Sisterdale, Texas
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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]
Current population is 25. Elevation 1,280 feet [2]
Community
Sisterdale was settled in 1847 by German surveyor and Free Thinker Nicolaus Zink. [3] Originally part of Comal, Sisterdale became part of Kendall County when it was formed in 1862.
Among the settlers were German geographer Ernst Kapp,[4] Baron Ottomar von Behr,[5], Carl Adolph Douai,[6] August Siemering[7] who later founded the San Antonio Express News, Julius Dresel, Dr. Julius Froebel, Gustav Theissen, Baron von Westphal brother-in-law of Karl Marx[8], and Edward Degener, future Republican U.S. Representative from Texas during Reconstruction
The community received a post office in 1851, and Ottmar W. Behr was the first postmaster.[9]
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.[10]
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 a utopian ideals that guaranteed basic human rights to all. They reveled in passionate conversations about literature, music and philosophy.[11] 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,[12] Bettina,[13] Leiningen[14] and Schoenburg in Llano County. These experimental communities were supported by the Adelsverein for one year[15]. 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.[16]
Irene Marschall King, granddaughter of John O. Meusebach remembered how her grandfather enjoyed the intellectual stimulation of visits to Sisterdale where conversations related to a man of his nobility background, and the air filled with concert music, dancing and an ambiance of general Gemutlichkeit.
The Free Thinker influence was felt in the 1854 Texas State Convention of Germans held in San Antonio to adopt a political, social and religious platform, 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.[17]
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. A number of Kendall County Germans became Conscientious objectors to the military draft. Confederate authorities reacted by imposing martial law on Central Texas. 61 conscientious objectors attempted to flee to Mexico. Confederate irregular James Duff [18] and his Duff’s Partisan Rangers pursued them. At the Nueces River, 34 are killed, some executed after being taken prisoner. In 1866, Kendall County erected the Treüe der Union ("Loyalty to the Union") monument in Comfort dedicated to the German Texans slain at the Nueces massacre. [19] [20]
See Also
References
- ^ Handbook of Texas, Sister Creek [1]
- ^ USGS Geographical Name Search, Sisterdale [2]
- ^ Handbook of Texas, Nicolaus Zink [3]
- ^ Handbook of Texas, Ernst Kapp [4]
- ^ Handbook of Texas, Ottomar von Behr, [5]
- ^ Handbook of Texas, Carl Adolph Douai [6]
- ^ Handbook of Texas, August Siemering [7]
- ^ Roe Hampton University-London, Julius Froebel [8]
- ^ Rootsweb, Comal County postmasters [9]
- ^ Sisterdale Creek Vineyards [10]
- ^ TexFiles, German Intellectuals on the Texas Frontier [11]
- ^ Texas Escapes, Castell [12]
- ^ Castell Texas, Bettina The Vanished Town[13]
- ^ Handbook of Texas, Leningen[14]
- ^ Handbook of Texas, Adelsverein [15]
- ^ Freethinkers Act.org, Free Thinkers of the Early Texas Hill Country [16]
- ^ TSHA online, Texas State Convention of Germans [17]
- ^ Handbook of Texas, James Duff [18]
- ^ Texas Escapes, Treüe der Union monument [19]
- ^ TexGenWeb Treue Der Union Monument, with List of Names [20]
External links
Municipalities and communities of Kendall County, Texas, United States | ||
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| Other communities | ||
| Ghost towns | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |