The community is invited to participate in this year’s Founders Day Festival honoring John O. Meusebach and the founding families of Fredericksburg who courageously migrated from Germany and settled here, establishing the city of Fredericksburg. A wreath-laying at the Vereins Kirche at the Marktplatz, located on the 100 block of W. Main Street, will be held at 9:30 a.m. this Saturda immediately followed by a Founder’s Festival at the Pioneer Museum grounds at 325 W. Main St. Refreshments and living history exhibits will be available. The grounds will be open for free from 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Come see re-enactors and historical performances, and participate in hands-on activities and games while enjoying the live music. For information, call 830-997-2835.

Commandancy of the Alamo
Bexar, Feby. 24th 1836

To the People of Texas & all Americans in the world –

Fellow citizens & compatriots –

I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna –

I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man –

The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken –

I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls –

I shall never surrender or retreat.

Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch –

The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country –

Victory or Death.

William Barret Travis
Lt. Col. Comdt.

P.S. The Lord is on our side — When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn — We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels & got into the walls 20 or 30 heads of Beeves.
Travis

Fredericksburg based Former Texas Ranger Foundation has partnered with the Gillespie County Historical Society and the Texas Heritage Music Foundation of Kerrville, to produce “Texas History Day”, a truly unique event that will be presented at the Pioneer Museum, 325 West Main Street, in Fredericksburg on Saturday, March 16, 2013. The event is scheduled during Spring Break as an outreach program aimed at the youth of Texas to present messages of Texas History and Texas Values.

Daytime programming will focus on character education by presenting the Five Character Traits of the Texas Ranger (courage – determination – dedication – integrity – respect), while being wrapped in the theme of Frontier Texas, through presentations of song, storytelling, magic and field reenactments. An estimated 2,000 – 2,500 people are expected for the outdoor staging portion of the event from 10:00 AM through 5:00 PM, and will culminate that evening with a catered dinner and concert by award- winning Texas author and singer Mike Blakely. Seating for the evening dinner and concert is limited to 200 patrons.

Admission for the daytime activities is $5 for adults, $3 for children age 7 to 17, and children under 7 are free. The evening dinner show is $40. All proceeds will benefit the Pioneer Museum and Texas Heritage Music Foundation.

Make plans to attend this family oriented, entertaining yet educational event …………
WHERE TEXAS HISTORY and TEXAS VALUES COME TOGETHER for TEXAS YOUTH.

For tickets and information contact Evelyn Weinheimer, Event Coordinator, at the Pioneer Museum (830) 990-8441.

Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park will celebrate the 104th anniversary of President Johnson’s birth on Monday, August 27. Each year the sitting president sends military representatives to lay a wreath at President Johnson’s grave. This year Brig. General Theresa C. Carter, Commander, 502nd Air Base Wing and Joint Base San Antonio will lead the military contingent. There will be special music performed by Yvonne Campos of San Antonio, a member of the Hill Country Bicycle Touring Club. Our special guest speaker will be Nolan Oldham, who recently graduated from the University of Texas with degrees in history and government. Upon accepting the invitation Oldham stated, “I am grateful to be invited to the remembrance of President Johnson’s life and the historic time during which he served.”

Following the ceremony which begins at 10:00 a.m. at the Johnson Family Cemetery, visitors are invited to drive the LBJ Ranch, and take a tour of the Texas White House. No fee will be charged for the tour on August 27 in honor of President Johnson’s birthday.

For more information on this and other park events, view  or call (830) 868-7128, ext. 222.

The Wings of Freedom Tour brings historic aviation to your community. See – hear – touch and even ride in one of the aircraft that changed the world. Included in the tour will be a B-17, B-24, P-51 and a Huey Helicopter. Aircraft will be on display and fly from the Gillespie County Airport, 191 Airport Rd. off Hwy 16 S.

It was 176 years ago today that Texas declared her independence from Mexico.  Just four days later, the Alamo would fall.  Here’s an interesting timeline of the Texas Revolution.  And here’s a history of the State Flag of Texas.  Celebrate by drinking a Texas beer.

Karl Itz and Ludwig Evers, Karl’s brother-in-law, acquired the land from Peter Itz in 1867. When the three lots were partitioned, Ludwig took the corner lot. While Ludwig farmed and ranched in the northwestern part of the county, they moved into town in their old age and settled in the little log and rock house which was adjacent to this place. The floorplan of this building was fairly simple. Downstairs there was one large room, with a thick stone wall dividing it from the smaller back room. Underneath is a large cellar. At one time the steps led up along the east wall on the inside of the building, but these have been removed and an outside stairway put in their place. The upstairs was originally one large room, which was later divided with frame partitions. When the building was renovated, the rock walls in the front were knocked out and the show windows and additional upstairs windows were added. At one time the John Knopp family lived upstairs and he operated a saloon downstairs, selling groceries and some staples. During these years this place also figured in the “beer war.” At the time Frederick Probst was brewing beer on the street behind here and it was selling for 10 cents a glass all over town. Knopp sold Pearl Beer from San Antonio and sold it for 5 cents a glass. Probst closed his brewery a few years afterward. Later a doctor, feeling that goat’s milk would cure most people’s ills occupied the building and kept a lot of goats here to supply the demand. He shortly went out of business. The building has housed a dentist office, a millinery store run by Mrs. Louis Henke, Otto Schneider’s grocery store, Walter Knopp’s grocery store, Haversack Wines, W-K Electric, and now David’s Pit Barbecue.

Carved in the limestone rock above the doorway of the old William C. Henke home is “1886,” the year this house was built. The townlot was originally granted to P. Friess, and the next townlot to the west was granted to Peter Behrens, who later acquired the corner lot. He sold it to Julius Splittgerber, who took out a mortgage from Sophie Spaeth. They defaulted and the land passed into the Spaeth’s hands. Sophie’s husband, Ludwig, was killed by Indians in 1870 at age 39 while working in the fields on his place near Enchanted Rock. Sophie sold the corner lot to William Henke, son of Heinrich Henke who ran a meat market on Main and Llano Streets. William founded the Uptown Henke Meat Market. (William’s sister, Anna, was Admiral Chester W. Nimitz’s mother.) William ran his market from the front porch, originally. The butchering was done at different locations around town and the finsihed products were sold here. The porch was enclosed with Laden, or shutters, that made the porch an ideal spot to sell meat. Henke later added a frame structure over a back cellar and moved the shop into it. When he passed away, his children built the concrete building next door and that became the butcher shop, which closed in 1949. While the Henke’s lived here, the parents slept in at the back of the south side of the building, and their 10 children used the three rooms upstairs.

This house was built in the 1860s or early 1870s as a rent house. It was built on property originally granted to Conrad Kolmeier, whose grandson Otto married Dorothea Crenwelge who lived next door. Wilhelm Crenwelge bought the property in 1856 and it stayed in the family until 1960. The property was bought by Erwin Kraus in 1963. The house is still being rented out.

John Schmidt built a log cabin to the west of the house site in 1850 that has been torn down, then sold it to Jacob Schneider in 1852. In 1860, Schneider, by this time blind, sold the property to Wilhelm Crenwelge. And his heirs lived in this house until the mid-1950s. Wilhelm Crenwelge lived in the log and rock house next door while his parents used the bigger house after it was finished. He and his father were wheelwrights and conducted their business here. The Crenwelges raised a large family on the property.

By the 1930s, Erwin and Paul Kraus who used the building for storing Coca-Cola and Pearl Beer. They ran their business from the building on the corner. They sold the property to Mary Crenwelge, no relation to the previous Crenwelge owners, in 1966, who conveyed it to her son Milton in 1972.