The Cuero Record (Cuero, Tex.), Vol. 41, No. 301, Ed. 1 Tuesday, December 31, 1935 Page: 14 of 32
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THE tittvO btCOEu, CCEKG, TEXAS
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1835
| Settlement Of
leyersville As Told
ly Judge Wm. Dreier
JOHN YORK
GOOD NEIGHBOR
•John York, for whom the town
j fire under next morning, when a t break their ground for planting 1 hard to follow. , spinning machine Jospin hair; and ing and returning from the mill. \ county.
i bjg rain storm came upon us from with a spade and grubbing hoe. j Later on more people came to Wm. Hausmann and Gus Dietze Some of the families down there j They did not show up any more
| the west and by the next morning 1 The next year my grandfather mad* ! live at Meyersville and my father; would com? to our hoitse to spin would have probably suffered from j that night but one day later a
! they had a big pile of mud. but no , himself a wooden plow. They had Fred Dreier opened a grocery store! hair to make ropes ■ hunger, if ;t had not been for' their j hand of twenty or thirty men came
j bncks. .wooden mould boards and plows in ! and bought £ span of iior-es and at During the Wcr Mr. G. Hausmann arrangement "with young Meisen- j in the daytime and robbed the
Germany and my grandfather had wagon to hay! his stocks! Gott had bought all the cotton he could helriei*. ^ ; Hausmann store, taking everythin*
brought him along an iron share or;heb Hausmann. who canu* hum bl!y I think he had 500 to 1.000 . . Fred Hausmann. who came to ; they could carry off. There were
plow point. When he was work- Germany with my family, and lo- baies stored up in large pens, and Texas in 184G. as a member of the do guards in the daytime and they
, , j ing on his plow. Mr. York, came by catrd,.aF Victoria, came on to Mey- : after the v ar he had all the cot- New Braunfels colony. reported i d*d not have sheriffs in tfyne
j o1 * orktow n was named. was a jand hiin the plow was no good,. ersriiie to live and my fathei hauler, to .Mexico. There were j’hai- fc; a year or more they had to ; days,
motives and causes have depended upon the wind for their e°cd neighbor and very good to the ; but wben be returned a week later out his store to him and after tha
influenced and played motive power. For ten long days: newcomers. He showed them how and fobnd my grandfather plowing my father worked a a carp--ntei
in the discovery, the and nights there was no breeze 1 to put up the houses. My grand- |with jJh- pushed him away, plow- building Jiov: cs for oilur people at 'out the cotton,
and development of whatsoever, and day by day thei father. Henry Dreier, bought a yoice ; ed a ^urrow himself with it and ■ fifty cent per dry. splitting fails- 12 ib ig bales on ‘large wagons
from a vast expanse of captain of the ship would go on o: oxen ulth which to drag the logs tojd m^. grandfather the plow was .at 50 cents pri hundred. which would be hitched ten to 14 night* on their journeys to and from
fetory to its present state of deck, smoke his pipe, and witch to the place to put up a house. All j alright , • Still later lie bought, himself mules, two on the tongue and then Indianola. The distance frep
j®n. | the smoke hopefully to see which i Of the settlers built their houses! -Mr. York would come every week■ more teams and started a freight 'feur abreast. It took the ^Aci- New Braunfels to Indianola wap
way it might blow, but without re- ’ within a few hpndred yards 01 the tQ see what the ‘ Dutchmans" were [hauling business to and from San cans nearly three weeks to load all piore t-han 75 miles. '
suit, as the smoke would curl j Colletto Creek to be near to a j doing alMj to ask if any Indians had Antonio, which he continued until the cotton, and occasionally a bale After the close of the Civil War
straight upward toward the cloud- j supply of water, because they did been SJ;en . the war broke out and thh’. he would roll off and burst open. and the return of those who had
,less blue sky overhead. ■ not know how to dig a well. ! hauled cotton to Mexico. A trip . . ’ <-one from Meversville a brass band raeing torrent three hundred steps
