From the Texas State Historical
Association
November 19, 1845
Mormons arrive in Texas
On this day in 1845, the first group of Mormon settlers to come to
Texas, led by Lyman Wight, arrived in Grayson County. After wintering
in an abandoned fort at Preston, this group of dissident Mormons pressed
on to Austin in June 1846. They remained in the capital until 1847,
when they established the community of Zodiac near Fredericksburg.
This hamlet, where Wight implemented an idiosyncratic form of communitarianism
he called the "common stock principle," became a mecca for Mormon
dissenters. After a visit by missionaries Preston Thomas and William
Martindale in 1848-49, Wight was excommunicated by the Mormons in
Utah for his insubordination and doctrinal irregularities. Zodiac
was destroyed by a flood in 1851. After living at several other sites
Wight died in 1858. Thereafter, his colony dispersed.
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MORMONS
WIGHT,
LYMAN
MORMON
MILL COLONY
February 23, 1848
Legislature establishes Gillespie County
On this day in 1848, the Texas legislature formally marked off
Gillespie County from Bexar and Travis counties. The first known residents
of Gillespie County, in west central Texas, were the Tonkawa Indians.
By the nineteenth century, Comanches and Kiowas had also moved into
the area. The future county was first settled by Europeans in 1846,
when John O. Meusebach led a group of 120 Germans sponsored by the
Adelsverein to the site of Fredericksburg, which became one in a series
of German communities between the Texas coast and the Fisher-Miller
Land Grant. Fredericksburg and the surrounding rural areas grew quickly,
and in December 1847, 150 settlers petitioned the legislature to establish
a new county, which they suggested be named either Pierdenales or
Germania. Instead, the legislature named it after Capt. Robert A.
Gillespie, a hero of the recent Mexican War, and made Fredericksburg
the county seat. Gillespie County originally included areas that today
are parts of Blanco, Burnet, Llano, and Mason counties. The people
of Gillespie County have always been proud of their German heritage
and pioneer history. In 1896 Robert G. Penniger wrote a book in German
marking the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Fredericksburg
and, with it, Gillespie County. The people of Gillespie County marked
this occasion with a gala celebration at which the fifty-five surviving
original settlers were honored.
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GILLESPIE
COUNTY
MEUSEBACH,
JOHN O.
ADELSVEREIN
FREDERICKSBURG,
TX
FISHER-MILLER
LAND GRANT
GILLESPIE,
ROBERT ADDISON
GERMANS
July 1, 1850
Angry soldiers burn Fredericksburg store, destroying early Gillespie County
records
On this day in 1850, a mob of soldiers burned down the store of
Fredericksburg merchant John M. Hunter, destroying all Gillespie County
records up to that time. Hunter, the first Gillespie County clerk,
had a violent temper and had clashed more than once with the soldiers
at nearby Fort Martin Scott. On the night of June 30, Hunter had refused
to sell whiskey to a soldier named Dole. When Dole became abusive,
Hunter fatally stabbed him in the chest. Some fifty angry soldiers
returned the next night, looking for Hunter, but the merchant had
fled town. Several townspeople attempted to salvage the county records
from the burning store, but the soldiers prevented them. Apparently
neither Hunter nor the soldiers were punished. Hunter later built
a new store on the same block; it opened in time to be used by the
district court in October 1850.
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HUNTER,
JOHN M.
FREDERICKSBURG,
TX
GILLESPIE
COUNTY
FORT
MARTIN SCOTT
September 20, 1865
Texan flies in first airship?
On this day in 1865, pioneer aviator Jacob Friedrich Brodbeck may
have made the first flight in an airplane--almost forty years before
the Wright brothers--in a field about three miles east of Luckenbach.
The Württemberg native settled in Fredericksburg in 1847. He
had always had an interest in mechanics and inventing; in Germany
he had attempted to build a self-winding clock, and in 1869 he designed
an ice-making machine. His most cherished project, however, was his
"air-ship," with a propeller powered by coiled springs.
The 1865 model featured an enclosed space for the "aeronaut,"
a water propeller in case of accidental landings on water, a compass,
and a barometer. The machine was said to have risen twelve feet in
the air and traveled about 100 feet before the springs unwound completely
and the machine crashed to the ground. Another account, however, says
that the initial flight took place in San Pedro Park, San Antonio,
where a bust of Brodbeck was later placed. Yet another account reports
that the flight took place in 1868, not 1865. All the accounts agree,
however, that Brodbeck's airship was destroyed by its abrupt landing,
although the inventor escaped serious injury. After this setback,
his investors refused to put up the money for a second attempt, and
he embarked on a unsuccessful fund-raising tour of the United States.
Brodbeck returned to Texas and lived on a ranch near Luckenbach until
his death in 1910.
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LUCKENBACH,
TX
BRODBECK,
JACOB FRIEDRICH
SAN
PEDRO PARK
AVIATION
September 22, 1964
Nimitz Museum acquires Nimitz Hotel
On this day in 1964, the Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg bought the
Nimitz Hotel. The hotel, a unique building, was built in the late
1840s or early 1850s. Charles H. Nimitz, grandfather of Admiral Nimitz,
bought it in 1855. The hotel was remodeled many times. Its remarkable
steamboat superstructure was added sometime after 1888. Over the years
many notable persons stayed there, including President Rutherford
B. Hayes and Robert E. Lee. In 1964 it was renovated and reopened
on Admiral Nimitz's birthday as a museum. The Admiral Nimitz Museum
is now part of the National Museum of the Pacific War, a seven acre
site dedicated to retelling the story of World War II in the Pacific
Theater.
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NIMITZ,
CHARLES HENRY
NIMITZ,
CHESTER WILLIAM
NIMITZ
HOTEL
NATIONAL
MUSEUM OF THE PACIFIC WAR
TEXAS
PARKS AND WILDLIFE DEPARTMENT