“The Forty” or Die Vierziger

Thank you Charles Daniels for another post.

“The Forty” or Die Vierziger was a fraternity of German students with chapters at the universities of Giessen and Heidelberg and the industrial academy of Darmstadt. The name comes from there being 40 members or because it was founded in the 1840’s. The group was recruited in early 1847 by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels to immigrate to Texas. They started the Bettina Settlement which lasted less than a year, There were two later attempts to establish the communes of Darmstädler Farm and Tusculum near New Braunfels and Sisterdale, respectively, which were equally short-lived, and when these efforts failed, some settlers moved  to Sisterdale, from there some moved to Boerne, and others to Comfort.

The following is a list of names of this group that made the trip to Texas as found in Biesele, History of the German Settlements in Texas, pages 155 and 156 quoting – Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Volume 3, pages 34 and 35 and in Deutsche Pioniere in Texas, page 26– Adolph Paul Weber – [as found in a footnote in Biesele]

Names in Biesele#

1.       Dr. Ferdinand von Herff

2.       Dr. Leopold Schulz.

3.       Gustav Schleicher

4.       Lerch

5.       Philip Zoeller

6.       Wilhelm Zoeller

7.       Wundt

8.       *Fuchs

9.       Theodor Schleuning

10.   Amelung

11.   Christian von Hesse

12.   Julius Wagner

13.   *Herrman

14.   Friedrich Schenk

15.   Jacob Kuechler

16.   Adam Vogt

17.   Strauss

18.   Christian Flach

19.   *Schunk

20.   Neff

21.   Adam Teichert

22.   Adolph Hahn

23.   Fritz Louis

24.   Kappelhoff

25.   Michel

26.   *Ottmer

27.   Peter Bub

28.   *Mertins

29.   Backoften

30.   *Lindheimer

31.   Edward Mueller

32.   *Rock

A.P. Weber list includes: Herman Spiess, Kattmann, Kappel, Zentner, Hoerner’ Louis Reinhardt, and Obert instead of the names marked by a “*” above.

The Other Texas Latin Settlements

While these may be “Latin” settlements –  Shelby and Ratcliffe are also identified as such in information about those settlements. [dates in parenthesis are when the county where the settlement was located was founded]

Bluff, Fayette County [formed 1837]

Bluff is on the south side of the Colorado River across from La Grange in Fayette County and was settled by German immigrants - Forty-Eighters. In 1987 at the site were two businesses and a large country club.

Castell, Llano County [formed 1856]

Castell is a small unincorporated riverside town in Llano County,  its northern border is formed by the Llano River. Castell began in 1847 as a land grant in Comanche territory settled by German Abolitionists and Free-Soilers. The land was part of the Fisher-Miller Land Grant.  The population was 104 at the 2010 census. The community is now on the south bank of the Llano River near the Mason County line.

Comfort, Kendall County [founded 1862]

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,358 people, 799 households, and 603 families. Comfort was established in 1854 by German immigrants, who were Freethinkers and abolitionists. Some early settlers in Comfort migrated from the colonies of the Darmstadt Society of Forty

Frelsburg, Colorado County [founded 1837]

Frelsburg is an unincorporated community in Colorado County, at the intersection of Farm Roads 109 and 1291. The population of Frelsburg was reported as seventy-five from 1933 to 2000.

New Ulm, Austin County [founded 1837]

New Ulm, on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas line at the intersection of Farm roads 109 and 1094, in western Austin County, was known as Duff's Settlement, after James C. Duff.  In 1840, the settlers named the community New Ulm after Ulm, Germany. In 1990 the population was estimated at 650. The population remained the same in 2000.

Leiningen, Llano County [founded 1856]

Leiningen was established in 1847 as part of the Fisher-Miller land grant with Castell, Bettina, and Schoenburg. It did not survive.

CASTELL, Llano County [founded 1856]

Castell is at the intersection of Farm roads 2768 and 152, on the south bank of the Llano River. Castell was established in 1847 under the auspices of the Adelsverein. By 1972 the community had declined to a population of seventy-two, mainly descendants of the original German settlers. A population of seventy-two was still reported in 2000.

Meyersville, DeWitt County [founded 1846]

 Meyersville is just east of U.S. Highway 183 and fourteen miles south of Cuero.  In 1985 Meyersville  had a few businesses and active churches. The population estimates for the Meyersville communities approached 250 during the 1940s but decreased to 150 during the next decade and by 1968 to 110, which remained the figure given for 2000.