"For the first year, when there |OJOY ONE lo Mexico with cotton would ( ORX GRINDING ‘ ^ ut* Wtotam ■ Wide- fenCCS ah>ng creek
* 4 vere no weUs; al1 of the. seltlers i 1 * ' quire from-seven to nine, weeks. ;f lORKTOW Y I “ . Ga n-ietz^ as leaders a<ld a few houses uere washed
did their washing at the creek. The ] Qne day ali the settlers got word there were no break-downs. Then Two days were Set aside in each Theodore or John ThierUe Valentine : av ay and tW0 girls oI a Mr Walker
btoken,; Twelve mile then had some large. ; t0 arm themselves to repel an In- he was pressed to haul for «ihe tn Drin4 ™.n n£,n„i0 c-,„,uu.. T ___and w*te- and of Mrs. Wilms wen
Later on Jack Helms and
25 to 30 Mexican wagons in on? make trips to Indianola on foot tp j others cleared out the band of bad
mi:, camped at Meyersville tt> load get their provisions, and they built men and drove from the country
They would load a little grass hut between Vic- ! those wiio were not killed,
to toria;and Indla^ioja to stay in over! COLETTO CREEK
DROWNS TWO GIRLS
bpher Columbus, the ac-
t discoverer of the conti-
ts out to prove to his own
|£>n and to the satisfac-
coutitrymen that the
rsumffnstead of flat, by
i©ut a shorter route to
historians record that
IS
the 13th day of March, 1865,
was a serious overflew of
the Twelve .Mile Coletto Creek
when the little stream became a
TORNADO BREAKS
CLAM
“The calm was finally
< the week to grind corn and people siadtler, Louis Letsch and others drOWnede
the belief that h# hadjho*ever’ ** * ! <*?P P°°1S dian attack’ but Very fCW °l them government and some time later he v.0uld come from a distance of 15 1 do not recall.
_• —.«_< —- ——«... 1 ant as had endured, as the frail when my mother. Mrs. Fred Dreic, | bad any guns to fight with only lit- w'ent into the army. ! —----- ... -----I
nooning newTpawr J“* w“ svtn,„ck, by “I
vs to tell him better
an. the Spanish ad-
over with a big fol-
flud an alleged “Fountain
become young again, no
could begin over again
times. California and
went to the creek to do her wash-
ing, she saw a large log floating in
the water, or at least she took it to
’miles to bring their corn, as there K
Mr. Walker drifted
(driven back before the high wind
for another ten days until the
weary passengers were about readjs^be a log. but when she got closer to
to give up hope of ever seeing it. she saw that it wras an alligator.
hr h had soent his'America at aU' and *elt that m0re She left her clothes and ran t0
[, a er e pe ■ j^gjy thev ^ jujti au |pe drowned in Mr. Friz Hausmann to tell him of
havfag ^lmw andhe ^ deep Wue sea jthe alligator, and he went to the
“The ship was badly torn and j creek and shot and killed the alli-
damaged and it took the ship’s car- jgatcr which measured fourteen ft.
m wirh^ • penter quite a while to make the i Mr. Hausmann was a good shot
' it C°n T Hot Springs!necessary r8Pairs- The compass with his gun and killed and divid-
a T th ° are the : wfls brolien 50 they liad no waJ' of ed many deer with the neighbors,
a ^ r!-ac look- [telling where they were at sea, and but one day he went out to kill a
u 0 . ; which way they should sail to be on deer and had a glimpse of what
*>u nevtT.. ” ‘ • jthe right course. To add to the! he took to be one in the brush and
Fathers came ,__________ I _____ bis
Hlgrim
py an
. tad ous ioumevs^ hardslliPs the long voyage, the • high grass, and he fired his gun
tlu^they ‘ wa**r ran s^1<n^ and bad to be ap-i with thoughts of more freish ven-
A God r 1111° to P0rti0Bed s° that every person on ison, but when he got close up to
f th ir own °con- ! board had an allowance cf cne pint { his game he found he had wound-
" ® lanrfinif areordinS ■waler Per daJ’- Finally the Is- ed a skunk, and the skunk took
fit d er n lv^* they first iland of Jamaica was sighted, and j after him while his gun was load-
Wi r r and th«i fell'the shiD made a landihS to re- j after him while his run was unload-
todians'and took their jstock witJ water and prov^iofS t0;a r€tl'eat-
from them, by trading1 resuma tha ^rd Amer’ WOODEN PLOW
beads and the like.
