DUANE
Duane's take
Now, I'm gonna tell you this one the way the marker tells it — so hold on and let the road unspool a little. Back in 1854, two souls left Austria and pointed themselves at Texas. Anton F.
Krause and Johanna Roesler had crossed an ocean, and then — here's the part that gets me every time — they walked. Most of the way from the Texas coast to San Antonio, they walked. Think about that next time you're complaining about traffic on the highway.
They arrived, they caught their breath, and in May of 1855 they stood together in the San Fernando Church in San Antonio and got married. Starting a life from nothing, on foot, in a new land. That's your foundation right there, and foundations matter in this story.
For twenty years, Anton and Johanna built something in San Antonio — a store, a saloon, a family that grew to six children. Then in 1875, they sold it all and headed southwest into Bexar County, out near a place called Mann's Crossing. They purchased 101 acres that same year, and in 1876 they added a smaller tract — the very ground this marker stands on.
Now they needed a house, and so the neighbors showed up, the way neighbors used to. Among them was a family friend and stonemason named Henry Nentwich. Henry helped them hew logs from local elm trees and pull sandstone right out of the nearby earth.
They raised a small log cabin and a stone kitchen that year. Simple. Solid.
The kind of construction that says we are not leaving. Henry Nentwich probably didn't know it then, but his own daughter Elizabeth would one day marry the Krauses' son Charles. Funny how a man shows up to help build a house and ends up building a family connection that outlasts the mortar.
The house grew as families do — additions here, extensions there, board-and-batten siding spreading out from that original log core. A standing seam metal roof. Box eaves.
Nothing fancy, but every feature earned. And the place took on more than domestic life. From January 1879 to November 1880, Anton Krause served as postmaster of Mann's Crossing, running the post office right out of his own house.
He did it again, September to December 1886. That log cabin was pulling double duty — home, post office, and, as it turns out, something resembling a frontier jailhouse. Krause and his sons were active in law enforcement, and Texas Rangers and federal agents used the house to hold prisoners at various times.
So letters going out, lawmen coming in, children growing up in the middle of it all. By 1975 — one hundred years after the family first bought that land — the Krause property was designated a family land heritage farm. And in 1999, the state of Texas put this marker here and called it a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
The marker says its very survival is historically significant. And that line ought to stop you cold, because most things don't survive. Most of what gets built gets torn down or forgotten.
But this house — hewn from elm, set in sandstone, grown room by room through a century of living — it's still standing. Anton and Johanna walked across Texas to build something. Turns out, they built something that lasts.
What the marker says
Anton F. Krause and Johanna Roesler emigrated from Austria to Texas in 1854. Like many new arrivals, they walked most of the way from the Texas coast to San Antonio, where they were married in the San Fernando Church in May 1855. In 1875 they sold their San Antonio store and saloon and moved with their six children to southwestern Bexar County near Mann's Crossing. The family purchased 101 acres in 1875 and a smaller tract including this site in 1876. They built a small log cabin and stone kitchen that year with the help of neighbors, including family friend and stonemason Henry Nentwich, whose daughter Elizabeth later married the Krauses' son Charles. The logs were hewn from local elm trees and the sandstone was found nearby. Additions were made as the family grew over the years. From January 1879 to November 1880 and again from September to December 1886, Anton Krause served as postmaster of Mann's Crossing, using his house as the post office. Krause and his sons also were active in law enforcement, and the house was used by Texas Rangers and federal agents to hold prisoners at various times. Typical of the gradual development of rural farmsteads evolving from a single pen log cabin, this house includes typical features of a vernacular farmhouse such as the original log core structure, board-and-batten siding on extensions, standing seam metal roof and box eaves. Its very survival is historically significant. The Krause land was designated a family land heritage farm in 1975. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1999