Sisterdale is an unincorporated farming and ranching community established in 1847 and located north of

Boerne Boerne ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Kendall County, Texas, United States, in the Texas Hill Country. Boerne is known for its German Texan, German-Texan history, named in honor of German author and satirist Ludwig Börne by the German Fo ...

in Kendall County, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. The community is located in the valley of Sister Creek. The elevation is .

Community

Sisterdale was settled in 1847 by

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

surveyor and free thinker Nicolaus Zink. Originally part of

Comal County Comal County ( ) is a County (United States), county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 161,501. Comal County is known for its rich German-Texan and Eu ...

, Sisterdale became part of Kendall County when the latter was formed in 1862. Among the settlers were German pioneers Fritz and Betty Holekamp, geographer

Ernst Kapp Ernst Christian Kapp (15 October 1808 – 30 January 1896) was a German-American philosopher of technology and geographer, and a follower of Carl Ritter. He was prosecuted for sedition in the late 1840s for publishing a small article entitled 'D ...

;

Anhalt Saxony-Anhalt ( ; ) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of and has a population of 2.17 million inhabitants, making it the 8th-largest state in Germany by area an ...

Premier progeny Baron Ottomar von Behr; journalist

Carl Adolph Douai Karl Daniel Adolf Douai (1819 – 1888), known to his peers as "Adolf", was a German Texan teacher as well as a socialist and Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist newspaper editor. Douai was driven from Texas in 1856 due to his publishe ...

; August Siemering who later founded the ''San Antonio Express News''; author, journalist and diplomat

Julius Fröbel Carl Ferdinand Julius Fröbel (16 July 1805 – 7 November 1893) was a German geologist and mineralogist, journalist, and democratic revolutionary already during the ''Vormärz'' era. He was active in Germany, Switzerland, the United States and S ...

; future

Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...

financial wizard Gustav Theissen; and Edgar von Westphalen, Roe Hampton University-London Roe Hampton University-London brother to

Jenny von Westphalen Johanna Bertha Julie Jenny Edle von Westphalen (; 12 February 18142 December 1881) was a German theatre critic and political activist. She married the philosopher and political economist Karl Marx in 1843. Background Jenny von Westphalen was b ...

who was married to

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

. The first child born in Sisterdale (and in Kendall County) was Julius Holekamp on June 10, 1849, to Fritz and Betty Holekamp. One notable early colonist was

Edward Degener Edward Degener (October 20, 1809 – September 11, 1890) was a German-born American politician. He was a Republican U.S. Representative from Texas during the Reconstruction era. Originally from Germany, Degener moved to the United States ...

, future Republican

congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

from

during the

Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in History of the United States, US history that followed the American Civil War (1861-65) and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of the Abolitionism in the United States, abol ...

. Degener's sons Hugo and Hilmar died during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

in the

Nueces massacre The Nueces Massacre, also known as the Massacre on the Nueces and the Battle of Nueces, was a violent confrontation between Confederate soldiers and Southern Unionist, Unionist Texas Germans on August 10, 1862, in Kinney County, Texas. Many f ...

. To honor their memory, Degener along with Eduard Steves and William Heuermann purchased land for the establishment of the German-language Treue der Union Monument, which was built in 1866 and listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1978. Also among the settlers was Julius Dresel (or Dressel), a member of the German Chambers of Deputies, The Wine Institute who was the first to plant a Sisterdale vineyard. His brother Emil Dresel and partner Jacob Gundlach later established the Rhein Farm Vineyard in

Sonoma, California Sonoma () is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Sonoma is one of the principal cities of California's Wine Country and the center of the Sonoma Valley AVA. Sonoma' ...

. Julius later moved to

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

. Upon the death of brother Emil, who bequeathed Julius his share of the Sonoma vineyard, Julius moved his family to California. The community received a post office in 1851, and Ottomar W. Behr was the first postmaster. Sisterdale eventually had a school house, a gas station-garage, a general store, a

cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...

, and a factory for making cypress shingles. The old 1885 cotton gin in Sisterdale has been restored and is today home to Sister Creek Vineyards.

Historical population

Source: Texas Escapes

Free thinkers

Sisterdale was one of the

Latin Settlement A Latin settlement (German: ''Lateinische Kolonie'') is a community founded by German immigrants to the United States in the 1840s. Most of these were in Texas, but there were "Latin Settlements" in other states as well. These German intellectuals, ...

s, resulting from the

Revolutions of 1848 in the German states In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elemen ...

