Hermann and Antoine Ingenhuett Homestead

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll pass it along just the same. Now, in the hill country of Kendall County, there's a homestead with a story worth sittin' with for a spell. Hermann Ingenhuett, born in 1870, and Antoine Ingenhuett, born in 1873, came together in marriage in 1895, and from that year forward, this piece of Texas ground was theirs.

It stayed in the family clear to the end of the twentieth century. That's a long grip on a piece of land, and it meant something. Around that same year of 1895, Hermann acquired the Ingenhuett livery stable and cotton yard from his father, Peter Ingenhuett.

A livery stable and a cotton yard. You think about what those two things meant to a Texas town at that time, and you start to understand the kind of standing the Ingenhuetts held in Comfort. Hermann wasn't done there, either.

From 1908 until 1915, he served as postmaster of Comfort. The man who handled the mail, the news, the letters home. That's a position that puts you at the center of a community's life.

He and Antoine raised two daughters on this homestead, and both of them were described as active in local civic and business affairs. The homestead itself was no bare patch of dirt. There was a house, a barn, a washhouse, a smokehouse, and a cistern.

Each one of those structures had a purpose, and together they made a life. Antoine died in 1941, and Hermann followed in 1944, but the family held on to what they'd built. The marker calls this homestead a significant part of the German-Texan heritage of this part of the state.

And standing here in Kendall County, looking at what remains, it's not hard to understand why.

What the marker says

Hermann and Antoine Ingenhuett Homestead This site was the homestead of Hermann (1870-1944) and Aantoine (1873-1941) Ingenhuett from their marriage in 1895 until their deaths and remained in the family until the end of the 20th century. Hermann acquired the Ingenhuett livery stable and cotton yard from his father, Peter Ingenhuett, about 1895 and served as postmaster of Comfort from 1908 until 1915. The Ingenhuetts, who reared two daughters on their homestead, were active in local civic and business affairs. The homestead included a house, barn, washhouse, smokehouse and cistern and remains a significant part of the German-Texan heritage of this part of the state. (2002)