Sisterdale

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Sisterdale
Sisterdale Dance hall (1 of 1) .jpg
Location in Texas
Sisterdale (Texas)
Sisterdale
Sisterdale
Basic data
Foundation : 1847
State : United States
State : Texas
County : Kendall County
Coordinates : 29 ° 58 ′  N , 98 ° 43 ′  W Coordinates: 29 ° 58 ′  N , 98 ° 43 ′  W
Time zone : Central ( UTC − 6 / −5 )
Residents : 110 (as of 2010)
Height : 390 m
Postcodes : 78006 (Boerne, Texas)
Area code : +1 830
FIPS : 48-68060
GNIS ID : 1347179

Sisterdale is an unincorporated , agricultural town in Kendall County, Texas . It was founded in 1847 and is located 13 miles (21 km) north of Boerne in the valley of Sister Creek at an altitude of 390 m. In the 1850s, Sisterdale was the best-known Latin Settlement of German immigrants in Texas.

history

Population development
Census Residents ± in%
1880 150 -
1910 26th -
1920 50 92.3%
1970 63 -
1980 100 58.7%
1990 60 −40%
2000 25th −58.3%
2010 110 340%

The settlement of Sisterdale by European immigrants began in 1847 with the arrival of the German free thinker Nicolaus Zink . Initially part of Comal County , Sisterdale became part of newly formed Kendall County in 1862 . Zink soon joined other settlers from Germany, particularly many Forty-Eighters who made Sisterdale the most famous Latin Settlement in Texas history. These included Fritz and Betty Holekamp , the geographer Ernst Kapp ; Ottomar von Behr , the doctor Wilhelm Runge , the journalist Carl Adolph Douai ; August Siemeringwho later founded the San Antonio Express News , Julius Fröbel , who later became the stockbroker Gustav Theissen, and Edgar von Westphalen , the brother of Jenny von Westphalen and brother-in-law of Karl Marx . The first child born in Sisterdale was Julius Holekamp on June 10, 1849. Another settler was Edward Degener , who later became a member of the US House of Representatives (1869–1871). Julius Dresel (Dressel) from Geisenheim was the first to plant a vineyard in Sisterdale. His brother Emil Dresel and his partner Jacob Gundlach later founded the Rhein Farm Vineyard(Gundlach-Bundschu) in Sonoma , the oldest still existing family business in viticulture in California .

These intellectual settlers made Sisterdale the "spiritual center of the Germans of Texas" or the " salon in the middle of German Texas". "The landowners of Sisterdale often came together for scientific lectures, classical music was also extremely well cared for, and every house had a good library of scientific and aesthetic works," wrote Wilhelm Kaufmann in his work The Germans in the American Civil War , published in 1911 . Ottomar von Behr's guests included Frederick Law Olmsted , who reported on his visit to Sisterdale in his book A Journey to Texas , and Prince Paul Wilhelm von Württemberg . For about 15 years, mostly in thegolden years of the 1850s , life in Latin settlement flourished, even if there were occasional clashes with the Comanche . In 1855, in one of the raids, the Comanche killed “on Dresel's farm in Sisterdale, close to Dr. Runge located ”Hermann Runge, the twenty-year-old son of the doctor Wilhelm Runge, and scalped him.

In 1851 the place received the first post office in Comal County with Ottmar von Behr as postmaster . In addition, Sisterdale got a school house, a wagon workshop, a general store , a cotton gin ( Egrenier machine ) and a company that produced shingles from cypress wood. The " cotton gin" building from 1885 has now been restored and is used by Sister Creek Vineyards .

Civil war

The settlers, who had been staunch opponents of slavery before they set foot on American soil, formed a free association that supported abolitionism , among other things . August Siemering , who taught at the Sisterdale School, was elected secretary of the association.

At the Texas-wide song festival in May 1854 in San Antonio, there was a gathering of Texas Germans who supported the abolition of slavery . Wilhelm Victor Keidel was elected Vice President of the Assembly, which adopted a progressive political, social and religious program.

This political stance of most Texas Germans, especially in the Latin settlements, a stronghold of loyalty to the Union, led to the most severe crisis of the settlements when Texas joined the Confederate in 1862 . The Confederates viewed the freethinkers as a threat and a traitor. Numerous Texas Germans in Kendall County evaded conscription by fleeing. Eduard Degener's sons Hugo and Hilmar were executed for treason by the Confederate States Army in the Nueces River massacre in 1862 , and he himself was imprisoned because he was committed against slavery and for the goals of the Union had started. The “ Loyalty to the Union ” memorial in Comfort (Texas) commemorates her and the other 34 Texas Germans who were shot .

At the end of the civil war, the whole circle was split apart. The plantations were desolate, the houses were robbed. Julius Dresel first moved to San Antonio , then to California . Ottmar von Behr had died in 1856 on a trip to Germany; Friedrich Kapp, Edgar von Westphalen and others moved back to Germany. Louis of Donop was killed by the Indians; Dr. Runge died in 1863. Others were hiding in the mountains or had gone to the northern states.

