USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. 2 > Part 15
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himself as a volunteer soldier by contesting for and winning a gold medal, offered by the Belknap Rifles, of San Antonio, to the best Adjutant. Mr. Call's sueeess in life has been due to honesty, industry, close application to business and an ad- herence to the principles instilled into his mind and heart at his mother's knees.
Ile has long been a prominent man in his town and. section of the State, has aided with princely lib- erality every worthy enterprise, has helped the poor and needy and been a friend to the friendless, is beloved and honored by all who know him and is in every respect a model citizen and representa- tive Texian. Ilis parents were D. Call, Sr., and Mrs. Marian (Jordan ) Call.
D. Call, Sr., was born in Ireland in 1825 and was a merchant and banker - the first inerehant of any note in the city of Orange, commeneing busi- ness in 1815. He was a heavy loser by the war between the States, but after the close of hostili- ties resumed business, soou receiving merchandise from New Orleans by the schooner load. During the war period he eame very near losing his life in the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Yueatan. The vessel in which he was a passenger was caught in a terrible storm, during the progress of which he was washed overboard. Although incumbered with a heavy overcoat and a large money belt filled with gold eoin, he succeeded in maintaining himself afloat for three-quarters of an hour, until rescued by the ship's bosts. A man less vigorous, less coura- geous orcool would have inevitably perished. He was a man of singular firmness of character and bravery of spirit. These traits were dignified and adorned by a sweetness of temper, kindliness and true Christian charity that endeared him to all with whom he eame in contact. He was a member of Madison Lodge No. 126 and Orange Chapter No. 78, A. F. & A. M., and was one of the original signers of the charter for the chapter.
He was married in 1852 to Miss Marian Jordan, born in Alabama in 1836 and a daughter of Josiah Jordan, who came to Texas in 1843, and was for many years a prominent citizen of Orange. Seven children were born to them, three of whom are still living, viz: D. Call, Jr., a merchant at Orange ; George; and Lema Call, now the wife of J. A. Robinson, of Orange.
One daughter, Eliza, died at Boerne, Texas, March 17, 1895. She was born February 3, 1865. and graduated from Ward's Seminary, at Nashville, Tenn., in 1885. Soon after returning home from the institution of learning she went to the Boston ( Mass. ) Conservatory of Music, where she com- pleted her musical education.
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While at Boston she contracted a severe eold which led to her death. She married Charles Hag- gerty, of Michigan. Oue daughter, Hildegard, was born of this union. Mrs. Haggerty went to Boerne in the hope of recovering her health. Her remains were brought to Orange for interment. She was a devout member of the Christian Church and a most lovable and estimable lady.
Mrs. Call is still living and, although sixty years of age, does not appear to be over forty-five or fifty. Her hair is yet unsilvered by the snows of age and she is as cheerful, vivacious and enter- taining as any of the younger ladies at social gatherings.
Mr. D. Call, Jr., was united in marriage Febru- ary 28, 1878, to Miss Ella C. Holland, of Brenham, Texas, daughter of Dr. J. A. Holland, a physician of Independence, and alumnus of the University of Virginia. She is a niece of Dr. R. T. Flewellen, of Houston, a gentleman prominent in the political affairs of the State, having represented the district several times in the Legislature.
Mrs. Call completed her education at Baylor College and, after graduation, was elected to a posi- tion as teacher in the faculty and taught in the col- Jege for a number of years. She is an accomplished musician, a charming conversationalist and a great lover of the young people who spend many delight- ful evenings at her palatial and hospitable home. She and Mr. Call are favorite chaperons on sum- mer outings and other similar occasions. A gra- cious and queenly lady, she is beloved by young and old, rich and poor, for herself and for her deeds of sweet charity. In the language of the dear old Southern song, " None knew her, but to love her."
Mr. Call has accumulated a fortune variously estimated at from $150,000 to $200,000.
At the head of a number of important enter- prises, in the full meridian of life and with many years, in the course of nature, yet before him, newer and brighter laurels await him in the field of finance, and he will yet more deeply mark his impress upon the times in which he lives.
GEORGE CALL,
ORANGE.
George Call was born in Orange, Texas, June 16th, 1859; was a pupil at local schools during boyhood and completed his edneation by attending Baylor University, Iudependence, Texas ; Roanoke College, Salem, Va. ; the State Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Bryan, Texas, and Soule Business College, New Orleans, La.
Returning home he was, in 1880, admitted to a partnership in the firm of D. Call & Son. The firm name was thereupon changed to D. Call & Sons, and so continued until after the death of his father, D. Call, Sr., which occurred October 17, 1883. (A short outline of the life of Mr. D. Call, Sr., and of the family's history, occurs in the memoir of D. Call, Jr., that appears elsewhere in this volume.) The business was discontinued in 1891 in order that the assets of the estate might be divided between the legal heirs.
