DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker's the one doing the talking here — I'm just the voice it rides in on. Now pull up a chair close to that fire, because this story starts in 1847, and it covers a stretch of Texas that was wild enough to humble even the boldest dreamers. The Fisher-Miller land grant.
You've heard the name, maybe. Big country out in what would become Llano County. And in 1847, the German Emigration Company set its sights on that land, sending settlers out under Commissioner General John O.
Meusebach to carve three — count 'em, three — settlements out of that raw Texas frontier. Three settlements. Same grant.
Same year. Three very different fates. First, there was Castell.
Llano County's first permanent town. Settled alongside pioneers who had already cut their teeth in Fredericksburg, these were people who knew something about startin' over in hard country. Of the three towns the German Emigration Company planted on that grant, Castell is the only lasting one.
It held. It stayed. It's still there.
Then there was Leiningen — three miles to the east of Castell. And I'll tell you about Leiningen quickly, because Leiningen doesn't give you much to hold onto. Today it is simply non-existent.
The land swallowed it whole, and the marker doesn't even try to dress that up. But the third settlement — now that one deserves its own moment of quiet. Bettina.
The first communal settlement in all of Texas. Planted right where Elm Creek meets the Llano River, which is about as pretty a piece of geography as the Hill Country can offer. The founders of Bettina had a vision of something shared, something collective.
A community built together from the ground up. And then the supplies ran out. Less than a year.
That's all Bettina got. Less than a year before the whole experiment was abandoned. No supplies, no settlement.
Just the Llano River rolling on past, indifferent as ever. Three settlements in 1847. One town that lasted.
One that vanished without a trace. And one grand communal dream that burned bright, brief, and beautiful — right there where Elm Creek meets the river. John O.
Meusebach sent those settlers out with purpose. Texas had other ideas about which ones got to stay.
What the marker says
3 settlements were begun in 1847 on Fisher-Miller land grant by German Emigration Company, under Commissioner General John O. Meusebach. Castell: Llano County's first permanent town, settled with Fredericksburg pioneers. Only lasting settlement made on the grant by the German Emigration Company. Leiningen: site 3 miles to east. Non-existent today. Bettina: first communal settlement in Texas. Located where Elm Creek enters Llano River. Abandoned in less than a year, when supplies ran out.