Ratcliffe, DeWitt County [founded 1846]

Ratcliffe – a Lateiner community -, originally  Five Mile, in south central DeWitt County, was established in the late 1840s and early 1850s. In 1962 area homesteads were still owned by descendents. The 1983 county highway map shows a school at Ratcliffe on Farm Road 2718 eight miles east of Yorktown.

Schoenburg, Llano County [founded 1856]

Schoenburg was established in 1847 as part of the Fisher-Miller land grant with Castell, Bettina, and Leiningen. It did not survive.

Shelby, Austin County [founded 1837]

Shelby is an unincorporated town at the junction of Farm roads 389 and 1457, twenty-four miles northwest of Bellville. Otto von Roeder was the first settler in Shelby in 1841. Shelby became the home of  Adelsverein colonists in 1845. It is believed to be part of the Latin Settlement communities populated in Texas at that time.  In 1992 Shelby reported 175 residents. The population remained the same in 2000.

Information taken from Wikipedia and Texas Sate Historical Association [online] and Texas Genealogy WebCounties [online]. 

This post provided by Charles Daniels.

Five Latin Settlements

This post is provided by Charles Daniels.
Charles, thank you very much.

The five Texas settlements "officially" considered historical "Latin Settlements":

• Bettina, Llano County, 1847 named after Bettina von Arnim

Commune first started in 1847 and dissolved one year later.

• Latium, Washington County;

Latium is located on Farm Road 389 near Pond Creek, twelve miles from Brenham in the southwest corner of Washington County. The estimated population, predominantly Czech with a German minority, was thirty in 1988. At that time Latium had a Catholic church, a Czech Catholic cemetery, a service station, a volunteer fire department, and a general store, which also served as a community center. In 2000 the population was still thirty.

• Millheim, Austin County

MILLHEIM, TEXAS. Millheim was established eight miles south of Bellville in central Austin County about 1845, when a mill was constructed on Clear Creek, a tributary of Mill Creek. The number of residents declined rapidly after World War II, though in 1948, the town reported three rated businesses, a church, a school, and an estimated 100 inhabitants. The population grew to 150 by 2000.

• Sisterdale, Kendall County,

 Nicolaus Zink built the first house in 1847, Ernst Kapp founded the settlement in 1849, on Farm roads 1376 and 473, thirteen miles north of Boerne in north central Kendall County. In the mid-1980s local sources estimated the population at fewer than 100. In 1990 it was reported as sixty. The population was sixty-three in 2000.

• Tusculum, Kendall County - name changed in 1852 to Boerne

Founded in 1849 as Tusculum, the name was changed to Boerne after the German author and publicist Ludwig Börne when the town was mapped in 1852.  Its population was 10,471 in the 2010 census

Occasionally the following locations in Texas are also named among the "Latin Settlements":

• Bluff, Fayette County
• Castell, Llano County
• Comfort, Kendall County
• Frelsburg, Colorado County
• Leiningen, Llano County
• Meyersville, DeWitt County
• Ratcliffe, DeWitt County
• Schoenburg, Llano County
• Shelby, Austin County

Outside Texas the following are also sometimes considered "Latin Settlements":

• Dutzow, Warren County, Missouri
• Belleville, St. Clair County, Illinois

Information taken from Wikipedia and Texas Sate Historical Association [online].

The German Convention of 1854

We know that the Lateiners were active politically in their German homeland. After a while in their new home a group saw the need to try to unite German speakers into a single active political group. On 14 August 1853 the Rev. L. C. Ervendberg called a meeting at Neu Wied and the Geselliger Verein was formed as a social and political club. Later that year Der freie Verein was formed at Sisterdale with Ernst Kapp as president and A. Siemering as secretary. Other similar groups soon formed. Der freie Verein called a meeting of all Germans to be held during the second Staats-Saengerfest to be held in San Antonio on 14 and 15 May 1854.

At the meeting a group of officers was elected who wrote a platform that would unite the German speaking populace of Texas. When it was released to the general public, it was seen as very radical. We must view it with the eyes of an Anglo-Southerner in a newly democratic republic seething with unrest—on the verge of civil war. Many saw all Germans as radical abolitionists because of the phrase “Slavery is an evil, the abolition of which is a requirement of democratic principles…” and failed to read the entire document which asked that the Federal government not interfere as States made their own decisions. Generally, the rest of the platform was forgotten.

