Texas Almanac, 1990-1991 Page: 51
611 p. : col. ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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HISTORY 51
21. This first Adelsverein settlement was named
New Braunfels.
Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels was a German
gentleman, suited by education and experience to
court life and the drawing room. Taming the prai-
ries of early Texas was completely foreign to his
lifestyle and abilities, as was handling the finances
of the fledgling settlement. The Adelsverein's con-
tract with the settlers provided they would be
looked after by the organization during the jour-
ney to their new homeland and up until their first
harvest. These outlays, plus the money spent for
land in the Fisher-Miller grant, quickly drained the
Adelsverein's financial resoures. Prince Carl left
after a month, not even waiting for his successor to
arrive.
The new commissioner general, Baron
Ottfried Hans Freiherr von Meusebach, arrived in
New Braunfels in 1845. He found business affairs in
a total mess, with the Adelsverein's credit
exhausted, and another 4,000 immigrants
expected. But Meusebach's education and experi-
ence were suited to the task at hand. He had stud-
ied mining engineering and forestry, political
science and finance, jurisprudence and state econ-
omy. He read five languages and spoke English
fluently. He had servedas assessor and mayor of
the German towns of Anclam and Potsdam and, for
two years, sat on the German Supreme Court of
Justice.
Second, Meusebach was a man of action. He
started by asking the Adelsverein committee in
Germany for more money to retire the existing
debt and to prepare to support the second wave of
settlers expected in the fall of 1845. But little help
was forthcoming. Undaunted, Meusebach found
well-watered, timbered, arable land about 80 miles
northwest of New Braunfels on the banks of the Pe-
dernales River. He bought a 10,000-acre tract,
which he ordered laid out in 10-acre lots. The new
settlement, Fredericksburg, was named in honor
of Prince Frederick of Prussia, a member of the
Adelsverein committee.
Tensions between Mexico and the United
States brought tragedy to Carlshafen. Preparing
for possible hostilities, the United States required
civilian haulers to move troops and materiel to-
ward the border beginning in early 1846, and the
German immigrants were left in Carlshafen with-
out transportation. The winter was rainy and cold,
perfect conditions for rampant disease. About 1,-
000 would-be settlers died during the wait, and hun-
dreds more succumbed on the trip. Scurvy, caused
by a lack of Vitamin C and common on sailing
ships where fresh fruits or vegetables were not
available, was blamed by some reports. But there
are additional references to fever, which is not a
symptom of scurvy, and a mention of cholera. Pos-
sibly the epidemic was a combination of several
diseases. Whatever the causes, cost in human life
and suffering was high among the families trying
to reach New Braunfels and Fredericksburg.
Fredericksburg was first occupied on May 8,
1846, by about 120 settlers after a two-week trip
from New Braunfels. Sixteen ox-drawn wagons,
protected from possible Indian attack by mounted
guards, carried the newcomers.
Meusebach, who renounced his German title to
become simply John O. Meusebach, turned to the
troublesome Fisher-Miller grant. Realizing that no
one could live there under the constant threat of
Indian hostilities, he requested a meeting with the
Comanche chiefs. Meusebach first met with sev-
eral lesser chiefs on Feb. 11, 1847, in present-day
Mason, about 40 miles northwest of Fredericks-
burg. Meusebach was joined by Indian Agent Rob-
ert S. Neighbors and an Indian interpreter. A
council with the head chiefs, including Buffalo
Hump, Santana and Old Owl, followed on March 1-
2, at the old San Saba presidio near present-day
Menard, where a treaty was worked out, effective-
ly opening the lands of the Fisher-Miller grant to
settlement. A rarity in Texas history, the treaty
was honored by both sides in the following years.
Several small colonies were established in this
newly opened territory, among them Castell, Lei-
ningen, Meerholz and Bettina. Castell is the only
one still in existence today.
Bettina was the dream of the Society of Forty,
an organization of 40 educated professionals and
craftsmen formed at Darmstadt, Germany, in 1847.
They planned a community based on communistic
principles to serve as an example of the ideal state.
They agreed to share equally in cultivating crops
and all other chores. Those who came to Texas to
found Bettina, named for author Bettina von
Armin, included two physicians, an engineer, twoarchitects, seven lawyers, five foresters, two me-
chanics, two carpenters, a butcher, a blacksmith, a
lieutenant of artillery, a ship's carpenter, a brew-
er, a miller, an innkeeper, a theologian, a maker of
musical instruments, an agriculturist and a bota-
nist.
Few spoke English; few had ever earned a liv-
ing. Despite the agreement to share chores equal-
ly, the professionals wanted to direct all the work
and expected the craftsmen and mechanics to car-
ry it out, which the craftsmen and mechanics re-
sented. Some Bettina residents hunted all day.
Others had long philosophical discussions, while
still others were quarreling about work assign-
ments. Less work got done. By summer of 1848, the
disenchanted idealists began drifting away, mostly
to San Antonio, Austin and New Braunfels, where
they took up work better suited to their training.
Less than a year after it was established, Bettina
was abandoned.
The German settlements tended to remain
independent and self-contained, rather than
integrating with the area around them. There were
several reasons: Most were settled by colonizers,
who made sure each colony contained every type
of craftsman essential to the development and
maintenance of the community. There was no rea-
son for the residents to go outside their own set-
tlements for any services. The Germans were
further isolated from other Anglo-American colo-
nists by differences in language and customs and
by their being non-slaveholders in a slave-holding
state.
Another surge of immigration into Texas was
created by the Revolution of 1848, an abortive
attempt to unify the German government. Leaders
of the liberal movement, the so-called "Forty-
Eighters," came to Texas because of persecution
at home for their roles in the revolution. By 1900,
Texas was home to almost 200,000 ethnic Germans,
which was more than 6 percent of the total pop-
ulation. Germans have made valued contributions
to Texas culture, particularly in the fields of histo-
ry, literature, the natural sciences, food, architec-
ture, music and art.The Vereins Kirche in Fredericksburg, also known
as the Coffeemill Church, is a 1935 replica of the
original, which was built in 1847. It was used as a
church for all denominations, and as a school and a
community hall. The original was razed in 1896 after
the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the arrival
of the first settlers. Almanac staff photo.
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Kingston, Mike. Texas Almanac, 1990-1991, book, 1989; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth162512/m1/53/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.