Homesite of Emil Kriewitz
Castell, Llano County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Arriving on the Texas coast from Potsdam, Germany, at the onset of the Mexican war in 1846, Emil Kriewitz began his Texas exploits by serving in the U.S. Army. He later was engaged by the Adelsverein to assist German settlement along the Llano River, an area then occupied by the Comanche Indians. At great personal risk, Emil lived with the Indians as a gesture of good will. In 1857 he married Amalia Markwort. They built their home and a small Sunday house on this site about 1867. He served as justice of the peace and postmaster before his death in 1902. (1993)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Emil Kriewitz left Potsdam for the Texas coast in 1846 and threw himself into the frontier's every hazard—first as a U.S. soldier, then as an agent of the Adelsverein, the German society organizing settlement along the Llano River in Comanche country. To build trust he lived among the Comanche himself, a striking act of diplomacy in a violent borderland. He married Amalia Markwort in 1857, built this home and a small "Sunday house" around 1867, and served his community as justice of the peace and postmaster until his death in 1902.
Why it matters
Kriewitz embodies the German immigrant wave that reshaped the Texas Hill Country and the fragile, often perilous relationships between newcomers and the Native peoples whose land they entered. His story is a reminder that westward settlement was negotiated face-to-face, not just fought.
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Related people
- · Emil Kriewitz
- · Amalia Markwort
Related events
- · German settlement of the Texas Hill Country
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Llano County
Llano, TX
The name Llano reaches back to 18th-century Spanish explorers, who applied it to the river running through this country—a name itself descended from a French term for the Lipan Apache. German colonists put down the first permanent settlements here around 1850, and in February 1856 the Texas legislature carved Llano County from Gillespie and Bexar, organizing it that August with Llano as county seat.
First Comanche-German Meeting
Mason, TX
On February 5, 1847, in the Texas Hill Country, a band of Penateka Comanches under Chief Ketumusua approached the camp of German immigrant surveyors led by John O. Meusebach, agent for the Adelsverein colonization society. Rather than fight, the two parties shared gifts and a meal and agreed to talk further. That first encounter opened the way to a formal peace council weeks later—a rare voluntary agreement to share territory that both sides largely honored.
Heinrich Kensing_Johanna Borchers Kensing
Cherry Spring, TX
Heinrich and Johanna Borchers Kensing were German immigrants who reached Texas in 1845 and settled in Gillespie County before moving into Mason County. In July 1865 the couple were attacked by Indians near Platt Kopf; Heinrich died at once, and Johanna died three days later at a neighbor's house, leaving seven children. A 1972 marker records their fate on the exposed Hill Country frontier.
German Settlements
Castell, TX
In 1847 the German Emigration Company, led by Commissioner General John O. Meusebach, founded three settlements on the Fisher-Miller land grant. Castell, settled by Fredericksburg pioneers, became Llano County's first permanent town and the only lasting community the company established on the grant. Its neighbors did not survive: Leiningen vanished entirely, and Bettina — the first communal settlement in Texas — was abandoned within a year when supplies ran out.