To-day,  it is interesting to look at the document and see what this group proposed and note which items have been accepted and which ones are still emotionally (politically) charged.

We use here the translation found in the Western Texan, 1 June 1854. Sections in square brackets [   ] are illegible in our copy of the Western Texan and are added from R. L. Biesele’s version published in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, April 1930 (33:4)

Resolutions Passed at the Political Convention of Germans in Texas

                                    San Antonio, May 15, 1854

Whereas, we are convinced, that the people of the United States do not enjoy the liberties guaranteed to them by the constitution, nor occupy that position towards foreign nations, in view of their power and extension, which they should occupy; and whereas, we are satisfied that the existing parties have, neither the will nor the power, to improve the political, social and religious relations of the country in a manner to suit the wishes of a large number of American citizens; we have adopted a series of principles, with a view of uniting with that party of those which will, from all appearances, be newly formed, that will afford us the greatest guarantees for the carrying out of our aims.

            By so doing we disavow every intention to form a German party; and declare, that our thus associating and conducting our celebrations in our native tongue is induced by consideration of language and none other.

Political Reforms

[1. The Constitution of the United States is] the best now extant, but like all existing things it is susceptible of, and needs improvements. We therefore claim:

1. Election of President and Senators, directly by the people.
2. Election by the people of Judges, of post tax and all administrative officers, with the exception of cabinet officers and foreign ministers.
3. Removal of officers, not from party considerations, but only on the ground of incapacity or violation of duty, according to law and justice.
4. Eligibility without reference to the place of residence of candidates.
5. The right of the voters, to recall representatives, whose conduct is unsatisfactory, by vote of the majority.

2. In order to secure the United States their proper position towards foreign countries, and to enable them to exert their influence in favor of liberty, we claim:

      a. Acknowledgement and maintenance of republican States by actual assistance.

      b. Adequate protection of such as belong to the Union, who may be in foreign countries.

      c. Adherence to the Monroe doctrine.

      d. Abrogation of all treaties for the delivery of fugitives.

3. The naval and land forces are instituted for the protection of the country and its citizens; they should, therefore, be established and maintained as popular bodies within the State. In this regard we claim:

      a. That none but citizens and such as have declared their intention to become citizens, at least one year, shall become soldiers.

      b. Abolition of all corporal punishment.

      c. In time of peace the soldier shall be amenable to the law like other citizens.

      d. Abolition of all institutions for the educations of cadets.

      e. Establishment of institutions for the perfection of soldiers, who have served for officers; examination by [the State] of officers both in theory and [practice].

Social Reforms

1. Legislative enactments and the administration of justice have for their object, to protect and extend the rights of the citizens, agreeably to the demands of the spirit of the age. Punishments should not extend beyond the requirements of such protection. Wherefore we claim:

      a. A general code of criminal and civil laws, which by virtue of their simplicity and certainty, should be intelligible to every citizen and dispense with the intervention of attorneys.

      b. The meeting in open Court of prosecutor and defendant, and therefore the abolition of the Grand Jury system.

      c. Abolition of imprisonment for debt.

      d. Certain property, necessary to sustain life, shall be exempt from judicial sale.

      e. Equality of labor and capital in all laws relating thereto.

      f. Abolition of capital punishment.

      g. Further laws for the encouragement of, and greater protection to, immigration.

      h. Repeal of all temperance laws.

2. Slavery is an evil, the abolition of which is a requirement of democratic principles; but as it only affects single States, we desire:

That the Federal government abstain from all interference in the question of slavery, but that, when a single State resolves upon the abolition of the evil, such State may claim the assistance of the General Government for the purpose of carrying out such resolve.

3. The soil should not be an article of speculation, but should be regarded as a means of compensating labor. In this regard we ask:

      a. That not only every citizen, but also every one who has brought himself within the protection of the government, shall, on application, be entitled to a proper quantity of public land, free of charge.

      b. Prohibition of the sale of public lands, except to actual settlers.

4. Taxes have no other object, than to defray the expenses of government; they should therefore be fixed with a view to the amount of these expenses and should be, as much as possible, equalized, according to the possessions [of the citizens. We demand in this particular:

      a. Direct taxation.]

      b. Taxes on incomes in such manner that the larger income should be taxed proportionally higher.

      c. A progressive inheritance tax.

      d. Higher taxation on uncultivated lands, in order to check land speculation.

      e. The greatest possible freedom of trade.

