THE TEXIANS
AND THE TEXANS
THE UNIVERSITY
OF TEXAS
INSTITUTE OF
TEXAN CULTURES
AT SAN ANTONIO
..
The University of Texas
Institute of Texan Cultures
at San Antonio
1981
THE TEXIANS AND TEXANS
A series dealing with the many peoples who have contributed to the history
and heritage of Texas. Now in print:
Pamphlets- The Indian Texans, The German Texans, The Norwegian
Texans, The Mexican Texans (in English), Los Tejanos Mexicanos (in
Spanish), The Spanish Texans, The Polish Texans, The Czech Texans,
The French Texans, The Italian Texans, The Greek Texans, The Jewish
Texans, The Syrian and Lebanese Texans, The Afro-American Texans,
The Belgian Texans, The Swiss Texans, The Chinese Texans and The
Anglo-American Texans.
Books- The Irish Texans, The Danish Texans and The German Texans .
..
The Swiss Texans
Principal Researcher: William T. Field Jr.
©1977: The University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio
Jack R. Maguire, Executive Director
Pat Maguire, Director of Publications and Coordinator of Programs
Designer: Maria Eugenia Spencer
First Edition, Second Printing, 1981
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 77-21386
International Standard Book Number 0-933164-92-0
This publication was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Houston
Endowment, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America.
THE SWISS TEXANS
The most cosmopolitan immigrants to come to
Texas with the least reason for coming were the
Swiss. Ideological oppression, ~conomic depres­sions
and natural catastrophes caused many
Europeans to immigrate to America during the
nineteenth century. The Swiss, however, enjoyed
a relatively high standard of living under a pro­gressive
and stable government. The great major­ity
of Swiss who immigrated did so individually to
seek even greater opportunities and to satisfy
personal career goals.
Switzerland was recognized as the banking
center of Europe, it rivaled England in textile
production , and it had attained a world-wide
reputation as a manufacturer of precision instru­ments.
The tiny country was a well-knit federa­tion
. It had compulsory education, welfare pro­grams
for its workers and firmly established tradi­tions
of civil and religious freedom. The Academy
of Geneva, later the University, was respected as
a world center of intellectual activities.
Still the Swiss came, never in great numbers
but always in a steady stream. Most of the Swiss
immigrants prospered, and some revisited their
homeland and persuaded others to follow. Wher­ever
they settled -whether in the German and
French communities where their familiarity with
the language was helpful or in the Anglo­American
areas- they added their own distinctive
cultural enrichment to society.
1
Immigrants departing for the West
The Swiss have long been recognized as
among those immigrants most readily assimilated
into American culture . Having a common heri­tage
of democracy and personal freedom , they
found themselves at home under the American
form of government. Some became identified as
Germans or French when they moved into areas
occupied by immigrants from those countries.
The story of their residence in Texas has been
marked by unusual success in a wide variety of
occupations. The Swiss have been ranchers,
newspapermen and natural scientists; religious,
military and entertainment figures ; and one has
been a president of the United States.
THE SWISS COME TO SPANISH TEXAS
As early as 1819 a group of Swiss merchants in
Philadelphia conceived a plan to settle 10,000 of
their countrymen in Texas, a Spanish possession.
Their proposal was the first major non-Spanish
colonization project approved by the Spanish
government. The project, however, was never
implemented since the Swiss settlers did not
come.
The following year the same group presented a
similar petition to the United States Congress for
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another colonization effort.
No mention was made of the
previous proposal to Spain. Relations
between Spain and the United
States were strained at that time;
both countries laid some claim
to Texas. The petition indi­cated
that the Swiss wanted
Again, the project was never realized.
In 1821 , however, two enterprising Swiss did
settle in Texas on their own . They were Henry
and Louis Rueg of Rolle , Switzerland . Both had
arrived in the United States in 1818, bringing
with them several Dutch families to settle on the
Red River near Compti, Louisiana. The colony
was soon abandoned, and the Rueg brothers
proceeded to Texas in 1821 as horse and mule
traders. They opened a mercantile business at
Nacogdoches and when the Department of
Nacogdoches was created in 1834, Henry Rueg
was appointed political chief.
/
Another early Swiss immigrant, Jean Louis
Berlandier of Geneva came to Texas almost by
accident. He was chosen by August Pyrame de
Candolle , a prominent Genevese naturalist, to
make botanical collections in Mexico. Berlandier
arrived in December 1826 and became the
botanist for the Mexican Boundary Commission
which went north under the direction of Manuel
de Mier yTeran in 1827.
During March. April and May of 1828 the
botanist made collections around San Antonio,
Gonzales and San Felipe. In addition , he com­piled
the first major ethnographic study of Texas
Indians. Berlandier proved himself as one of the
most prolific and versatile writers of the American
West. His manuscripts on the geography, natural
resources, plant and animal life, and history and
ethnology ofT ex as are masterpieces of detail.
Berlandier's activities came as relations be­tween
Mexico and Texas had reached the breaking
point. As early as 1828 General Manuel de Mier y
Teran, leader of the Mexican Boundary Com­mission
, reported that seeds of rebellion were
being sown among Stephen F. Austin's colonists .
A year later, when he had been made common­dante
general of the eastern provinces of Mexico,
he offered a plan to control the situation: "The
colonization of Texas with
the Swiss and German
colonists whose language
and customs, being differ­ent
from those of our
neighbors, will make less
dangerous the nearness of
the latter."
The Mexican govern­ment
reacted to Teran's
alarm with the Decree of
Manuel de Mier y Teran
April6 , 1830, designed to
stem the Anglo-American influx. The Texians, as
the Texas settlers were called, were infuriated .
Where would their future population come from?
Yet, the Texas Gazette editorialized that "a
French , Swiss, or German emigration would
greatly promote the prosperity of Texas by intro­ducing
at once the cultivation of the grape and the
manufacture of wine." Perhaps the Gazette editor
was unaware that individual Swiss were already
making their way to this new frontier.
Bernard Scherrer arrived in Texas from
Switzerland in the spring of 1832. Before settling
permanently, however, the young man sought his
fortune in a journey up the Mississippi River,
going as far as Missouri. The Texas frontier
proved more to his liking, however, and Scherrer
obtained his first land grant near New Ulm in
Colorado County.
He later secured a tract in Fayette County, near
one of the earliest German settlements in the
state. His industry, leadership and education
earned the respect of his fellow colonists, and he
was elected justice of the peace for Fayette
County in 1838.
Peter Fullinwider, of Swiss parentage, was the
first Presbyterian missionary to visit Texas. Born
and educated in Kentucky, he graduated from the
Princeton Theological Seminary. He did not re­main
long in New Jersey, but came to Mississippi
in 1831. Late that year he made a missionary tour
through east Texas, probably from San Augustine
to San Felipe . For the next decade he divided his
time and ministerial efforts between Mississippi
and Texas. Since Mexican authorities theoretically
allowed no Protestant preaching, Fullinwider and
his wife supported themselves in Texas by
teaching and by distributing Bibles and other
religious literature .
A colleague remembered Fullinwider as a man
of "rather robust form , five feet , ten or eleven
inches tall, and strongly built. He limped a little in
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walking , because of a defective foot. His eyes
were of a light gray. His hair, which was never cut
short, was sandy and curly. His face was round
and full , with intelligent expression. He was a
man of fine education and a good preacher."
Another friend said of him that "his old horses
and he were equal to any emergency. Cold lunch
and blanket and saddlebags and grass for his
horses were all he asked. 'Here!' was his reply
when his name was called ."
The Fullinwiders were living near present-day
Palestine when the Texas Revolution began . For
about nine years Fullinwider preached in various
east central Texas communities. In each of these
places he strived to awaken interest in a college;
so, when Austin College was located at Huntsville,
he called it home. At nearby Madisonville he
organized the Bethel Church and ministered to its
congregation twice a month until his death from
yellow fever in 1867.
SWISS SETTLERS HELP WIN
INDEPENDENCE
Many Swiss settlers contributed to Texas inde­pendence.
Charles and Mary Amsler had settled
at Cat Spring in 1834. Quickly they found them­selves
caught up in the Revolution. Years later
Amsler recollected that "In the autumn of 1835
THE TEXAS GAZETTE.
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my wife and I were picking cotton on Piney Creek
when I learned that men were needed to strength­en
our army, which was then besieging San
Antonio ." Borrowing a horse and rifle , he joined
the action .
After participating in the storming of Bexar, he
followed the footbound expedition of Colonels
Grant and Johnson to the Rio Grande , but sick­ness
caused him to turn back near Refugio .
Accommodating friends provided him with a
Andrew Baldinger 1813·1880
4
horse, and he started home, spending the first
night near Goliad. While boiling his predawn
coffee, he was greeted by a sociable old gentle­man
who said he was bearing dispatches for
Colonel Fannin. When Amsler brought their
horses for remounting, the stranger aimed a
cocked rifle at him saying, "You are my prisoner."
