DUANE
Duane's take
Here's the story as the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Out here in Gillespie County, there's a quiet patch of ground that holds the memory of two men who were, in another world, German noblemen — and in this one, Texans. The Marschall-Meusebach Cemetery.
Let that name sit with you a moment, because there's more to it than dirt and headstones. Now, John O. Meusebach was born in 1812.
By 1845 he had crossed an ocean and arrived in the Republic of Texas — not as a wanderer, mind you, but as the leader of the German Emigration Company. That is a man with a mission. And he carried it out.
In 1846 he established the town of Fredericksburg. One year later, in 1847, he signed a peace treaty with the Comanche Indians — and the marker calls it historic, and I'd say that's earned. That's not small work.
That's the kind of thing that echoes. Meusebach passed in 1897, and he rests here. Now, the other name on this cemetery belongs to Wilhelm Marschall Von Bierberstein, born 1822.
He settled in this community in 1848, and he and Meusebach were related by marriage — two former German noblemen, their family lines braided together, putting down roots in the Texas Hill Country. Wilhelm lived until 1902. But here's the thing about a cemetery — somebody has to be first.
And that distinction belongs to Mathilda Weiss, born 1824, died 1891. She was Marschall's sister-in-law. The first to be laid to rest in this ground that would come to carry both their family names.
Two noblemen, one peace treaty, one frontier town, and a cemetery that started with a woman named Mathilda. Texas has a way of gathering unlikely histories into a single plot of land.
What the marker says
Members of the families of two former German noblemen, related by marriage, are buried in this cemetery. John O. Meusebach (1812-97), who came to the Republic of Texas in 1845 as leader of the German Emigration Company, established (1846) the town of fredericksburg and signed (1847) an historic peace treaty with the Comanche Indians. Wilhelm Marschall Von Bierberstein (1822-1902) settled in this community in 1848. First burial here was that of Marschall's sister-in-law, Mathilda Weiss (1824-91).