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Help reach our Matching Grant Challenge by Dec 31, 2010!

2010-10-05T20:05:00Z

Trudy Hutton, Board President

Call 830-997-2835 or visit www.pioneermuseum.net to donate.

The Gillespie County Historical Society /Pioneer Museum announces a fund raising campaign of $75,000 that, if raised by December 31, 2010, will be matched dollar for dollar by two challenge grants from the Dian Graves Owen Foundation and Kathryn Harrison. “Our Diamond Anniversary year represents an important milestone for the Gillespie County Historical Society,” said president Trudy Hutton. “In these trying financial times for non-profits across the country, we are blessed to announce these potential match grants. Every dollar we receive will be matched until our goal is met. That means every dollar donated from the community is like a two dollar donation.”

Contributions toward the match may be in the form of new memberships, membership upgrades, donations or pledges to be paid by December 2011. Donations may be made by check mailed to the Gillespie County Historical Society 312 W. San Antonio St. Fredericksburg, Tx 78624. Donations may also be made by credit card (call Vicki Beasley at GCHS at 830-997-2835) or on the website pioneermuseum.net

“We are almost half way to matching the $75,000 challenge grants. Our rich history of Fredericksburg and Gillespie County represents such a splendid tapestry of times gone by and cannot be allowed to go dormant,” said Tom Hutton, Manager of the Pioneer Museum. “We request the support of the community to help us to reach and exceed the goals of our two challenge grants,” said Tom Hutton.

The Historical Society was chartered in 1935 by a group of Fredericksburg citizens to rebuild the Vereins Kirche. The Works Project Administration in 1933 provided funding for construction of a replica of the original Vereins Kirche that had been torn down many years earlier.

Since the establishment of the Gillespie County Historical Society, the Pioneer Museum has acquired, renovated and maintained 11 buildings in addition to the Vereins Kirche, 10 of which now reside on the grounds of the Pioneer Museum. Among the buildings open for visitation are the Kammlah House (oldest house in Fredericksburg in its original location), the White Oak one-room School, the Weber Sunday House, and the Fassel Roeder House. Each of these buildings represents a different facet in Fredericksburg’s rich history.

The 75th anniversary year of the GCHS will culminate with the Tannenbaum Ball on December 4 and the Holiday Home Tour on December 11. Another event in the fall includes Log Cabin Days, October 9, featuring living history presentations along with demonstrations of rope making, the making of pioneer toys, blacksmithing, butter churning, quilting and sewing, and appearances by Chief Standing Bear and representatives of the United Indian Tribes. The public is invited to all of these events.

Diamond Anniversary and a Challenge

2010-08-31T14:17:00Z

by Trudy Hutton
Board President
Sept 1, 2010

2010 is the Gillespie County Historical Society’s 75th anniversary! Our Diamond Anniversary. What a milestone to celebrate. We have been blessed with a pair of match challenge grants totaling $75,000 from the Dian Graves Owen Foundation and Kathryn Harrison. Every dollar we receive in donations will be matched until our goal is met. That means every dollar donated from the community is like a two dollar donation.

We are almost half way to matching the $75,000 challenge grants. Our rich history of Fredericksburg and Gillespie County represents such a splendid tapestry of times gone by and cannot be allowed to go dormant. We ask for the support of our community and friends of the Pioneer Museum to help us to reach and exceed the goals of our two challenge grants.

The Historical Society was chartered in 1935 by a group of Fredericksburg citizens to rebuild the Vereins Kirche. The city had received its first WPA check and the reconstruction of the Vereins Kirche was among the projects funded. The Chamber of Commerce appointed a committee to oversee the reconstruction and that committee became the Gillespie County Historical Society.

The Vereins-Kirche (Society Church), the first public building in Fredericksburg, was designed by a Dr. Schubert of the Adelsverein and built by the first settlers of Fredericksburg in 1847. It followed an ancient German style known as the "Carolingian octagon," exemplified by the original portion of the cathedral of Charlemagne at Aachen. The original Vereins Kirche stood in the middle of main street and served as a church for all denominations in the community as well as a school, community center, town hall and fort. After falling into disrepair, the original building was demolished in 1896 following the 50th Anniversary of Fredericksburg celebration. The reconstructed building housed the Gillespie County Historical Society's Pioneer Museum until 1967, when the museum was moved to its present complex on Main Street. The GCHS still maintains and operates the Vereins Kirche as part of its museums.

Since the establishment of the Gillespie County Historical Society, the Pioneer Museum has acquired, renovated and maintained 11 buildings in addition to the Vereins Kirche, 10 of which now reside on the shaded grounds of the Pioneer Museum Complex. Among the buildings open for visitation are the Kammlah House (oldest house in Fredericksburg in its original location), Kammlah barn, the Cox log cabin, the White Oak one-room School, the Weber Sunday House, and the Fassel Roeder House and the Arhelger Bath House. Each of these buildings represents a different facet in Fredericksburg’s rich history.

