Llano County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 21,243. Its county seat is Llano, and the county is named for the Llano River.
Kerr County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 52,598. Its county seat is Kerrville. The county was named by Joshua D. Brown for his fellow Kentucky native, James Kerr, a congressman of the Republic of Texas. The Kerrville, TX Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Kerr County.
Kendall County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2020 census, its population was 44,279. Its county seat is Boerne. The county is named for George Wilkins Kendall, a journalist and Mexican–American War correspondent.
Gillespie County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 26,725. The county seat is Fredericksburg. It is located in the heart of the rural Texas Hill Country in Central Texas. Gillespie is named for Robert Addison Gillespie, a soldier in the Mexican–American War. It is known as the birthplace of 36th president of the United States of America Lyndon B. Johnson.
Comal County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 161,501. Comal County is known for its rich German-Texan and European history. Its county seat is New Braunfels.
Boerne is a city in and the county seat of Kendall County, Texas, United States, in the Texas Hill Country. Boerne is known for its German-Texan history, named in honor of German author and satirist Ludwig Börne by the German Founders of the town. The population of Boerne was 10,471 at the 2010 census, and in 2020 the population was 17,850. The city is noted for the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case City of Boerne v. Flores. Founded in 1849 as "Tusculum", the name was changed to "Boerne" when the town was platted in 1852.
New Braunfels is a city in Comal and Guadalupe counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the seat of Comal County. The city covers 44.9 square miles (116 km2) and had a population of 90,403 as of the 2020 Census. A suburb just north of San Antonio, and part of the Greater San Antonio metropolitan area, it was the third-fastest-growing city in the United States from 2010 to 2020. As of 2022, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates its population at 104,707.
Indianola is a ghost town located on Matagorda Bay in Calhoun County, Texas, United States. The community, once the county seat of Calhoun County, is a part of the Victoria, Texas, Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 1875, the city had a population of 5,000, but on September 15 of that year, a powerful hurricane struck, killing between 150 and 300 and almost destroying the town. Indianola was rebuilt, only to be wiped out on August 19, 1886, by another intense hurricane followed by a fire. Indianola was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1963, marker number 2642.
Prince Carl (Karl) of Solms-Braunfels was a German prince and military officer in both the Austrian army and the cavalry of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. As commissioner general of the Adelsverein, he spearheaded the establishment of colonies of German immigrants in Texas. Prince Solms named New Braunfels, Texas, in honor of his homeland.
John O. Meusebach, born Otfried Hans Freiherr von Meusebach, was at first a Prussian bureaucrat, later an American farmer and politician who served in the Texas Senate, District 22.
Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer was a German Texan botanist who spent his working life on the American frontier. In 1936, Recorded Texas Historic Landmark number 1590 was placed on Lindheimer's grave.
Texas Germans are descendants of Germans who settled in Texas since the 1830s. The arriving Germans tended to cluster in ethnic enclaves; the majority settled in a broad, fragmented belt across the south-central part of the state, where many became farmers. As of 1990, about three million Texans considered themselves German in ancestry.
The Mainzer Adelsverein at Biebrich am Rhein, better known as the Mainzer Adelsverein, organized on April 20, 1842, was a colonial attempt to establish a new German settlement within the borders of Texas.
Hermann Spiess was co-founder of the Bettina, Texas commune in 1847. He became Commissioner-General of the Adelsverein after the resignation of John O. Meusebach.
Emil Kriewitz was a German immigrant and veteran of the Mexican–American War, who came to this country with the Adelsverein colonists. After John O. Meusebach successfully negotiated the Meusebach–Comanche Treaty, Kriewitz lived among the Penateka Comanche as an intermediary between the whites and Penateka. In 1993, his home in Castell, Texas, was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, Marker number 9444.
Betty Holekamp (1826–1902) was a German colonist and pioneer in Texas. She is recognized for several "firsts" as a Texas pioneer, such as being the first to sew an American flag upon Texas's acceptance into the Union, and thus is known as the Betsy Ross of Texas. She was also among the first residents in four Texas Hill Country communities: New Braunfels, Fredericksburg, Sisterdale, and Comfort.
The History of Fredericksburg, Texas dates back to its founding in 1846. It was named after Prince Frederick of Prussia. Fredericksburg is also notable as the home of Texas German, a dialect spoken by the first generations of German settlers who initially refused to learn English. Fredericksburg shares many cultural characteristics with New Braunfels, which had been established by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels the previous year.
Bettina is a vanished community founded in 1847 by German immigrants as part of the Adelsverein colonization of the Fisher–Miller Land Grant in the U.S. state of Texas. It was located on the banks of the Llano River in Llano County, and no trace of the settlement remains today. The community was named after German artist and social activist Bettina von Arnim and was one of five attempted by the Darmstadt Forty. It was also known as the Darmstaedter Kolonie. The community was sponsored by the Adelsverein, and founded on idealistic philosophies of European freethinkers of the day. It is notable for the community's camaraderie and mutually respectful relations with local indigenous tribes. Lack of a formal community framework caused Bettina to fail within a year of its founding.
Evandberg Orphanage was established as a guardianship orphanage located in Comal County, Texas approximately 3.5 mi (5.63 km) north of New Braunfels, Texas. The indigent children home was created by a charter enacted into state law by the 2nd Texas legislature on March 16, 1848. The Texas charter appointed Louis Cachand Ervendberg, Ludwig Bene, and Hermann Spiess being of German descent as founding directors of the displaced shelter for exiled children in the Central Texas region.