Since that time Mr. George Call has been in
business upon his own account and is now one of the most extensive wholesale dealers in grain and feed-stuffs in the city of Orange.
He was married May 22, 1889, to Miss Eugenia Sells, of Orange, Texas.
Mrs. Call is a most charming lady, possessed of all the qualities that adorn matronhood, and make home the most delightful and sacred spot of earth. She has proven to be a wise counselor to Mr. Call in his extensive business, and therein lies partially the secret of the unusual suceess that has attended his financial ventures.
Mr. Call was a charter member of the Board o Trade, organized in Orange in 1820, was for three years its secretary, and has at all times and in every possible way laboren for the upbuilding of his city and section of the State.
Genial, kindly, hospitable and of high integrity, he has a wide circle of friends throughout the State.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
PAUL HANISCH,
FREDERICKSBURG,
Was born June 4, 1831, on the Isle of Rugen, one of the most pieturesque and beautiful spots on the coast of Germany. After seenring a good literary education, he applied himself for ten years to the study of pharmacy and kindred branches of science, thus thoroughly equipping himself for the business of an apothecary, which he has principally fol- lowed. His father, Rev. Peter Hanisch, was an able and zealous clergyman of the German Lutheran Church.
The subject of this notice, Mr. Paul Hanisch, came to America in 1856 and landed at Indianola,
Texas, on the 6th day of June of that year. He proceeded in ox-teams from Indianola to New Braunfels, San Antonio and Comfort. He remained at the latter place until 1872 and then formed a co- partnership with his pioncer friend, Emil Serger, and opened a drug store in Fredericksburg, where he has since continued in business and has accumu- lated a competency.
December 18, 1878, he was united in marriage to Miss Helen Siedschlag, at Galveston, Texas.
They have three children, two daughters and one son, viz: Helen, Elizabeth. and Frank.
C. H. SUELTENFUSS,
SCHILLER.
C. H. Sueltenfuss, Postmaster at Sehiller, Kendall County, Texas, was born in the Rhine district of Prussia, April 15, 1844.
His father, John A. Sueltenfuss, eame to the United States in 1818; engaged in farming at Schemannsville, near New Braunfels, Texas, for one year and then located near San Antonio, where he died in 1869, at sixty-two years of age, leaving eight children.
C. H. Sueltenfuss, the eldest of the six children of this family now living, reached Texas from Ger- many on the first day of January, 1860; worked for his father until 1863; went to Mexico; clerked in a store for a while, and then enlisted at Browns- ville in Company C., First Regiment of Texas Rang-
ers, commanded by Col. Jaek Hays, with which he served for two years, when he was honorably dis- charged at San Antonio at the close of the war.
In 1867, he located on his present home farm consisting of 3,000 aeres of good farming and grazing land at Schiller, in Kendall County, and the following year married Miss Anna Voelcker, daughter of Eugene Vocleker, an early pioneer of Comal County, now residing at New Braunfels. They have nine children living: Panl, Charles, Clara, Bruno, Emil, Mary, Louise, Alfred, and Franz.
Mr. Sueltenfuss is a member of the Republican party. He was appointed Postmaster at Schiller in 1883.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JULIUS VOELCKER,
NEW BRAUNFELS,
Was a native of Germany and was born near the shores of the Baltic Sea, March 2d, 1821. He studied at Potsdam and Berlin, perfected himself as an apothecary and was employed as such in various establishments in the latter city ; came to Texas as a colonist in 1846, received his apportion- ment of land at New Braunfels; became a promi- nent member of that thrifty community, engaged first in farming and then, in 1868, in the drug business in the town of New Braunfels, in which he continued until his death. Here in this beautiful town he married Miss Louise Korbach, daughter of David Korbach, deccased. Six children were born to them, four of whom are living: Frank, the old- est, now the San Antonio agent for the Southern Pacific Ry. Co. ; Rudolph, a druggist at Temple, Texas; Bruno E., a leading druggist at New Braunfels, and Emil, a furniture dealer at New
Braunfels. A daughter, Emme, died in 1874; another child, Otto, died in 1866.
