Overview / Summary
Wallerath Homestead
(Notes prepared March, 2017)
In the spring of 1850 Karl Josef Stapper bought a farm on the Cibolo Creek about twenty miles from New Braunfels. He bought the farm (1326 acres) from Mr. William Von Marschall. Wilhelm Puetz (or Putz) bought part (665 acres) of this land, but in 1852 he decided to return to Germany and sold the land to Peter Wallerath. Puetz had the needed lumber to build the house, but left before the house was finished. Peter Wallerath completed the house according to the Puetz house plan, and the house still stands today. (2017)
Legend has it that Indians liked to camp under the oak tree which is behind (northeast corner) the house. (Note: The family stories are not specific about the dates that the Indians were in the vicinity.)
The home was in the Wallerath family for four generations. Owners of the home (after the preliminary settler, Puetz) are listed below:
- 1852 to 1902 - Peter and Agnes (Brotze) Wallerath
Six children: Charles (Carl), Paul, Bertha, Hedwig, Mary, Anna
(Note: Charles was a co-founder of the D’Hanis brick company.)
- 1902-1925 - Paul and Amalie (Schmitz) Wallrath
Two children: Agnes and Regina
(Note: Paul is a son of Peter and Agnes Wallerath. By 1904, Paul and his brother revised the spelling
of the name Wallerath to Wallrath. Paul’s wife, Amalie, died in 1916. After 1925, Paul alternated
living with his two daughters Agnes and Regina and their families until his death in 1945.)
- 1925 to 1954 - Oscar and Agnes Stapper
Two children: Meta and Arthur
(Note: Agnes is a daughter of Paul and Amalie Wallrath.)
- 1954 to 1994 - Arno and Meta Fritz
(Note: Meta is the daughter of Oscar and Agnes Stapper. Meta and Arno did not actually live at the
Wallerath farm until 1970. From the early 1940s through the late 1960s, Max and Phine Mueller
rented various amounts of the farm land and lived in the rooms formerly attached to the Wallrath
homestead.)
- 1994 to 2014 - Mike and Janet Kalinowski
- 2014 – present – Cibolo Creek Municipal Authority
Oscar Stapper remodeled the Wallerath homestead. The fireplace where the cooking was done was removed, and other changes were made over the years including the front porch wall enhancement (square design was replaced by an arch design, and boards nailed vertically were replaced by horizontally mounted boards). Also, attached rooms behind the house were built/expanded, but they were later removed by Arno and Meta Fritz to make room for construction of the 1970s brick home currently adjacent to the Wallerath homestead.
Additional Background on Some of the Early Family Members
Peter Wallerath, son of Nicolaus Wallerath, was born July 11, 1819 in Prussia (in Germany). At age 30, he traveled to America arriving at the port of New Orleans, Louisiana on November 5, 1849. (Like the Karl Josef Stapper family, he most likely continued the journey to Texas by ship, landing at Indianola, Texas and then traveling to Comal County by ox cart or mule train.)
Wallerath became a US citizen November 24, 1853 (papers are on file in New Braunfels). He supported his family by farming and raising sheep. In the early 1860s (start of Civil War), Wallerath had extensive financial difficulty owing approximately $850 to a general store in San Antonio and mortgaging his herd of 125 sheep. (It may have been necessary to sell some of his property, but no family records are available to verify this.)
Peter Wallerath died Oct 27, 1882 and is buried in the Stapper Cemetery (located off Trainer Hale road at the end of Schmidt-Craft Lane) on the first row closest to Cibolo Creek. Agnes Brotze Wallerath, Peter’s wife, died in 1902. She is also buried in the Stapper Cemetery, near the south end of the fifth row.
When Peter Wallerath’s son Paul acquired the farm and homestead in 1904 (following the death of his mother), the farm was 168 acres, roughly one-fourth of the original 665 acres. In addition to farming, Paul was an active musician (guitar) and tenor singer who frequently performed with his band of musicians at family and community gatherings.
Paul Wallrath was born in 1861 and died in 1945. He and his wife, Amalie Schmitz Wallrath, are buried in the Stapper Cemetery in the center of the fifth row, under a single obelisk (tall dagger shape) headstone.
Oscar Stapper’s grandfather, Theodor Lamertz Stapper, was a nephew of Karl Josef Stapper. Theodor traveled to America with Karl Josef Stapper in late 1849 along with Karl’s wife and eleven children. The Stapper family’s early generations farmed and raised cows and sheep. They made cheese from whole milk and sold the cheese whey to the Menger Hotel in San Antonio.
From some autobiographical notes written by Oscar Stapper: …there was unlimited pasture until 1882 when barbed wire came into use. The country got a different face. There were a few stage roads like the old Seguin road and the old Miller road but many roads got fenced up. Most ranches or farms were large tracts, and many people couldn’t get out. Then the fights for the roads came. Then a law was passed that every man between 21 and 45 years had to work on the roads 5 days a year or pay $5.00, or $1.00 for each day he didn’t work. Later the burden to maintain county roads fell to the county, raising taxes considerably – 10-15 fold.
Many of the original Stapper family members remained in the Schertz-Cibolo area and eventually were buried in the Stapper Cemetery including the Karl Josef Stapper family and the Theodor Lamertz Stapper family. The 3 ½ acre Stapper Cemetery was gifted to the family heirs by W. T. Stapper (a son of Karl Joseph Stapper) and Oscar Stapper.
Notes initially prepared in 2005 by Janet and Mike Kalinowski and provided to Pat Ezell, Historic Farm and Ranch Complexes Committee, San Antonio Conservation Society.