The 75th anniversary year of the GCHS will culminate with the Tannenbaum Ball on December 4 and the Holiday Home Tour on December 11. Another event in the fall includes Log Cabin Days, October 9, featuring living history presentations along with demonstrations of rope making, the making of pioneer toys, blacksmithing, butter churning, quilting and sewing, and appearances by Chief Standing Bear and representatives of the United Indian Tribes. The public is invited to all of these events.

Golden Thread of History

2010-08-22T17:39:00Z

by Katherine Tanner

GCHS Scholarship Essay
August 14, 2010
Fredericksburg, Texas

Note: This is the winning essay in the 2010 Flora Wertheim Scholarship Contest sponsored by the Gillespie County Historical Society. Ms Tanner, the 20-year-old daughter of Karen and Louis Tanner, earned a $1000 scholarship to help continue her studies at Southwestern University in Georgetown, where she is majoring in International Studies with a Political Science focus, with a minor in German. Visit pioneermuseum.net for information on the 2011 contest.

It is interesting how one absorbs one’s surroundings. You either learn about it automatically as you live in a place or you enthusiastically go after it if you are a ‘move in’ and need to catch yourself up! (I am the latter.)

If you live in a place all or most of your life, you learn from your parents, grandparents, church, friends, community events and traditions all of those years of your life without really realizing what you are absorbing. If you move into a new town, you learn about your surroundings very much in the same way – except you ‘go after’ this information in a more purposeful and deliberate manner or in a more concentrated manner to make up for all that time you didn’t have as a ‘local.’ This assumes you have the interest - which I do because I was born with a keen interest in history.

As a resident of Fredericksburg for almost 7 years now, I have experienced many local events and met many native and long-time Fredericksburgers. Almost since the start, my mother became involved in the Gillespie County Historical Society as a member and volunteer and that meant that I, as the 13 year old born historian I was at that time, became interested in learning about and attending various historical based events. My mother had been coming to the Pioneer Museum since she was in high school (mid 70s) and now that we had moved on purpose to Fredericksburg (ie, not a job transfer but a lifestyle choice,) it was time we got into the thick of living here.

We attended several Historical Society activities, events, fundraisers and meetings. I loved it all. But, what I found the most fulfilling, the most invigorating and by far, the most meaningful was those times when I would casually engage in conversation with a person whose history was local and colorful. It was on these occasions that I realized that the PEOPLE of Fredericksburg and members and volunteers at the Society offered me personally the most history, oral histories is what you call it, as I was sitting under a shade tree during Founders Weekend or talking to a docent or volunteer at a Home Tour where I felt the most welcome or at home in my new town. I have continued over the years to attend many events sponsored and hosted by the Gillespie County Historical Society – from Music Series nights to receptions to volunteer events to Home Tours to Preservation Weekend Stars parties and dinners to Founder’s Day period costume wearing (I was a greeter when I was in my early high school years) and walking through the old Kammalah store and blacksmith shop. I LOVE seeing period history and adore even more that I can understand the language of my own ancestors (German also) when listed on museum signage or in books that I have bought over the years in the museum gift shop – the old one and the new one now in the DB House. For a young person that is NOT a native Fredericksburger and comparing myself to most of my peers from high school, I would say my involvement and ‘getting to know my surroundings’ has been pretty diligent and good.

In preparing for this essay, I asked myself what stood out as some of the most memorable, and two came to mind. Founder’s Weekend and the Christmas Home Tour. I have attended both several times in my short tenure as a resident of Gillespie County but I felt like I didn’t know very much about the events’ pasts themselves. I knew what I saw when I attended them and LOVED the conversations I would have with locals who I would ask questions of related to their experiences with the events but I didn’t know enough!

For this essay project, I chose to call a few past Presidents of the GCHS to interview them on what they could share from their own personal memories on either one of these events. They, in turn, pointed me to others who could fill in gaps here and there. I visited on the phone and/or in person with the following people: Brent Waldoch, Glen Treibs, Mickey Keidel and Clinton Stork… among other locals who are not GCHS members but who knew or attended various events.

The meat of my information and curiosity centered around the Christmas Home Tour and Founder’s Weekend. My essay recounts the memories of Mickey Keidel who was Executive Director and later Board president of the GCHS.

I sat with her in her home and loved every minute.

She welcomed me into her parlor, lovingly decorated with antiques and family heirlooms. Mrs. Keidel, extremely open and willing to share her past with me, began to tell her story. Emily Elizabeth “Mickey” Adams was born in Harper in 1924. After growing up in New Braunfels and visiting the Fredericksburg and Harper area in the summers, she moved with her family to Fredericksburg her junior year in High School. Shortly after graduating from FHS she married local boy, Werner Keidel, Jr., in 1942. This man was the son of Werner Keidel, Sr. and Helen Lucille McIlhenny Keidel. Now, as I toured Mickey’s parlor, I noticed a beautiful piano in the corner. It turns out that Lucille, Mickey’s mother-in-law, hailed from San Antonio high society and a member of the McIlhenny Company Tabasco founding family from Louisiana. She was educated at the H. Sophie Newcomb College for women in New Orleans. Lucille came to Fredericksburg as a gifted pianist with her piano in tow. She began her marriage with an incredible musical talent but could not boil water to save her life. Through practical living and determination, she became a phenomenal cook, wife and mother. The piano sitting in the corner of Mickey Keidel’s parlor was Lucille’s piano.

