Comall County City of the Prince Part 2

THE CITY OF A PRINCE CONTINUED

The Sophienberg was intended to be a fortification, but it does not appear that it ever had rampart, fosse or redoubt; it was the residence and headquarters of the commissioner-general; here he surrounded himself with state, organizing the departments of government, with his advisory council, his attorney, his secretaries and clerks. He also established a kind of garde d'honncur to his own princely person and formed a military company to keep his mimic realm in safety.

It was too late now in the season to plant and raise a crop, but the colonists did not suffer as yet for any of the necessaries of life. Before they left Germany they were induced to deposit all their ready money with an officer of the society in Bremen, upon the understanding that it was to be returned to them in American money in Texas; but once in Texas, the society was never in funds and it was impossible for the colonists to get their own. The best they could do was to draw provisions against their account, for it does not appear that the society kept its word as to furnishing them free until the immigrants became self-supporting. All that they took for support was charged up to them, and the worst consequences of this pernicious system instituted by the society was that the immigrants did not feel the necessity for work, but lived thoughtlessly and recklessly from day to day. They drew whatever they wanted, and Siemering relates in his manuscripts, that whisky, wines and champagne flowed like water. The great majority dissipated in this way their entire fortunes, which had been left in the company's hands. Those few who were economical fared still worse, for they not only stinted themselves so as not to draw upon the fund deposited in Bremen, trusting to get it back in one sum, but they lost their all; for to this day it has never been returned. While the money lasted the extravagant ones led a gay life. In a small place near the market-house there was continually music and dancing, not only in the evening, but during the day. There the colonists met full of mirth and jollity, and frolicked until late in the night. On the Sophienberg, too, a merry life was led ; there great banquets, enlivened with rare wines, were given, but, it is said, that "at these the grandees made a show of holding high and intellectual converse," not caring for the

common people to know of their carousals. Indeed the life of a common citizen did not suit Prince Solms-Braunfels; he was quite unable to divest himself of his princely character and could not shake off his old habit of ceremonial observances. Military form seemed to govern whatever he did. When he received Indians he appeared in fuil dress uniform ; all his letters and documents were sealed and stamped with his name and arms, which were engraved on the hilt of his sword. To his own people it, presumably, was a matter of course when his Highness went out from his own roof to see him attired in all the glory of uniform and orders, and attended by his garde of young cavaliers; but to the practical eye of the American pioneer all this pomp and circumstance contrasted with the primitive huts of the settlers, and the rough and new surroundings must have seemed entirely out of keeping and farcical in the extreme.

The affairs of the colony were administered by the Prince as commissioner-general, with the help of an advisory council who were appointed by the society in Europe. Of these Fisher filled the position of secretary and stood at their head as representing such large personal interests, though as yet not one soul had settled on his land grant, and this in spite of the large accessions to their numbers which had been received by the colonists in June, 1845. The other members of the board were Dr. Theodore Koester, the medical director; Louis Cachand Ervenberg, the pastor of the colony, and the surveyor, whose name seems to have been forgotten. Each member had one vote, but the Prince had two. The first meeting of the council was held under a large oak in the lovely park of the Comal Springs. The tree was then crowned with verdure, and the gushing, sparkling water sang its song to the luxuriant caladiums which grew along its margin. Here the German girls came to fill their buckets, which they carried suspended from each end of a yoke which lay across the neck. These they still use, and very picturesque and un-American do the girls look in their straight skirts and short bodices.