Demanding to know why, Amsler was told, "for
stealing that horse."
The greatly surprised Amsler protested his
innocence, showed a good conduct certificate
from his commander at Bexar, and related his
poverty-stricken condition. His capturer seemed
moved and gave the Swiss immigrant two dollars
saying, "This is all the money I have, but I can do
without it and it may relieve you a little." Amsler
recovered his astonishment. "I now enquired the
name of my generous captor. He told me it was
Smith - Deaf Smith!"
Amsler was exonerated of the theft charge and
was released . His homeward journey was a peri­lous
one because Indian raiders were taking
murderous advantage of the confusion aroused
by the settlers' wild flight from Santa Anna's
advancing army.
When the war was over, Amsler farmed , oper­ated
a stagecoach stop, and ran a cotton gin at
Cat Spring. He returned to Switzerland several
times to bring back able-bodied men with their
families. The men then worked for Amsler in or­der
to repay the cost of passage to Texas. In 1866
he moved to Montgomery County, where he and
his son, Charles, operated a prosperous lumber
business. He died in 1872, leaving descendants
who have made worthwhile contributions as edu­cators
and professional persons. One of them,
Margaret Amsler, has had a distinguished career
as a law professor at Baylor University.
There is no doubt that Europeans followed the
Texas Revolution with great interest. By an 1836
act of the Diplomatic Department of Bern
Canton, Switzerland, no further immigration of
Swiss citizens to Texas was permitted until the ces­sation
of hostilities. With the establishment of the
Republic of Texas, the ban must have been lifted,
for in a short time Swiss immigration resumed.
One of the first arrivals in Texas after the ban
on Swiss immigration had been lifted was Andrew
Baldinger, who came early in 1837. He settled in
Galveston before the city was organized and
opened one of its first two bakeries. There was
rivalry between Baldinger and the other baker,
Christopher Fox, as to which would bake the first
loaf of bread in the new city. Fox, who hired the
only brick mason in town, finished his ovens first
and won the honor.
Houston had its own Swiss baker, John
Hermann. As a youth Hermann had gone to Paris
to learn his trade. He was there when Napoleon
returned from exile. The lad joined his army and
fought under the great general at Waterloo.
Hermann later made his first trip to America in
1821, stayed four years, then returned to
Switzerland to be married. The couple lived in
Vera Cruz, Mexico, until 1836 when they moved
to New Orleans. There Hermann was supposed to
administer his deceased father-in-law's estate, but
he found that the property had already been sold
far below its market value. After an unsuccessful
court challenge, he was left almost penniless.
Looking for a new start, Hermann arrived in
Houston in 1838 with his wife , their three chil­dren
and five dollars in his pocket. His wife sold
her jewelry soon after their arrival , so that they
could open a business. The sale of the jewelry
enabled John to buy flour and sugar with which to
start his bakery. He sold his products to passen­gers
aboard the boats that plied Buffalo Bayou.
The business prospered, but four years later he
sold out to become a dairyman~ He continued this
enterprise until his death in 1862.
John and Verina Hermann were parents of
several, children, but only their son George
reached middle age . After a skimpy formal edu­cation
, he enlisted with the 26th Texas Cavalry
and participated in the Red River campaign
during the Civil War. When the fighting ended
George returned to Houston , where he operated
a sawmill and sold cordwood in what is now
Hermann Park, clerked in a store , and drove
other people's cattle (and later his own) to market.
He also began buying small parcels of land
Drawing of Galveston waterfront, 1855
5
George Hermann, Houston philanthropist
throughout the Houston area and after 1884
devoted himself exclusively to real estate.
In the course of his business dealings George
Hermann had signed the note of a man who
bought a scrub oak thicket near Humble. When
the buyer could not meet his payments, Hermann
took over the note and acquired the land . Later
he tried unsuccessfully to sell the property at 25
cents per acre. In 1903 oil was discovered on the
tract, and he became rich beyond his wildest
dreams.
Nevertheless Hermann led a very frugal exis­tence.
While spending little for his own comfort,
Hermann was secretively generous with others.
He visited poor people when they were ill, taking
food and often sitting up with them. With his great
wealth he indulged himself in a single, consuming
pastime: visiting doctors and hospitals wherever
he traveled . As early as 1893 he offered his native
city a choice of two sites for a charity hospital, but
no action was taken.
At his death in 1914, Hermann's will provided
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$2.5 million for a hospital to be operated by a self­perpetuating
board of trustees. Legal delays
prevented its opening until 1925. He also left his
old home site as "a breathing space" for his fellow
Houstonians. This is Hermann Square, adjacent
to City Hall. A few miles south, near Rice Univer­sity,
he donated 278 acres of wooded land to be
known as Hermann Park . With later additions,
that park now embraces 400 acres and is one of the
most important recreational facilities in Houston .
BAKERS, DAIRYMEN, FARMERS
AND BANKERS BUILD TEXAS
After Texas won her independence, keeping it
proved a challenge. Strained relations with
Mexico worsened after the Santa Fe Expedition of
1841. This disastrous adventure was organized by
President Mirabeau Lamar to open trade with
Mexico. Three natives of Switzerland - Nicholas
Ladner, Conrad Meuly and John Rahm- were
among those captured, force-marched to Mexico
City and imprisoned . All three were later re ­leased
and returned safely to Texa.s.
Nicholas Ladner came to Texas originally to
volunteer in the army of the Republic. After his
release from the Mexican prisQn he settled in San
Antonio and became a dairyman. Through the
years he accumulated considerable property and
local influence. He died in 1901 at his home on
South Alamo Street. A son , August Ladner, was
the well-known mayor of Yorktown, Texas, for
many years.
Conrad Meuly came toT ex as with $1 ,600 worth
of silk dress goods and laces just in time to join the
Santa Fe Expedition . His stock of merchandise
was a total loss. After his release from prison he
began his return to Texas with another Swiss fron­tiersman
and expedition member, John Rahm.
They suffered grave hardships, but both arrived
safely.
Meuly opened a bakery in Houston and a year
later took leave to visit New Orleans where he
married Margaret Rahm, sister of his friend John .
In 1848 the couple located in Corpus Christi and
opened a bakery on Water Street. Sales to
General Zachary Taylor's Mexico-bound army
gave the business a rousing start. He added
groceries and dry goods to his stock and he
became quite a successful Gulf Coast merchant.
John Jacob Rahm's inprisonment in Mexico
did not dampen his lust for adventure. He enlisted
in Captain John C. Hays's Texas Ranger Com-
7
pany in 1843 and a year later survived capture
by Indians on the Coma! River while accom­panying
a survey expedition. Soon after, he
persuaded Captain Hays to aid a group of Ger­man
immigrants bound for Castroville. This as­sistance
was noted by Prince Carl of Solms­Braunfels,
agent for the German Immigration
Society and the prince recommended that the
society present the Rangers with rifles as a token
of their appreciation . Rham's rifle was in­scribed:
"Der Verein zum Schutze Deutscher
Einwanderer in Texas als Anerkennung dem
Schweizer Johann Rahm."
It was on John Rahm's advice that Prince Carl
purchased the 1265-acre Veramendi tract on the
Guadalupe and Coma! Rivers where the town of
New Braunfels was founded. Rahm was appoint­ted
the official butcher for the German Im­migration
Society and was given 4-1/2 acres of
land for "Rahm's Butchery." However, he had
not been settled long in New Braunfels when he
meta violent and untimely death.
Following the Santa Fe Expedition, a different
sort of crisis faced the Texas Republic. On a crisp
December day in 1842 "Dutch John" Wahren­berger
overheard a group of men conspiring to
remove the archives from the capitol at Austin.
President Sam Houston wanted to locate the
seat of government in the coastal city that bore his
name. The Mexican invasions of 1842 gave him
the excuse he sought. Quickly Wahrenberger
spread word of the plot and the ensuing crisis
became known as the "Archive War." Led by a
doughty boardinghouse keeper, Mrs. Angelina
Eberly, the Austinites tried to discourage the
raiders. They fired an antiquated cannon filled
with grapeshot at the Land Office Building, where
the records were stored. Little damage was done ;
the conspirators made their escape . A hastily
organized posse followed and rescued the ar­chives
and returned them to Austin.
No one knows how the Swiss-born Wahren­berger
received the nickname "Dutch John ."
History does relate , though, that he immigrated
to New Orleans in 1836 and then became an
Austin resident when the village was yet known as
Waterloo. At first he made a living by selling
vegetables from his garden on Waller Creek. One
day, near the site of the present Governor's Man­sion,
he was attacked by Indian renegades. Their
arrows were deflected by the sack of corn meal
that he carried in his arms. Wahrenberger sur­vived
to become a widely respected businessman,
owning a hotel , cafe- and bakery.
