DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now settle in, because this one right here — this is a story about a man, a patch of woods in northwestern Harris County, and what it means to dig your heels into the dirt and refuse to let the world pave over everything you love. The house at the center of it all was constructed in the eighteen-nineties, a vernacular hall and parlor style home with side gables and returns — nothing fancy, but solid, the kind of place built to last by people who intended to stay.
Edward Kleb put it up on land he got from his father, Andrew, and that land carried weight, because the Kleb family had roots running all the way back to German immigrants who came to Texas in eighteen forty-six. That's not just a house. That's a statement.
Edward and his wife Minnie — Minnie Willmann — raised their family there, and in nineteen-oh-seven, a boy came into the world right inside those walls. They called him Elmer. Somewhere along the way, somebody started calling him Lumpy, and the name stuck the way good nicknames do.
Elmer Kleb. Lumpy Kleb. Remember that name.
Edward passed in nineteen fifty-one, and when Elmer's mother Minnie died in nineteen sixty-seven, the property came to him. And here is where the story gets interesting — because Elmer Kleb was not what you'd call a conventional man. He lived out there in those woods without utilities.
No electricity, no running water, just the natural setting and the trees he himself had planted and the injured birds he nursed back to health. He cared for wildlife the way some men care for cattle or crops — with patience and purpose. While the rest of Harris County was urbanizing at a pretty ferocious clip, Elmer was out there tending his piece of the earth like it was a sacred trust.
Now, living outside the modern economy has consequences, and one of those consequences is taxes. Elmer did not pay them. By nineteen eighty-six, that debt had grown to more than a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the courts had seen just about enough.
Over Elmer's wishes — and I want you to hear those words, over Elmer's wishes — a court-appointed law firm moved to sell off a portion of the property to cover what was owed. That land had grown significantly in value, so the math worked, at least on paper. But Elmer had a different idea entirely.
He wanted to give his land to the Audubon Society. Not sell it. Give it.
And that desire, that stubborn, beautiful determination, is what turned a local tax dispute into a national story. Lawyers showed up. County officials showed up.
Charities and agencies started making calls and working angles. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to find a way to pay the bills and preserve the habitat at the same time. And in nineteen ninety-one, they found it.
A Texas Parks and Wildlife Department grant came through and enabled Harris County to buy the land. The county paid the debt — all of it — and out of that transaction, the Kleb Woods Nature Preserve was born. A wildlife refuge, tucked inside a rapidly urbanizing area, existing because one man planted trees and nursed birds and refused to budge.
The county wasn't done being decent, either. They started a trust fund to cover Elmer's needs for the rest of his life. Elmer Kleb, born in that house in nineteen-oh-seven, lived until nineteen ninety-nine.
Ninety-two years on this earth, most of them on that same piece of Harris County ground. Later, restoration work began on the house itself — that sturdy hall and parlor home where it all started, where a family of German immigrant descendants put down roots in the eighteen-nineties and grew something that outlasted all of them. The marker was placed in two thousand and six, a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
But the real landmark is the woods. Elmer planted those trees. The county preserved them.
And somewhere in that arrangement is a lesson about what land means, what stubbornness is worth, and what happens when enough people decide that some things ought to be saved.
What the marker says
Constructed c. 1890s, the Kleb Family Home and its location in the wooded northwestern part of Harris County represent a time of dispersed rural settlement in the area. Edward Kleb, a descendant of German immigrants who arrived in Texas in 1846, built the house on property acquired from his father, Andrew. Elmer "Lumpy" Kleb (1907-1999), son of Edward and Minnie (Willmann), was born in the house and inherited the property when his mother died in 1967. (Edward passed away in 1951.) Deeply attached to the family land, Elmer planted many of the trees in the area and cared for wildlife, often nursing injured birds. Elmer lived a unique existence - a life without utilities in the natural setting. He also did not pay taxes and amassed a debt of more than $150,000 by 1986. Over Elmer's wishes, a court-appointed law firm worked to sell a portion of the property, which had grown significantly in monetary value, to cover the amount owed. Elmer, however, wanted to donate his land to the Audubon Society. The situation attracted national attention and soon lawyers, county officials, charities and other agencies began work to find a way to pay the bills and preserve the habitat. In 1991, a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department grant enabled Harris County to buy the land. The county paid the debt and created the Kleb Woods Nature Preserve. Kleb's determination, as well as help from others, led to the preservation of a wildlife refuge in a rapidly urbanizing area. The county started a trust fund to cover Elmer's needs until he passed away. Later, restoration began on his house, a vernacular hall and parlor style home featuring side gables with returns. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2006