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Revision as of 02:15, 25 June 2010

Sisterdale, Texas
CountryUnited States
StateTexas
CountyKendall
Elevation
1,280 ft (390 m)
Population
 (2000)
 • Total25
Time zoneUTC-6 (Central (CST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code830
FIPS code48-68060Template:GR
GNIS feature ID1347179Template:GR

Sisterdale, Texas is an unincorporated farming and ranching community, thirteen miles north of Boerne in Kendall County. The community is located in the valley of Sister Creek.[1] The Current population is 25. Elevation 1,280 feet [2]

Community

Sisterdale[3] was settled in 1847 by German surveyor and Free Thinker Nicolaus Zink.[4] Originally part of Comal, Sisterdale became part of Kendall County when it was formed in 1862.

Among the settlers were German geographer Ernst Kapp;[5] Anhalt Premier progeny[6] Baron Ottmar von Behr;[7] journalist Dr. Carl Adolph Douai;[8] August Siemering[9] who later founded the San Antonio Express News; author, journalist and diplomat Dr. Julius Fröbel; future Wall Street financial wiz Gustav Theissen;[6] Baron Edgar von WestphalenCite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).[10] [11] brother-in-law of Karl Marx;[12] and Edward Degener, future Republican U.S. Representative from Texas during Reconstruction.

Also among the settlers was member of the German Chambers of Deputies Julius Dresel (or Dressel),[13] [6] who was the first to plant a Sisterdale vineyard. His brother Emil Dresel and partner Jacob Gundlach later established the Rhein Farm Vineyard in Sonoma, California. Julius later moved to San Antonio. Upon the death of brother Emil, who bequeated Julius his share of the Sonoma vineyard, Julius moved his familyCite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page). to California.

The community received a post office in 1851, and Ottmar W. Behr was the first postmaster.[14]

Sisterdale eventually had a school house, a gas station-garage, a general store, a cotton gin, and a factory for making cypress shingles. The old 1885 cotton gin in Sisterdale has been restored and is today home to the Sisterdale Creek Vineyards.[15]

Free Thinkers

Sisterdale was one of the Latin Settlements, resulting from the Revolutions of 1848 in the German states. Those who came were Forty-Eighters, intellectual liberal abolitionists who enjoyed conversing in Latin and believed in utopian ideals that guaranteed basic human rights to all.[6] They reveled in passionate conversations about literature, music and philosophy.[16] The Free Thinkers were the forerunners of the 1950’s Beat Generation and the Flower Children of the 1960’s.

The Free Thinkers first settled Castell,[17] Bettina,[18] Leningen.[19] and Schoenburg in Llano County. These experimental communities were supported by the Adelsverein[20] for one year. The communities eventually failed due to lack of finances after the Adelsverein funding expired, and conflict of structure and authorities.

Many of the pioneers from these communities moved to Sisterdale, Boerne and Comfort. The Free Thinkers petitioned the Texas Congress in 1853 for a charter to operate a German-English college to be built at Sisterdale, but the petition did not come to fruition.[21]

Irene Marschall King, granddaughter of John O. Meusebach remembered how her grandfather enjoyed the intellectual stimulation of visits to Sisterdale[16] where a man of his aristocratic background could relate to such cultured free thought discourse, and where the air filled with concert music, singing, dancing and an ambiance of general Gemutlichkeit.

In 1853, August Siemering was elected Secretary, and Ernst Kapp the President, of the Freethinker abolitionist organization Die Freie Verein[22] (The Free Society),[23] which called for a meeting of abolitionist German Texans [24] in conjunction with the May 14, 1854 Staats-Saengerfest (State Singing Festival) in San Antonio, Texas. The convention adopted a political, social and religious platform,[25] including:

1) Equal pay for equal work; 2) Direct election of the President of the United States; 3) Abolition of capital punishment; 4) Slavery is an evil, the abolition of which is a requirement of democratic principles...; 5) Free schools – including universities - supported by the state, without religious influence; and 6) Total separation of church and state.

One of the most tragic episodes in the history of Kendall County happened in 1862 after Texas joined the Confederacy. The Confederacy considered the Free Thinkers of Sisterdale and other like communities to be a threat.[24] A number of Kendall County Germans became Conscientious objectors to the military draft. Confederate authorities reacted by imposing martial law on Central Texas. Sixty-one conscientious objectors attempted to flee to Mexico. Confederate irregular James Duff [26] and his Duff’s Partisan Rangers pursued them. At the Nueces River, thirty-four were killed, and some executed after being taken prisoner. In 1866, Kendall County erected the Treüe der Union ("Loyalty to the Union") monument[27] [28] dedicated to the German Texans slain at the Nueces massacre.

