Braunfels,
where he established a home. For the
next two years he traveled extensively in
the German areas on behalf of his em­ployer.
Dissatisfied with existing immi­grant
guidebooks, Bracht wrote one of his
own in which he attempted to be realistic
about the advantages and disadvantages
of moving to Texas. His book gave high
praise to the character of the people, al­though
he noted a talent for sharp dealing
among the menfolk. The women, he said,
liked nothing better than to "sit unthink­ing
and at ease in their rocking chairs."
But he admired the confident attitude of
the people and the air of freedom in
which they flourished.
VICTOR BRACHT ,g / 10 ~ Roland Eisenhauer
OTTOMAR VON BEHR
1848
Pioneer of the Hill Country ranching in­dustry
was Ottomar von Behr, a scholarly
sheepman who settled near the village of
Sisterdale in 1848. He wrote a very practi­cal
book on farming and ranching in Tex­as,
with emphasis on the possibilities of
sheep raising. Published in Leipzig, and
widely circulated among prospective im­migrants,
his "Good Advice for Immi­grants"
laid the foundations for stable
agricultural development among the Ger­mans
of Texas.
FERDINAND VON ROEMER
1849
One of the most valuable surveys of Texas
flora, fauna and geology, still considered a
classic, was published in Germany in
1849. Texas by Ferdinand von Roemer
has since been translated and republished
several times. The young German paleon­tologist
was sent by the Berlin Academy
of Science to make a geological survey of
Texas, and especially of the area within
the Adelsverein grant. Von Roemer was
a keen observer and a diligent worker. In
gathering his scientific specimens, he was
greatly aided by the children of the Ger­man
settlements, who regarded him as
their friend. After two years of explora­tion,
he returned to Germany where he
produced a book entitled, simply, Texas.
This delightfully written volume is im­portant
not only for its wealth of infor­mation
about the natural setting, but for
its penetrating insights into the social
customs of the times. Von Roemer's great
affection for Texas is evidenced in the
FERDINAND ROEMER b ~ /b 7 Lf F.l/..J . SItl701V!:JS ) /11)e . ie,.de'MCV", qfV07< Ro~ II a1t"I"I~fa.w 'l.LCr!(;7£·s,t-
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concluding lines of his book: "During my main rich and pleasant memories; and
stay of more than a year I had grown to from afar I shall always follow with live-love
the beautiful land of meadows, to ly interest the further development of the
which belongs a great future. It moved country. May its broad, green prairies
me to sorrow that I must say farewell to become the habitation of a great and
the land forever. To me there still re- happy people!"
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PASTOR ADOLF FUCHS
1849
In 1849 Pastor Adolph Fuchs petitioned
the Texas Legislature for financial aid
to the Cat Spring School. This was the
forerunner of another petition by Texas
Germans for general state support of
public schools. The Germans were among
the first to promote this now-accepted
practice in Texas. Pastor Fuchs subse­quently
left the ministry and tried farm­ing,
then became interested in education.
He taught music at Baylor Female Col­lege
at Independence, before moving to
Cypress Mill, in the Hill Country, where
he died. "..
ADOLPH FUCHS ~ 1> ~ 't ~ Barker History Center
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THE von ROSENBERG
FAMILY: MAPMAKERS
1849
Three generations of the von Rosenbergs
had distinguished careers as mapmakers
in Texas. Karl Wilhelm von Rosenberg,
a licensed surveyor and architect, left
Germany amid political and economic
turmoil late in 1849. At the age of 28 he
brought his entire family-wife, parents,
and eight brothers and sisters-to Texas.
They settled near Round Top in Fayette
County, where Wilhelm bought a small
farm. In 1856 he sold the farm and moved
to Austin, obtaining employment as a
draftsman at the General Land Office. By
1861 he was chief drqftsman. His career
was interrupted by the Civil War, in
which he served as a topographical engi­neer
for the Confederacy. He returned to
the Land Office until Reconstruction be­gan,
then opened a land agency of his
own. He prospered in this work until his
death in 1901.
His son Ernst became a draftsman in
the General Land Office in 1876, and
eventually rose to' chief draftsman. But
for a two-year interval, he continued
there until his death in 1915. Two of
Ernst's sons, Herman and Ernest, were
topographers with the old State Reclama­tion
Department when that agency was
consolidated with the General Land Office
in 1939. Herman resigned because of ill
health in 1952, and Ernest retired in
1954. When the Red River boundary dis­pute
arose between Texas and Oklahoma
in the 1920's, the von Rosenbergs and the
Penick brothers did the topographical
work for the state attorney general's
7° ...... ):.
Austin-Travis County Collection
office. Their work was so outstanding that
both the State of Oklahoma and the fed­eral
government discarded their own and
asked permission to use the Texas maps.
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CONCLUSION
Over 400,000 persons of at least one-half
German descent were estimated to be liv­ing
in Texas in 1960. Excepting the large
Anglo element in the population, German
Texans are outnumbered only by Negro
and Mexican Texans. In medicine, in
engineering, in ranching, and in many
other fields, German Texans are heavy
contributors to the state's general pros-
3j-
!va lle,... .[. /"01' t I 4ut:.{..'v.. t (!o/lr- Gillespie Countr Historical Societr
perity. Their distinctive architecture- German sausage and the special German
including Catholic, Lutheran, and Meth- touch on meat, dairy, and pastry delica-odist
churches-dominates the land in a cies. All Texans, however, have incorpo-large
area of Central Texas. While meld- rated into their Yuletide observance the
ing into the general pattern of Texas life, Christmas tree, which German settlers
they retain in a number of regions the brought to Texas in the 1840's. Today
traditional German customs of oompah German Texans continue with the con-bands,
singing societies (maennercholrs), structive hand of their forebearers.
and exhibition marksmanship contests
(schutzenfests). Most Texans enjoy good