Joseph Scheel House

Duane's take

The way the marker tells it, here's what you need to know about the Joseph Scheel House. Bernhard Joseph Scheel, born 1815, died 1879, and his wife Anna Barbara, born a Link, built this place in the late 1860s. And when I say they built it, I mean they built it.

Hand-cut stone, faced from local rock pulled right out of the Hill Country ground. Native cedar for the timber. Cypress shingles on the roof.

Not a single piece of that house was phoned in. Every bit of it was chosen, shaped, and set by hand. That's the kind of home you build when you mean to stay.

And they meant to stay. The Scheels were German settlers, and this house was exactly what that looked like. A typical home, the marker calls it, and somehow that word typical only makes it more impressive, because typical meant this.

This craft, this permanence, this stone. The place passed on down the way family places do. Son Hermann took ownership, and after Hermann, grandson John.

Three generations of Scheels, same walls, same cedar, same cypress overhead. Some houses just hold.

What the marker says

A typical home of German settlers, built late 1860s by Bernhard Joseph Scheel (1815-79) and wife Anna Barbara (Link). Hand-cut, faced local stone; native cedar timber; and cypress shingles were used. Son Hermann and grandson John later owned the place. RTHL - 1972