The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 34, July 1930 - April, 1931 Page: 173
359 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews and Notices
Baker obtained a colonization contract and an enormous grant of
land from the Republic of Texas and agreed to settle a thousand
families of German, Swiss, Dutch, and Scandinavian immigrants
in the region drained by the Llano, San Saba, and upper Colorado
Rivers. A few weeks before this grant was issued a group of
German nobles in the neighborhood of Mainz formed an associa-
tion for the purchase of lands in Texas. In 1844 this organiza-
tion took for itself the name of the "Society for the Protection
of German Immigrants in Texas," but it was best known as the
Adelsverein, or association of nobles. The members adopted a res-
olution declaring that "speculation and political projects were
not contemplated and that the society, out of purely philanthropi-
cal reasons, would devote itself to the support and direction of
German emigration to Texas." In June, 1844, the Society
bought an interest in the Fisher and Miller grant and undertook
the obligation of settling on it the families originally con-
tracted for.
Prince Karl of Solms-Braunfels was already in Texas, repre-
senting the Society and he immediately began to formulate plans
for the reception of immigrants at Indianola and their transpor-
tation to the grant. He wisely decided that intermediate settle-
ments must be made on the route before colonies could be sup-
ported on the remote Llano and San Saba frontier, and he de-
voted himself to the founding of New Braunfels. In May, 1845,
he was succeeded by John O. Meusebach, who proved to be an
eminently efficient and practical director of the colonization
movement. In the spring of 1846 Meusebach founded Fredericks-
burg, and subsequently placed some small settlements on the
Llano, in the Fisher and Miller grant. The work of the Adels-
verein centered, however, in New Braunfels and Fredericksburg
and in various neighboring settlements to which these two orig-
inal villages gave rise.
This is the story, in brief, which the book narrates.
The first chapter describes the economic and political condi-
tions in Germany which stimulated emigration. The second de-
scribes the tentative proposals and aspirations of Spanish, Mexi-
can, and Texan officials to attract European immigrants to Texas.
The third deals with the settlement of individual families on the
lower Brazos, Colorado and Guadalupe rivers. Chapters IV-VIII173
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 34, July 1930 - April, 1931, periodical, 1931; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101091/m1/183/: accessed May 6, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.