Julius Voelcker was an esteemed citizen and an active and enterprising business man. He held the office of Justice of the Peace at various times, and, at the time of his death, which occurred in 1878, was Mayor of the city of New Braunfels. Bruno E. Vocleker was born in New Braunfels, June 4, 1857, schooled in his home town, he studied chemistry under his father and became an apothecary. He later went to New Orleans, where he clerked in various establishments, until the death of his father. He then returned home and assumed charge of the business he new owns and conducts. He owns the handsome business block he occupies, besides other valuable property. He married Miss Mary Brecher, a daughter of Jacob Brecher, deceased, of New Braunfels. They have three children living : Emma, Edwin, and Julius.
EMIL SERGER,
COMFORT,
Well-known throughout the western part of Central Texas as a pioneer farmer, came to America January 4th, 1856, landed in New York, and proceeded from that city by water direct to Galveston, and from Galveston, via Indianola, New Braunfels, and San Antonio, to Comfort, where he now resides. Mr. Serger is a native of Prussia, where he was born March 27, 1831. Early in life be was ap- prenticed to learn the trade of millwright. Ile also studied architecture, in which he became pro- ficient, but left his native country before securing a diploma as an architect. In Texas he followed the millwright's trade, and engaged more or less in farming. Upon reaching Comfort, he located on a spot where his typical old-time, yet comfortable, liome now stands, and where he has since con- tinuously lived. When he first visited it, it was covered with the tepes of Comanche Indians, but they soon quietly moved on to give way to the aggressive pioneer settlement. Mr. Serger here
developed a fertile tract of farming land, ranged cattle in the open valleys and on the hills, and did his full share as a member of the company, organ- ized for the protection of the settlement from Indian depredations. For a time during the Civil War he was a frontier ranger, under Capt. Wein- denfeld and Col. McAdoo, in the Confederate ser- vice. He has never deeply interested himself in politics, but has served as County Commissioner of his county, and has exerted himself in every prac- ticable way to promote the upbuilding of his sec- tion of the State. In 1868 he returned to the Fatherland and married Miss Marie Settel, a young lady of domestic tastes and womanly qualities. Mr. and Mrs. Serger have four children, three sous and one daughter, viz. : Powell, Emil, Frank, and Eliza. All have been given advantages of excellent schooling.
Mr. Serger's landed interests comprise about GSO acres in Kendall and Kerr Counties.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
GABRIEL REMLER, SMITHSON'S VALLEY,
A venerable pioneer, came to Texas in 1844 when about twenty-two years of age with Prince Solins. He was born in the south of Germany, October 20, 1822. He lived at New Braunfels until 1852 and then located on his present place on the Guadalupe river in the vicinity on Smithson's
Valley, where he has developed a farm of one thiou- sand acres - one of the finest in Comal County. He has a most hospitable and frugal wife, who has borne him seven children, now all married, viz. : Sophia, Pauline, Allena, Minnie, Peter J., Frederick and William. They have fifteen grandchildren.
AUGUST G. STARTZ,
SMITHSON'S VALLEY,
Born in Comal County, December 25, 1856, is a son of the venerable pioneer, Henry Startz. His father came to Texas in 1844 with the Prince Solms Colony. The subject of this notice grew up at the old homestead in Smithson's Valley in Comal County and gained a thorough knowledge of the stock-raising business, in which he is now exten- sively engaged. He also owns a well stocked store
and cotton gin in Smithson's Valley and about 4,000 acres of grazing land in Comal County.
He married, December 25, 1879, Miss Emma, daughter of Fritz Bartels. They have six children : Teela, Olga, Walter, Ella, Charles, and Henry.
Mr. Startz has served eight years as Deputy Sheriff of Comal County, and is now a member of the County Commissioners' Court.
HERMAN E. FISCHER,
NEW BRAUNFELS.
. Hon. Herman E. Fischer, an active and influential business man of New Braunfels, is a pioneer of Texas of 1852, coming to the State December 6th of that year. Upon landing at Galveston he pro- ceeded directly to San Antonio and from that place to New Braunfels, reaching the latter city about December 20th. He is a native of Germany, born in the village of Heersum, Province of Ilauover, February 8th, 1835. He was trained in boyhood and youth for mercantile pursuits, but came to Texas for the purpose of farming, which he en- gaged in soon after his arrival and continued to fol- low until 1859. Ile then accepted a position as a clerk in a store in New Braunfels and remained an employee in the establishment until the close of the
late war. In 1865 he received the appointment of District Clerk and held the position until 1866. He then engaged in merchandising on his own account until 1870. In February of that year he entered the County Clerk's office as Deputy Clerk of Comal County and held the position until 1874. He was then elected District and County Clerk and served in that capacity ten years. In 1884 he was chosen County Judge and served the people in a most ac ceptable manner for two terms. He then, until 1889, engaged in the real estate business in New Braunfels, when he established the present Comal Lumber Company which he still owas and conduets. During the discharge of his duties as County Judge of Comal County, the Guadalupe bridge, one of the
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
finest highway bridges in Southwestern Texas, was built. The sale of the county's public school lands was also inaugurated at the price of $5.00 per acre, which sales have accumulated a school fund of about $80,000.00 to date (1895). Judge Fischer has at various times served on the Board of City Aldermen and as School Trustee of the city. He married, in 1865, Miss Mary Conring, a daughter of Dr. H. Conring. They have eight children, seven of whom
are living. The names of these children are: Alex, Carl (deceased), Hilmar, Hermina, Emil, Freda and Erick.
