Rudolph Melchior
Alexander Friedrich Rudolph Melchior (born March 12, 1836 in Burg (near Magdeburg) , Prussia , † July 15, 1867 (or January 14, 1868) in Galveston (Texas) , USA ) was a German-American artisan and artist ; he was a co-founder of the " Latin Settlement " Latium (Texas) in Washington County (Texas) .
family
Melchior came from a German craftsman family and was one of seven children of Andreas Matthias Christopher Melchior (1807–1881) and Johanna Charlotte Lisette Cleve (1807–1881), both from Burg near Magdeburg .
He married on May 13, 1862 in Washington County the widowed Sophie Menn (born March 11, 1841 in Erndtebrück am Rothaarsteig , Siegen-Wittgenstein district , North Rhine-Westphalia ; † January 1912 in Texas , USA), the daughter of Johann Wilhelm (John William) Menn (1814-1901) and Anna Sophie Völkel (1813-?), Both immigrated on May 3, 1855 from Erndtebrück in New Orleans ( Louisiana ). Sophie's first marriage was to the German Heinrich Altmann.
Life
Melchior, an artisan and artist trained in Germany, arrived in Galveston (Texas) in 1853 with his parents and all siblings on board the " Hermann Theodor " from Germany. The family moved near Round Top in Fayette County (Texas) , at that time already inhabited by Germans due to the activities of the “ Mainzer Adelsverein ”. They settled in a settlement that was still nameless at the time, which was not officially founded until 1870 with the emotional name " Tribulation " and was later given the name Winedale (Texas) . Since the 1960s, this settlement, which was now almost extinct, has been known as the “ Winedale Historical Center ”, a kind of “museum village” where Americans can find out about the life of the first German settlers in Texas.
In the 1850s Melchior in Winedale decorated the interiors of the "Wagner House", the former home of Captain John York (1800–1848), and several other houses with his paintings of flowers and birds. He had made the sketches for these paintings in his diary as early as 1853 on the crossing to the USA. It was not least these paintings by Melchior that gave the historic village of Winedale its current museum status.
Later, Melchior was one of the founders of the "Latin Settlement" Latium (Texas) in Washington County with Hermann Rogalla von Bieberstein (1823-1906) and other Germans.
During the American Civil War (1861-1865) Melchior served as a fifer ( flautist ) in Company F of the 2nd Battalion of the Texas Legion of Brigadier General Thomas N. Waul on the side of the Confederate South .
After the war he settled in Galveston, where he died of yellow fever on January 14, 1868. Melchior was buried in the Galveston War Cemetery, today's "Oleander Cemetery".
Melchior painting in Wagner's house in Winedale, Texas from 1850s
Photo: Rick Williams, Winedale Photograph Collection
Melchior painting in Wagner's house in Winedale, Texas from 1850s
Photo: Rick Williams, Winedale Photograph Collection
literature
- Ralph Henderson Shuffler: Winedale Inn, at Early Texas' Cultural Crossroad. In: Texas Quarterly. Vol. 8, No. 2, Summer 1965, ISSN 0040-4659 , p. 134.
Web links
- Rudolph Melchior's pedigree
- Winedale Historical Center, engl.
- English information about the Winedale Historical Center
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Melchior, Rudolph |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Melchior, Alexander Friedrich Rudolph (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-American artisan and artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 12, 1836 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Burg (near Magdeburg) , Prussia |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 15, 1867 |
| Place of death | Galveston, Texas , USA |