I also learned more detail about the Keidel family’s long time professional medical history in Gillespie County. Wilhelm (William) Keidel was the first doctor in Fredericksburg (late 1840’s) and worked out of his home office to treat both pioneers and Indians. His son, Dr. Albert Keidel built the Keidel Memorial Hospital in 1909. Albert’s four sons also ventured into the medical field: Victor was an M.D.; Felix a dentist; Kurt a pharmacist; and Werner a dentist. This youngest son, Werner Sr. passed dentistry on to his son Werner Jr. (Mickey’s husband.) Werner Jr. and Mickey’s oldest son, Werner Ned, is now a practicing M.D. in San Antonio. But as I walked through her home, I noticed another piece of furniture in another corner. It was Werner Sr.’s original Dentist cabinet with some tools still in the drawers! His photo hangs on the wall beside the historic piece to remind us of his impact on this community. Thanks to the present day preservationist Dian Stai, the historic Keidel pharmacy furnishings were bought at auction and are now preserved in the hands of the Gillespie County Historical Society.

Mickey Adams Keidel served as the executive director and president of the board of the Gillespie County Historical Society for many years. Memories that stood out to her were the Fassel House restoration, LBJ coming for visits, Founders Day, and the GCHS Home Tour. She recalled the docents at the Pioneer Museum and during the home tour would dress in pioneer costume. “If they were a volunteer, they were in costume,” she said. On occasions when Senator and later President Lyndon Baines Johnson would host guests at his ranch in Stonewall, he would bring them for a tour of the Pioneer Museum. The docents would wait in costume with refreshments for Liz Carpenter to call and say “He’s on his way!” On one occasion, LBJ and the German Chancellor visited Fredericksburg and attended a service at Bethany Lutheran Church. Mickey recalls reading off a short welcome speech auf Deutsch that then Fredericksburg High School German teacher Ella Gold drafted for her. During the reenactments of Founders Day every year, docents would bake bread and make noodles for visitors to see and taste. The ladies who did this reenacting were doing things the way they had actually seen first hand growing up in the rural areas of Gillespie County. Many of these docents remembered life before electricity and therefore presented extremely authentic practices during their reenactments of pioneer life. During the Fassel restoration, the blacksmith barn was used for display area. There was also a group of fine ladies who would hand sew quilts (in the Fassel house shortly after it’s restoration) for visitors to see how it was done in the pioneer days - always in costume of course!

The home tour had just begun in Mickey’s tenure. The tour started small with less than five homes but steadily grew over time. She did say that the Tatsch House (at the corner of Bowie and Schubert) was ALWAYS on the tour every year, no matter what!

At the close of my visit with Mickey Keidel, she suggested I speak with Clinton Stork and Glen Treibs. I had originally been referred to meet Mickey by Glen himself as I was narrowing down my essay topic. So I then proceeded to the Vereins Kirche to meet with Clinton.
(The same three people were referring me to each other!)

It turns out that Clinton and Mickey graduated from Fredericksburg High School together in the early 1940’s. He then went to Naval Training in San Diego before boarding the USS Tennessee of the coast of Washington State. He was commissioned to be a German language translator but was stationed on a ship in the Pacific. During his tour of the Pacific Ocean including stops in San Francisco, Pearl Harbor, Australia, New Guinea, the Philippians, Japan, Singapore, India, South Africa and many Island in between, Admiral Chester Nimitz, a local Fredericksburg boy as well, came aboard the USS Tennessee to present those sailors with awards. It’s remarkable how two men from the same small town in the Texas Hill Country meet on a military ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Mr. Stork then returned to the United States in 1946 and married his wife in 1947. As I sat in the Vereins Kirche with Clinton, I became enthralled at the sheer volume of information stored in his mind of 87 years. We spoke in German and in English (I understand and speak German myself.) He then told me the stories which lead to the founding of Fredericksburg and a quick history of the Vereins Kirche building itself. He and his wife have both served as volunteers and docents for many years and are very familiar with the living history at the Pioneer Museum. His wife, too, carries on the tradition of wearing an authentic pioneer costume on the grounds.

