The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-09-26
CERMANSIN TEXAS
That Southern Climate
Has Not Hurt Them.
What They Have Done for the State
Since the Year S45-Great
Convention to be Held.

are aware of the fact that there is large
! section of Texas in which German
immigrants settled in the forties. and
IL spite of the general belief in the
South that they could not work in the
southern climate. have become the
most successful agriculturists of the
South. This large German population
will hold on October 4 a general con-
vention advancing the interests OF the
German people.
| AS an aid to the practical side Of this
GermanTexas congress, it has been de-
cided to rescue and preserve the story
OF German history in Texas In this
| topic the congress will find a rich
field for its labors, for the stirring
epoch of German history-making in
Texas did not end with the establish
ment of the early towns of Fredericks-
by the pioneer band of restless Ger
man spirits who came to this country
with Prince Solms Braunfels in 1915.
The German in Texas had subse-
quent history, equally stirring as that
of the venturesome vanguard that
crossed the sea in 1916, or those who
fed after the revolutionary period of
1S4S The Germans have been making
history ever since, or rather, have been
moulding character, which, after all.
directs the destiny of a states history
Beginning in the forties, they pushed
northwestward the lines of civilization,
redeeming from the savage all of the
highland country known as the Texas
Alps, the heart of which is the German
burg Comfort, and the westernmOst
boundary the hills of Fredericksburg.
For ten or fifteen years following
they were the best Indian fighters of
the state. Fearless, hardy, and splen-
did marksmen, they were the best ele-
ment in the early Texas Rangers. in
this English-speaking country this
fact has been overlooked, but an in
spection of the records shows that there
were entire German companies of In
dian fighters and Germans in every
company. During this period they
were the teamsters, the common car
riers'' of the new state, Theirs were
the long wagon trains that carried
the freight from the then important
seaport of Indianola as far inland as
San Antonio, and from thence west
ward to Mexico, and into the noun
tains to the German communities that
had been built up in the highlands.
1t is characteristic of the two ma
tions: The Americans were the owners
OF the fast stage-coach lines. The
drivers were Americans, with here and
there a German at the lines as if by
the merest accident. Theirs was the
swift pace The Germans were the
owners of the vast lines of mule freight
trains. The drivers were Germans.
Theirs was the steady, solid work. 1t
was work that required accuracy and
solidity, and no people were better
adapted for this hazardous task than
the German pioneers of those days.
By the time that the civil war broke
out the German population of Texas
was considerable, and us moral in
f1uence and weight of numbers showed
itself to a marked degree in the bril-
liant campaign of Gen. Sam Houston,
that almost wrested Texas. from the
secession movement
The Germans, though largely agri-
cultural in pursuit, detested slavery,
and with few exceptions disdained to
hold black human chattels. The pro-
position was incompatible with their
sense of justice and liberty, and thus
when Gen. Sam Houston made his ex-
citing canvass for Governor on an I'M
derstood programme of union and
human freedom, the German vote was
on his side.
In the war that followed the German
soldiers in the Confederate ranks were
conscripts, and the Texas volunteers in
the Union army were largely Germans.
who made their way to New York
through the seaports of Mexico. In the
succeeding peace Germans have
wrought another remarkable change in
Texas. Thrifty and Woodworking,
they have proven excellent agriculture
lists, while their generally good prim-
airy education, together with a certain
trait of refinement, have made them
by far the most desirable class of i'm
migrants. They have always been well
comed,. and thus in a period of less
than two decades they have trans
formed the great plains for a hundred
miles from the coast inland from stock
pastures into agricultural fields. They
are steadily encroaching on the stock
industry of the state, and the almost
pathetic tone in which the aggression
of the man with the hoe" is discussed