Henry Rosenberg , who settled at Galveston in
1843, was a different type of Swiss builder. From
his position as clerk in a dry goods store, he
became the owner and by 1850 operated the
largest mercantile outfit in Texas. A year later he
married the young woman who owned an ad­joining
millinery shop.
In 1874 Rosenberg organized the Galveston
Bank and Trust Company. He also served as
director of the Galveston City Railway Company
and the Galveston Wharf Company. He was a city
alderman from 1871 to 1872 and again from
1885 to 1887. In addition he was Swiss consul,
president of the Galveston Orphans Home and
owner of several downtown buildings .
When Rosenberg died in 1893 his will provided
bequests for the Episcopal Church, the
orphanage, various charitable organizations and a
free public library. Opened in 1904, that library
today is one of the most prestigious in the
Southwest, noted especially for its primary source
materials on early Texas history. His will also
provided for the installation of drin~ing fountains
for men and beasts on condition "that the city of
Galveston obtain an abundant supply of good
drinking water within five years,after my death ."
The town of Rosenberg, southwest of Houston,
was named for this Swiss pioneer. The settlement
was located on the route of the Gulf, Colorado
and Santa Fe Railroad, of which Rosenberg
served as board chairman .
The life of John J . Thomas was more adven­turous
than that of Henry Rosenberg. In 1844 the
45-year-old Swiss citizen obtained a passport for
himself, his wife Elizabeth and his five children .
The family sailed from Bremen, Germany, to New
Orleans, then continued by way of Galveston to
St. Joseph's Island, where they established a farm­stead
.
In 1846, when Thomas learned that General
Zachary Taylor's army was encamped at Corpus
Christi ,he went there , enlisted in the Army Quar­termaster
Corps and served for the duration of the
Mexican War. After the cessation of hostilities,
Thomas returned to St. Joseph's Island . In Oc­tober
1850 the family acquired a small ranch on
Salt Creek in Aransas County. A son , John, Jr.,
became a sea captain and owner of a sloop that
plied the waters of Aransas , Copano and San An­tonio
Bays. Two daughters , 15-year-old Eva and
11-year-old Sarah, were captured by raiding
Comanches in 1850, soon after the family had
moved to Salt Creek. Late one afternoon the two
girls were driving home the milk cows when they
saw riders approaching. Fearing Indians , the girls
hid in the tall grass. All would have been well but
for the barking of their small dog.
Meanwhile the father had already spotted the
Indians and tried to warn his daughters by
blasting away on his alpine horn . Too late . The
girls were forced to mount behind their Indian
captors and were spirited away.
The Indians traveled all night. Eva made
several attempts to escape, until her captors grew
impatient and threw her from the horse she was
riding . As the remaining warriors galloped past,
they stabbed at her with their lances, leaving her
for dead. The next morning she was discovered
yet alive by her brother and a neighbor.
St. Chrischona Chapel and its surrounding buildings in Switzerland
8
Sarah, meanwhile, was forced to go with the
Indians to their camp near Goliad . There she
recognized a squaw who had visited her home a
few weeks earlier. The squaw was a spy whose
task it was to discover how many horses were in
the neighborhood . The Indians soon moved on,
Sarah with them . Her clothes were taken and nuts
and horse flesh became her principal food . After a
month of captivity, the Indians released her in ex­change
for an Indian boy being held by the govern­ment.
In 1850 two missionaries from St. Chrischona,
near Basle, Switzerland, Theobald G. Kleis and
Christoph Adam Sager, arrived in Texas as the
vanguard of the first large-scale Lutheran
missionary effort. Six additional missionaries
came the following year and by 1896 at least 85
pastors had come to Texas from St. Chrischona .
The Texas mission field of the mid-19th century
was not an easy one. The rigorous conditions of
frontier life were difficult enough, but the young
ministers also had to contend with indifference
and sometimes outright hostility from many of
the colonists. Later a St. Chrischona graduate,
looking back over a 50-year ministry in Texas, ob­served:
"So very many of those immigrants were
most indifferent, hard , ungodly and defiant, as
perhaps nowhere else in Amerrca."
After statehood the number of immigrants to
Texas more than trebled . In i850 one hundred
and thirty-four native Swiss were listed in the
Texas census. They comprised a wide range of
occupations: physician , silversmith , druggist,
wheelwright, merchant, teacher, baker, farmer
and soldier, spread across the state in cities,
towns, farms and frontier outposts.
Two years after this census was taken , Reuben
Holbein came to Texas. Born in London ,
England, of Swiss ancestry , he became a Nueces
County rancher.
Soon after his arrival he was employed by
Colonel H.L. Kinney, the founder of Corpus
Christi , to return to Europe and stir up interest in the
firstS tate Fair ofT exasand to promote immigration
to the state. Holbein later formed an association
with Captain Richard King and moved to the San­ta
Gertrudis Ranch as an accountant and
secretary. He remained as King's chief executive
for a quarter century.
SWISS CHEESE MAKING IN THE
HILL COUNTRY
Johann U.Anderegg, a man of diverse interests,
9
brought the art of cheese-making to the Texas Hill
Country . His father was a prosperous Swiss lawyer
and the boy traveled throughout Europe ,
developing language skills in German , Italian
and English .
In his early 30's he decided to settle in Texas .
He chose a homesite on Beaver Creek between
Fredericksburg and Mason. His house was of rock
and timber , two stories high . The ground floor was
divided into two rooms, while upstairs was a sin­gle
large open area. A part of this dwelling was a
cubicle from which the home could be defended
against Indian attack. With the heavy door bolted,
a withering fire could be directed from a series of
narrow loopholes in the wall.
Sixty yards from the house was a spring over
which Anderegg built a rock structure that served
as a cooling room . Inside, flat stones were
arranged to form walkways, around which water
flowed. Above these walks were shelves on which
cheeses and other foods were kept. The thick
walls and cool spring water created an ideal en­vironment
for curing the cheeses for which An­deregg
became locally famous . His cheeses were
shaped into large discs 2-1/ 2 feet in diameter, 5
inches thick , and weighing nearly 50 pounds.
Although most early Swiss immigrants arrived
singly or with members of their immediate
families , in 1855 a group of 25 settled for a short
time at La Reunion , a year-old French colony
near Dallas. The Swiss, led by Carl Burkli, sailed
from Bremen to Galveston aboard the Francisca .
T
Ship Francisco
They traveled by foot and oxcart to the Dallas
area , arriving at La Reunion on about July 4th.
The group, composed of educated merchants
and skilled artisans, soon disbanded as the Swiss
settlers formed their own neighborhood in the
thriving city of Dallas. They were joined by
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Benjamin Long
"increasing numbers of their country­men,
the largest group, about 50,
arriving in 1870. Their civic and cul­tural
influence was impressive . Swiss
Avenue , William Tell , Adolph ,
Nussbaumer, and Roll Streets are
tangible evidence of their presence."
Henry Boll
One member of the La Reunion Colony, Ben
Long, was mayor of Dallas in its early days . When
he first arrived from Switzerland, his name was
Benjamin Lang, but he soon Americanized the
spelling. When the La Reunion Colony dissolved
he, his Belgian-born wife and their children
moved to Dallas. Active in civic affairs, he was
appointed mayor in 1868 by the military govern­ment
during Reconstruction. He was so respected
that he later served by election.
In 1870 Long returned to Switzerland for a
visit. While there he praised Texas so highly that
about 30 more Swiss returned with him . When he
died in 1877 he was United States Commissioner
for the Dallas district.
10
Jacob Boll
Another member of the La Reunion Colony
became a prominent Dallas realtor. Born Henri
Boll , a native of Switzerland, he joined the French
in north Texas in 1854. At La Reunion he took
charge of meat processing for the community
kitchen.
Upon enlisting in the Confederate army in
1862, Boll was assigned to the commissary at
Post Waco. He returned to Dallas at the end of
the war and became a real estate agent. He was
appointed city alderman by the military governor
of Texas, and in 1869 he was elected county
treasurer.
Boll's brother, Jacob, became a Texas natural­ist.
His special emphasis was the state's animal
life, both living and fossilized , and the rock forma­tions
which yielded those fossils . He probably
collected over 200 species of animals new to
science, and late in his career he scientifically
identified the oil-rich Permian formation .
During his university days in Switzerland ,
Jacob was trained as a pharmacist. More impor­tantly,
he met Professor Louis Agassiz, later a
world-famed scientist, philosopher and teacher at
Harvard. This friendship was to play a crucial role
in his subsequent career. Jacob operated an
apothecary shop in his native Swiss village for 16
years. In 1869 when his shop went bankrupt and
his wife suffered a nervous breakdown, he sailed
for America hoping for a fresh start.
