Nicholas Bluntzer
Banquete, Nueces County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(October 29, 1835-September 5, 1901) A native of the French province of Alsace, Nicholas Bluntzer came to Texas at age nine with his parents and other Alsatian families led by colonizer Henri Castro. The Bluntzer family settled in DeWitt County, in an area along Coleto Creek which would become the town of Meyersville. In 1856-57 Bluntzer served as a scout in a punitive expedition led by Col. Robert E. Lee against Comanche Indians in West Texas. In 1858 he married Justina Peters. Later, as a member of the Confederate army, he participated in the last battle of the Civil War at Palmito Ranch in May 1865. After the war Bluntzer became an influential rancher, acquiring large tracts of land in Nueces and other counties. He also invested in Corpus Christi real estate. He established a large cotton-growing operation near this site in the 1890s. A settlement grew up in the area and was named Bluntzer. Upon his death in 1901, he was buried in a San Patricio Cemetery. The Bluntzer home not far from this site remained in the family until 1961, when it was bequeathed to the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament. Nicholas Bluntzer was posthumously inducted into the South Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1967. (1967)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Born in 1835 in Alsace, Nicholas Bluntzer came to Texas at nine with the Alsatian families led by empresario Henri Castro. He rode as a scout on Robert E. Lee's 1856–57 expedition against the Comanche, fought for the Confederacy at Palmito Ranch—the war's last battle—in 1865, and afterward became an influential South Texas rancher and cotton grower, lending his name to the settlement of Bluntzer.
Why it matters
Bluntzer's life threads together immigrant colonization, frontier military service, and the cattle-and-cotton empires that built South Texas after the Civil War.
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Related people
- · Nicholas Bluntzer
- · Henri Castro
- · Col. Robert E. Lee
- · Justina Peters
Related events
- · Battle of Palmito Ranch (1865)
Themes & tags
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