Mentz-Bernardo Community
Columbus, Colorado County, Texas
Marker Inscription
As early as the 1830s German immigrants had begun to settle in the general vicinity of Cat Spring. They were soon joined by others who preferred this region to the various sites that had been designated formal colonization efforts. With the area's continued growth, the settlements of Bernardo (4 mi. E) and Mentz developed as early focal points of the surrounding agricultural community. The German settlers who founded Mentz named the pioneer community for an area of their homeland. Predominately Roman Catholic, they established St. Roch parish by 1858 under the leadership of priests from Frelsburg. The church developed as the religious, social and cultural center of the area. Bernardo was begun about 1845 on an important early route from Houston to inland settlements. Because of its location on the prairie land of the San Bernard River, the rural community was first known as Bernardo Prairie. Once identified by separate schools and post offices, the two settlements now share a common lifestyle and heritage, which reflect the continued influence of the early German settlers. Their descendants still live in the Mentz-Bernardo Community.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Beginning in the 1830s, German immigrants seeking land beyond the formal colonization schemes filtered into this stretch of the Colorado River country near Cat Spring. Two focal points grew up: Mentz, whose predominantly Roman Catholic settlers named it for their homeland and founded St. Roch parish by 1858, and Bernardo, a community on the prairie route from Houston to the interior. Once distinct, the two settlements merged into a shared German-flavored rural life still carried on by descendants.
Why it matters
The Mentz-Bernardo community reflects the deep imprint of German immigration on the Texas landscape, where church, language, and farming traditions from the Old World took lasting root.
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Related events
- · German immigration to Texas
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Town of Cat Spring
Schlopata, TX
Cat Spring was founded in 1832 by members of the Amsler, Kleberg, and Von Roeder families, among the earliest German immigrants to settle in what was then Mexican Texas. Their arrival marked the beginning of a wave of German migration that would leave a lasting imprint on the region. The community became a nucleus of German culture in Austin County.
Frelsburg
Frelsburg, TX
Frelsburg was the first German settlement in Colorado County, founded in 1837 by William Frels, who had come to Texas in 1834 and fought in its war for independence. The little colony was chosen as the proposed home of Hermann University, the first German-sponsored institution of higher learning in Texas, chartered by the Republic in 1844 though never actually built. Frelsburg endures as a landmark of early German settlement on the Texas frontier.
Star Hill Cemetery
Industry, TX
Bryan Daughtrey, a veteran of the War of 1812, came to Texas in 1822 as part of Stephen F. Austin's Second Colony and settled here in present Austin County. When his wife Anna died in 1847 he buried her on this spot, beginning a cemetery later used by the German Sternenberg family who bought the land. The community, its burial ground, and a school that ran until 1928 all took the name Star Hill—the English translation of Sternenberg—and descendants of those pioneer families still tend the graves.
Charles Fordtran
Industry, TX
Charles Fordtran, a German of Huguenot descent, joined Stephen F. Austin's colony in January 1831 and earned a league of land surveying for Austin's partner Samuel May Williams. He fought in frontier clashes, rode with the "Spy Rangers" protecting fleeing families during the Texas Revolution, and raised fourteen children on his land near Industry. Arriving well before the great wave of German immigration, he was among the first Teutonic settlers in Texas.