Albert, originally Martinsburg, is a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * Ghost Town (1936 film), ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * Ghost Town (1956 film), ''Ghost Town'' ...

southeast of Fredericksburg and west of the Blanco County line in southeastern

Gillespie County, Texas Gillespie County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 26,725. The county seat is Fredericksburg. It is located in the heart of the rural Texas Hill Country in Central ...

, United States. The town was a stop on the Fredericksburg-

Blanco Blanco (''white'' or ''blank'' in Spanish) or Los Blancos may refer to: People *Blanco (surname) Fictional characters *Blanco, a hobbit in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth * Blanco Webb, character in the BBC sitcom ''Porridge'' * El Blanco, albin ...

stage Stage or stages may refer to: Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly British theatre newspaper * Sta ...

route and in 1967 became a stop on the President's Ranch Trail. In late October 2007, the town was put up for sale on the auction website

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

Early history

On December 15, 1847, a petition was submitted to create Gillespie County. In 1848, the legislature formed Gillespie County from Bexar and Travis counties. While the signers were overwhelmingly German immigrants, names also on the petition were Castillo, Pena, Munos, and a handful of non-German Anglo names. The first white settlers were George Cauley, Ben White, Sr., and a man named Jacobs. Around 1877,

blacksmith A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from #Other metals, other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such ...

Fritz Wilke, George Maenius, and John Petri moved from Fredericksburg seeking

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...

for their

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult mal ...

. Wilke bought land from a man named Elmeier, who was robbed and

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

ed years later. The Martinsburg

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

operated from 1877 to 1886. In 1892, Martinsburg got a new post office and a new name, after

Albert Luckenbach Carl Albert Luckenbach was the first postmaster of Luckenbach, Texas. He would later move to another village which would become known as Albert, Texas Albert, originally Martinsburg, is a ghost town southeast of Fredericksburg and west of th ...

sold his store in

Luckenbach Luckenbach is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a community belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography The village lies northeast of Koblenz in the valley of the Kleine Nister. Luckenbach b ...

, and arrived to register a new post office in town, under the name Albert. A school was established in 1891, and in 1897 postmaster Otto Schumann opened the town's first store. In 1900 a new school building was erected; 36th

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United Stat ...

Lyndon Baines Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

was briefly enrolled there as a boy. A local

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

mission, the Lutheran Church of Stonewall, was established in 1902 which Johnson attended. Albert, originally known as Martinsburg, was founded in the late 1870s by settlers from Fredericksburg, TX. The town was renamed May 24, 1892 when Wilhelmina Sophie “Minnie” Luckenbach opened a post office that she named for her husband, Carl Albert Luckenbach.

Population decline

Albert had 50 residents in 1925, only 4 in 1964, and 25 in 1972. By 1985 the store had been torn down, the school converted into a community club, and the dance hall a storage locker, though Albert still had 25 residents and two businesses. The population would stay at 25 through 2000, but by 2007, the town had been all but abandoned.

Since 2004

In 2004, Bobby Cave, at the time an insurance broker, bought Albert—more specifically, property on

Ranch Road In the United States, a farm-to-market road or ranch-to-market road (sometimes farm road or ranch road for short) is a state highway or county road that connects rural or agricultural areas to market towns. These are better quality roads, usually ...

1623 between Stonewall and

Historic Texas Town for Sale Albert TX
on eBay— for $216,000.Owner lists small Hill Country town for sale
a June 2007 article from the ''

Fort Worth Star-Telegram The ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' is an American daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. It is owned by The McClatchy Company. History In May 1905, Amon G. Carter ...

'' Cave then built a

tavern A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern t ...

(in a style area locals call an icehouse) on the site of the town's former general store; after investing nearly half a million dollars, in 2007 he put it up for sale on

with a reserve price of $2.5 million. In 2009 the town was carved up and again for sale, this time with an asking price of $883,000. of the town was purchased by the Easley family (Point Evans, LLC) from Austin, Texas, and Brandon Easley, was nominated by the family to be the town manager.http://propaccess.trueautomation.com/clientDB/Property.aspx?prop_id=21752 He has made several improvements to the ice house and surrounding property, and currently the dance hall is under renovation.

References

External links

Town website''Handbook of Texas Online'' article
{{Gillespie County, Texas Former populated places in Gillespie County, Texas EBay listings Ghost towns in Central Texas Populated places established in 1877 1877 establishments in Texas

Early history

Population decline

Since 2004

See also

References

External links