En route to Texas he stopped in Boston to visit
his friend , Professor Agassiz. When Boll learned
that the professor was interested in obtaining a
comprehensive collection of the animals of Texas,
he asked for the assignment. Boll spent most of
1870 collecting in Texas and then delivered what
he had gathered to the Harvard Museum of
Comparative Zoology. He continued the work in
Cambridge and Switzerland, writing articles and
cataloguing specimens found on his expeditions
in Texas and in Europe. After Professor Agassiz's
death , Boll returned to Texas and made his home
in Dallas. From that time until his death , Boll
investigated Texas's animal and mineral re­sources.
Once there was a plan afoot to establish
a geological survey of Texas· with Boll as its
director.
Boll was remembered as a gentle , soft-spoken ,
pleasant man, much loved by the children of his
neighborhood . They visited him at his home on
the corner of Swiss and Germania Avenues,
bringing him their own collections of insects.
SWISS ENTERPRISES AND INVENTIONS
A decade before the first patent on barbed wire
was issued, a foundry worker named John
Grenninger invented and used a form of barbed
wire near Austin . Swiss-born Grenninger con­structed
his prototype in 1857 by twisting two
11
smooth wires tightly together and inserting sharp
pieces of hoop iron between the wires at regular
intervals. Some say he added bits of broken glass.
Then he nailed the completed strand along the
top of a wooden fence surrounding his small
garden and orchard at the confluence of Waller
Creek and the Colorado River.
Grenninger's invention was so effective that his
neighbors complained about livestock being cut
by the barbs. Small boys were also being lacerated
as they attempted to escape with watermelons
and peaches.
No record exists that Grenninger ever at­tempted
to patent his wire , so it passed from use .
It was not until 1875 that the first spool of com­mercially
made barbed wire was introduced and
sold in Texas.
Swiss-born Getulius Kellersberger was chief
engineer for the Confederate forces in Texas. As
such he was project officer for one of two rocket
batteries established at San Antonio. In his com­mand
was a cantankerous German mechanic,
who claimed to have mastered the science of
rocketry while serving in the Austro-Hungarian
War.
After pestering Kellersberger
to give him a chance , the me­chanic
was allowed to build the
rockets although many substi­tutes
had to be made for critical
ingredients.
GetuJius KeJJersberger
I'
Finally the time came for testing. On a
Saturday afternoon in the summer of 1864, the
test began before a select group of officers and
men. Kellersberger remembered the test vividly
and the public diplay that followed .
"The first rocket went correctly a hundred
steps, hit the ground by a tree, ricocheted and fell
directly behind my horse and sank into the
ground. I had great difficulty in holding my horse
and proceeded to take up a more conservative
spot from which to observe . The second sank to
the earth immediately, making three or four
zigzags -none of which were in the proper direc­tion
. A number of our men ran away- there was
a hellish smoke and a deafening noise , which put
fear into man and beast alike . Our lieutenant was
unperturbed. I suggested to the General that the
time set for the maneuvers be delayed. It was,
however, just at the most beautiful season of the
year, and he had already invited many officers
and ladies, and a grand picnic had been planned.
"On the day set I became strangely ill with such
a headache that I had to excuse myself from
attending. Our inexperienced lieutenant went
about his work in complete oblivion to the crowd.
The 50 men and officers eagerly and happily anti­cipated
the time when the~ would be actively
recognized for their work. I anticipated no good,
and I sent my servant out to· watch the affair and
to report to me. Unfortunately the whole maneu­ver
turned out to be worse that I had thought it
would- one rocket burst on its stand, one tore
the stand down with it, and a hellish chaos broke
forth . No horse could be held and the picnic
turned out to be a general flight to safety!
"On the same night I received an order from
the General containing the following : The Rocket
Battery No. 1, the professors' army of Texas, is
herewith dissolved .' "
Getulius Kellersberger was in and out of Texas
for most of his life. On reaching America in 1849,
he stopped for a time in New York where he
became the surveyor of Central Park. A year later
he married Caroline Bauch, and the couple sailed
around the Cape to San Francisco. While in
California he laid out the cities of Oakland and
Berkely.
From 1857 to 1860 Kellersberger surveyed in
Mexico. Learning of the impending Civil War, he
advised his wife to go with their children to Texas
to live with her sister. A few months later he left
his work unfinished in Mexico and took a boat to
Galveston, arriving just before it was blockaded.
12
Gustav Duerler
Pecan shelling was
a pioneer industry
in San Antonio.
The man who
turned it into big
business was ·
Swiss-born Gustav
Duerler.
He was immediately taken into the army under
General John B. Magruder's command.
At the end of the war he helped engineer a rail­road
from Vera Cruz to Mexico City. He sent his
family back to Switzerland so that his children
might be educated, following them late in 1867 or
early 1868. Again he worked as an engineer,
building the first steel bridge over the Lin nat River
in 1871. The family returned to Texas in 1885,
making their home near Cypress Mill.
Pecan shelling was a pioneer industry in San
Antonio. The man who turned it into big business
was Swiss-born Gustav Duerler. Born in 1841 , he
came with his parents, John J. and Elizabeth
Duerler, to San Antonio in 1849. The Atlantic
crossing required 60 days. At Galveston the
immigrants re-embarked in a small steamer for
Indianola, and from there they came in a prairie
schooner (covered wagon) to their new home.
For 22 years, from 1852 until his death in
1874, John Duerler leased and operated San
Pedro Springs Park, one of the oldest public parks
in America. As part of his lease agreement he was
required to plant trees and shrubs. He also devel­oped
five artificial lakes stocked with fish , a small
zoo and a private museum. In 1872 famed poet
Sidney Lanier visited San Antonio and described
Duerler's handiwork:
"Or, being in search of lions, one may see the
actual animal, by a stroll to the San Pedro Springs
Park, a mile or so to the northward. Here , from
under a white-ledge rocky hill, burst forth three
crystalline springs which quickly unite and form
the San Pedro (creek) .
"With spreading water-oaks, rustic pleasure
buildings, promenades along smooth shaded
avenues between concentric artificial lakes, a race
course, and aviary, a fine Mexican lion, a bear-pit
in which are an emerald-eyed blind cinnamon
bear, a large black bear, a wolf and a coyote, and
other attractions. This is a very green spot indeed
in the prairies."
Gustav Duerler, the son, attended St. Mary's
College, then spent five years learning the print­er's
trade. During the Civil War he served four
years in the 3rd Texas Infantry, C.S.A. After the
war he set up his own confectionery establish­ment
in San Antonio and then a pecan-shelling
business that became one of the largest and most
productive in the Southwest. Duerler bartered
13
with the Indians for the pecans, then hired
Mexicans to crack nuts with railroad spikes and to
pick the meats with tow-sack needles. In 1882
when the company was producing more shelled
pecans than could be sold locally, he shipped the
first 50 barrels of pecan meats to an Eastern
market. Duerler began using a mechanical crack­ing
device that was invented in 1889 and
acquired the first power-driven cracker in 1914.
Duerler was vitally interested in civic affairs and
served two terms on the San Antonio City Council
- terms that were 25 years apart: 1872-75 and
1899-1900. He also devoted a quarter century of
service to the San Antonio Volunteer Fire
Department, acting as chief for 13 years.
PATTERNS OF SWISS SETTLEMENT IN
THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY
Swiss immigrants to Texas continued to arrive
slowly until the 1880 census showed 1, 203 resid­ing
in the state . Some of them put down roots in
north Texas communities. Within these communi­ties
the Swiss retained informal ties through social
organizations. In Dallas the Gruetli Verein , or
Swiss Society, was formed in 1874 with 84 char­ter
members. In addition to its social aspect, the
group aided the sick and needy and provided
education scholarships. Sam Hiltpold, who was
secretary for 45 years, also organized Swiss
societies in other Texas cities. Although the old
Swiss Hall has been torn down , the Dallas society
still functions as does the Swiss Ladies' Aid,
founded as an auxiliary group in 1907.
By 1882 Houston had 160 Swiss settlers.
Twenty of these formed a benevolent society, the
Kranken-Unterstutzungs-Gesellschaft, much like
the Gruetli Verein in Dallas. At about this time a
Swiss Houstonite named Henry Gygax began
publishing a satirical news sheet called Den
Socia/en Nebelspalter.
Probably encouraged by the success of the
Swiss settlers in Texas, a group of capitalists in
Basle, Switzerland, organized a land company
called Bas/e Land Gesellschaft which backed the
founding of a Swiss colony on the Guadalupe
River three miles from Seguin .
About 7,500 acres of land were acquired and
in 1880 ten Swiss families settled there. Each was
provided with 60 acres, a log house, a horse , a
cow, chickens, hogs and $200 a year to get started.
Samuel Probst was the first administrator of the
colony, followed by W.H. Naumann, who was
I I ,
given 400 acres of river bottomland for his ser­vices.
But the colony failed , and many of the
original settlers moved away.
