Overview / Summary

     Nine Historic Structures built in the 1860s:   

     Log cabin, barn, smokehouse, water well,

     workshop, Heidemann-Barrera house,

     storage house, cemetery, possible early kiln

• Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, July 6, 2011.
• In 2014, Professor Frances Gale of the University of Texas At Austin, School of Architecture, took the Materials Conservation Laboratory class to the Heidemann property to analyze the building materials of the log house and the barn.
• A Building Award was given to Mr. Roy R.Barrera, Sr. and Mr. Gilbert Barrera by the San Antonio Conservation Society in March 2016 for the restoration of the cabin, the barn and the smokehouse by Gilbert Barrera.
• In 2016, the Heidemann Family Cemetery was dedicated and designated as a Historic Texas Cemetery (HTC).

 History 

• Original land grant, Abstract 165, Nov. 24, 1854 to Matio Casillas for 320 acres for his participation in the Army during the Storming of Bexar in 1835.[1]
• 1856 – William Heidemann and William Hausmann purchased the 320 acres for $350.[2]

The property on which the historic structures are located currently consists of 175.51 acres from the original land grant.

• Hausmann arrived in Texas in 1850 from Brunswick and was in Bexar County by 1853.[3]  He filed a Declaration of Intent to become a U.S. citizen in 1853 and was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1858 in Bexar County.[4]
• Heidemann arrived in Galveston 1852 from Prussia; he was in Bexar County by 1859 & filed a Declaration of Intent to become a citizen.  In 1867, Heidemann was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in Bexar County.[5] [6]
• In the 1860 Bexar County census, Heidemann was living as a single man in the William Hausmann household.  Hausmann had married Augusta Talbert/Taubert and they had 2 children: William (age 6) and Earnest (age 2).[7]
• Heidemann and Hausman had a ranching partnership by 1858 which dissolved in 1873.  The acreage was divided and Heidemann received 171 2/3 acres.[8] [9] [10]
• 1862- William Heidemann married Elsa  “Lizy”  Obert.  They had 5 children: William, Ferdinand AKA Frederick, August, Ernest, and George.[11]
• 1870 census – William Heidemann, wife, Lizy, and 3 children were living in a separate household with their children.  William Hausmann, his wife and their first 2 children, William and Earnest, were enumerated as a separate household living next door to the Heidemann’s.[12]
• Wm. Heidemann operated the cattle ranch; he also grew Indian corn, sweet potatoes & hay.[13] [14]
• Wm. Heidemann died in 1893. Ranching operations were continued by sons, August and George.  George sold out to August in 1899.[15]
• August Heidemann continued ranching on a smaller scale, with his wife, Sophia Emilienburg.[16]  They had 4 children: Helena, Emil, Minnie, and Ella.[17]
• The son, Emil Heidemann, inherited the property after the death of his parents.[18] He married Jewell Anderson in 1942.[19]  Emil served in U.S. Army and then became a civil service employee operating a store at Camp Stanley on the Leon Springs Military Reservation.  Jewel Heidemann taught Spanish in the Boerne ISD. They continued with ranching operations.[20] [21]
• Jewel inherited the property with the death of her husband, Emil Heidemann, in 1966.[22]  In 1993, she sold the property to Roy Barrera, Sr., retaining a life estate. She continued to live on the property until her death in 1999.[23]
• Members of the Roy Barrera family live on adjacent properties (approx. 300 acres).   Cattle are raised for IVF production. Mr. Gilbert Barrera has restored the cabin, the barn and the smokehouse.  He has also expanded the workshop into a studio which is incorporated into the art complex on the property. The Barrera family is highly committed to maintaining the historic structures.[24]

 Pat Ezell, Historic Farm & Ranch Committee

San Antonio Conservation Society, January 2014

Revised August 2016