Site of The Andreas Lindig Lime Kiln
Stonewall, Gillespie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
First kiln, eastern Gillespie County. Built 1874 by Andreas Lindig, trained in his native Germany in quicklime making. On his homestead, he found rock to be hauled to this site by ox-wagon, using 7 loads of rock for each "batch" of lime. Post oak wood, burned in a cooking bed, produced high heat which produced the lime. Besides that for his own use, he made lime commercially for neighbors. Lindig's home (built 1874, about .5 mi. S) shows endurance of cement made from his lime. So does the 1963-1969 "Texas White House," built nearby in 1897 by Willie Meier. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1970 Incise in base: Erected by Otto Lindig (age 86) and Lydia Lindig Bohls (age 60)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Andreas Lindig learned the exacting craft of quicklime making in his native Germany before carrying it to the Texas Hill Country, where in 1874 he built the first kiln in eastern Gillespie County. Burning post oak in a cooking bed to reach the fierce heat needed to convert local rock into lime—seven ox-wagon loads for every batch—he supplied both his own building needs and those of his German-settler neighbors. The durable cement made from his lime still shows in his 1874 home nearby.
Why it matters
Small backcountry kilns like Lindig's supplied the mortar and plaster that literally held frontier communities together, a reminder of how immigrant skills built the rural American landscape.
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Related people
- · Andreas Lindig
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Andreas and Frederike Lindig Farmstead
Stonewall, TX
German immigrants Andreas and Frederike Lindig reached Texas in 1869 and by 1874 had established a 448-acre farmstead of house, summer kitchen, barn, well, and commercial lime kiln in the Hill Country near Stonewall. Andreas built a log farmhouse from native post oak, added limestone shed rooms, and raised cash crops of peanuts, sweet potatoes, and cotton while his sons built homes nearby. The family held the land until 1980, and the founders rest in a nearby family cemetery.
Maier-Alberthal Building
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Built around 1860, this sturdy German vernacular stone building was acquired in 1866 by Anton Maier, a native German who became a Fredericksburg merchant and held several Gillespie County offices. He passed it to his son-in-law August Alberthal, and over the decades the building served as a grocery, a soda water factory, an auto repair shop, and even a mission congregation's place of worship. Its thick stone walls reflect the building traditions the town's German settlers brought with them.
The Schandua Building
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Built in 1897 of hand-hewn limestone, this Fredericksburg building followed the German settlers' practical custom of home over shop: the Schandua family lived upstairs while John ran his hardware store below, and for a time the Masonic lodge met on the upper floor in trade for help with construction costs. After John's death his brother Henry married his widow, enlarged the building, and carried on the business. Hardware was sold here until 1972.
Old Central Drugstore
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Swiss-born jeweler and watchmaker Alphons Walter raised this two-story building in the heart of Fredericksburg in 1905, then sold it in 1909 to civic leader Robert Striegler, who ran the Central Drugstore on the ground floor. A drugstore would occupy the site for more than 70 years, while the upper floor housed the town's telephone exchange, doctors' offices, and a photographer's studio.