Junction of Two Important Rivers, the Guadalupe and the Comal
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Site claimed May 8, 1718, for King of Spain by Gov. Martin de Alarcon, and used by priests and army units in traffic to East Texas. In 1845, ferry here, run by Adolph von Wedemeyer, aided German immigrants settling Central Texas. In 1860s this was site of brick kiln and tannery. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The meeting of the Guadalupe and Comal rivers was claimed for the King of Spain by Gov. Martín de Alarcón on May 8, 1718, and long served priests and soldiers traveling to East Texas. In 1845 a ferry run here by Adolph von Wedemeyer helped German immigrants settle Central Texas, and by the 1860s the spot held a brick kiln and tannery.
Why it matters
This river junction concentrates more than a century of Texas history—Spanish empire, German immigration, and frontier industry—at a single crossing point.
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Related people
- · Martín de Alarcón
- · Adolph von Wedemeyer
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Site of Old Schmitz Hotel
New Braunfels, TX
The oldest part of this building rose around 1851 from local cedar and limestone, and in 1858 German immigrant Jacob Schmitz bought it as the new home of his Guadalupe Hotel. The traveling writer Frederick Law Olmsted praised the inn's Old World atmosphere as he passed through the German settlements of central Texas. A third story was added in 1873 and the hotel took Schmitz's name, though its original facade has since been much changed.
The Braschler House
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The Reverend Henry Braschler, born in Switzerland in 1818, came to Texas in 1848 and served as pastor of nearby St. Martin Lutheran Church before building this house in 1854 of caliche and cedar fachwerk — the half-timbered technique German and Swiss settlers brought with them. Enlarged over time, it is said to have become a stage stop on the Bastrop Road. Its family plot holds the grave of Danish-born Maren Hander.
Sattler Post Office
Sattler, TX
Wilhelm Sattler, a founding colonist of the German settlement at New Braunfels, later homesteaded in this part of Comal County and secured a federal mail contract. The Sattler post office opened in 1856 with his son Henry as first postmaster, soon moving into one of the family's juniper-log cabins — chinked with straw and caliche mud — where it served the community until 1880.
Cibolo
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Cibolo took root in 1875 when the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad pushed a line across western Guadalupe County. A general store opened the next year to serve the largely German settlers, and a post office followed in 1876, giving the town a name drawn from an Indian word for buffalo. For a time it was also called Fromme's Store after Charles Fromme bought the business in 1882; the community finally incorporated in 1965.