Andreas and Frederike Lindig Farmstead
Stonewall, Gillespie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
German immigrants Andreas and Frederike Lindig arrived in Texas in 1869. They established a farmstead here in 1874 on 448 acres that included a main farmhouse, summer kitchen, barn, water well, and commercial lime kiln. Lindig used native post oak timbers to build a log farmhouse to which he added limestone shed rooms. They grew cash crops of peanuts, sweet potatoes, and cotton. Their sons Friedrich, Karl, and Christian built homes nearby. Andreas (d. 1898) and Frederike (d. 1913) are buried in the family cemetery (one-half mile SE). The property remained in the family until 1980.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
German immigrants Andreas and Frederike Lindig reached Texas in 1869 and by 1874 had established a 448-acre farmstead of house, summer kitchen, barn, well, and commercial lime kiln in the Hill Country near Stonewall. Andreas built a log farmhouse from native post oak, added limestone shed rooms, and raised cash crops of peanuts, sweet potatoes, and cotton while his sons built homes nearby. The family held the land until 1980, and the founders rest in a nearby family cemetery.
Why it matters
The Lindig farmstead preserves the self-sufficient German immigrant farming culture that defined the Texas Hill Country's settlement and left a lasting agricultural imprint.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
German immigrants began settling the Texas Hill Country in large numbers in the 1840s, with towns such as Fredericksburg becoming the heart of a distinct German Texan culture. Over the following decades, newcomers kept arriving, drawn by land, family connections and the chance for a fresh start. The Lindigs, who reached Texas in 1869, were part of this continuing stream of settlement after the Civil War.
The years after the war were a time of rebuilding and expansion in Texas. Land was available, families were growing, and farmers looked for crops they could sell for cash rather than simply grow to eat. In the Hill Country, settlers had to work with thin soil, limestone and an unpredictable climate, and they developed a practical, diversified style of farming to cope.
German settlers became known for building to last, often using the materials around them: native timber, fieldstone and limestone. Their farmsteads typically included a cluster of buildings, each with a purpose, from barns to separate kitchens, and many still stand across the region today.
The area around Stonewall in Gillespie County was part of this landscape of family farms, close-knit communities and German-speaking households. The Lindig farmstead, begun in 1874, is a vivid snapshot of that world taking root.
People & events
Andreas and Frederike Lindig arrived in Texas from Germany in 1869. Five years later, in 1874, they established their farmstead here on 448 acres. It was a substantial piece of land, and they turned it into a working homestead with everything a farm family needed: a main farmhouse, a summer kitchen, a barn and a water well.
Andreas built the farmhouse himself from native post oak timbers, raising a log house and later adding limestone shed rooms. That combination of wood and stone tells the story of a family making use of what the land offered and expanding as needs grew. The separate summer kitchen kept the heat of cooking out of the main house during long Texas summers, a common and sensible arrangement.
The farm was not only about feeding the family. The Lindigs raised cash crops of peanuts, sweet potatoes and cotton, and the property included a commercial lime kiln. Lime, made by burning limestone, was used in mortar and plaster, so the kiln turned the region's abundant rock into a product to sell.
The family put down deep roots. Their sons Friedrich, Karl and Christian built homes nearby, so the farmstead became the center of a family neighborhood. Andreas died in 1898 and Frederike in 1913, and both are buried in the family cemetery about half a mile to the southeast. The property stayed in Lindig hands until 1980, more than a century after it was founded.
Its place in the American story
The Lindig farmstead is a local chapter of one of the great American stories: immigration and the making of new communities on the land. German immigrants were among the largest groups to come to the United States in the nineteenth century, and in Texas they left a lasting mark on architecture, farming, language and culture.
The farmstead also shows how immigrant families blended old skills with new circumstances. Log building, stone construction and a diversified farm economy reflect traditions brought from Europe, while crops like cotton, peanuts and sweet potatoes reflect the realities and markets of the American South.
The commercial lime kiln is a reminder that rural families were often small entrepreneurs, not just farmers. Turning local limestone into a building material connected this Hill Country farm to the wider construction economy of a growing state.
Finally, the fact that one family held the land for more than a hundred years speaks to the stability and continuity that many immigrant communities built. Places like this help explain why the German heritage of the Hill Country remains so visible to travelers today.
If you visit
The countryside around Stonewall is classic Texas Hill Country: rolling hills, live oaks, limestone outcrops and small farms. Drive slowly and you will notice the same building materials the Lindigs used, wood and native stone, in old barns and houses across the area.
At the marker, try to picture the farmstead as a whole working landscape. There was a log house built from post oak, stone rooms added on, a separate summer kitchen, a barn, a well and a lime kiln turning local rock into a product for sale. Each piece had a job, and together they made a self-sufficient family farm.
The farmstead is a private historic property, so respect any fences and signs and enjoy what you can see from public areas. The family cemetery mentioned on the marker lies about half a mile to the southeast; visit only if access is clearly open to the public.
Stonewall fits naturally into a Hill Country road trip, with Fredericksburg, wineries, peach stands in season and other historic sites all within easy reach. Adding the Lindig marker to your route gives you a glimpse of the immigrant farm families who shaped this region long before it became a travel destination.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Andreas Lindig
- · Frederike Lindig
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of The Andreas Lindig Lime Kiln
Stonewall, TX
Andreas Lindig learned the exacting craft of quicklime making in his native Germany before carrying it to the Texas Hill Country, where in 1874 he built the first kiln in eastern Gillespie County. Burning post oak in a cooking bed to reach the fierce heat needed to convert local rock into lime—seven ox-wagon loads for every batch—he supplied both his own building needs and those of his German-settler neighbors. The durable cement made from his lime still shows in his 1874 home nearby.
Maier-Alberthal Building
Fredericksburg, TX
Built around 1860, this sturdy German vernacular stone building was acquired in 1866 by Anton Maier, a native German who became a Fredericksburg merchant and held several Gillespie County offices. He passed it to his son-in-law August Alberthal, and over the decades the building served as a grocery, a soda water factory, an auto repair shop, and even a mission congregation's place of worship. Its thick stone walls reflect the building traditions the town's German settlers brought with them.
The Schandua Building
Fredericksburg, TX
Built in 1897 of hand-hewn limestone, this Fredericksburg building followed the German settlers' practical custom of home over shop: the Schandua family lived upstairs while John ran his hardware store below, and for a time the Masonic lodge met on the upper floor in trade for help with construction costs. After John's death his brother Henry married his widow, enlarged the building, and carried on the business. Hardware was sold here until 1972.
Old Central Drugstore
Fredericksburg, TX
Swiss-born jeweler and watchmaker Alphons Walter raised this two-story building in the heart of Fredericksburg in 1905, then sold it in 1909 to civic leader Robert Striegler, who ran the Central Drugstore on the ground floor. A drugstore would occupy the site for more than 70 years, while the upper floor housed the town's telephone exchange, doctors' offices, and a photographer's studio.