The dairy business was a popular and often a
most profitable one for Swiss settlers. Three
pioneer dairies in Dallas were owned and operated
by Swiss. The earliest was established by Christian
Moser who came from Langenau in 1873. The
second was begun by Jacob Buhrer, who arrived
five years later. His dairy was located on pasture
land now inundated by White Rock Lake. The
third dairy was founded by Jacob Metzger of
Bern, who settled at Dallas in 1889.
Soon after Moser's arrival, he formed a part­nership
with a fellow countryman, Chris
Roedlesperger. Their dairy was located on the
eastside of town .
Later Moser estab­lished
his own
operation on the
northeast side. Moser
died in 1893, survived
byhiswifeAnna
BuhrerMoser and
aneight-year-oldson,
Christian , Jr.
The boy grad-uated
from
Texas A&M College
in 1904andafter
serving briefly in the employ
oft he college and the United
States Department of Agriculture ,
returned to Dallas to assume
charge of the family dairy .
In 1912thebusinesswasin­corporated
as theN orth Texas
Creamery Company. Among his
countless services to agriculture ,
Moser served as county agent for
Dallas County , president of the
T exasState Dairymen'sAssociation,
presidentoftheTexasFarmBureau
Federation , president and general
manager oft he American Cotton
Growers Exchange and other
agricultural organizations.
In 1934 Moser moved to Washington ,
D.C. , to head the Institute of American
Fats and Oils.
The Swissalsofound opportunities for
farmingandranchingin north Texas.
AmongthepioneersofWilbargerCounty
were a number of families drawn by the prospect
of virgin land . In 1882 Christ Streit, his wife Anna
and their children immigrated from Switzerland.
The Streits began farming and raising livestock in
the southwestern part of the county. Tragedy
overtook them a year later when a tornado struck
their home, killing Mrs. Streit. But the family
carried on , working strenuously to improve their
farmstead . It is interesting to note that the nearest
supply point for all lumber and building materials
was Wichita Falls, a two-day trip with loaded
wagons. As their efforts prospered they , in turn ,
made important contributions to the development
of Wilbarger County.
... . . ......
>*4..-.--•" ---
·. . 11£ .... .. .....
~-·--::,._ ~
... . ...,¥" •
-H..!.r< •
Chris tian Moser on his dairy wagon in Dallas, 1880's
14
Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Hoffman of Bern , Swit­zerland,
migrated to West Virginia in 1881 and in
two years moved to a farm near Vernon . They
came by train as far as Wichita Falls, then con­tinued
on a "buffalo wagon," which transported
settlers one way and hauled buffalo bones to
market on the return trip. The Hoffmans built a
home of lumber and adobe, which tragically was
destroyed , along with all of their personal
belongings, by a prairie fire that began five miles
north of their farm. With hard work came
recovery, and the Hoffmans became substantial
citizens of the county.
Louis N. Hofer, born of Swiss parents in
Guadalupe County, was an educator in Victoria.
His father had immigrated to Texas in 1846 as a
member of Henri Castro's Alsatian colony west of
San Antonio. Hofer's childhood was spent in New
Braunfels. He attended St. Mary's College in San
Antonio and St. Joseph's College in Victoria,
where he was teacher and later principal.
In 1891 Hofer purchased the Victoria Advocate,
the state's second oldest newspaper in continuous
publication. He served as publisher until 1895,
when he resumed teaching at St. Joseph's
College . In 1901 he again obtained ownership of
the Advocate, but sold it within the year to George
H. French. He was city alderman in 1897, later
serving as acting mayor of Vi~toria and district
clerk.
In Mason County, a colorful Swiss native
achieved a reputation for frontier justice rivaling
that of Judge Roy Bean. John Fleutsch served as
justice of the peace at Fort McKavett in the difficult
period following abandonment of the fort by
governmenttroops in 1883.
The abandoned buildings became headquart­ers
for stockman , freighters and cowboys, along
with an insurge of drifters , including desperadoes
and refugees from other states. A climate of
lawlessness prevailed, and citizens of the area
overwhelmingly elected Fleutsch as justice of the
peace because of his reputation for bravery and
fair mindedness.
On one occasion a young couple came to the
judge to be married. The ceremony was delayed
while the judge hunted for a copy of the Methodist
Church discipline which contained the ritual. The
nervous groom left for the nearby saloon to rein­force
his courage and promptly got into a fight.
Arrested by the constable , he was brought back
before the judge, who by this time had found a
copy of the wedding ceremony. When the
15
marriage had been performed, the judge
proceeded to try the bridegroom on a charge of
fighting in a public place. The defendant demand­ed
a jury but was told that this was not possible
since every available juryman was a witness in the
case . The groom was fined $25 and an exceed­ingly
large amount of court costs, which the judge
divided among the witnesses. Judge Fleutsch
decided that such an approach would make
ungentlemanly conduct highly unprofitable in
Fort McKavett.
The wife of United States Vice-President John
Nance Garner, Mariette Elizabeth Rheiner, was
the daughter of a Swiss immigrant. Her father ,
Peter J . Rheiner, came to Texas at 21 and
established a 40,000 acre ranch in Uvalde Coun­ty.
Young "Etty" Rheiner first knew of the future
vice-president through his reputation as a poker
playing lawyer. When he announced as a can­didate
for county judge, Miss Etty, recently
graduated from college, voiced loud and frequent
opposition to him. Although women did not then
have voting privileges, they nevertheless had in­fluence
. Garner survived his challenge, however,
and assumed the office. Later he met his pretty
opponent aboard a passenger train to San An­tonio.
He so disarmed her that they were married
five months later.
Etty' s father was born in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
He had visited the California gold fields before set­tling
in Louisiana on the eve of the Civil War.
Wounded while serving in the Confederate ar­my,
he drifted west to Uvalde in search of a
healthier climate when the war ended. There he
married Mary Elizabeth Watson. Etty was born in
a home constructed of upright cedar logs,
plastered inside and out, and shuttered with
heavy timber - a veritable barricade against
raiding Comanches.
At nightfall her father always rode around the
premises to see that all was well. One night he
found a herder lying dead and scalped. The event
made a life-long impression on his three-year­old
daughter. Rheiner's wife died soon after the
girl's birth, and Etty grew up with three half bro­thers
born to Rheiner's second wife . The chil­dren
attended a ranch school built by their fa­ther.
Rheiner himself died when Etty was only
12. She continued her education in San Anto­nio
and at a seminary in Tennessee.
Back in Uvalde she found life so dull that she at­tended
a secretarial school in San Antonio simply
to alleviate her boredom. She became an expert
'I
.I
Arnold Family coat of arms
stenographer. Although she did not realize it at
the time, she was acquiring skills-that she would
use later as her husband's secretary. After her
marriage to Judge Garner, Etty became an in­tegral
part of his political care-er, following him first
to the state legislature and then to Congress. She
continued to handle his mosfimportantsecretarial
chores until his retirement from politics in 1940.
In most Texas counties a peak of Swiss born
population was reached in the years from 1890 to
1910. At this time there were Swiss settlements in
Bexar, Dallas, Austin, Fayette, Travis and
Williamson Counties.
Theodor Arnold was born at Solothurn, Swit­zerland,
in 1848, the son of a doctor. After
receiving his medical education, he practiced in
Zurich until a patient, Henry Boll, enticed him to
Texas. Arnold was an ophthalmologist in Dallas
until he was 75. He had great faith in the future of
Dallas as a great medical center.
His son , Charles, made his own distinctive con­tribution
to that future . He was a pioneer medical
photographer who specialized in microscope
photos. Charles returned to Zurich to study
medicine but soon switched to photography.
Returning to the U.S ., he trained in St. Louis,
Missouri. Charles' professional reputation was
secured at a 1927 international medical conven­tion
in The Hague, Nederlands, where there was
an extensive display of his slides. Since color film
was not in general use, many of those slides had
been hand-colored by his young daughter.He
16
Edward Eberle
was later an instructor in microscope photo­graphy
at Baylor University College of Dentistry.
Many of his pictures are on display in medical
colleges throughout the world.
THE SWISS TEXANS DURING THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY
Between the Spanish-American War and World
War I, there were far-reaching changes in the doc­trines
of naval warfare. Some of the most
significant changes were the work of a Texan
whose parents were Swiss.
Edward Walter Eberle was a native of Denton ,
born there in 1864. After graduating from the
United States Naval Academy in 1885, he served
in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets and took part
in the maintenance of treaty obligations during the
Panamanian Insurrection of 1890.
His primary interest was in tactical innovations
to increase the effectiveness of the growing Unit­ed
States navy . The Spanish-American War
provided him with combat experience. On July 4 ,
1898, Eberle directed fire from the forward turret
of the U.S. S. Oregon against the Spanish fleet as
it attempted to escape from Santiago Harbor.