The act of keeping authenticity and of reviving or remembering the past is crucial in my opinion. What does authenticity mean? I believe it means making sure the little things are kept alive and as accurate as possible. Details, as they say, are everything. The food and fashion and festivals are what I enjoyed threading together in the interviews I had and in the research I have done on my own since moving to my home town of Fredericksburg. It’s the recipes that have been being made in home kitchens and shared at events throughout the history of Fredericksburg and the Gillespie County Historical Society’s events and traditions. It’s the fashions that have been sewn by women over the decades and kept for occasional wearing like their pioneer forbearers that shows respect to those who came before them. It also helps those in newer times remember the olden days, if only for an hour or a day in a home tour or bake sale on Founder’s Day. The willingness of citizens to hold events remembering our founders and our pioneer heritage into the 21st Century is remarkable and at the same time, expected. Even for those of us who were not born here, we cling to those events which share the past so that authentic stories, tastes, costumes, and histories can continue into the next week, month and year. In the few hours I spent sitting with these amazing storytellers who are living history, I learned that I have so much more to learn, and I have a responsibility for continuing authentic stories, recipes and fashion to those around me and to those not even yet born. This essay may well have helped me realize how small the world truly is… learning that Clinton Stork and Mickey Adams Keidel graduated the same year from Fredericksburg High School and how Mrs. Keidel’s daughter, Mike Hagee and Glen Treibs graduated together and how General Hagee is now Executive Director of the Nimitz Foundation and how Admiral Nimitz in person presented Clinton Stork and his shipmates a medal in the middle of the South Pacific! Ok, we can hardly write fiction that well.

Knowing how small the world is has helped me realize I need to get out and ask more older people to tell their stories. It also makes me want to get out and help record some of them before the winter begins. It also reminds me that details do make all the difference in helping authenticity and accuracy be a cornerstone of our history. We HAVE to prevent history and stories from dying with the people who have lived them or heard them from their own forefathers and mothers.

Ultimately, it is up to us, the keepers of the historic pages that need adding to, to ask the questions and create the actions that get the stories told….

We HAVE to hear them and pass them on. We have to continue the golden thread of our own histories in the quilt that was begun by those before us.

School Days in Early Fredericksburg

2010-08-10T20:05:00Z

by Liz Brookshire, Program Manager

Photo: Charles Feller inside the White Oak school house on the grounds of the Pioneer Museum in Fredericksburg TX

August 10, 2010 - The first day of school will soon bring an end to the carefree days of leisure enjoyed by local children. In earlier times the summer break was no vacation as everyone in the family was needed to plant, tend and harvest crops. School sessions were much shorter in those days, lasting only about eight months out of the year. Instead of a summer vacation children worked along with their parents picking cotton, chopping weeds and tending livestock.

It is significant that the people of Fredericksburg opened the first school in the fall of 1847, a time of great hardship. The majority of the settlers were still living in crude huts struggling to grow enough to feed their families, and yet they had the vision and forethought to open a school. Although living in primitive conditions the German pioneers had a great appreciation of the education, culture and literature many had enjoyed in the old country.

Soon after the construction of the Vereins Kirche was completed in 1847, Mr. John Leyendecker was hired as Fredericksburg’s first teacher. According to Ella Gold’s 1945 thesis, The History of Education in Gillespie County, the Vereins Kirche had no floor or ceiling and the furnishings consisted of crude benches. From sixty to seventy students were under the tutelage of a single teacher. Assorted books garnered by the students who brought them from home served as text books.

The teacher’s salary was funded by tuition of one dollar per quarter. Given the existing conditions, it is not surprising that teachers did not stay in the position for long. A succession of teachers came and went over the first five years including John Leyendecker, Jacob Brodbeck, Rev. Burchard Dangers and Heinrich Ochs.

Religious education was desired by some families so several parochial schools were opened early in the life of the community. Shortly after the founding of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1852 the congregation established a school which was first conducted in the parsonage. A Catholic school was organized in 1856 with Franz Stein as the teacher. In 1857 a crop failure forced the school to close and Franz Stein went to teach at the Verein school. When the Catholic school reopened in 1858 Christian Kraus was hired as teacher.

In 1854 the state legislature established the public school system and the county court created five school districts within Gillespie County. In the ensuing years the county court also set aside tuition monies for the “children of widows, insolvents, and orphans.” With state funds came the requirement that instruction be delivered in the English language. By this time several one-room country schools had been opened in the small farming communities that dotted the county. Eventually forty-four one room schools served students in the rural areas of Gillespie County.

In 1856 Fredericksburg opened a public school with August Siemering serving as the teacher. Education was disrupted during the dark days of the Civil War as Siemering joined the army and Stein returned to the Catholic school. They were succeeded by Louis Schuetze. Citizens were saddened and outraged when Schuetze was forced from his home one night and hanged by renegade Confederates for the “crime” of expressing Union sympathies.

By 1870 four teachers were employed and a four grade school was established with each teacher assigned to a different subject area. Due to a shortage of space the school was located in four different buildings on or near the Market Square.

Fredericksburg also boasted a college in two different eras. Founded by the German Methodist Church, Fredericksburg College opened in 1876. Both boarding students and the children of local families attended the college and many went on to become prominent members of the community. When the college closed in 1884 the property was sold to the Fredericksburg school district.

A second college, St. Anthony’s College, operated from 1909 to 1923. The college offered a commercial or business course for young men. Women were briefly admitted in 1918 to a “civil service school for stenographers and typists” at St. Anthony’s. The college closed when St. Mary’s High School added a commercial course of study.

Acquisition of the college property in 1884 allowed the public school to bring all of the students together in a central location on what is now College Street. The old college building is still in use today on the middle school campus. Local educator Eugen M. Bittner wrote in the 1936 FHS Mesa yearbook that when he came to Fredericksburg in 1892 “there was only one building with four rooms and four teachers had to do all the work.” He did not state the enrollment figures.

