Browse Exhibits (45 total)
Hoffmann, Caroline and Jacob
Few women owned property in their own right in the nineteenth century. In the Helotes settlement, Carmel Marnoch owned her own carriage, 20 horses and 15 head of cattle; and Teodora Martinez owned 130 acres. However, by 1881, Caroline Hoffmann owned more than 4,000 acres, including horses and cattle, in her
own right. By 1890, Caroline and her husband, Jacob, had amassed more than 7,500 acres. By 1908, five years after Jacob’s death, the Hoffmann estate included 12,667 acres, a substantial portion in present day Government Canyon State Natural Area.
(CLICK ON ABOVE TITLE TO OPEN EXHIBIT FILES)
Huebner - Onion Homestead
This site was home to two important area families, as well as a stagecoach stop in the 1800s. Development here began in 1858 when Joseph Huebner and his family, who arrived from Austria five years earlier, bought acreage surrounding what is now Huebner Creek and Huebner Road. A successful San Antonio businessman, he soon erected three limestone buildings here and began to acquire herds of horses, mules and cattle. He also opened a stagecoach stop at the family's homestead ranch on the San Antonio to Bandera stage line route. The stop included blacksmith services, change of stock and overnight accommodations if travelers were unable to pass over the flooded creek. Joseph Huebner died in 1882 and was buried on the homestead property.
(CLICK ON ABOVE TITLE TO OPEN EXHIBIT FILES)
Jones, Enoch Farmstead
Enoch Jones, land speculator, son of Thomas Griffith and Susan (Jones) Jones, was born in 1802 in Wooster, Ohio. He immigrated to Texas sometime before 1837 and in partnership with John William Smith acquired a vast amount of land, which he sold at a profit when he returned to Detroit. Eventually he acquired almost 175,000 acres on the Medina River and built a large mansion, which Count Norbert von Ormay bought in 1885.
(See "Handbook of Texas Online: JONES, ENOCH")
[Special note:The name Norbert von Ormay is NOT misspelled. The Count’s family name was spelled with an “a”. When the people of Von Ormy decided to name their community after the Count they dropped the “a” from Ormay. The property was sold by the heirs of Enoch Jones to Count Norbert von Ormay.]
(CLICK ON ABOVE TITLE TO OPEN EXHIBIT FILES)
Kenney, Patrick - House
The Patrick Kenney House located in Bexar County near Somerset, TX was built around 1877-78, after Patrick Henry Kenny purchased 46 ½ acres of land for $186.00 from D.W. Heard on 22 December 1877.1 The acreage was originally a part of the Clemente Bustillo grant, Survey #348.2 This purchase added to the already extensive acreage Kenney had previously purchased located on from the Michael De Chaumes grant.
Special note: The name of Bexar Road is pronounced “Bex–sar” not “Bear”. There was actually a community of Bexar (Bex sar) in this general area!
(CLICK ON ABOVE TITLE TO OPEN EXHIBIT FILES)
Kiolbassa - Aniol Home and Farm
In December of 1854, immigrants from Upper Silesia in Prussian Poland began arriving
in Texas. In Bexar County, approximately twenty Silesian families created the village of
Saint Hedwig eighteen miles east of San Antonio. Today, recognized as one of the
earliest Polish settlements in the U. S. it is located on FM 1346, in far eastern Bexar
County.
Valentine Aniol, one of the founding settlers of Saint Hedwig, Texas, in 1856, purchased from C. G. Napier an undivided interest in two hundred acres of land near the center of the John Springer Survey or Survey #31.
In 1892, Valentine Aniol conveyed the property to his daughter Julia Aniol Rakowicz and her husband John Rakowicz with the stipulation, “to furnish to the said Valentine Aniol a room on the premises including support, medical attention and clothing during her (sic) natural life.”
In 1896, the property came into the Kiolbassa family when it was
purchased by Ignatz Kiolbassa from John and Julia Aniol Rakowicz.
(CLICK ON ABOVE TITLE TO OPEN EXHIBIT FILES)
Klemcke, William - House
Charles Frederick William Klemcke and his wife, Emilie came to this country with the Castro Colony. Charles Frederick William Klemcke was born in Ohlen, Silesia which is now southwestern Poland. Emilie was born in Oranienburg, just north of Berlin, Germany. Frederick AKA William Klemcke was a candle and soap maker.
(CLICK ON ABOVE TITLE TO OPEN EXHIBIT FILES)
Koerbel Place
Koerbel Place is named after one of the original families that lived and farmed the land on which the house is located. The history of the property tells a tale of settlers from Germany and Switzerland who made their home in Bexar County,Texas during the most
unsettling and difficult years in U.S. history. A Castro Colonist, a Confederate Soldier, reputed use as a Stage Coach Stop and a resident ghost are all part of the narrative of the Koerbel Place story.
(CLICK ON ABOVE TITLE TO OPEN EXHIBIT FILES)
Krause House
ANTON F. KRAUSE HOUSE
San Antonio, TX.
With political unrest and threats of war in Europe, Anton F. Krause and his future wife, Johanna Roesler, both natives of Lussdorf, Bohema, sailed from Bremen aboard the Lucie. They arrived in Galveston on November 7, 1854. Their granddaughter, Clara Krause Parsons, remembers them saying they walked most of the way to San Antonio where they joined a number of other German speaking families. On May 22, 1855, Anton and Johanna were married at San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas.
(CLICK ON ABOVE TITLE TO OPEN EXHIBIT FILES)
Marnoch Homestead
The Scottish surgeon Dr. Fredrick Marnoch (1802-1870) purchased more than 1500 acres at this site in the autumn of 1858. In January 1859, Marnoch commissioned famed San Antonio architect and builder John M. Fries to construct this house near Helotes Creek.
(CLICK ON ABOVE TITLE TO OPEN EXHIBIT FILES)
Mitchell - Mauermann Property
Mitchell was an active participant in the revolt of Texas against Mexico. Appointed customs boarding officer at Velasco in 1830, he participated in the battle of Velasco on June 26, 1832, a pivotal event leading up to the Texas revolution. He was elected a regidor of the new municipality of Washington-on-the-Brazos in July 1835, and represented the municipality as a member of the General Council that governed Texas from late 1835 until the convention of 1836. He served on the committee that prepared the declaration of San Felipe de Austin. With his son, Nathan, Mitchell fought in the Battle of San Jacinto
(CLICK ON ABOVE TITLE TO OPEN EXHIBIT FILES)