Later, while the Oregon was refueling in Guan­tanamo
Bay, he employed naval gunfire on the
Spanish stronghold at Caimanera five miles away.
Following the war Eberle put his experience to
good use. As an instructor at the Naval Academy
he wrote Guns and Torpedo Drills for the U.S .
Cesar Lombardi
Navy, the first work to deal with drill procedure for
modern naval weaponry. Later he was in­strumental
in establishing the first wireless
telegraph aboard naval vessels. When destroyers
began to replace the old torpedo boats about
1910, it was Admiral Eberle who"'organized these
craft into battle units. He also developed smoke­screen
tactics that were used by destroyers in
maneuvers against battleships. Then in 1913 he
used the infant naval air force off Guantanamo,
Cuba, to determine the depths at which sub­marines
should remain submerged to avoid de­tection
.
While attending a short course at the Naval War
College in Newport, he devised mine-sweeping
and mine-laying tactics for the navy. Following a
secret mission to Europe in 1913, Eberle returned
and took charge of the U.S.S. Washington. He
and his command were detailed for duty in
Santo Domingo. They suppressed the revolu­tion
that was taking place in that country and su­pervised
the election of a new president. In Sep­tember,
1915, Eberle became superintendent of
the Naval Academy for the duration of the First
World War. As a result of his work there , Eberle
was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.
When the war was over he was assigned again
to the Atlantic Fleet. In 1921 he was designated
commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet and
promoted to the rank of admiral. From 1923 to
1927 he served as chief of naval operations. He
retired in 1928, died a year later and was buried
17
Frederick Eby
in Arlington National Cemetery .
The world of entertainment was significantly in­fluenced
by Karl Hoblitzelle. His direction for the
development of the commercial theater in 20th
century Texas was strong and lasting. His contri­bution
to philanthropic and humanitarian works,
however, was even greater than his business
achievements.
Hoblitzelle was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on
October 22, 1879. His ancestors came from Swit­zerland,
where the name Hoblitzelle was borne by
governors , scholars, judges and military leaders.
As a youngster he was employed by the St.
Louis Exposition Company, which staged the St.
Louis World's Fair celebrating the 100th anniver­sary
of the Louisiana Purchase. Hoblitzelle helped
organize the Interstate Amusement Company,
which operated four theaters in 1905 and grew to
an eventual175 . His efforts began at a time when
a theater "enjoyed about the same public stand­ing
as a good saloon." Hoblitzelle moved to
Dallas in 1905 and within three years was made
president of the St. Louis-based company. In
1917 the main offices were moved to Dallas.
In 1920 Hoblitzelle married Esther Thomas, a
nationally known star whose stage name was
Esther Walker. As his business prospered Hoblit­zelle
began philanthropic programs that benefit­ted
universities , museums and organizations of
many different kinds. His contributions aided in ­dividuals
involved in education, religion , art,
agriculture, music, history and the theater. He
I'
,, '
was largely responsible for the development of
Republic National Bank of Dallas, one of the
major financial institutions of the country. He
served as board chairman 1945-1965. Another
major accomplishment was creation of the Texas
Research Foundation for the advancement of
scientific agriculture at Renner, Texas.
Before his death at age 87 in 196 7, he was
honored by Pope Pius XII , by many national
organizations, newspapers and by state and local
leaders for his contributions to human welfare.
A Swiss immigrant set the editorial policy
which made the Dallas Morning News one of
Texas's most widely read newspapers in the early
20th century. Cesar Lombardi reached Texas in
1871.
Arriving in Houston from New Orleans, he
worked in a firm of wholesale grocers and cotton
factors, eventually becoming general manager of
the company. He also acquired banking and rail­road
interests.
A staunch supporter of education , Lombardi
served as president of the Houston School Board
and was a trustee of Rice Institule . He is said to
have suggested the idea of the institute to his
friend , William Marsh Rice . Lombardi also helped
establish the Texas Academy of Science .
In 1906 Lombardi bought an interest in the
A.H. Belo Corporation , publishers of the
Galveston News, Dallas Morning News and
Dallas Evening Journal. He moved to Dallas
where he served as vice-president, then presi­dent,
of the firm until his retirement in 1913.
During this period he was an early supporter of
Woodrow Wilson for the presidency and urged
America's entry in the League of Nations. As
early as 1907 he advocated the then radical idea
of insuring customer bank deposits against loss.
Lombardi's most lasting influence on Texas
may have been through the young men he trained
and who carried on his philosophy in the pages of
the Dallas News. One of them was Ted Dealey
who remembered Lombardi as a man of medium
height and build with a gray goatee, who had a
youthful bounce in his step and an appetite for
gourmet food . He claimed that Lombardi was
unable to digest a meal without wine. About 1918
when he saw that Prohibition was coming, he
filled his cellar with cases of wine . Death in 1919
deprived him of the chance to fully enjoy his
investment.
Frederick Eby, a nationally known Texas edu­cator,
was born in Canada of Swiss ancestry. His
18
scholarly works- particularly Education in Texas:
Source Materials and Development of Education
in Texas- are basic references and have inspired
other volumes on similar subjects.
The first family member to immigrate from
Switzerland was Theodorus Eby of Zurich . On
August 15, 1715, Theodorus, his wife and their
children , began their journey to America,
eventually establishing a home near Lancaster,
Pennsylvania. A branch of the family moved to
Ebytown (now Kitchener) , Ontario, where
Frederick was born in 1874. He received his doc­torate
from Clark University in 1900 and moved
to Texas to become professor of philosophy and
education at Baylor University. In 1909 he was
appointed professor of history and philosophy of
education at The University of Texas at Austin ,
where he soon achieved prominence as teacher
and author.
John U. Zuberbueler was an enterprising Swiss
native who became a successful rancher in South
America, Mexico and west Texas before moving
to San Antonio in 1910, to begin a new career as
a land and business developer.
Born in 1842, by age 18 Zuberbueler decided
to begin a career on his own. With a loan of 100
francs from his father he rented a small cheese
factory and bought a few hogs to raise . "In six
months my small capital was gone and I closed
my business career with 50 francs indebtedness.
Deeming it beneath my dignity to work for others
again, after having been my own master, I asked
my father for money to go to America, the land of
which one thought that all smart people were able
to return to Switzerland as rich men in about 10
years ."
Zuberbueler decided now to seek his fortune in
South America, since the United States was in the
midst of the Civil War. Zuberbueler spent seven
years in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay working
as a cowboy, mercenary and dairyman . On a visit
to Switzerland he married and he and his bride
returned to America, living in Missouri, Colorado,
New Mexico and Chihuahua, Mexico.
In 1895 he sold 1,000 head of cattle and
moved 2,000 head to Texas. The family eventual­ly
settled in Val Verde County where Zuberbueler
controlled large ranch holdings.
In 1910 Zuberbueler retired from active ranch
life, turned his property over to his sons and
moved to San Antonio. In a short while he
became one of the foremost real estate and
investments executives in Bexar County.
The ancient art of woodcarving, often
associated with Swiss craftsmen, reached unusual
perfection in the work of Peter H. Mansbendel.
Born in Basle, Switzerland, he began to carve
when still a child. Part of his formal training was
in Paris and London . On coming to the United
States he practiced his trade in Boston and New
York. Later he taught at the Cooper Union for
the Advancement of Science and Art. His repu­tation
grew steadily.
Mansbendel met his future wife , Clotilde Shipe
of Austin , at one of his New York exhibitions.
They were married after a brief courtship and
moved to Austin in 1911.
Mansbendel set up his studio in the old Swedish
Consulate and quickly proved himself a master
carver of all types of objects in many kinds of
wood. Portraits, carvings of flora and fauna , bas
relief panels, furniture and decorative motifs for
mantles , stairways and doors were produced for
a variety of patrons including The University of
Texas at Austin , Southern Methodist University,
the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs and the
Princeton University Library. Many of the fine
homes built in Austin during the twenties and thir­ties
contain examples of his work .
Mansbendel died in 1940, bttt friends remem­ber
that he was short of stature, with dark hair and
eyes and had a flair for the dramatic . He was in­tense
and hardworking, yet personable and
clever. Asked how he made his living, he would
reply with a straight face: "I'm a chiseler."
Peter MansbendeJ
Alamo Scene by Peter MansbendeJ
19
,;
1:
A close friend of Mansbendel who was also a
resident of Austin for many years was Godfrey
Flury. Flury was born in Solothurn, Switzerland,
and immigrated to the United States with his
parents in 1881 at the age of 17. In 1891 he
moved to San Antonio and embarked upon an
unusual but rewarding career, that of painting
church murals and frescoes. He painted the inte­riors
of churches in Praha, Cestohowa and St.
Johns.