A number of the early pioneers were university educated and one of these, Dr. Wilhelm Keidel, sent his fourteen year-old son, Albert, back to Germany to study medicine in 1866. This would not have been possible for most families and, in fact, many students were limited by their circumstances to a grade school education in the first decades of the settlement.

A commonly heard expression, “Erste Tod, Zweite Not, Dritte Brot” sums up the lot of the brave pioneers who settled Fredericksburg. Literally translated it means first death, second deprivation, third bread. This statement made reference to the fact that many among the first generation of settlers died prematurely as a result of disease and the primitive living conditions. Their children, the second generation, suffered from hardship and deprivation. But the third generation had bread meaning that opportunity and prosperity had been wrested from the wilderness. This third generation reaped the rewards of the sacrifice and labor of the first two generations and among the rewards was the opportunity to advance their education.

With more prosperous times in Fredericksburg, families sent their children away to college as early as the first decade of the 1900’s. Some progressive families sent the daughters to college as well as the sons. Early college graduates from Fredericksburg noted in Pioneer’s in God’s Hills, Volumes I and II include:

Emil Sauer, University of Texas (Literature) 1903 and M.A. Harvard University 1907
Julia Estill, University of Texas, M. A. 1905
H.H. Sagebiel, University of Texas (Law) 1907
Hugo Kallenberg, University of Texas (Pharmacy) 1909
Edward Krauskopf, Texas A&M College (Civil Engineering) 1911
Louis Jordan, University of Texas (Electrical Engineering) 1915

Note: Much of the information in this article was gathered from Ella Gold’s thesis, The History of Education in Gillespie County, published in 1945.

Children’s Games and Toys

2010-07-01T20:29:00Z

July 1, 2010
by Liz Brookshire

Play is an important part of a child’s growth and development. Through play, children explore adult roles and learn valuable social skills while exercising the body and imagination. Pioneer children made their own toys since manufactured ones were rarely available. Often scavenged and found items were repurposed to create interesting playthings.

With imagination, an old broom became a stick horse. Hoops were salvaged from worn out barrels and rolled with a forked stick. Boys could carve a slingshot or make a “bull roarer” with a bit of string and a smooth piece of wood or the top of a Prince Albert can. Marbles were fashioned with clay. A button from a worn out garment found in mother’s sewing basket and a length of her crochet thread made a whirligig or “buzz saw.”

Although children were expected to do chores and work alongside the adults pioneer parents also encouraged play by providing simple homemade toys for their children. Mothers created dolls for their daughters using cornhusks, clothespins or handkerchiefs. Some made rag dolls stuffed with cotton and embellished with embroidered faces and yarn hair. Fathers often built simple doll beds or other miniature furniture of scrap lumber or wooden cigar boxes.

Typical games of the school yard included Andy over, red rover, flying Dutchman, drop the handkerchief, baseball, kick the can, tug o’ war, Mother may I, pop the whip, hop scotch, and London Bridge. Local historian Julia Estill, recorded a game called “Esel-Lass-Dich-Hoeren” which is loosely translated as “Donkey, let us hear you bray.” I often use a variation of this game in children’s programming. The child designated as “it” must bray loudly or make other animal sounds. Participants are to keep from smiling or laughing and the first to break into a smile, giggle or laugh then becomes “it.”

Sure seems like more fun than your average video game!

History All Around Us

2010-05-27T18:43:00Z

by Liz Brookshire

May 2010 - I fell in love with history when I was in elementary school. My mother gave me a children’s book titled The Tree in the Trail, the story of an old cottonwood tree on the Santa Fe Trail. The tree started out as a little sapling between twin buttes near a pool of water. It stood for centuries as Indians, conquistadors, trappers, traders and pioneers stopped to drink and rest in the shade of the tree. Many of the travelers left behind some evidence of their visit there at the tree. At last, blown down in a storm, the old cottonwood tree found new life as an ox yoke. As the wood was carved the tree told the story of the people who had passed along the trail. Embedded in the wood were stone and iron arrow heads, French lead balls and the broken blade of a Spanish dagger which gave the curious craftsman a glimpse into events long ago.

It was then I understood history as a connection between a place and people in the passage of time. A place is marked forever by those who pass through and those who stop to make a home there. As life and space intersect we are shaped by our experiences and the places where we live and work are changed by us. Nature and the environment also impact communities. Floods, droughts and hailstorms are recorded along with the hardships endured. Houses are built to shelter families and these buildings alter the landscape and form the structure of life and memory.

A town’s history is told in buildings erected and buildings torn down; names scratched in sidewalks and carved into stone. The tombstones in the cemetery and the memorial stained glass windows in the churches tell the stories of those who came before us. Dates on cornerstones, commemorative plaques and even a hitching ring embedded in a sidewalk on Main Street remind us of the struggles and achievements of those who settled and established a community. If we only take time to listen, we can discover the story of this place, our town.

