DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and friend, it's worth every word. Back in 1844, a Bavarian-born civil engineer named Nicolaus Zink was selected to lead a group of German immigrants across the ocean and into the Texas wilderness to establish settlements on a land grant. Now, Zink was born in 1812, and by the time this assignment found him, he was the kind of man who looked at a hard situation and started solving it before most people even recognized the problem.
The colonization effort was headed by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels himself, and financed by a German corporation called the Mainzer Adelsverein. So this wasn't some scrappy little venture — there was royalty involved, there was money behind it, and there were families counting on it. Upon arrival in Texas in late 1844, Zink took one long look at the land grant they were supposed to settle — and what he saw gave him pause.
That grant sat square in the heart of Comanche Indian territory. Now, here's where Nicolaus Zink earns his place in the story. He didn't panic, and he didn't just go along with a plan that was going to get people killed.
He persuaded Prince Solms to settle at an alternate site instead. That alternate site became the town of New Braunfels. The colony didn't just face one problem, either.
Zink's leadership had to hold steady through unrest, disease, starvation, and monetary problems — the whole terrible combination — and the marker says plainly that his leadership was vital to the survival of the colony. He eventually took responsibility for the supervision of about one-half of all the German immigrants bound for New Braunfels. That's not a footnote.
That's a man carrying the weight of a people on his shoulders. After 1847, Zink built homes in a variety of places — Sisterdale, Comfort, an area south of Fredericksburg — moving and building and shaping the Hill Country one stone at a time. Then in 1868, he acquired this very property and built the central portion of the limestone house sitting southeast of this site.
Later still, he gave land for and helped engineer the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad bed all the way to Kerrville, leaving his mark on the land in ways you can still trace today. Nicolaus Zink lived here until his death in 1887, and he is buried in an unmarked grave near this very site. A man who redirected a colony, who held frightened people together through the worst of circumstances, who built homes and railroads across the Hill Country — resting now in ground with no stone to tell you where.
The marker does that work instead.
What the marker says
In 1844, Bavarian-born civil engineer Nicolaus Zink (1812-1887) was selected to lead a group of German immigrants overseas to establish settlements on a Texas land grant. This colonization effort was headed by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels and financed by a German corporation known as the Mainzer Adelsverein. Upon arrival in Texas in late 1844, Zink realized that the grant to be settled by the colonists was in the heart of Comanche Indian territory. He persuaded Prince Solms to settle at an alternate site, which became the town of New Braunfels. Zink's leadership in the face of unrest, disease, starvation, and monetary problems was vital to the survival of the colony. He eventually was responsible for the supervision of about one-half of the German immigrants bound for New Braunfels. After 1847, Zink built homes in a variety of places, including Sisterdale, Comfort, and an area south of Fredericksburg. In 1868, he acquired this property and built the central portion of the limestone house southeast of this site. He later gave land for and helped engineer the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad bed to Kerrville. Zink lived here until his death and is buried in an unmarked grave near this site. (1984)