Flury moved to Austin in 1909 and became
active in civic affairs, pioneering the construction
of elaborate floats for Austin parades. He orga­nized
the G. Flury Advertising Company in 1918
and in that year became a naturalized citizen of
the United States. After retirement his inquiring
mind kept him busy for the remainder of his life.
At the age of 68 he enrolled in The University of
20
Godfrey Flury
Texas at Austin as a freshman engineering stu­dent.
He died in 1936, rich in years and in the
esteem of his friends and colleagues.
A son of Swiss immigrants, John Hirschi ar­rived
in Wichita Falls in 1886 as a young and
struggling farmer. When he died in 1958 at 93 he
was respected as one of the state's noted philan­thropists
and humanitarians.
Leaving his bride-to-be in Illinois in 1885,
Hirschi traveled with his brother, Christian, to
drought-stricken Kansas. They homesteaded for
a year until they were "dried out."
A year later in Texas, the brothers purchased a
portion of the Box K Ranch. Christian remained
to work on the farm, while John obtained
employment as a railway section hand to make
enough money to develop the land. He followed
Drawing by Godfrey Flury
the construction of the railroad from Henrietta
through the Panhandle and into New Mexico . In
1889 he returned to Illinois to marry his sweet­heart,
Louisa , and to bring her to Texas.
Over the years , Hirschi and his wife built three
houses on their Wichita County farm , each bigger
and better than the last. By 1922 he had estab­lished
a real estate and investment business. Later
he became president of the First State Bank of
Iowa Park and of the Wichita National Bank in
Wichita Falls. He won the affection of many north
John Hirschi, farmer, banker and philanthropist
21
Texans during the great depression by refusing to
foreclose on mortgages on several hundred
homes, farms and other types of property. In­stead,
he cut interest rates, extended the term of
his loans and sometimes lopped amounts off the
principal owed.
In 1939 the Hirsch is left the farm and moved to
town. Today Hirschi High School in Wichita Falls
commemorates their community service and the
esteem in which they were held by their contem­poraries.
Dwight David Eisenhower with parents and two brothers. 1901
22
The most noted Texan of Swiss descent was
Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of
Allied Expeditionary Forces during World War II ,
army chief of staff after the war, president of
Columbia University, supreme allied commander
in Europe to organize NATO forces , and
president of the United States from 195 2 to 1960.
He was born October 14, 1890, in Denison .
His father was of German extraction . His mater­nal
ancestors were German Swiss immigrants
who arrived in America before the Revolutionary
War and settled in Pennsylvania.
Eisenhower often identified himself as a son of
the Lone Star State, although his family moved to
Abilene, Kansas , when he was only a year old.
He was stationed at Fort Sam Houston, in San
Antonio , as a second lieutenant after graduation
from West Point in 1915. He met his wife , Mamie
Geneva Doud of Denver, in San Antonio and,
after their marriage , brought her back to Fort Sam
Houston where they made their first home. He
was again stationed at Fort Sam Houston when
he learned that he was to command Allied Expe­ditionary
Forces in Europe .
As soldier, educator and statesman , he left a
legacy of integrity rarely equaled in any nation's
history. ..
Swiss immigrants to Texas brought with them
an unusually rich and varied cultural background.
Nineteenth century Switzerland, with its stable,
23
democratic form of government, exemplified the
long-sought political ideal of unity in diversity.
Although the country was comprised of people
speaking different languages and dialects , they
had, nonetheless, learned to live and work in
harmony. In the process they developed a high
regard for freedom , tolerance for minorities and
awareness of individual responsibility.
These characteristics- combined with tradi­tional
respect for industry, learning and close
family ties - made the Swiss welcome in Texas.
Their numbers were small. The 1930 census indi­cated
that the state's Swiss-born population had
declined to 1,410. At that time , however, Texas
had more Swiss residents than the surrounding
states of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and
Louisiana combined . By 1970 this figure had
climbed to 4 ,300.
This collection has presented only examples of
Swiss settlement and achievements- it is not a
complete recording of the Swiss story.
The beneficial effect of the Swiss presence con­tinues
to be felt in every major city and many
smaller communities across the state . In the
worlds of finance , industry, agriculture , science
and the arts , they have demonstrated enormous
enterprise and creativity, combined with an
instinctive good will that has always been the hall-
. mark of Swiss immigrant families .
READING LIST
There are no general published works on the Swiss in Texas. Much of the information contained herein
was obtained from various county histories and newspaper accounts. The following specialized sources
were particularly helpful.
Flury, Dorothy Agnes, Our Father Godfrey: A Biography. Hart Graphics, Austin , 1976. An interesting
and informative work; a labor of love by a daughter of Swiss immigrant Godfrey Flury.
Geiser, Samuel W., Naturalists of the Frontier. Southern Methodist University Press, Dallas, 1948.
Includes excellent studies of Swiss naturalists Jacob Boll and Jean Louis Berlandier.
Grueningen, John Paul von , The Swiss in the United States. Swiss-American Historical Society, Madison,
Wisconsin , 1940. Good general reference. Contains only a small amount of material on Texas.
Rosenberg Library, Henry Rosenberg, 1824-1893. Galveston , 1918. This commemorative volume by the
Rosenberg Library in Galveston contains a short biography of Henry Rosenberg along with much
detailed information concerning his philanthropies. Numerous illustrations.
Santerree, George H., White Cliffs of Dallas: The Story of La Reunion , the Old French Colony. The Book
Craft, Dallas. Includes references to several important early Swiss settlers.
Swiss-American Historical Society, Prominent Americans of Swiss Origin . James T. White and Company,
New York, 1932. Contains short sketches of Jacob Boll, Edward Walter Eberle, George Hermann and
Henry Rosenberg . ..
Whittaker, Dorothy Urech , Ruc;iolf Urech: A Workbook for Future Reference and Study Concerning the
Family of Rudolf Urech of Switzerland and Conroe, Texas, U.S.A., 1855-1922. Houston, 1967. Some
of the best and most detailed current historical research is that done by genealogists, and Dorothy
Whittaker's book is a good example of this . An interesting work about an interesting family.
Zuberbueler, John Ulrich (translated by Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Zeiske) , Personal Experiences Interspersed
With Political Observations, n.p ., n.d . A short (12 pages) but cogent account of his early life by a Swiss
immigrant who became one of the ranching greats of southwest Texas.