5. Banks can only have the object, to afford to the poor protection against the power of capital, and to support commerce. We therefore claim:

      a. Abolition of banks in their present establishment.

      b. The establishment of institutions of credit upon a secure foundation.

6. Though Internal Improvements of general utility should be left to the Federal government, we yet ask:

      a. Their construction by private industry and public competition, in order to avoid peculations heretofore practiced.

      b. Public supervision and proper guarantees to contracts with laborers.

7. It is the duty of the State, to provide for the education of youth as republican citizens, and to remove, as much as practicable, all influences of a deteriorating character. We therefore ask:

      a. Free schools supported by the means of the State.

      b. Total exclusion of religious training as well as exclusion of religious books from schools.

      c. No teacher should be a preacher.

      d. No child shall be withdrawn from the free school, unless it is satisfactorily shown, that a sufficient education is otherwise furnished.

      e. Establishment of universities, in which any one is admitted free of charge.

      f. Examination, on the part of the government, of teachers, physicians, and apothecaries.

Religious Reforms

1. Religion is a private matter. The United States are political states and have no right to interfere in matters of religion, either favoring or restricting. We therefore claim:

      a. Abolition of the religious oath.

      b. Abolition of Sunday laws and thanksgiving days.

      c. Meetings of Congress and Legislative bodies shall not be opened with prayer.

                                                          H. GUENTHER [New Braunfels, president]

                                                          Wm. KEIDEL [Fredericksburg]

A. SIEMERING [Sisterdale]

L. SCHUETZE [Coletoville]

HIRTZBERGH [San Antonio]

Jul. SCHLICKUM [Fredericksburg]

Sources:

Western Texan, 1 June 1854

“Ethnicity and  Politics in Texas” by Joe B. Frantz in German Culture in Texas,

(Boston: Twayne, 1980)

The History of the German Settlements in Texas 1831-1861 by Rudolph L. Biesele,

            (San Marcos: German-Texan Heritage Society, 1987)

“The Texas State Convention of Germans in 1854” by R. L. Biesele in The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, April 1930 (vol. xxxiii, no. 4)

Ernst Kapp

 

Ernst Kapp was born in Ludwigstadt, Bavarian Oberfranken, on 15 October 1808. He became a follower of the German geographer Carl Ritter. Ritter and Alexander von Humboldt helped found the modern science of geography. Kapp taught at Hamm from 1828 to 1830 and at Minden in Westphalia from 1830 to 1849.

As political turmoil heightened in Germany in the 1840s, Kapp, along with others, found himself on the wrong side of the revolution. For a time he was imprisoned for his volume Der konstituierte Despotismus und die constitutionelle Freiheit.

Kapp, his wife, Ida Kapell, and their five children, left their homeland for Texas, arriving in Galveston in December of 1849. From there he moved to Indianola, and then inland to New Braunfels, and finally, to Sisterdale, Kendall County. The family settled on fifty acres purchased from G. F. Holekamp. Like other Lateiners Kapp traded intellectual pursuits for farming and stock raising.

In the 1850s he built two main buildings of two log cabins each. These sit on a hill overlooking East Sister Creek. Each of the two cabins was joined to the other by a dogtrot. One building was the family residence. The front door was constructed of “stout planks in which an iron nail was driven every inch. The nails were so placed in order to resist tomahawks, and other battle axes of the Indians.” (San Antonio Express, 4 March 1934, D-1)

The other building housed his sanitarium or Hydropathic Institute. The spa or sanitarium, called Badenthal, combined hydropathy (mineral oil treatments) and gymnastic exercises. The institute ceased when the Civil War began.

In February 1852 Frederick Law Olmsted visited Sisterdale. He described Ernst Kapp’s residence as “… a large stuccoed log house, near the bank of one of the Sister creeks. Here lives a professor who divides his time between his farm and his library. The delicious brook water has been turned to account by him for the cure of disease, and his house is thrown open to patients….” (Olmsted, Frederick L., A Journey Through Texas…, 1857, page 196)

In 1853 he was elected president of the Freier Verein (Free Society).  The next year at the annual Saegnerfest the group proposed a platform of social reforms that split the German community and resulted in Anglo Americans becoming very concerned about possible subversive actions by all Germans in undermining their Southern way of life. (More on this in next month’s blog issue.)

In 1865 Ernst Kapp sold his property to Andres Langbeins and returned to Germany for a visit. However, due to illness he remained there until his death on 30 January 1896 in Dusseldorf.

While back home in Germany Kapp published, in 1869, his “General Comparative Geography.”

