Theis (Theiss) Family
Spring, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Among the first German settlers in northwest Harris County was Johann Heinrich Theis (b. 1800), who arrived in 1846 with his wife Katherina (Benner) (b. 1804) and their four children. The following year, Johann acquired 200 acres of land in the Rosehill community, where the Theis family joined other German settlers in organizing the Salem Lutheran Church. In 1854 Johann and Katherina's oldest son Jacob purchased 557 acres nearby, and settled among other German immigrants in what later was known as the Klein community. In the 1890s some confusion developed in mail delivery to the Theis families in the Rosehill and Klein communities. As a result, Theis family members in Rosehill came to spell their name with a single "S," and those at Klein with a double "S." Buried in this cemetery at the edge of Jacob Theis' original acreage are Johann Heinrich and Katherina Theis and their son Christian. Although the graveyard is small and the tombstones are missing, the site is a memorial to these early German immigrants. In the family tradition of community involvement and leadership, several descendants have served as trustees of the Klein Independent School District.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Johann Heinrich Theis was among the first German settlers in northwest Harris County, arriving in 1846 with his wife and children and soon helping organize the Salem Lutheran Church. His son Jacob bought hundreds of acres in what became the Klein community, and when mail kept getting confused between the two settlements, the families split their spelling—one "S" at Rosehill, two at Klein. The founders lie in this small cemetery at the edge of Jacob's original land.
Why it matters
The Theis family embodies the German immigration that settled and named much of the Houston hinterland, leaving churches, schools, and community leadership behind.
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Related people
- · Johann Heinrich Theis
- · Jacob Theis
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Wunderlich Farm
Klein, TX
J. Peter Wunderlich left Germany for Texas in 1852, married Maria Hofius, and in 1854 bought 120 acres in the German farming settlement of Klein in north Harris County. He was killed in 1864 while working at a gunpowder mill during the Civil War, but his sons carried on the farm; son Peter built this house in 1891 for his bride Sophie Krimmel, expanding it from four rooms to eight. Wunderlich family members lived here until 1995.
Catherine Wunderlich
Klein, TX
Catherine Hofius immigrated from Prussia in 1852 at age 21, settling among the many German families of this part of Harris County and marrying Peter Wunderlich soon after. Widowed in 1864 when Peter died in a gunpowder-mill accident, she managed the family farm alone, raised six young children, bought more land in 1866, and added sheep and cattle to the operation. A founding member of Trinity Lutheran Church, she lived in the Klein community until her death in 1904.
The Klein Community
Klein, TX
German immigrants settled along Cypress Creek beginning in 1845, and the farming community that grew there took the name of Adam Klein, who left Germany in 1849, joined the California gold rush, and then farmed here from 1854. Families raised cotton, potatoes, and corn, hauling produce on two-day wagon trips to Houston, and centered their life on Trinity Lutheran Church, organized in 1874. Though never incorporated, Klein became the nucleus of a school district that endures today.
Trinity Lutheran Church Cemetery
Klein, TX
German immigrants settled this corner of Harris County in the 1840s, in a community later renamed for pioneer Adam Klein. The cemetery began in tragedy: a diphtheria epidemic in 1872 took several children, first buried beneath an oak on the Kaiser farm, and in 1875 the family deeded the plot to Trinity Lutheran Church. Many of its German-inscribed stones mark the graves of the settlement's founders.