History
James Carrel Bell
Born March 1, 1820. A young soldier in the Texas War for Independence. He entered Bexar December 5, 1835 [blank] -- John York, Captain. Company D, Eighth Texas Infantry Regiment, C.S.A. Died August 4, 1880. His wife Eliza Baker Bell. Born May 6, 1831. Died October 26, 1906. Erected by the State of Texas 1962
History
James J. Ross
Born in South Carolina in about 1787, James Jeffres Ross was a member of the "Old Three Hundred." He arrived in Stephen F. Austin's colony in late 1822 or early 1823, moving onto the league granted him near Eagle Lake in Colorado County. In 1828 he moved to the S. A. Anderson League and built a home about one mile southwest of this site. Col.
History
James Seaton Lester
Star and Wreath Delegate to the 1835 Consultation, San Jacinto Veteran, member of four Republic of Texas Congresses. Erected by the State of Texas 1962
History
John Rice Jones
Born in Kaskaskia, Illinois January 8, 1792. Came to Texas in 1831. Served in the army in 1835 until he was chosen postmaster general of the provisional government of Texas, 1836. Appointed postmaster general of the Republic December 14, 1839. Died in Fayette County, Texas, 1845. Erected by the State of Texas 1936
Architecture
Kallus House
Built in 1885-86, the house became the residence of the Kallus family in 1916. Moravian native Frank J. Kallus (1872-1951) came to Texas in 1890 and later taught school in nearby Ellinger. He married Elizabeth Weisner, and the couple had four children. Two years after her death in 1902, he moved his family to La Grange, where he was a county official and lawyer.
Architecture
Kaulbach Home
Built 1885 by H. B. Kaulbach (1839-1919), insurance agent. The Victorian style exhibits two-story columnar gallery, graceful arches supported by thin, turned columns. This structure includes 5 rooms of house previously on site. Architect was C. Michaelis. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, 1968.
History
Konrad Joh Log Cabin
According to tradition, this cabin was erected about 1848 near the main Galveston to Bastrop Rd. The hand-hewn live oak logs were chinked with a mixture of mud, straw, and sand. Konrad (1830-1912) and Elisa (Zwernemann) Joh (1839-1901), who migrated to Texas from Germany, occupied the structure for many years.
History
Kreische Complex
Kreische Complex German immigrant Heinrich Kreische (1821-1882) purchased nearly 175 acres of property in Fayette County in 1849. A stonemason by trade, he built a house, barn and smokehouse here on the high south bluff above the Colorado River. In the 1860s, Kreische began brewing Bluff Beer near his homesite.
History
La Fayette Masonic Lodge No. 34 A.F. & A.M.
La Grange's Masonic lodge organized in 1847, with John Murchison as the first worshipful master. Historically, Masons have supported many civic causes including education. The La Fayette lodge laid the cornerstone for the Fayette County Courthouse in 1891, with district judge and lodge member Lyttleton W. Moore delivering the oration.
Architecture
Lenert House
Albert Charles Lenert (1841-1902) and his wife Amelia (1853-1952), both of whom immigrated to Fayette County from Germany as children, moved to La Grange in 1894 and built this home for their family. A fine example of high Victorian Italianate style, the frame structure features symmetrical front massing, an inset central porch, a side porch with Moorish arcade, and fine milled detail.
History
Ludwig and Caroline Giese House
Ludwig and Caroline Giese House German immigrant Ludwig Giese arrived in Galveston in 1850 and made his way to Fayette County, where he became a teamster and farmer. Following service in the Confederacy during the Civil War, he settled in the Haw Creek community, where in the 1870s he purchased a farmstead that included this house.
History
Lyons Family Cemetery
James Lyons (b. 1778) brought his family to Texas from New York in 1820. While working outside his cabin near this site on Oct. 15, 1837, Lyons was killed by Comanches. His was the first grave in this family cemetery. His 12-year-old son Warren (b. 1825) was captured in the attack and held by the Indians for about 10 years before he was able to return home. In 1848 he married Lucy Boatright.
History
Lyons Lodge No. 195, A.F. & A.M.
Lyons Lodge No. 195, A.F.& A.M. began in the community of Lyons in 1856. The first meeting place was at a farm in the town. Members built a lodge building in 1861 that also functioned as the community's public school until 1874. After the Civil War, as residents began moving out of Lyons, so did the lodge. By 1869, members held meetings at High Hill.