tie shot guns. The Indians were ' WAR DECLARED
camped near the Cibolo between —LOTS OF Fl’N j pie liked to have their com bread. MEAERS\ILLE
Yorktown and San Antonio river, j ^’heii the war b’oke out in 1861 1 My uncle, Louis Dreier; then lived
So those settlers w ho could muster;
: down the stream a mHe or more bn
were no other mills and the peo- J ^ HAWKERS VISIT j the roof of their house finally land-
I , . . . : nrvFPsvn 1 p | mg in the brush on the bank of
, , . ,. , the creek where he was rescued.
After the war there were bad The b d f th ^ , _
guns had to go to that place. They :\^cif merrimemMeye^ille!! and when he atjd ^is18dne?ghbJrs jSayhwvkmf°Und nCXt morning’ lodged in
founa the Indians in camp in a The boys-al! 1)ati a fine time sing_ went to war. hisCbrother-in-law. j over the country and rob the stores
aL "1', hig and drinking mustang wine. Jake Meisenhelder then about 15 ab night or in open daylight. -Mr.
wai e They did not see the serious side years old. supplied all the soldiers’^ g. Hausmann had a nice Country
4&n. of it. families with com meal. Ht> | store and lots of merchandise. He
, . i e I During the war everything was ’ would first send them word that hid some of his goods in one of. our
about ten men, including Messrs.;^,. hjgh in priC€ and we had Ilo he was going to the mill in abojit]wells which was dry and fasten^
York and Bell of tins county, ^ome ur no SUpar no coffee. The ,1'™ days, and if they wanted any a rawhide over it. The neighbors
of the settlers got lost m the bmsh | malter of ciolhes came to be a meal to shuck and shell their corn. would take turns at watching at
m getting away and it was several iat problem and my mother and so he could take it for them. Then the store each night, and one night
days until they returned to tneir j si£ter spun one whole Winter to get he would hitch up his oxen and there came about fifty men to rob
homes. But the Indians never enough yanl lo have it woven into make lhe rounds, and return with the
cloth so we would have something r^he meal. He had tc take his oxen; My father and Wm. Hausmann' mann built the first cotton gin at
to wear. My sister made straw f°tir miles to borrow a two-wheel ^ere on giArd and my father told Meyersville and also a grist mill.
Indians, but the Indians
until the w hite men had fired jmd'
then they attacked and kuleci j
Indians
came back this way again.
GETTING PROVISIONS
some brush. My father, still in tho
army, came home on furlough just
in time to help gather up fancti
rails and build new fences.
BUILD FIR8T t , .f]
COTTON GIN
After the war was finally ended,
my father took up his teaming
work again and hauled freight from
Indianola to 8an Antonio.
