Historical Markers in Gillespie County
Texas·120 places·Page 3 of 5
History
Karl Kensing Cemetery
Heinrich Friedrich Karl Kensing (1828-1902) was born in Germany and immigrated to Texas with his parents and four siblings in 1845. The surviving three Kensing children, Karl, Henry and Christine, settled in Fredericksburg in 1850. Karl married Margaretha Friedricke Reeh (1825-1903) in 1850. The Kensings prepared a small family cemetery on their property.
History
Kloth-Ludwig Home
This limestone building was constructed about 1870 when the property was owned by John Adams Alberthal. It was designed with a commercial area on the front and a two-story residential section in the back. Christian Kloth purchased the home in 1878, and following his death in 1904, it was inherited by his daughters Anna Marie (Kloth) Ludwig (d. 1930) and Caroline Kloth (d. 1940).
History
Kuenemann House
Frederick Kuenemann and his family sailed from Bremen, Germany in September 1845. Once in Texas they faced great hardship, walking epidemic-crowded roads to New Braunfels, suffering the death of one daughter on the way and arriving in newly settled Fredericksburg in 1846. In 1866 Kuenemann bought the 'fachwerk" or "half-timbered" dwelling which comprises the ground floor of the house.
History
Lange's Mill
Established in 1849 by Doss brothers. Operated 1859-1878 by William F. Lange, 1878-1888 by Julius Lange. Its products were famed throughout the region. One of the last of the old burr mills in Texas, one of few in as perfect a state of preservation. Near by on a cliff are Indian pictographs.
History
Lehne-Itz House
Henry Lehne (1858-1931) followed the form of traditional German farmhouses in building this limestone structure in 1882. He farmed and ranched an adjoining 30 acres. As a teamster he hauled produce to San Antonio and returned with products such as beer and flour for local merchants. He outlived two wives (Anna Barth and Marie Spaeth) and remained here to rear his nine children.
History
Little Rock House
Constructed shortly after Civil War on townlot grant of German Emigration Co. Bought in 1868 by Heinrich Ochs, pioneer school teacher. Owned by family 61 years. Has been home and store with floor plan virtually unchanged since erection. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965
History
Liveoak Creek Log Cabin
This dogtrot cabin was probably built before 1852, when surveyor J. L. Ankrin sold this property to John Peter Keller, one of the first Gillespie County commissioners. It was later owned by Keller's son-in-law, Francis Kettner, Gillespie and Mason County public official. Anton and Anna Loth bought the land in 1886 and in 1901 erected a 2-story native stone house nearby.
History
Loeffler-Weber House
Log room and loft were built by German emigrant Gerhard Rorig as his home in first winter of Fredericksburg's existence, 1846-47. Noted cabinetmaker Johann Martin Loeffler added typical rock and half-timber rooms and cooking fireplace, 1867; his son-in-law, J. Charles Weber, in 1905 restored the southeast lean-to. For Loeffler-Weber family, this was home or Sunday House for 90 years.
History
Lower South Grape Creek School
Area settlers built a log schoolhouse 1.5 miles south of here in 1871 along South Grape Creek. It was part of Luckenbach School Precinct No. 3 until 1889, when it was renamed Lower South Grape Creek and began to serve as District No. 21. The log schoolhouse was replaced with this structure in 1901. It is typical of early 1900s rural school buildings found in Texas' Hill Country.
History
Luckenbach
Members of the Luckenbach family and other German immigrants moved here from Fredericksburg (11 mi. NW) in the 1850s. They settled along Grape Creek and soon established a school for their children. the Grape Creek Post Office was in operation briefly after 1858 with William Luckenbach as first postmaster.
History
Luckenbach School
In 1855 pioneer area settler Peter Pehl deeded a two-acre tract of land at this site for the construction of a schoolhouse to serve the Luckenbach School district. Herman Toepperwein was the first teacher in the log building, which was used until 1905 when the present native limestone schoolhouse was completed.
History
Lyndon Baines Johnson
The 36th President of the United States of America As a 12-year-old student attended classes of the 8th grade here at the old Stonewall school from October 1920 to June 1921.
