Site of Town of New Ulm
New Ulm, Austin County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Site of the town of New Ulm. First known as Duff's Settlement in honor of James C. Duff to whom the land was granted in 1841. Settled by Germans after 1845 and renamed in honor of the German city of Ulm. (1936)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
This site marks the town of New Ulm, first known as Duff's Settlement after James C. Duff, who received the land grant in 1841. German immigrants began arriving after 1845 and renamed the community in honor of the city of Ulm in their homeland. It became one of the many German settlements that reshaped the cultural map of central Texas.
Why it matters
New Ulm is a small monument to the wave of German immigration that gave central Texas an enduring Old World character still visible in its towns today.
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Related people
- · James C. Duff
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Frnka Family Cemetery
New Ulm, TX
In 1926, Czech immigrants Jan Jindrich Frnka and his wife Cecilie set aside land near New Ulm for a family burial ground and placed it in the care of three trustees. The couple raised thirteen children, and all but one daughter are buried here alongside most of their spouses, beneath obelisks, curbed plots, and grave slabs. The cemetery still serves the family's descendants today.
New Ulm Cemetery
New Ulm, TX
Founded in 1841 as Duff's Settlement for landholder James C. Duff, this Austin County community was renamed New Ulm in 1853 to honor the German city many settlers had left behind. When the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad laid tracks a mile south in 1892, the town center shifted, but the old cemetery—its earliest recorded burial dating to 1853—remained. Among those interred is Josef Lidumil Lesikar, a leader in bringing early Czech settlers to America.
Josef Lidumil Leshikar
New Ulm, TX
Born on the Czech-Moravian border in 1806 and trained as a tailor, Josef Lidumil Leshikar became a voice for political freedom during the revolutions of 1848. In 1853 he led a party of immigrants to the new Czech settlements of Austin County, Texas. A committed opponent of slavery, he used Czech and American newspapers to argue against secession and civil war even as his adopted state marched the other way.
Mary Theresa Juergens
New Ulm, TX
German immigrants Conrad and Mary Theresa Juergens reached Texas in 1833 and built a cabin near this site. When the Texas Revolution sent settlers fleeing in the 1836 Runaway Scrape, the family stayed — and was raided by Karankawa people. Conrad was wounded and the pregnant Mary was carried off with two stepsons; she bore a daughter, Jane Margret, in captivity before mother and child were ransomed at a Red River trading post. Mary later remarried and died in Ohio in 1891.