DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — the story of Karl Itz and the homestead he built in Gillespie County. Now, some men arrive in a new land and live quiet lives. Karl Itz was not quite that kind of man.
Born around 1838 in Westerburg, Germany, he made it to Texas in 1852. He was young, he was far from home, and Gillespie County was about to become his country. In 1856 he married Henrietta Evers, born in 1839, and for a spell you might imagine things were settling into something peaceful.
Then the Civil War came calling. Itz joined a group of German immigrants who stood in support of the Union. Now hold that picture in your mind — a band of Germans, deep in the Texas Hill Country, marching toward Mexico in August of 1862.
Where exactly were they headed, and what did they think was waiting on the other side of that border? The marker doesn't say, and maybe that's fitting. Because what was actually waiting for them was Confederate forces.
The engagement that followed is known as the Battle of the Nueces. Many of the Germans were killed. Many.
Karl Itz, though — Karl Itz was not injured. How a man walks out of that and the men beside him don't, well, that's the kind of thing a person carries for the rest of his days. What he did next tells you something about him.
He lived in hiding. Not for a week, not for a month — until the war ended. Stayed low, stayed quiet, stayed alive.
When it was over, he brought his family to this very site. In 1875 he built a stone home here, solid and deliberate, the way a man builds something when he knows what it cost to survive long enough to build it. Later, a log house was added to the property.
Henrietta Evers Itz lived until 1923. Karl Itz until 1908. The stone home he raised on this Gillespie County ground is still here to prove it.
What the marker says
Karl Itz (ca. 1838-1908), a native of Westerburg, Germany, arrived in Texas in 1852 and settled in Gillespie County. He married Henrietta Evers (1839-1923) in 1856. At the outbreak of the Civil War Itz joined a group of German immigrants in support of the Union. Marching toward Mexico in August 1862, the men encountered Confederate forces at the Battle of the Nueces. Though many of the Germans were killed, Itz was not injured and lived in hiding until the war ended. He moved his family to this site and built a stone home in 1875. A log house was later added. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1987