A Glimpse of the Past

"Pioneers in God's Hills, A History of Fredericksburg and Gillespie County People and Events," Volume II, pp. XI-XVI, Gillespie County Historical Society, 1974, Von Boeckmann-Jones Printers, Austin.

"Fredericksburg, Texas...was founded May 8, 1846 by German immigrants under the auspices of the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas.  This society was a company of some twenty noblemen whose purpose was to colonize an area of central Texas during the days of the Texas Republic.  Its headquarters were in the cities of Mainz and Biebrich on the Rhine.  Land for its purpose--the Fischer-Miller Grant in the Llano River area-- had been ill-advisedly purchased; it was hardly accessible and beset with Comanche Indians.  It was possibly a dream of these noblemen to establish colonial provinces in Texas, but if so, this dream was dashed by the democratic spirit of the new settlers, who dreamed and planned for life in a republic.

When the first immigrants under the Society's auspices arrived in Texas in December of 1844, Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, the First Commissioner-General for the colonizing project, met the problem of purchasing a piece of land on the right bank of the Guadalupe River.  Here New Braunfels was founded March 21, 1845.

During the latter part of 1845, thousands more German immigrants landed at Galveston and Indianola.  These people had found the ocean voyage long and hazardous but fortunately they did not know that the worst was yet to come.  Conditions at the ports of entry were horrible!  The winter was an unusually wet one and mosquitoes in great numbers spread malaria.  Facilities for taking care of the immigrants were hopelessly inadequate not only at the ports of entry but also for the journey inland and in the new home.  The noblemen composing the Society had simply lacked comprehension of the enormity of their undertaking; they failed miserably in fulfilling their promises.  Thus, of these immigrants who had left the Fatherland in hope of finding better living conditions in the New World, many found there an early, shallow grave instead.

The Fredericksburg settlers had a brief respite--some for several months--with their fellow countrymen in New Braunfels before proceeding to their new home.  In February 1845 a new Commissioner-General had been appointed for the Society--Baron Ottfried Hans von Meusebach, a German nobleman born at Dillenburg, Nassau.  He was later known and revered in Texas by the name John O. Meusebach, the name under which he was naturalized as a citizen of Texas and of the United States.  Meusebach was a wise leader and made the best of the very bad situation concerning the colonization project.  He chose the site for the second colony--an inviting spot, well timbered and near the Pedernales River.  Two creeks with strong flow of good water flowed through the area; the major of the two streams was named "Baron's Creek" by the settlers in honor of Meusebach.  This land was just outside the Fisher-Miller Grant.

Meusebach chose also the name of the new settlement--Friedrichsburg (Fredericksburg), honoring Prince Frederick of Prussia, a member of the Society who was well liked by his people.

The immigrant train which arrived at this appointed place on May 8 numbered about 120 men, women and children.  Some twenty ox-drawn wagons and Mexican carts had taken them on this sixteen-day journey.  Eight Society soldiers accompanied them.

John Schmidt, one of the soldiers, shot a bear on the banks of the Pedernales, so there was fresh meat for the first supper at Fredericksburg.  Three days after the colonists' arrival, all tents had been pitched and a few huts had been built for protection against wind and weather.  Then the twenty teamsters, the soldiers, and a few young, able-bodied men went back to New Braunfels.

For the settlers there was much work to be done.  Surveyor Willke laid out the town lots which were distributed to family heads and single men.  These lots measured 100' x 200'.  Many of the settlers chose lots on Creek Street, near water.  By 1847 more than 500 settlers had received town lots.  Later these first arrivals received also an outlying ten-acre lot.  The settlers who came later received only a ten-acre lot.  By 1848 about 600 settlers had received outlying lots.  Cultivation of small fields began almost at once.  Storehouses for protecting supplies for the settlers and goods for trade with the Indians were most urgently needed and therefore built first.  Temporary shelters were built to serve as homes until more substantial houses of half timber and stone could be built to replace them.  In 1846 the construction of the Vereins-Kirche (Society's Church) was begun.  This was an octagonal church building available for use by all denominations.  It served also as a schoolhouse, a townhall and a fortress.

A month after the first settlers arrived, a second train of immigrants joined them.  Others followed later in 1846 and in later years.  The state census of 1848 gave Gillespie County credit for 966 inhabitants.  The U.S. Census Report of 1850 gave 1,235 as the number of Gillespie County inhabitants and 754 as the number for Fredericksburg alone.  There were five slaves in Gillespie County in 1850.