.()---______ Index _____ ------~~~ <40
Abilene, Kansas, 22
Academy of Geneva,1
Agassiz, Louis, 11
AmericanCottonGrowersExchange, 14
Amsler. Charles, 3, 4
Amsler, Charles, Jr., 4
Amsler, Margaret,4
Amsler, Mary, 3
Anderegg, johann U., 9
Aransas Bay, 8
Archive War, 6
Arlington National Cemetery, 17
Arnold, Charles, 16
Arnold, Theodor, 16
Austin. Stephen F., 2
Austi~Texas,6, 11,18,19,20
Austin College, 3
Austin County, Texas, 16
Austro-Hungarian War, 11
Baldinger, Andrew, 4
Basle, Switzerland, 9, 13, 19
Baylor University, 4, 18
Baylor University, College of Dentistry, 16
Bean, Judge Roy, 15
Beaver Creek, 9
Bela, A.H., Corporation, 18
Berkeley, California, 12
Berlandier, jean Louis, 2
Bern, Switzerland. 14
Bexar, 4 See also San Antonio
Bexar County, Texas. 16, 18 "
Boll. Henri, 10, 16
Boll, jacob, 10, 11
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 5
Boston Massachusetts, 11, 19
Box K Ranch, 20
Bremen. Germany, 8, 9
Buffalo Bayou, 5
Buhrer. jacob, 14
Burkli, Carl. 9
Caimanera, Cuba, 16
Cambridge, Massachusetts. 11
Carl of Solms-Braunfels. Prince, 6
Castro, Henri, 15
Castroville, Texas. 6, 15
Cat Spring, Texas. 3, 4
Censuses. United States
1850 Census, 9
1880 Census. 13
1930 Census, 22
1970 Census, 22
Cestohowa, Texas, 20
Chihuahua, Mexico. 18
Civil War, U.S., 5, 10, 11, 12, 13,15,18
Clark University, 18
Colorado County, Texas, 3
Colorado River, 11
Columbia University, 22
Coma! River, 6
Comanche Indians, 8, 9, 15
Campti, Louisiana, 2
Congress. United States, 1
Cooper Union for the Advancement
of Science and Art. 19
Copano Bay, 8
Corpus Christi, Texas. 6, 8, 9
Cypress Mill, Texas. 13
Dallas,Texas, 9, 10, 11 , 13, 14, 17, 18
Dallas County, Texas, 14, 16
Dallas Evening Journal. 18
Dallas Morning News, 18
Dealy, Ted, 18
De Candolle, August Pyrame, 2
Decree of April6, 1830, 3
Denison, Texas, 22
Den Socialen Nebelspalter, 13
Denver, Colorado, 22
Development of Education in Texas. 18
Duerler, Elizabeth, 13
Duerler, Gustav, 13
Duerler, john j., 13
Eberle, Edward Walter, 16
Eberly, Mrs. Angelina, 6
Eby, Frederick, 18
Eby, Theodorus, 18
Ebytown. Ontario
See Kitchener, Ontario
Education in Texas: Source Materials. 18
Eisenhower, Dwight D., 22
Eisenhower, Mamie Geneva Doud. 22
Fannin, Colonel james Walker, 4
FayetteCounty,Texas,3, 16
Flury, Godfrey, 20
Fleutsch,john, 15
Fort McKavett, 15
Fort Sam Houston, 22
Fox, Christopher, 5
Francisca(ship), 9
Fredericksburg, Texas, 9
French,GeorgeH .. 15
Fullinwider, Peter. 3
Galveston, Texas,4,8, 9, 12 ,13
GalvestonBank and Trust Company, 8
Galveston City Railway Company.8
Ga1vestonNews.18
Galveston Orphans Home, 8
Galveston Wharf Company, 9
Garner,johnNance, 15,16
Garner, Mariette Elizabeth
Rheiner, 15, 16
Geneva, Switzerland, 1, 2
German Immigration Society, 6
Goliad, Texas, 4, 8
Gonzales, Texas, 2
Grant, Colonel James, 4
Grenninger. john, 11
Gruetli Verein, 13
Guadalupe County, Texas, 15
Guadalupe River, 6, 13
Guantanamo, Cuba, 17
Guantanamo Bay. Cuba. 16
Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad, 8
Guns and Torpedo Drills
for the U.S. Navy, 16, 17
Gygax, Henry, 13
Harvard Museum of
Comparative Zoology, 11
Hays, john C., 6
Henrietta, Texas, 21
Hermann, George, 5, 6
Hermann, john, 5
Hermann, Verina, 5
Hiltpold, Sam, 13
Hirshi. Christian, 20
Hirshi,J ohn, 20,21
Hirschi, Louisa, 21
Hoblitzelle,EstherThomas. 17
Hoblitzelle,Karl, 17,18
Hofer,LouisN., 15
Hoffman,Mrs.Rudolph, 15
Hoffman, Rudolph, 15
Holbein, Reuben, 9
Houston,Sam,6
Houston, Texas,5, 6, 7,8, 13,18
Humble, Texas. 5
Huntsville. Texas, 3
Indianola, Texas. 13
Indians. 2, 4, 6
See also Comanche Indians
InstituteofAmericanFatsandOils, 14
Iowa Park. Texas, 21
Johnson. Colonel Fran cis W., 4
Kellersberger, Caroline Bauch, 12
Kellersberger, Getulius. 11, 12, 13
King, Captain Richard, 9
Kitchener, Ontario, 18
Kleis, Theobald G., 9
Kranken-Unterstutzungs-
Gesellschaft, 13
Ladner, August. 6
Ladner, Nicholas. 6
Lamar, Mira beau B., 6
Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 18
Lang, Benjamin.
See Ben Long
Langenau, Switzerland. 14
Lanier, Sidney, 13
La Reunion, colony, 9. 10
League of Nations, 18
Liberty. Texas, 2
Lombardi, Cesar, 18
London, England, 9, 19
Long, Ben, 10
Louisiana Purchase. 17
Madisonville. Texas, 3
Magruder, General john B .. 13
Mansbendel. Clotilde Shipe, 19
Mansbendel, Peter H., 19, 20
Mason, Texas. 9
Mason County, Texas, 15
Metzger, jacob, 14
Meuly, Conrad, 6
Meuly, Margaret Rahm, 6
Mexican Boundary Commision, 2
Mexican War, 8
Mexico City, Mexico, 6, 13
Mier y Teran, Manuel de, 2
Mississippi River, 3
Montgomery County, Texas, 4
Moser, Anna Buhrer, 14
Moser, Christian. 14
Moser, Christian. Jr., 14
Nacogdoches, Texas, 2
Nacogdoches, Department of. 2
Naumann. W. H .. 13
Naval War College, 17
New Braunfels, Texas 6
New Orleans, Loouisiana, 5, 6, 8, 18
Newport, Rhode Island, 17
New Ulm, Texas, 3
New York, New York, 12, 19
Nueces County, Texas. 9
Oakland, California, 12
Palestine, Texas, 3
Paris, France, 5, 19
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1
Piney Creek, 4
Pope Pius XII. 18
Post Waco, 10
Praha, Texas, 20
Princeton Theological Seminary, 3
Princeton, University Library. 19
Probst, Samuel. 13
Rahm, John, 6
Red River Campaign, 5
Refugio, Texas. 4
Renner, Texas. 18
Revolutionary War, American, 22
Rheiner, Mary Elizabeth Watson, 15
Rheiner, Peter J., 15
Rice, William Marsh, 18
Rice University, 6, 18
Rio Grande, 4
Roedlesperger, Chris, 14
Rolle, Switzerland, 2
Rosenberg, Henry, 8
Rosenberg, Texas, 8
Rueg, Henry, 2
Rueg, Louis. 2
St. Chrischona, Switzerland, 9
St. Gallen, Switzerland, 15
St. Johns, Texas, 20
Photo Credits:
..
St. Joseph's College, 15
St. Joseph's Island, 8
St. Louis, Missouri, 16, 17
St. Louis Exposition Company, 17
St. Louis World's Fair, 17
St. Mary's College, 13, 15
Sagar, Christoph Adam, 9
Salt Creek, 8
San Antonio, Texas, 2, 4, 11, 13, 15, 18,
20, 22, See also Bexar
San Antonio Bay, 8
San Felipe, Texas. 2
San Francisco, California, 12
San Pedro Creek, 13
Santa Fe Expedition, 6
Santa Gertrudis Ranch, 9
Santiago Harbor, Cuba, 16
Santo Domingo, 17
Scherrer, Bernard, 3
Seguin, Texas, 13
Smith, Erastus (Deaf). 4
Solothurn, Switzerland, 20
Southern Methodist University, 19
Spanish-American War, 16
State Fair of Texas , first, 9
Streit, Anna, 14
Streit, Christ, 14
Swiss Ladies · Aid, 13
Taylor, General Zachary, 6, 8
Teran, Manuel De Mier y
See Mier y Teran, Manuel De
Texas A&M College, 14
Texas Academy of Science, 18
Texas Farm Bureau Federation, 14
Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, 19
Texas Gazette, 3
Texas, Republic of. 4, 6
Texas Research Foundation. 18
Texas Revolution, 3, 4
Texas State Dairymen's Association. 14
~[ll)~~[l)~~[i)~
Cover: Jacob Fretz Family; Mrs. Elma Guenther
Back Cover: Louise Stoer; Edna Schroeder
Harper's Weekly, 1
TheUniversityofTexasatAustin, 3 , 16,17
The University of Texas Archives, 3
Mattie E. Trube, 4
Hermann Professional Bldg., 5
History of Galveston , Texas , 5
Pastor H.C. Ziehe, 8
Vera Flack, 9
Lucy Bowen, 10
Florence Peak, 10
The American Midland Naturalist, 10
San Antonio Light, 12
Mrs. Charles Hetherington, 14
Barker Texas History Center, 19
W.T. Williams Jr., 19
Dorothy Flury, 20
Wichita Falls Times, 21
Dwight Eisenhower Library, 22
Texas Infantry, 3rd, 13
TheHague, 16
Thomas, Elizabeth, 8
Thomas, Eva, 8
Thomas, John J., 8
Thomas, John J., Jr., 8
Thomas, Sarah, 8, 9
Travis County, Texas, 16
26th Texas Calvalry, 5
United States Department of
Agriculture, 14
United States Naval Academy, 16
University of Texas at Austin,
18,19,20
U.S.S. Oregon, [ship), 16
U.S.S. Washington, [ship), 17
Uvalde, Texas, 15
Uvalde County, Texas, 15
Val Verde County, Texas, 18
Vera Cruz, Mexico, 5, 13
Vernon, Texas, 15
Victoria, Texas, 15
Victoria Advocate, 15
Wahrenberger, "Dutch John", 6
Walker, Esther See Hoblitzelle,
Esther Thomas
Waller Creek, 6, 11
Washington, D. C., 14
Waterloo. Battle of. 5
Waterloo, Texas, 6
White Rock Lake, 14
Wichita County, Texas, 21
Wichita Falls, Texas. 14, 15, 20, 21
Wilbarger County, Texas. 14
Williamson County, Texas, 16
Wilson, Woodrow, 18
WorldWari,16,17
World War II, 22
Yorktown, Texas, 6
Zuberbueler, John U., 18
Zurich, Switzerland, 16, 18
One of a series prepared by the staff of THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES AT SAN ANTONIO