Architecture
Meerscheidt House
Tax records indicate this house was built in 1884, the same year the property was purchased by Paul Meerscheidt from his relative, attorney Axel Meercheidt. German immigrants and prominent local farmers John Speckels, Sr., and his wife Marguerite (Imken) acquired the property in 1890. The house is a fine local example of a late Victorian-era dwelling.
History
Monument Hill Tomb
Monument Hill Tomb In September 1848, the remains of Texans killed in the 1842 Dawson Massacre and the 1843 "Black Bean Death Lottery" were reburied at this site in a sandstone vault. The Kreische family did its best to care for the grave during their ownership of the property, but it suffered from lack of formal oversight. In 1905, the state authorized acquisition of .
History
Muldoon Community
Located in southwest Fayette County, the Muldoon area was first settled in the 1830s. The community was named in honor of Father Miguel Muldoon and is situated on land acquired in 1831 through a Spanish land grant from Stephen F. Austin. Father Muldoon was of Irish heritage, educated in Spain and moved to Mexico in 1821 when he entered the priesthood. In Mexico, he met Stephen F.
History
Nassau Plantation
An extensive tract of land purchased in 1843 for colonization by German emigrants. Named for Duke Adolf of Nassau, protector of the emigration society, it was once one of the show places of Texas. Although the 4,428 acres could have been a good half-way station for German colonists on the long journey to western lands, this use was rejected by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, the commissioner…
History
Navidad Baptist Cemetery
In 1853, Seth F. and Caroline M. Hazel deeded land to trustees of Navidad Baptist Church and Cemetery. This cemetery served the residents of the pioneer community of Lyons, whether or not they were members of the Navidad Baptist Church. The community was established by the 1840s on land originally granted in 1831 to Kesiah Crier.
History
Old Anderson Place
Area's oldest occupied house. Built before 1857 by William B. and Rosetta Anderson, three of whose eleven children were born here. Anderson was a carpenter, blacksmith, postmaster in town of Lyons, justice of the peace, notary public (appointed by the Governor of Texas), and sergeant of Lyons Riflemen, C.S.A. Family watched military drills from second story during Civil War.
History
Old City Cemetery
Used for burials by 1840, this site was deeded by J. S. Lester to trustees who conveyed it to La Grange after incorporation of the city on July 3, 1854. Fourteen townswomen on April 17, 1873, formed what was probably the first such organization in Texas when they organized the Ladies' Cemetery Association of La Grange. Mrs. L. W. Moore was the first president.
History
Old Plum Grove Cemetery
Old Plum Grove Cemetery began as a family burial ground. Texas pioneer John Y. Criswell buried his wife, Eleanor, on this site. The Criswell family was part of Stephen F. Austin's Third Colony, which arrived in Texas by 1830. In 1839, the Plum Grove Baptist Church, which would become linked to the cemetery, formed. This was one of the earliest Baptist churches in the state of Texas.
History
Oldenburg
The land in this area was included in a Mexican land grant awarded to Nathaniel Townsend in 1838. Portions of the grant were sold to a succession of different people over the years, and in 1885 August Heintze and Gus Steenken, both natives of Oldenburg, Germany, founded a community and named it after their hometown.
Industry & Science
Original Site of First Oil Mill in Texas
Erected by Frederick Hillje, 1866, using German-made sugar beet crusher adapted locally to seed processing. Later enlarged plant had regular milling machinery for cottonseed. After Galveston, Houston & San Antonio Railroad bypassed High Hill, Hillje moved mill to Weimar, 1880. (1967)
History
Pagel Cemetery
Gottfried and Friedrike (Dickow) Pagel came to Texas from Pomerania in 1850 with eight children and purchased land in this vicinity in 1852. The following year, Friedrike died shortly after giving birth to her ninth child. In 1855, Gottfried wed widow Johanna "Anna" Zorn Fritsche. Her daughter Magdalena wed the eldest Pagel son, Friedrich Wilhelm, known as Wilhelm, in 1858.
History
Philadelphia Evangelical Lutheran Chuch
Second oldest congregation in the Texas-Louisiana Synod, United Lutheran Church in America. The founding occurred on March 24, 1867, under leadership of the Rev. C. C. Rudi, who had just moved to the Swiss Alp area. A ten-acre church site was donated by John and Christina Knippa by deed of March 29, 1869. Cedar was donated by J. F.
Elsewhere in Texas
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