Many troubles beset the colony in its early days.  Disease took a heavy toll of lives in the summer and fall of 1846 and again in 1849 when cholera broke out.  It was during these days that the doleful sight of the Leichenwagen became common.  It was a two-wheeled, ox-drawn cart with cover that drove through the village streets to gather the bodies of the dead.  Survivors, too ill to build caskets, wrapped the bodies of their departed loved ones in sailcloth.  They were buried in the Stadt Friedhof, now the old part of [Der Stadt Friedhof, The City Cemetery].  Here many lie in unmarked graves.  The memory of all is honored by a memorial marker erected during centennial observances in 1946.

In the woeful time of the cholera epidemic the Indians showed themselves as friends in need.  they brought honey, meat and bear fat to their white neighbors.  Santanna, a chief of the Comanches, was a good friend of Meusebach and his colonists.  Unfortunately, he, too, succumbed to cholera.

Besides disease, another evil of early Fredericksburg was an imposter known as Dr. Schubert who managed to have himself appointed as director of the settlement.  Both his quackery as a doctor and his acts as an administrator worked mischief for the settlers until he was dismissed by Meusebach in 1847.  Late in 1846 Schubert appointed himself to head a group of men who went into the Grant.  His cowardice toward Indians on this occasion helped necessitate Meusebach's treaty with the Indians in March, 1847, an achievement of incalculable value not only for the Society but also for the state of Texas.

Prosperity was promoted for young Fredericksburg by the thriving Mormon colony of Zodiac nearby (1847-1853).  It was located on the Pedernales River some five miles east of Fredericksburg on land now owned by the Schmidtzinsky families.  The Mormons supplied the settlers with meal and lumber from their mills and showed them how best to cultivate their land.  Elder Lyman Wight was leader of this colony.

The establishment of Fort Martin Scott by the United States government in 1848 gave the people of Fredericksburg an opportunity to earn cash money.  It gave them also security against Indians.  This fort was located two miles east of Fredericksburg on the banks of Baron's Creek near present-day Austin Highway.

In 1849 trade for Fredericksburg merchants increased with the coming of the California Gold Rush, for Fredericksburg was the last place where those travelers bound for the "Promised Land" could purchase supplies before reaching El Paso.  Likely it was these travelers who brought the cholera germ to Fredericksburg.

In 1847 the Fredericksburg region was made into a precinct of Bexar County; A. Krueger was elected justice of the peace.  In December of the same year 150 settlers of the area petitioned the Texas Legislature to create Gillespie County with Fredericksburg as the county seat.  This wish was granted in 1848.  The county was named in honor of Captain Robert A. Gillespie, who fell in the Battle of Monterrey, 1846, during the Mexican War.  In an election held in June, 1848, Dr. William Keidel was chosen as the county's first chief justice; John Hunter, county clerk; Louis Martin, sheriff; R. W. Cecil, assessor and collector; John Leyendecker, treasurer; and Friedrich Kiehne, Peter Bickel, John P. Keller and Peter Schandua, county commissioners.

The colony of Fredericksburg had within its limits people of may types and talents--skilled craftsmen, builders, tradesmen, farmers, and professional men.  All classes of European society were represented.  the great majority of the settlers were basically people of integrity and perseverance; God-fearing, industrious and thrifty.  Nearly all of them, in an effort to have daily bread, did some farming.

Hardly had the settlement been founded when some of its people began to move to outlying areas.  The desire to own land in their own rights had been a great drawing force of these immigrants.  Now was the time to satisfy this desire.  The Live Oak and Pedernales communities were the first to be settled.  Then other communities came into being, some of which were later incorporated in neighboring counties.  Those of Gillespie County not already named developed approximately in the following order: Friedrichstal (Klein-Frankreich) [Little France], Pecan Creek, Meusebach Creek, Palo Alto, Crabapple, Rheingold, Cave Creek, Grapetown, Cherry Spring, Rocky Hill, Luckenbach, Mecklenburg (Pilot Knob), Grape Creek, Squaw Creek, Cherry Mountain, Doss, Willow City, Nebo (Eckert), Tivydale, Albert, Stonewall, Harper, Morris Ranch and Cain City.  It was the settlers of these communities who did the hard work of clearing the land and subduing the wilderness into productive fields and pasture lands whence comes the lifeblood of Fredericksburg's business even today....."

By: Ella A. Gold