Judge Fischer is highly esteemed for his broad citizenship and his many excellent traits of char- acter. He has ever been an effective worker for the advancement of his city, county and State, and has taken an active part in all movements in that direction.
AUGUST KEONNECKE,
FREDERICKSBURG,
One of the first settlers of Gillespie County, was born in Prussia, March 23, 1832, and came to Texas in 1881. Landing at Indianola in December of that year, he proceeded thence to San Antonio, and from that place to Gillespie County, where he pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land on Cane creek, twelve miles northeast of Fredericks- burg, in what is now the Kconneeke settlement.
To this he afterwards added until he owned a arm of two thousand acres, which he has appor- tioned to his children. He married, in 1855, Miss Charlotte Bearns, daughter of Christian Bearns, a pioneer of 1853, who lived, during the later years of his life, at Palo Alto. Mr. and Mrs. Keonnecke have five children : Gaustav, Hermann, William, Annie, and Otto. Annie married C. F. Lucken- baeli, of Fredericksburg ; Gustav married Miss Albertine Kramer; Hermann married Miss Emma Hebenicht; and William married Miss Bertha Hebenicht.
Mr. Keonneeke has served as Justice of the Peace and County Commissioner of his county, and has been an active and effective worker for the upbuild- ing of his section of the State. His father, Fred- erick Keonnecke (a weaver and owner of woolen mills in Germany), and an unele, Charles Keon- necke, came to Texas in 1848, and were followed in 1853 by William Keonnecke, another uncle of the subject of this notice.
Frederick died of yellow fever at Indianola, while there to meet his brother William, whose arrival he expected in the country. Charles has retired from aetive pursuits and lives in Fredericks- burg.
William located in the Keonnecke settlement on Cane creek, where he established a farm adjoining that of his nephew, August Keonneeke, and resided until the time of his death, which occurred June 9, 1894, in the seventy-third year of his age.
SIMON WIESS,
BEAUMONT.
The poetic fancy of the Greeks was not slow to note the great dissimilarities that mark the desti- nies of men ushered into being amid the same environments - destinies, the general ontlines and ultimate ends of which seem to be beyond their control -and they wove into the song and drama
and theology of those ancient days the idea of three silent sisters, the Fates, sitting in the dark weaving constantly at their looms the destinies of gods and men. It was a beautiful eonceit. The mind's-eye, which needs no lamp to aid its vision, can almost sce the shutters flying back and forth, back and
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
forth, working threads, dark and bright, into the warp and woof,. controlled by an impulse flowing from the unknowable center of the unknown. The same idea has, in later times, found expression in the deeply pious predestinarianism of Calvinism, the coldly callous indifference of fatalism, such popu- lar expressions as " Man proposes and God dis- poses," and the lines " There is a destiny that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may," and in a thousand other mental conceptions and forms of speech. To what extent each life is pre-ordered and the limits within which free-agency operates, we know not. We know, however, that the serf of Russia, until a few generations back, was born into conditions that he could never hope to alter, and that fixed, from its beginning, the general course and tenor of his life; that every man, however brilliant his inherited talents, however great the wealth that descends to him, however exalted the station into which he is introduced by the fact of birth, however free he may imagine himself to be to do as he pleases, is yet surrounded by limita_ tions that (although as invisible as the air or thought itself) are, yet, as strong as forged and tempered steel and that he can by no possibil- ity break through. The efforts of the bird that beats its feeble wings against the bars of its cage are not more futile. Two boys are playing upon the village green. One will till the soil where his eyes first beheld the light and, passing quietly through the scenes of youth and manhood, descend through an uneventful old age to his place in the village church-yard where his dust and bones will mingle with those of his fore-fathers of many generations. The other will pass through many strange scenes and thrilling experiences, perhaps, by flood and field, and find his home and final life- work and final resting-place, in a land of which he has, as yet, not so much as heard the name.
Mrs. Hemans, in her poem "The Graves of a Household," thus beautifully expresses the thought :---
They grew in beauty side by side, They filled one home with glee, Their graves are severed far and wide, By mount, and stream and sea.