In I86tf my father and Fred Hans-
hats out of Palmetto which we got cart from M. Kromer, to haul the Hasmann to blow his bugle, which
he did, and the men thought he
i ica. On the Island of Jamaica, j really WORKED
..____ narno „„„_ithe Dreier family and the other
Ld buut up Gsorgla; !r,‘gra“5 bad thf flrs'
w ZJZL iZtL™and
The first year the farmers of the
new Meyersville community had to
BIG PROBLEM
When provisions ran short in the ; in the bottonjs where the San An-,cc:n to the mill,
new Meyersville settlement, the set- • tonio river flows into the Guada- The nearest mill at that time was was calling a company of soldiers,
tiers had to go to Victoria to get lupe river, and made shuck collars the Scrinever mill at Yorktown, and they quickly turned and fled on
more. They made the trips on for horses and mules to be used on rnd to make the rounds with his their horses. The next morning our
foot and brought back such pro- trips to Mexico. We had to make oxen, go after the cart, gather up people found boots, shoes and all
visions as they could carry. A trip our own ropes out of hair by hand, the corn, take it to Yorktown and kinds of warls which the robbers
to Victoria and return would re- as there were no grass ropes1 for return, it would require the big- had lost in their flight which had
sale. gest part of a week and he usually j been taken that day in the robbery
My father had made himself a J spent two nights at our home go-!of a‘ store at Middletown in Goliad
quire three days, if it did not rain.
They had just a dim road that was
The gin worked very slowly, being
just one sixty saw gin. .We had t6
unload all eotton by hand with
baskets and weight it a litte at a
time on a large cotton scale; then .
carry the cotton op to the gin"
stands by hand. The lint would
pile up in a large room like snow,
and we had to carry it by armfults
(Continued on Page 7) V
• I 1 I'EWT* ‘
releasing themselves
jails, where they had
for not paying their
on, all down the line the
Europe came over to this
search of wealth, in
health, for religious pur-
1 'political reasons, and
other reason perhaps
natures. Most of the
alleged to have come to
one time or another in
of getting on the New
farce.
“The rest of the journey, after
the repairing of the ship, was made i
without undue incident or happen-J
ing and the landing was made at
Galveston on January 2, 1848, over
three months after leaving the old
country.
“At Galveston my father, Fred
Dreier. and mother. Miss Louise
the late Mrs. W. T. Eichholz, was
the first child to be bom in the i
Meyersville colony.
WALKED TO
VICTORIA |
“From Galveston the four fami-'ji
lies who had come over together,
went by means of a flat boat to
Houston, and at Houston they hir-
i ed a four-horse team to take them
to Victoria. The teamster could
only load on the trunks, boxes and
various belongings of the immi-
grants upon his vehicle and the
families had to walk behind the
driver and his team all the way
from Houston to Victoria. The
WL
or the
old countries
ritoae planning
fc.ve plenty of
and be
■jflrations and
/ from loved
could not hope tp
than Mice or twice
„ poorly built homes ___ . I _
provisions; In many in- *ould not a “re,ta
....___ ____II. be started, on account of the tall
r
the reach of medi-
or protection of law
our American ances-
sver nationality, were
sterner fabrics of hu-
and in the matter
and deprivations, they
world that they
it.”
settlers, who came
Texas territory,
be first to get here, but
in time to share in most
hardships of the eary pi-
traveled across the
carts and on foot, cut-
through the brush as
They came in time
of the Indians already
by the scarcely less sav-
Mexicans. in many
captained and led by
|s Texas desperadoes who
P^riven out of older states
Unlike many of the
lies of the New England
traded glass beads for
the settlers of New
and Fredericksburg, and
s, brought some money
and they bought and
land they occupied,
itjbhad just fought her war
mid won her indepen-
the .first German fam-
Meyersville in 1846.
gamp on the Coletto Creek,
II
grass which was two to six feet
in height, and for fear of Indian)
raids. He told them the Indians
would likely see the smoke from
any fire started and come and kill
the whole party. So they had to
do without meals on their inland
journey and by the time Victoria
was reached, members of the party
were hungry and worn .out.
“Gottlieb Hausmann and his par-
ents and another family of the
party decided to stay in Victoria,
but the Dreier family came on up
to Meyersville. about one mile fur-
ther up the Colletto Creek from
where Lower Meyersville is now lo-
cated.
“Mr. Fritz Hausmann and Mr.
Adolph Meyer had been living at
Meyersville since the year 1846.