Come join us at Pioneer Museum as we tell the story of Fredericksburg and the people of Gillespie County.

Pioneer Museum Announces Speaker for Founders Day, May 8

2010-04-26T20:37:00Z

Pioneer Museum will host author Janine Briley as part of Founders Day activities on May 8. Mrs. Briley will give a talk titled “Connecting the Dots: Breathe Life into Family History” at 2:00 pm in the Historical Society Center auditorium. After 16 years of research, Janine is approaching publication of her book, Arhelger, A First Family of Fredericksburg.

Janine is a descendant of August Arhelger who arrived in Fredericksburg with the first wagon train on May 8, 1846. With the collaboration of many Arhelger cousins from the United States and Germany, she has compiled a family history that she says “sometimes reads more like fiction than fact”. Her book weaves together the story of Fredericksburg and the history of the Arhelger family tracing the migration, and genealogy of the Arhelgers from the ancient village of Arheilgen through present-day Fredericksburg, Texas, and beyond.

Born and raised in Odessa, Texas, Janine was inspired to study German and Geography after attending the 1972 Arhelger Reunion. She graduated with honors from the University of Texas at Austin and has done graduate work at Stephen F. Austin University. Janine stated “There have been many ‘joys’ in connecting the dots to a rich family history and unexpected delays bringing the book to print.”

Janine lives in Longview, Texas with her husband, Steve. They have three children, Julie, John, and William. She works in the family business as its records and office manager. As a certified records manager she has developed a comprehensive filing system for the company’s active, inactive, and archival records.

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of Pioneer Museum admission will be waived for Founders Day activities. Program Manager, Liz Brookshire, stated “We hope you will come to hear about the challenges and adventures involved in researching and preparing a family history for publication.”

Barbershop & Bathhouse: A Dusty Traveler’s One Stop Shop

2010-03-24T22:03:00Z

March 26, 2010

by Natasha Grau, Curator of Collections

Need a haircut, a shave, and a hot, sudsy bath? The Arhelger Bathhouse, located on the Pioneer Museum grounds, once sat behind the Arhelger Barbershop on East Main Street. Between 1910 and 1930, Alexander (Alex) Arhelger operated the shop, serving travelers and locals alike.

The bathhouse has served for years as an exhibit room, highlighting a treasured tool collection, and miniature train exhibit. Once in a while a bathhouse needs some grooming itself. Updates are currently being made to the interior to showcase the house as both bathhouse and barbershop in one. This reinterpretation will give visitors to the museum an idea of what furnishings and paraphernalia would have been found in each, during the early 1900s.

How much do you suppose a haircut and a shave cost in 1920? Around 25 cents!
===
Our refurbished “Theo A. Koch” barber chairs came out of the “Loth & Land Barber Shop,” oncelocated at 111 E. Main Street in the Maier Building. Mr. Seekatz first openedthe barber shop in 1912. In 1927 or 1928 the shop was named “Loth and LandBarber Shop,” after Adolph Loth and Erwin Land. Raymond Wilke bought Land’sinterest in the shop. Wilke barbered here for 30 years, 1966–1996. Raymond’swife, Mable Wilke, and their daughter, Raynell Wilke, kindly donated the chairsfor the Arhelger Bathhouse/ Barbershop exhibit.

Alexander “Alex” Arhelger’s barbershop, located in the 100 block of East Main Street, 1910-1930

The Arhelger bathhouse, interpreted as bothbathhouse and barbershop, located at the Pioneer Museum

Our sincerest thanks to the following for donating the wonderful materials exhibited in the Arhelger Bathhouse/ Barbershop:

Bill and Vicki Beasley

Richard Bristol

Liz Brookshire

Jeneva Bryans

Buddy and Gladys Frels

Family of Kurt Keidel

Phyllis Ann Keidel-Burkett

Beatrice Klein

Jim Knutson

Jimmie and Linda Langerhans

David and Dee Lawford

Dr. Marie Marschall-Fuller

Glen Treibs

Brent Waldoch

Raymond and Mable Wilke

Fredericksburg and German Easter Traditions

2010-03-24T21:47:00Z

March 24, 2010

Many Easter customs were brought to America by German immigrants who came to Fredericksburg in the mid-1800s including egg decorating, Easter trees, Easter nests and Easter fires. The Easter rabbit (der Osterhase) as a symbol for Easter is first mentioned in 16th century German literature and the first edible Easter bunnies, made of pastry and sugar, were also produced in Germany in the early 1800s. Around that time, children made nests of grass and hid them in their gardens for the Easter Bunny to fill with brightly decorated eggs. Children in Fredericksburg still build Easter nests today.

The egg tree is a small tree branch put in a vase about two weeks before Easter. Blown eggs that have been painted and decorated are hung from the branches along with other small, highly decorated eggs the family has collected. The hollow eggs are also hung from shrubs and trees during the Easter week.

Easter Sunday was marked by attending church services after which families prepared a special Easter meal. Dessert often included the traditional “lamb cake” baked and decorated to resemble a lamb. The lamb is an important symbol for Easter, representing Christ as the sacrificial Lamb of God. After lunch came the “Ostereiersuchen” or Easter egg hunt.

