DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it the room it deserves. March 21, 1845. A German prince steps onto Texas soil and drives a stake in the ground — not figuratively, but about as close to literally as you can get.
Carl, Prince of Solms-Braunfels, Commissioner-General of the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas, founded a town that day. And he did what royalty tends to do: he named it after himself. After his estate, that is — Braunfels, sitting on the Lahn River back in Germany.
New Braunfels. The New World version of home. Now, a prince can found a town, but keepin' one alive is a different kind of work.
That job fell to John O. Meusebach, the second Commissioner-General, and history seems to agree he was the man who made the permanence happen. Some stories need two acts.
From the beginning, though, this place was built on something more than ambition. The first colonial officials read like the crew you'd actually want along: Jean J. Von Coll handling the books as bookkeeper, Nicholaus Zink laying out the land as surveyor, Theodore Koester tending to the living as physician.
And then the ones who tended to the soul and the mind — L.C. Evenberg as pastor, Hermann F. Seele as teacher.
You plant a town with those five people in it, you're planting something meant to grow. Three days after the first anniversary of that founding — March 24, 1846 — an act of the first Legislature of Texas created Comal County. Three days.
The ink on the first year was barely dry. Then the milestones start stacking up, and each one lands a little harder than the last. November 12, 1852: the New Braunfelser Zeitung publishes its first edition, with Ferdinand Lindheimer as editor.
The oldest German newspaper in Texas, born right here. October 16, 1853: the very first Staatssaengerfest — a German singing festival — held right here in New Braunfels. First one in Texas.
First one anywhere in this state. And then March 17, 1856 — this one's easy to overlook, but don't you dare. New Braunfels voted in the first special tax for school purposes ever levied and collected in Texas.
The whole state. They decided their children were worth taxing themselves for, before anyone else in Texas did. This marker was erected by the State of Texas in 1936, with funds appropriated by the Federal Government, to mark one hundred years of Texas independence.
The story it tells is older than that anniversary, and it still holds. A prince founded it. Good men and women built it.
And a town that taxes itself for schools and sings together on an October afternoon — well, that's a town that always meant to stay.
What the marker says
Founded on March 21, 1845 by Carl, Prince of Solms-Braunfels, Commissioner-General of the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas. Named after Prince Solms' estate, Braunfels, on the Lahn River in Germany. Its permanence was assured by John O. Meusebach, the second Commissioner-General. The first colonial officials were Jean J. Von Coll, bookkeeper; Nicholaus Zink, surveyor; Theodore Koester, physician. L.C. Evenberg served as pastor and Hermann F. Seele as teacher. Comal County was created on March 24, 1846, by an act of the first Legislature of Texas. The New Braunfelser Zeitung, oldest German newspaper in Texas, began publication on November 12, 1852, with Ferdinand Lindheimer as editor. The first Staatssaengerfest was held at New Braunfels on October 16, 1853, and the first special tax for school purposes levied and collected in Texas was voted by New Braunfels on March 17, 1856. Erected by the State of Texas 1936 with funds appropriated by the Federal Government to commemorate one hundred years of Texas independence.