Henry Troell

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about Henry Troell, right here in Guadalupe County. Now, some men arrive in a place and leave it more or less the way they found it. Henry Troell was not that kind of man.

Henry was born on October 5, 1838, in a town called Wichmannshausen, Germany. Sometime before 1860, he made his way to this part of Texas. We don't know exactly what drew him here, and the record doesn't say.

What we do know is that he stayed. He served in the Confederate Army. And when that chapter closed, he came back and got to work.

In 1872 he married Johanna Woehler, a native of the area herself. Two people who both belonged to this land, building something together. Now here's where the story gets interesting.

Henry got into the freighting business, and he was good at it. Good enough that it gave him something more valuable than a paycheck: capital. He began investing in local properties and enterprises.

But the crown jewel of his ambitions sat right here at this site, a dam and grist mill operation that was, by the accounts of its day, innovative. He didn't stop at grinding grain, though. Henry had bigger ideas.

He expanded the mill's water capabilities, and then he pushed further into hydroelectric generation. And in the 1890s, he delivered something the city had never had before: its first water and electric utility systems. Both of them.

Think about that for a moment. A man born in a village in Germany, crossing an ocean, settling into Texas before the Civil War, and eventually lighting up a city for the very first time. Henry Troell died on December 19, 1921.

But the marker makes a point of saying his entrepreneurial and business legacy represent an important part of this city's development. That's not small praise. That's the record acknowledging that a place was different, and better, because one man decided to keep reaching.

What the marker says

(October 5, 1838 - December 19, 1921) A native of Wichmannshausen, Germany, Henry Troell moved to this area sometime prior to 1860. He served in the Confederate Army and in 1872 married area native Johanna Woehler. A successful freighting business enabled him to invest in several local properties and enterprises, including an innovative dam/grist mill operation at this site. He expanded the mill's water and hydroelectric generation capabilities and in the 1890s provided the city its first water and electric utility systems. His entrepreneurial and business legacy represent an important part of the city's development. (1994)