One Easter tradition with special significance in Fredericksburg is the story of the Easter fires. In the spring of 1847 John O. Meusebach ventured into the wilderness seeking to forge a treaty with the local tribes. Wary Indians watching for signs of treachery camped in the hills surrounding Fredericksburg and the sight of their fires frightened the children. According to local oral history one clever pioneer mother, perhaps recalling Easter fires in the old country, soothed her little ones by telling them that it was only the Easter rabbit dyeing his eggs.

On Easter Saturday in Germany the Easter fires, huge bonfires fueled by the old Christmas trees, are lit and people gather around the fire for schnapps and socializing. The hillsides around villages and towns are dotted with fires as people light their fires at the same time, generally around 9 or 10 pm. The fires clean away the last signs of winter as spring approaches.

According to a posting on the website of the Austrian embassy in Canberra, there are many different interpretations of the meaning of the fires at or around Easter. Some say the fires began as signal fires at the time of Turkish invasions in the 16th and 17th centuries. Others trace them to pre-Christian fires of ritual purification which celebrated the arrival of spring. As with other ancient customs, Christian converts often established a connection to the life of Christ, hence these fires were sometimes referred to as the "burning of Christ’s death-bed". (People used to sleep on a mattress filled with straw which was burned after the person died). In the southern part of the Austrian province of Burgenland, the bonfires are called "bonfires of joy” and are said to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. These Easter bonfires are often accompanied by the hurling of torches and shooting.

Don't miss Spring Break at the Pioneer Museum!

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A whole week of living history activities for children and adults is in the lineup. Blacksmiths will be working in the forge each day and Lakota-Sioux Indians with tipi will dance for museum visitors on both Saturdays. Approximate times are 12:00 noon and 3:00 pm. Check in the museum store when you enter as dancing will depend on the weather. Other activities at the museum include fence making, chuck wagon cooking, quilting, spinning, story telling, old fashioned toys, historical re-enactors, one room school interpretation, Buffalo soldiers, mountain man, rope making and handworkers. Each day is different. Saturday, March 13, we will have a heirloom plant sale and on Saturday, March 20, Elsie’s Country Store will open featuring handmade items, ice cream, old fashioned “Koch Kase” (cooked cheese) and delicious jams from nationally famous Fisher and Wieser. Come join us!

The Bride Wore White

2010-02-25T19:26:00Z

Feb 24, 2010

by Liz Brookshire
Program Manager, Pioneer Museum

Dresses in silks, satins, chiffons, lace and tulle will be displayed along with period bouquets as Pioneer Museum presents The Bride Wore White, a special exhibit featuring vintage wedding attire from the 1880s through the 1980s. The exhibit will open to the public at Pioneer Museum on Saturday, February 13 and will be housed in the historic sanctuary of the old First Methodist Church, now the Historical Society Center, until March 18. Fee for the exhibit is the regular museum admission of $5.00 per adult and $3.00 for children. The exhibit will be open during regular museum hours of 10:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Saturday and on Sunday from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm. Visitors may enter the exhibit through the museum entrance at 325 West Main Street.

As a culmination of the exhibit a style show and luncheon will be held on Saturday, March 6 in the Historical Society Center. Tickets are $35.00 and are available at the GCHS office at 312 West San Antonio Street or by phone at 997-2835. All proceeds will benefit Pioneer Museum.

The exhibit includes gowns such as a 1920s flapper gown in a fashionable shorter length, a 1890s gown with leg o’ mutton sleeves, a 1930s satin wedding dress and a wool suit typical of a wartime bride. Many of the gowns have documentation including photographs and information about the brides who wore them.

Shades of white have been the traditional color for bridal attire since the wedding of Queen Victoria in 1840. Unlike most royals, Queen Victoria married for love. Her white lace gown and simple headpiece of orange blossoms captivated the western world and inspired in women a vision of their own perfect dress for one of the most special days of their lives.

On the American frontier, between 1850 and 1860 brides often were married in their best dress and those who could manage a new dress for their wedding wore a dress in the current fashion which could later be modified and worn for other occasions. These dresses were usually of a more serviceable color than white.

With the advent of the Industrial Revolution fabrics became more widely available and wedding gowns were easier to make and copy. In the 1880s dresses became more elaborate and extravagant and were characterized by typical Victorian features with details of lace and tucking. This trend continued through the 1890s and early 1900s. During the years of World War I gowns became simpler and shorter as patriotic brides were more conservative in contribution to the war effort. After the war hemlines rose and women bobbed their hair. Hemlines of wedding dresses rose as well, often revealing the ankles of the bride.

As the Great Depression swept across America brides often borrowed wedding dresses or wore their “best dress” when money was tight. Those who could afford a wedding gown were inspired by the American Modern movement which favored sleek, stylized lines and brides wore elegant bias cut satin gowns bereft of lace.

