Mission Valley School
New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas
Marker Inscription
German settlers established the Mission Valley community, named for an earlier Spanish mission, in the mid-1840s. Area families educated their children in their homes before brothers Karl and Julius Brehmer donated land for the first community school in 1870. Trustees built a frame schoolhouse, and in 1884 a larger limestone school was built on land acquired from Friedrich and Emilie Heidrich; the frame school then became a teacherage. New Braunfels Independent School District annexed Mission Valley in 1952. Since that time this site, which includes the historic frame and stone schoolhouses, stone cisterns and other features, has served as a community center. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2009
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
German settlers founded the Mission Valley community in the mid-1840s, naming it for an earlier Spanish mission, and at first taught their children at home. In 1870 two brothers donated land for the first community school, and in 1884 a sturdier limestone schoolhouse rose nearby. Long after the district was absorbed by New Braunfels in 1952, the site—with its frame and stone schoolhouses and stone cisterns—has served as a community center.
Why it matters
The schools trace how German immigrant families in the Texas Hill Country built lasting institutions of learning and community in their new homeland.
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Related people
- · Karl Brehmer
- · Julius Brehmer
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Carl Heinrich Guenther
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Born in Prussia in 1821, Carl Heinrich Guenther immigrated to Texas in 1845 and became a pillar of New Braunfels — one of its first public school teachers and a leader of the German singing societies. In 1854 he presided over a statewide Saengerfest that adopted an anti-slavery platform, an unpopular stance in Texas; though he shared those leanings, he later joined the Confederacy as a captain. After his death his widow Margarethe carried on the family brewing business.
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Promised schools by the society that sponsored their emigration, the German settlers of New Braunfels hired their first teacher in 1845, the year classes began. When the state retracted support for local school districts in 1856, the city persuaded the legislature to create the New Braunfels Academy in 1858, funding it through a local property tax and tuition—making it one of Texas's first tax-supported schools. It taught in both German and English until the state built a public system in 1871.
Jacobs Creek School Teacherage
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Settlers in Comal County started Jacobs Creek School in 1867, leasing land for a dollar, and teacher Carl Pantermuehl soon built a teacher's residence beside it. The 1½-story cabin is a fine example of German vernacular building—hand-hewn Ashe juniper joined in half-timbered fachwerk, with limestone and brick worked in. After a newer school opened nearby, the schoolhouse was razed but the teacherage lived on as a home.
Altwein Family
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