History
Lyndon Baines Johnson
The 36th President of the United States was born here on August 27, 1908; son of a state legislator (1905-1917), Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr., and Rebekah Baines Johnson, a teacher. The house was built in 1906 with the help of neighbors. The Johnsons and Bainesses - early settlers - were ministers, Indian fighters, newspapermen, college professors, ranchers.
Architecture
Maier-Alberthal Building
Constructed about 1860, this building was acquired by German native Anton Maier (b. 1813) in 1866. A merchant who held several Gillespie County offices, Maier deeded the property to his son-in-law, August Alberthal.
History
Major Israel M. Nunez
(1841-1906) Civil War veteran and stage line operator who in 1870 founded Stonewall, naming it for Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson. Major Nunez, who lived 2 miles south of town and had a family of 9 children, donated land in 1886 for Stonewall School No. 18.
History
Market Square (Mark Platz)
This Square, originally a two-block area which included what is now called the Courthouse Square, has been at the center of Fredericksburg since the city's founding in 1846. The area was still heavily forested when the town's Vereins Kirche was built in the center of Main street in 1847.
History
Meckel-Hanus Building
Saddle and harness merchant Henry Meckel (1855-1909) acquired this property in 1886 and soon made improvements to a one-story, ca. 1860 stone house already on the lot. A second level of concrete blocks and a double gallery of milled wood were added to the central-hall structure. Dr. J. J.
History
Moritz-Hitzfeld-Jacoby House
Built for newlyweds Edmund (1884-1958) and Anna (1881-1968) Moritz in 1907, this house has been occupied by the descendants of three of Fredericksburg's earliest families. Edmund and his father, Joseph, used limestone from their family-owned quarry nearby to build the house with the help of Anna's father, carpenter John Metzger, Sr.
History
Morris Ranch Schoolhouse
Built in 1893, this schoolhouse was one of several structures located on the Morris Ranch, a noted center for the breeding and training of thoroughbred horses. Several local churches also used the native limestone building for worship services. The central section housed an assembly hall and each wing contained a classroom.
History
Mueller-Petmecky House
The original portion of this house probably was built between 1848 and 1850 by Willis Wallace, who was granted the land by the German Immigration Company. Of fachwerk construction, the two-room home later was acquired by German farmer Heinrich Mueller, Jr. Mueller's daughter Augusta and son-in-law A. W.
History
Nimitz Hotel
This property was purchased by Charles Henry Nimitz, Sr., in 1855. By 1860 the Nimitz Hotel was established, hosting frontier travelers and providing a home for the large Nimitz family. Expanded in the 1870s to feature a steamboat shaped facade, the hotel was a center for community activities. It was sold by the family in 1926 and underwent major alterations.
History
Old Central Drugstore
Alphons Walter (1866-1957), a Swiss-born jeweler and watchmaker, had this 2-story building erected in 1905. He sold the property in 1909 to Robert G. Striegler (1874-1934), a noted Fredericksburg civic leader who operated the Central Drugstore on the lower floor. Despite later changes in proprietors, the drugstore occupied this site for over 70 years.
History
Old Gillespie County Courthouse
Erected 1881-1882 in term of County Judge Wm. Wahrmund and Commissioners J. Dechert, F. Kneese, J. arson and J. P. Mosel. Architect was Alfred Giles. Native limestone structure is distinctive in fine balance and symmetry. Second courthouse built in county; used until 1939. Restoration and conversion to library-community hall is gift of Mr. and Mrs. eugene McDermott.
History
Old St. Mary's Church (Die Alte Kirche)
St. Mary's Parish dates to 1846 with the arrival of German settlers in Fredercksburg. Construction of this building, which replaced an earlier log strucuer, was completed in 1863 during the pastorate of the Rev. Peter Baunach. It served as the parish church until a larger building was constructed in 1906, after which it served a variety of purposes., including a schoolhouse.
History
Pape Log Cabin
One of the oldest structures in Fredericksburg, built by communal effort for the family of Friedrich Pape (1813-94). Pape, his wife Katherine, and a daughter arrived in galveston in Nov. 1845 from Germany. three Pape children died on the trip. The family was among the first forty to settle in fredericksburg, and soon after arriving in May 1846, this cabin was erected to shelter the ailing Mrs.
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