See also

Additional Reading

  • Syers, Ed (18 October 1964). "Sisterdale Just Spread Out". The Victoria Advocate.
  • Faust, Albert Bernhardt (2010). The German Element in the United States With Special Reference to Its Political, Moral, Social, and Educational Influence-Vol 1. General Books LLC. ISBN 978-1152264922.
  • Faust, Albert Bernhardt (2010). The German Element in the United States With Special Reference to Its Political, Moral, Social, and Educational Influence-Vol 2. General Books LLC. ISBN 978-1154062274.
  • Haarman, Viola; Conzen, Michael P (2000). "The Clash of Utopias: Sisterdale and the Six-Sided Struggle for the Texas Hill Country". Cultural Encounters with the Environment. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. p. 39-58. ISBN 978-0742501058.

References

  1. ^ Sister Creek from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  2. ^ "Geographical Names Information System, Sisterdale". U.S. Dept of the Interior. Retrieved 30 April 2010. U.S. Dept of the Interior
  3. ^ Syers, Ed (18 October 1964). "Sisterdale Just Spread Out". The Victoria Advocate.
  4. ^ Ragsdale, Crystal Sessie: Zinc, Nicolaus from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  5. ^ Jordan, Terry G.: Kapp, Ernst from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  6. ^ a b c d Scharf, Edwin E. "Freethinkers of the Early Texas Hill Country". Freethinkers Association of Central Texas. Retrieved 09 May 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help) Freethinkers Association of Central Texas
  7. ^ Ragsdale, Paul C.: Von Behr, Ottmar from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  8. ^ Sibley, Marilyn M.: Douai, Carl Daniel Adolph from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  9. ^ Gold, Ella: Siemering, August from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  10. ^ "Edgar von Westphalen". Marxists.org. Retrieved 30 May 2010. Roe Hampton University-London
  11. ^ "Jenny von Westphalen". Marxists.org. Retrieved 30 May 2010. Roe Hampton University-London
  12. ^ Simon, B. "Marx, Karl-Julius Fröbel, Julius". Roe Hampton University-London. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Roe Hampton University-London
  13. ^ "Wine Industry Pioneers". The Wine Institute. Retrieved 30 May 2010. The Wine Institute
  14. ^ "Sisterdale Postmasters". Jim Wheat. Retrieved 29 April 2010.Jim Wheat
  15. ^ "Sisterdale Creek Vineyards". Retrieved 29 April 2010.
  16. ^ a b Kennedy, Ira. "German Intellectuals on the Texas Frontier". TexFiles. Retrieved 30 April 2010. TexFiles
  17. ^ "Castell, Texas". Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC.
  18. ^ "Bettina, Texas - Vanished Sister to Castell". Castell, Texas. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  19. ^ Brister, Louis E.: Leiningen, Prince Carl from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  20. ^ Brister, Louis E.: Adelsverein from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  21. ^ Scharf, Edwin E. "Freethinkers of the Early Texas Hill Country". Free Thinkers Association of Texas. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  22. ^ Goyne, Minetta Algelt (1982). Lone Star and Double Eagle: Civil War Letters of a German-Texas Family. Texas Christian Univ Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0912646688.
  23. ^ Puglisi Jr., Richard L. "Bexar County Chief Justice August Siemering, 1830-1883". University of the Incarnate Word. Retrieved 09 May 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help) University of the Incarnate Word
  24. ^ a b Biesele, Rudolph L: German Attitude Toward the Civil War from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 09 May 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  25. ^ Biesele, R L. "The Texas State Convention of Germans in 1854". The Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved 09 May 2010. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help) The Texas State Historical Association
  26. ^ Shook, Robert W.: Duff, James from the Handbook of Texas Online. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas State Historical Association
  27. ^ "Treue der Union Monument". Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. Retrieved 30 April 2010. Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC.
  28. ^ "Treue der Union Monument". TexGenWeb, Kendall Co. Retrieved 30 April 2010. TexGenWeb, Kendall Co

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sisterdale,_Texas&oldid=370020836"