. Those who came were Forty-Eighters, intellectual liberal abolitionists who enjoyed conversing in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and believed in utopian ideals that guaranteed basic human rights to all. Freethinkers Association of Central Texas They reveled in passionate conversations about literature, music and philosophy. The free thinkers petitioned the

Texas Legislature The Texas State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a p ...

in 1853 for a charter to operate a German-English college to be built at Sisterdale, but the petition did not come to fruition. Irene Marschall King, granddaughter of John O. Meusebach, remembered how her grandfather enjoyed the intellectual stimulation of visits to Sisterdale, where a man of his aristocratic background could relate to such cultured free thought discourse, and where the air filled with concert music, singing, dancing and an ambience of general ''

Gemütlichkeit ''Gemütlichkeit'' () is a German-language word used to convey the idea of a state or feeling of warmth, friendliness, and good cheer. Other qualities encompassed by the term include cosiness, peace of mind, and a sense of belonging and well ...

''. In 1853, August Siemering was elected secretary, and Ernst Kapp the president, of the freethinker

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

organization (The Free Society), University of the Incarnate Word which called for a meeting of abolitionist German Texans Texas State Historical Association in conjunction with the May 14, 1854, Staats- Saengerfest (State Singing Festival) in

. Wilhelm Victor Keidel was elected vice president of the convention, which adopted a political, social and religious platform, The Texas State Historical Association including:

1) Equal pay for equal work; 2) Direct election of the President of the United States; 3) Abolition of
capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...
; 4) Slavery is an evil, the abolition of which is a requirement of democratic principles...; 5) Free schools – including universities – supported by the state, without religious influence; and 6) Total separation of church and state.

One of the most tragic episodes in the history of Kendall County happened in 1862 after Texas joined the Confederacy. The Confederacy considered the free thinkers of Sisterdale and like communities to be a threat. A number of Kendall County Germans became

conscientious objector A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

s to the military draft. Confederate authorities reacted by imposing

martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...

on central Texas. 61 conscientious objectors attempted to flee to Mexico. Confederate irregular James Duff and his Duff's Partisan Rangers pursued them. At the

Nueces River The Nueces River ( ; , ) is a river in the U.S. state of Texas, about long. It drains a region in central and southern Texas southeastward into the Gulf of Mexico. It is the southernmost major river in Texas northeast of the Rio Grande. ''Nu ...

, 34 were killed, and some executed after being taken prisoner. In 1866, Kendall County erected the Treue der Union Monument ("Loyalty to the Union") monument TexGenWeb, Kendall Co dedicated to the German Texans slain at the

Darmstadt Society of Forty

Some of the early settlers in Sisterdale migrated from the collapsed

Fisher–Miller Land Grant The Fisher–Miller Land Grant was part of an early colonization effort of the Republic of Texas. Its 3,878,000 acres covered between the Llano River and Colorado River. Originally granted to Henry Francis Fisher and Burchard Miller, the grant w ...

experimental colonies of the Darmstadt Society of Forty.

Sisterdale Valley District

The Sisterdale Valley District is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

in Sisterdale, Texas that was listed on the U.S.

in 1975. It included 15

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

and six other

contributing structures In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...

. The historic buildings include an 1890s dance hall. Various sources discuss Sisterdale.

Photo gallery

File:Sisterdale3.JPG, Grounds of the Sisterdale Dance Hall & Opera House File:Sisterdale9.JPG, Original Settler Cabin Circa 1859 File:Sisterdale13.JPG, Sisterdale Dance Hall & Opera House File:Sisterdale TX Winery.jpg, Sister Creek Vineyards File:Sisterdale TX Cemetery.jpg, Sisterdale Cemetery at RM 473 and 1376 File:SisterdaleLine (1 of 1).jpg, Sisterdale Bar File:House-animated.gif, Marlowe Candle Company

References

External links

Kendall County official website

Sisterdale Creek Vineyards
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Texas German-American history German-American culture in Texas Populated places established in 1847 Freethought in the United States Latin Settlement Unincorporated communities in Kendall County, Texas Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Texas 1847 establishments in Texas National Register of Historic Places in Kendall County, Texas