The lands of the society, purchased from Fisher and Miller, still remained unexplored. The conditions attending the perfecting of the title were well known to the management, and they were urgent that some effort should be made towards colonization. The Prince wrote, telling them of the true situation ; that all plans for the immediate settling of their grant would have to be abandoned, as that country was in the possession of numerous tribes of Indians, and so far removed from all white habitation as to make it totally unavailable. But he submitted to them a plan upon which he had. resolved ; namely, to push on from New Braunfels towards the San Saba, establishing stations as he went. These would be magazines of supplies and furnish aid to the pioneers in case of danger. This project seemed feasible and met with the approbation of the society, but it was never put into practice. The Prince was not quick to execute and he did not seem to have much forethought. As long as there was a sufficiency of provisions for his settlers he was content. He thought he had performed his full duty when he supplied their present bodily wants ; the future troubled him not at all. The only thing which rendered him uneasy was the increasing talk about annexation to the United States. If this should actually occur it would be a death blow to all their schemes. The tactics of England would have miscarried, the German princes be deprived of a goodly revenue, and his own return to Germany be necessitated. Unfortunately for his ambition, his worst fears were realized. The day came at last upon which the people of Texas were to vote for or against annexation. The Prince was confident that the settlers would, to a man, vote against it. So certain was he that on the day of election he had the black and yellow flag hoisted over the Sophienberg ; but the result was contrary to his desires and expectations. He saw with chagrin that his countrymen rebelled against him, for with shouts and acclamations they ran up the stars and stripes over the marketplace. So great was the mortification of Prince Solms that he at once began to speak of resigning, and shortly after bade farewell to America and returned to Germany.

The short period of the Prince's regime simply served to establish the colonists on their land. They had so far lived without work and did not seem to realize the long and fierce struggle before them. Subsequent immigration had swelled their numbers to goodly proportions ; the newcomers had been given town lots and farms, and all were provided by the company with rations of beef and other provisions, also with wagons and farming implements from the magazines. Working steers were sold them on credit. The officers of the society owned milch cows, but the first bought by a colonist was purchased in Bastrop in the fall of 1845.

With the Indians Prince Solms had made treaties of friendship when he purchased the land, and these were strengthened and perpetuated by the invariably kind treatment shown them by all the society's officers. Still there were no cases of intermarriage or amalgamation, such as have invariably occurred in the settlements made by the Latin races. The country swarmed with savages, but with the exception that they occasionally killed cattle and stole horses, they did not molest the colonists. Only once, in October, 1845, did they take life ; then they surprised the camp of two brave men of New Braunfels, who were on their return from Austin, and murdered them ruthlessly. However, that little slip did not seem to count; their death went unavenged and friendly relations remained uninterrupted, which, after all, was the wisest way. Whether the Indians were really won over by kindness or stood in wholesome dread of the artillery and rifles of the colonists, certain it is that they ever afterwards maintained a peaceful attitude towards them, and even when at war with the rest of Texas, if they took a captive with blue eyes and fair hair they would say " Allemand" and spare his life. The Sophienberg was once the scene of a magnificent banquet given by the Prince to the Comanche chief Santa Ana. The German officers were in all the glory of uniforms and orders ; the Indian warriors in full array of paint and feathers and buckskin trappings. The delicate wines of Europe tickled their unaccustomed palates, and the feast broke up leaving the savage participants in a state of great good humor and inebriation.

At the time of the settlement of New Braunfels there was employed in the general court of justice at Potsdam, a very capable young man, who did not think that Germany offered sufficient scope for his talents. He was descended from a peasant who had befriended Charles XII. of Sweden. After the battle of Pultowa this monarch fled to Turkey, taking refuge in Bender. The Sultan became suspicious of him and he was taken to Adrianople, from whence he escaped on horseback and rode until he came to Pomerania, where this peasant, Meusebach, furnished him with money and means to return to Sweden. In gratitude for this Charles knighted him, making him a baron. His young descendant wished to emigrate to Texas, which he believed to be the land of the future. The society, in sore perplexity over the resignation and return of Prince Solms-Braunfels, hoped to find in Meusebach an able servant artd a fit successor to the Prince. They thought him to be the right man for the undertaking and offered him the post of commissioner-general of New Braunfels. The Baron accepted the position and started without delay for his new field of activity. He was undoubtedly possessed of the very best intentions and believed he could regulate in a satisfactory manner the affairs of the society, as well as those of the settlers. He took with him to Texas large sums of money, and was strong in his determination so to do all that was fair and just for the immigrants; but he little knew the difficulties which he was to encounter.

