Rausch Ranch Home
Fredericksburg, Gillespie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In 1856 Nicolaus Gerhard (1810-1894), a German immigrant, bought this land, where he lived with his son Michael in a log cabin. In 1866 Nicolaus had local German stonemasons build this house, using rocks found in a nearby pasture. Michael Gerhard sold the home in 1904 to skilled stonemason Robert Rausch and his wife Bertha. The house served as headquarters for the Rausch family ranch until 1976, when the property was sold. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1983 Incise on base: Purchased and restored by Ronald and Karen Herrmann
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
German immigrant Nicolaus Gerhard bought this land in 1856 and lived with his son Michael in a log cabin until local German stonemasons built this sturdy house from field rock in 1866. Michael sold the place in 1904 to another skilled stonemason, Robert Rausch, whose family kept it as headquarters for their ranch until 1976. The house's hand-cut stone walls reflect the building traditions the Hill Country's German settlers carried from the old country. Restored in the twentieth century, it endures as a monument to frontier craftsmanship.
Why it matters
The house embodies the distinctive German stonemasonry that defines the Texas Hill Country's built heritage. Its long service as a ranch headquarters ties immigrant settlement to the enduring cattle economy of the region.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Nicolaus Gerhard
- · Michael Gerhard
- · Robert Rausch
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ferdinand Hohenberger Farmstead
Comfort, TX
Ferdinand Hohenberger and his wife Katherine Schultze left Bremen in 1855, endured a 73-day Atlantic crossing to Galveston, and first settled among the German colonists near Luckenbach. In 1871 the family bought this land in the Hill Country, farming it while Ferdinand also hauled freight along the hard road between San Antonio and the coastal port of Indianola. He deeded farms to his sons in 1882, and the property stayed in the family for decades, its quiet graves marking generations of Hohenbergers.
Ressmann-Boos House
Fredericksburg, TX
This Fredericksburg home is a small chronicle of frontier building written in its own walls. The oldest section, from about 1845, is fachwerk — the timber-and-infill method German immigrants carried to the Texas Hill Country — while later additions in log and clapboard frame show how families adapted with what they had. The Ressmanns bought it in 1866 and the Boos family held it into the 1970s, more than a century in the hands of two settler households.
Gillespie County
Fredericksburg, TX
Once crossed by the trails of roving Indian peoples, these Hill Country lands were settled by German immigrant pioneers in 1846, with a group of Mormons founding Zodiac the next year. The county was created and organized in 1848 and named for Richard Addison Gillespie, a Texas frontier defender and Mexican War captain who was killed at the Battle of Monterrey in 1846. Fredericksburg became its seat.
Market Square (Mark Platz)
Fredericksburg, TX
From Fredericksburg's founding in 1846, Market Square—Marktplatz to the German settlers—stood at the town's center, then still ringed by heavy forest. The octagonal Vereins Kirche rose the next year in the middle of Main Street, serving at once as church, school, meeting hall, and a refuge in case of raids, while a jail and public schoolhouse followed in the 1850s. Rebuilt in the 1930s as a pioneer memorial, the church became the county's first museum and library, and the square remains the community's gathering place.