The same fond mother bent at night O'er each fair sleeping brow, She had each folded flower in sight - Where are those dreamers now!
One, midst the forest of the West, By a dark stream is laid, The Indian knows his place of rest, Far in the cedar-shade.
The sea, the blue lone sea hath one, He lles where pearls lie deep;
He was the loved of all, yet none O'er his low bed may weep.
One sleeps where Southern vines are drest Above the noble slain;
He wrapt his eolours round his breast On a blood-red field of Spain.
And one, o'er her the myrtle showers Its leaves by soft winds fanned ;
She faded 'midst Italian flowers, The last of that bright band.
And parted thus, they rest who played Beneath the same green tree ; Whose voices mingled as they prayed Around one parent knee.
The truth is that no man can tell what the future has in store for him - what pleasures, what heart- aches, what successes, what reverses, what triumphs, what disasters, or how he shall fare him battling amid the thousand and one cross-eurrents of cir- cumstance. But of one thing there is a certainty and that is, that the man who makes the voyage of a long life, meets and overcomes its difficulties, keeps heart, mind and hands undefiled and achieves honorable success, has earned a patent of nobility that belongs to him of divine right and that entitles him to the confidence and estcem of his fellow-men while living and his memory to preservation from oblivion to which the undiscriminating hand of time seeks to consign all transitory things.
In the early days of the present century there lived in the little town of Lublin, Poland, a sturdy lad, who, after years spent in travel upon three continents, was to make his home in Texas, and here exercise a wide and beneficent influence and leave his impress upon the communities in which he lived. We refer to the late lamented Simon Wiess, Sr., of Wies:' Bluff, Jasper County, Texas.
Mr. Wiess was born at, Lublin, Poland, January 1, 1800, and remained there until sixteen years of age when he started out in the world to try his fortunes. The limits of this notice will not permit a detailed account of his various adventures or commercial experiences, but the following facts, taken from his Masonic chart, will give some idea of the extent of his travels and the high character he acquired in early life and ever afterwards main- tained. He was a Royal Arch Mason at Constanti- nople, April 2, 1825, and went to Asia Minor the same year, where he held a prominent position in the Masonic circles. Ile visited Mt. Lch- anon Lodge, Boston, Mass., February 22, 1826, which is the first we hear of him in the United
SIMON WIESS.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
States. August 17th, 1828, he was in San Domingo and there participated with the Masonic fraternity. He also visited Albion Lodge No. 333, at Barbadoes, West Indies, and received the degree of Past Master. On the ninth of May, 1829, he visited Amity Lodge No. 277, at -, on the registry of the Right Worshipful G. L., of Ireland. May 11th, 1829, he visited Integrity Lodge, No. 259, at and there received Mark Master degree ; June 2, 1829, visited Union Lodge No. 462, at Georgetown, Demerara, and we find that in 1840, he visited Gal- veston and participated with Harmony Lodge, No. 6. In 1847, he met with De Witt Clinton Lodge No. 129, in Jasper County, Texas. Two years later, April 17th, 1849, he met with the Woodville, Texas, Lodge. There are few countries in Europe that he did not visit. He lived at various times in Turkey, Asia Minor, the West Indies, Central and South America, and Mexico. He also traveled exten- sively through the United States and lived for a time in Louisiana before making his home in Texas. He could read, write and speak fluently seven languages. In his young days before coming to America he owned several sailing vessels and engaged in the trade being carried on between New England and the West Indies. In 1836 he was Deputy Collector of Customs for the Republic of Texas at Camp Sabine (now Sabine town) near the border-line be- tween Texas and Lonisiana. It was the military post of the United States at that time. Gen. Gaines was stationed there in command of four thousand troop's and, during the war for Texas Independence, it was believed that he and Gen. Sam Houston entered into an agreement under which the latter was to retreat in a northeasterly direction before the Mexican army, until it followed him across the disputed boundary line between Texas and the United States and then Gaines was to turn ont with his regulars, attack Santa Anna and follow him, if necessary, to the Rio Grande and into Mexico. If any such agreement was entered into, subsequent events rendered the carrying out of its terms nn- necessary. The three divisions of the Mexican army became separated and, marching through a country incapable of supporting such a large number of men, were worn down by days of marching over roads that were almost impassable, and thoroughly dispirited before the final blow of the revolution was struck. Houston took advan- tage of this combination of circumstances, joined battle with Santa Anna at San Jacinto and, with the unaided strength of the Texian arms, won one of the most glorious and decisive victories recorded in the annals of war - an achievement that justly immortalized his name. Mr. Wiess was acquainted
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