They had a small log hut built and
covered with grass. A serious
handicap to the men was that they
did not know how to handle an axe
as back in the old country, there'
was no wood to bum, but peat or j
turf was used for fuel. Now they j
had to learn to cut large trees and
split the logs tM build houses and
split shingles and weather boards
to close the cracks, and split rails
to fence in ground for fields.
“After a house was built they
had to take a large broad axe to
hew the logs somewhat straight on
the inside so they could nail the
tfceir descendents still re- cracks up with split weather
P, as^ood and law-abiding citi-
mmm
In .th** early fall of 1847, several
boards and cover the roof with
shingles. The shingles were three
feet long on my grandfather’s
Ggnnan families sailed from house but the roof did not leak.
r<Ju«ig£Wr
to make their homes in
[atad among these families
th*i grandparents and parents
fm. Dreier, venerable Jus-
1 [Peace, Precinct No 1. who
1 borrv and reared in the Meyers-
cofhm unity, and personally
many of those incon-
tepees that befell the early
00ants^as the country was build-
an&cettllng up, and Judge
£ar pps been prevailed upon to
air bis early impressions and
of the early settlement
rille His narrative fol-
: £>beier
“In the year 1850, ten of the
German settlers agreed to build a
house 12x20 feet. They split logs
and shingles and built a Lutheran
church of logs. It ha£ two
doors and one window, and one
shutter on the west end. They
used that building until 1866. when
the community got together and
built a rock church, which is still
standing, out beside the newer
Lutheran churh, which ranks as
the largest and finest rural ‘ com-
munity place of worship in DeWitt
county.
A Land Of Opportunity
1 *; * • i-.' ■- •
For Dairy Farming
-• -• • * • ■ ,
Because of its diversified soils, mild climate and stable market, DeWitt County offers unusual
advantages to farmers who wish to engage in dairy farming. On reasonably priced lands green
feeds can be produced 1 1 months in the year and a mild climate necessitates only a small investment
in barns and shelters for herds. Crescent Valley Creamery, operating at less than one-half capacity
for the past three years, guarantees a stable and all-year cash market for all production for the
manufacture of its famous product.
)* %
Valley Gold
%
weet
CREAM BUTTER
My father. Fred Dreier, had ,
[ bought 100 «cres of land from Mr. |
’ "My jgrents and grandparents ! Pettus on the Twelve Mile Coletto
L' prated to America. In the year at $1.00 per acre and he built hLs j
lg7. They-embarked upon
llafetp” on the 23rd day of
of that year, but mis-
*ns on the voyage over,
»d%hein so that they did not
IriI at-Galveston, Texas, until the
Bid day of January, 1848.
‘♦After-they had been at sea for
they ran into one
house upon it. Later my father
and Fred Hausmann. who lived |
________ _ _ close together and were brother- j
and unfavorable weath- I in-laws, and who had worked m a |
brick yard in Germany as their!
trade, burned some bricks, and sold ;
enough of the bricks so that each ’
could buy himself 50 acres of land.
They knew Well enough how to
make their kiln and burn the
Realms’’ that were j bricks, but one time they had a
sail bo^ts that j lain of brick just ready to start the
Valley Gold, three times blue ribbon winner at the Texas State Fair, is generally recognized
as Texas’ finest creamery butter, is now bringing a 10c premium on the Texas market. Demand for
if far exceeds the supply and tha need for increased production is acute. Ten trucks daily visit
every section of DeWitt county and pick up whole milk, sweet or sour cream at the farmer’s door.
Cream checks are issued twice monthly. If you are interested in starting dairy production
small scale we invite you to confer with us.
on
Crescent Valley Creamery
Cuero, Texas
jL
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Putman, Harry C. The Cuero Record (Cuero, Tex.), Vol. 41, No. 301, Ed. 1 Tuesday, December 31, 1935, newspaper, December 31, 1935; Cuero, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth999409/m1/14/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Cuero Public Library.