After Prince Solms' departure and the failure of the plans of Great Britain, the effect was very noticeable in the subsequent policy pursued. English money being no longer paid to the German princes, they cut short the supplies of the colonists. Large numbers of emigrants came over in the fall of 1845, but no money was sent with them, and the stores of the society were being rapidly depleted. Their beef cattle were all consumed, and, as no crops were made that year, the prospects for the winter and ensuing spring were dismal. Solms-Braunfels had left everything in a chaotic state. Meusebach had business capacity, perseverance and personal courage, but he lacked knowledge of the country and of the people to whom he intended to devote his talents and energy. He found things very different from what he had expected, and indeed in a most deplorable condition. Everywhere difficulties confronted him, which neither his energy nor his means sufficed to overcome. The settlers were clamorous for the money which they had deposited with the society in Germany. Meusebach could not give it to them, having none at his command for such a purpose ; he could only promise and determine to do his best to induce the management to refund them their means.

The first thing to which he devoted himself was providing provisions— for bitter want stared them in the face, and now commenced the serious hardships of the colony. Fisher was sent to New Orleans to arrange about supplies, but utterly failed to establish a credit there. This was due to a lack of contributions from the members of the society. When the officers of the colony asked for a hundred thousand dollars to properly care for and establish the immigrants under their care, they received but twenty-five thousand, and were told to make a full report before they could draw more. The report made, they were still put off, and in the meantime the society was sending men—always men, but neither money nor food; indeed it was virtually bankrupt when Meusebach took charge. The settlers had to endure great privations, and much suffering would have ensued had it not been for the Texas Rangers under Captain Jack Hays. They had ever taken a kindly interest in the colonists, and now came promptly to their assistance, not only lending them money, but standing their security with the merchants of Bastrop so as to enable them to procure the necessaries of life. To this day the people of New Braunfels speak of the command with gratitude, and mention the names of Hays, McCollough, Highsmith, and Burleson, with love and admiration.

Yet the colonists did not seem to realize their situation. They were so accustomed to depend upon the society and its officers for everything, that they took life so easy as to amount to license. Strange scenes, indeed, were enacted upon the virgin soil of the lovely valley where the springs of the Comal pour their waters into the Guadalupe ; German barons, scholars and philosophers, and thousands of the German people, hard working and sober no longer, but become utterly demoralized by the new life upon which they had entered.

Things grew from bad to worse. Various diseases broke out, resulting chiefly from the want of vegetable food ; yet the people took little thought of labor, but led wild and dissolute lives. Siemering relates in his manuscripts that all family ties seemed to be loosened, the married men even exchanging wives. They danced and drank, and seemed as if trying to drown their despair in hilarity, and by engaging in a whirl of dissipation endeavored to blind themselves to the troubles of their situation.

In the midst of this Van Meusebach was notified by the society that there were more emigrants coining with a view to settling the society lands. This only added to the embarrassment of his position. New Braunfels was at that time situated on the Indian frontier, and between that colony and the land grant purchased from Fisher (the nearest point of which was distant 125 miles) the Indians were in undisputed possession, and not a white settler had dared to locate in such wild territory. No officer of the society even knew where the colonial lands were situated, and they were as ignorant of their quality and value. It had now become important to find out about this territory, and, if possible, clear a way to it; for the time allowed by the republic for the settlement of the first two hundred families was fast expiring, and the interests of the society were threatened with loss. Under such circumstances it behooved the Baron to be up and doing; he therefore determined on carrying out Prince Solms' plan of establishing a way station from whence they could operate on the north. He equipped an expedition for that purpose and set out on that journey. Eighty miles north-west of New Braunfels, and six miles from the little river, Perdinales, Meusebach secured a body of land in the centre of which he founded a new colony, calling it Fredricksburg, in honor of Prince Frederick of Prussia.