August Siemering concluded his report on Sisterdale in 1878 as follows: “The salons have been converted into respectable peasant apartments; no more lectures are given, and even memories of the beautiful days that the magnificent valley once saw die with those who lived through it. "

Sisterdale Valley District

The memory of Sisterdale's history is preserved through the Sisterdale Valley District . This is a Historic District that was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. These include 15 contributing buildings and six other contributing structures . One of the historic buildings is a dance hall from the 1890s.

  • Sisterdale Dancehall property

  • Old building in Sisterdale

  • Sisterdale Dancehall

  • Sister Creek Vineyards

  • Cemetery in Sisterdale

  • Bar in Sisterdale

See also

literature

  • August Siemering : The Latin Settlement in Texas. in: The German pioneer 10 (1858), pp 57 -60
  • Kurt Klotzbach : Ernst Kapp, the founder of the "Latin Colony" Sisterdale. In: Mitteilungen des Mindener Geschichtsverein 54 (1982), pp. 21–51
  • Viola Haarman, Michael P Conzen: The Clash of Utopias: Sisterdale and the Six-Sided Struggle for the Texas Hill Country . In: Cultural Encounters with the Environment . Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2000, ISBN 978-0-7425-0105-8 , pp. 39-58.

Web links

Commons : Sisterdale, Texas  - Collection of pictures, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sister Creek. In: The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), 1999 ff.
  2. ^ Geographical Names Information System, Sisterdale . US Dept of the Interior. Retrieved April 30, 2010. US Dept of the Interior
  3. ^ Ed Syers: Sisterdale Just Spread Out . In: The Victoria Advocate , October 18, 1964. 
  4. ^ Zinc, Nicolaus. In: The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), 1999 ff.
  5. ↑ Morgenthaler, Jefferson; The German Settlement of the Texas Hill Country ; 2011
  6. ↑ Jordan, Terry G .: Kapp, Ernst. In: The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), 1999 ff.
  7. ^ Ragsdale, Paul C .: Von Behr, Ottmar. In: The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), 1999 ff.
  8. ^ Sibley, Marilyn M .: Douai, Carl Daniel Adolph. In: The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), 1999 ff.
  9. ^ Gold, Ella: Siemering, August. In: The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), 1999 ff.
  10. ^ A b c Edwin E. Scharf: Freethinkers Of the Early Texas Hill Country , accessed November 16, 2020
  11. ↑ Viola Haarmann, Michael P. Conzen: Cultural Encounters with the Environment . Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2000, ISBN 978-0-7425-0105-8 , pp. 39, 45, 56.
  12. ^ Edgar von Westphalen . Marxists.org. Retrieved May 30, 2010. Roe Hampton University-London
  13. ↑ Jenny von Westphalen . Marxists.org. Retrieved May 30, 2010. Roe Hampton University-London
  14. ^ Simon, B .: Marx, Karl-Julius Froebel, Julius . Roe Hampton University-London. Retrieved April 30, 2010. Roe Hampton University-London
  15. ↑ Ransleben, Guido E .; A Hundred Years of Comfort in Texas; 1954
  16. ^ Wine Industry Pioneers . The Wine Institute. Retrieved May 30, 2010. The Wine Institute
  17. ^ Wilhelm Kaufmann: The Germans in the American Civil War (Civil War 1861-1865). Munich and Berlin: Oldenbourg 1911 ( digitized version ), p. 147
  18. ^ The murder of Hermann Runge , in: Robert Penniger: Festival edition for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the city of Friedrichsburg: A brief history of the development of the German colonies in Texas founded by the Mainz Adelsverein, together with a chronicle of the city of Friedrichsburg. Fredericksburg 1896, p. 190
  19. ↑ Sisterdale Postmasters . Jim Wheat. Retrieved April 29, 2010.
  20. ^ Sisterdale Creek Vineyards . Retrieved April 29, 2010.
  21. ↑ Minetta Algelt Goyne: Lone Star and Double Eagle: Civil War Letters of a German-Texas Family . Texas Christian Univ Press, 1982, ISBN 978-0-912646-68-8 , p. 14.
  22. ^ Puglisi Jr., Richard L: Bexar County Chief Justice August Siemering, 1830-1883 . University of the Incarnate Word. Retrieved May 9, 2010. University of the Incarnate Word
  23. ↑ a b Biesele, Rudolph L .: German Attitude Toward the Civil War. In: The Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), 1999 ff.
  24. ↑ Biesele, RL: The Texas State Convention of Germans in 1854 . The Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved November 22, 2010. The Texas State Historical Association
  25. ↑ Siemering (Lit.), p. 62
  26. ^ Datasheet , Sisterdale Valley District
  27. ^ Sisterdale Valley District .