Soon America entered World War ll and weddings were rushed up as love-struck couples hastily tied the knot before the groom went off to battle. Many war brides were married in their best suit. Even if there was time to make a dress, brides were limited by fabric shortages. During and after the war some brides made their gowns of parachute silk presented in grateful appreciation by a groom whose life it had saved.

After the war lace became more affordable with the advent of synthetic lace. In the 1950s gowns became more elaborate with yards of lace and tulle. When Grace Kelly married Prince Ranier of Monaco in 1956, ninety-eight yards of tulle were used in her dress alone. Today’s brides have broken away from fashion trends and gowns are now selected to reflect the bride’s personality and individual tastes.

We are excited to offer this exhibit which features gowns from the collection of Richard Bristol and also gowns that relate to Fredericksburg. Every bridal dress is very special and additional gowns have been added for the style show as some of the gowns in the exhibit are too fragile to be worn. The luncheon will be a delightful event that will bring back memories of weddings past.

Pioneer Museum $1,000 Scholarship

2010-02-16T02:01:00Z

Hear ye, hear ye… calling all college freshmen in Gillespie County!! The Gillespie County Historical Society (GCHS) is re-announcing the annual scholarship fund that we have to give away.

Many years ago, Flora Wertheim passed away and left a bequest to the GCHS. Her wishes were to give $100 to the high school student that expressed the most enthusiasm in Gillespie County by writing a historical essay or book report on our local history. We have had little to no responses to the $100 prize so we have raised the reward. Today, because the funds are invested, that account has grown to allow us to give away $1,000 a year indefinitely. Our wishes are to get as many Gillespie County residents involved and interested in local history as possible, while at the same time, fulfilling Miss Wertheim’s requests. So tore-announce our fund, we are encouraging any Gillespie County resident that is entering freshmen courses in the current or next school year, at any accredited college, to participate in the contest. All they have to do is visit one of ourtwo museums, the Pioneer Museum at 325 W. Main St. or the Vereins Kirche at 100E. Main St. There they can find something from our past that interests them and then write an essay or book report on it. The essay should be between 2,000 and3,000 words, typed and delivered by May 31st. They can be mailed or emailed to312 W San Antonio St. or info@pioneermuseum.net.

Because Fredericksburg is such an historic town, there are many things to learn from our past and pass on to the future. Just on the Pioneer Museum grounds alone,one can find early year activities like rope making, blacksmithing, children’s games and German meals or one can learn from and write about the many artifacts of pioneer tools, clothes, homes and much more. The group tours are exciting for kids of all ages. Come join us in learning your local history! Check the website (www.pioneermuseum.net) for details on tours and activities going on because they change all the time. If you have any questions, you can email us at info@pioneermuseum.net or call us at 830-997-2835.

Celebrating Seventy-five Years of Pioneer Museum

2010-01-26T15:09:00Z

Jan 18, 2010

By Liz Brookshire
Program Manager, Pioneer Museum

2010 promises to be an exciting year at Pioneer Museum as wecelebrate 75 years of the Pioneer Museum. The first location for Pioneer Museumwas the reconstructed Vereins Kirche opened in May 1935. The original VereinsKirche, literally translated society’s church, was the first public buildingerected in Fredericksburg in 1847. Originally purposed to serve as a church,fortress, and storehouse for the Adels Verein, it also housed the first publicschool in Fredericksburg. By 1896 the old structure which stood in the middleof Main Street was deemed an eyesore and a hazard. The walls were torn away andit was used as a pavilion for the Golden Jubilee celebrating the fiftiethanniversary of the founding of Fredericksburg. The following year a courtdecree ordered that the remaining structure be removed from the middle of MainStreet. According to a series of articles written by Helen Weirich on thehistory of Holy Ghost Lutheran Church,

“The most protest came from a Catholic priest, FatherGerlach. He stated that it was an unfortunate idea to tear down the VereinsKirche; it was a reminder of past days, a venerable witness of so many sorrowsand joys, and an object of attraction and admiration of all strangers”.

Despite the objections of Father Gerlach, the old structurewas demolished and most of the beams were salvaged for reuse by members of thecommunity. Even the cornerstone was carted away. By the 1930s community memberswho fondly remembered the old structure had come to the conclusion thatdemolition of “die alte kaffee muehle” had indeed been a mistake.

In the New Deal years of the Great Depression as federalfunds began to flow into Fredericksburg, citizens seized the opportunity toconstruct a replica of the venerable old building. With plans drawn byarchitect Lee Kiehne and labor costs funded by the CWA, a committee of citizenswas appointed to oversee the construction. The cornerstone for thereconstructed Vereins Kirche was laid on December 23, 1933. A search for theoriginal cornerstone found it in use as a chicken watering trough and it wasreclaimed and incorporated into the new building.

The completed replica was formally dedicated with a two daycelebration May 11-12, 1935 that included parades, concerts and dances.Intended to serve as a library and a museum to “collect and house relics ofpioneer days”, it briefly housed the city offices and later served as Pioneer MemorialLibrary until a renovation of the second courthouse, now known as the McDermottBuilding, provided a new space for the library.

Welcome

2010-01-21T16:26:14Z

Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.