He took up the very Victorian issue of industrial mechanization and its problems in 1877 with “Fundamentals of a Philosophy of Technical Science.”

Sources:

New Handbook of Texas, “Kapp, Ernst”

Scharf, Edwin E. “Freethinkers of the Early Texas Hill Country” in Freethought Today, April       1998

“Dr. Ernst Kapp, Early Geographer in Texas” by S. W. Geiser, reprint from Field & Laboratory,   January, 1946

San Antonio Express, 4 March 1934, D-1. “Old Cabins the Only Monuments of Sisterdale’s          One-Time ‘Kulture’”

San Antonio Express-News, 23 April 1983, D-1+. “No. 1 Citizen Restores Sisterdale to Its            Glory” by George and Bonnie Carmack.

Edward Degener

Unlike Ottomar von Behr whose life was cut short after only a few years in Texas, Edward Degener had a long and distinguished career. Born in Brunswick, Germany, on 20 October 1809, Mr. Degener served as a member of the Anhalt-Dessau legislature and the first National Assembly at Frankfurt-am-Main in 1848, prior to emigrating to the United States. Arriving in Texas in 1850 he settled in Sisterdale as a farmer. When he arrived he purchased the original house built by Nicolaus Zink, the first building in the Latin community of Sisterdale. Zink, the surveyor of New Braunfels, left that town in an ox wagon on his way to Fredericksburg early in 1847. One night he camped at such a wonderful spot at the mouth of Sister Creek that he decided to stay there.

During the Civil War Degener, as a Union supporter, was arrested by Confederates for sedition. Although he pleaded innocent, he was found guilty and had to post a bond of $5,000. His sons Hilmar and Hugo died during the Battle of Nueces in October 1862. Later Degener, Edward Steves, and William Heuermann purchased land for the Treue der Union Monument. Degener had been on the advisory board of the Union Loyal League in Sisterdale. After the death of his two sons he and others began to leave Sisterdale. He went to San Antonio.

After the Civil War Mr. Degener served in Texas' constitutional conventions of 1866 and 1868-1869. One of his greatest efforts was to see universal suffrage in Texas. However, it would be many years before this happened.

After Texas was re-admitted to full statehood, Degener was elected to the Forty-first United States Congress, 31 March 1870-3 March 1871. He failed to secure  re-election.

Mr. Degener's business concerns included the San Antonio National Bank which opened in 1866 in the French Building on Main Plaza. In November 1873 he purchased an interest in the San Antonio Express for $500.00.

From 1872 to 1878 Edward Degener served on the San Antonio City Council.

In 1878 his son Hans, a lumber dealer, was living with him and his wife. He retired in 1885. His home was at the corner of Avenue C and Travis Street.

Mr. Degener died on 11 September 1890 and is buried in Plot 6, Lot B of City Cemetery # 1. His wife Marie was born in 1815 and died in 1891 and is buried beside him.

Who were the Lateiners--Freethinkers?

Who were the Lateiners--Texas' Freethinkers?

Simply put, they were a group of nineteenth-century German intellectuals. We must remember that Germany until 1871 was a confederation of independent states, similar to the American colonies prior to the current constitution.

These intellectuals, among whom were scientists, nobles, physicians, engineers, astronomers, and others, began to resent the authority and restrictions of organized religion and political absolutism they faced in Germany. Individually and in groups these "Freethinkers" began to flee their homeland for what they hoped would be freedom and democracy in America. They settled in various parts of the United States, but our primary concern here is with those who came to Texas.

The first group arrived in Texas in early 1847, led by Dr. Ferdinand Herff and settled  at what became known as Betina, at the union of the Llano River and Elm Creek. Other settlements soon followed: Millheim in Austin County, Latium in Washington County, Sisterdale and Tusculum (Boerne) in Kendall County. These are collectively known as the Latin Colonies since their inhabitants, German intellectuals, were said to hold discussions in Latin from time to time. The name Lateiners ("Latin ones") referred to these men.

The German revolution of 1848 hastened the flight of these individuals and their families to the United States. Edwin Scharf (see his essay in the right-side column) estimates one thousand Freethinkers, with about two hundred-fifty surnames, came to the Texas Hill Country. Unfortunately, many of these families are unknown to us. The list in the left column is a composite from several sources. They were among several thousand other Germans to make their homes here. It is these Lateiners with whom we are especially interested in this blog.

If you have information or family stories about those listed, or others, please send us your comments.