Pioneer Museum offers a step back in time

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas Edition

The Sunday Houses are just one of the historical features at the Pioneer Museum in Fredericksburg, according to museum interpreter Vernell Oehler. -- Staff photos by Taylor

August 5, 2004 - If you close your eyes for a moment, you can almost feel and see what it must have been like, 158 years ago, when Fredericksburg was first settled. On May 8, 1846, 120 people arrived from Germany, "under the auspices of the German Emigration Company," according to literature produced by the Pioneer Museum in downtown Fredericksburg.

Like many immigrants from Europe, the German settlers were hoping for political freedom and more economic opportunities than they had in the Old Country. The first 600 people to arrive were given one-half acre in town, and 10 acres in the country on which they could farm and raise animals, said interpreter Vernell Oehler who has worked at the museum for nine years and was reared in the area on a farm/ranch.

One member of the founding group was Henry Kammiah I, who, after living in a temporary shelter for several years, built a one-room structure for his family in 1849. From that year on, the changing house was occupied by four generations of Kammiahs.

Today, the museum area covers about three-and-a-half acres and includes 10 buildings which were important to the area between the years of 1849 and 1959. Included in the buildings is the original Kammiah home and general store. After three, major additions (including three, separate kitchen areas) the Kammiah family occupied the home until the early 1940s. The original two-room home was converted into a general store, as the rooms were added, and the family lived in the quarters behind the store.

Vernell Oehler serves as the museum's interpreter. -- Staff photos by Taylor

Around 1875, the Kammiahs added a smokehouse for curing and keeping meat, as well as storing garden and butchering tools. Shortly afterwards, they built a barn, mainly of local limestone. Here, the Kammiahs kept some of their horses and milk cows that provided transportation and milk for the family.

The leader of the group of German immigrants was John O. Meusebach who is famous for signing a peace treaty with the resident Comanche Nation. The treaty was never broken, and opened five million acres of land to colonization in Central Texas, stated Oehler.

The Gillespie County Historical Society bought the Kammiah Family Home and Store for $10,000 in 1955, and has continued to add structures, brought in from early settlers' properties. Today, the buildings include the Walton-Smith log cabin, a traditional log-stone-mortar home built around 1880, which contains about 300-square-feet of living space.

Also on the property is the Weber Sunday House, built around 1904 by the August Webers about seven miles from town. The "Sunday Houses" were built by farmers and were usually a one-room structure with simple furnishings and no running water or electricity. They were used as a place for farmers to come eat and rest on weekends, holidays, or for doctor visits or funerals.

A one-room schoolhouse is, also, located on the property. It was used in a small community about 15 miles southwest of Fredericksburg during the 1920s, and is typical of country schools the farming families attended.

Also present is the Arhelger bathhouse, which was, originally behind the Arhelger's barber shop, where people gathered to bathe, since there was no running water in the private homes.

Finally, there is a wagon shed which houses a number of older buggies that are used in some area parades, along with the Fassel-Roeder House. While it was in the possession of Mathias Fassel in 1875, some believe the house could have been built by some of the Kammiah family, since it evolved in stages and additions.

With the arrival of the first German settlers, the countryside around Fredericksburg became a key agricultural area and a great place for history "buffs" to visit, in later years.

It helps to bring modern-day life back into perspective, after seeing how early settlers learned to survive in this part of Texas, and it's interesting to be able to purchase items in the Kammiah Home and Store like were available over 100 years ago. Wooden toys, gift tins, candy, hand-made bonnets and many, great books on local and German Texas history are available, and when you've completed your tour of the Pioneer Museum, relax in the shade and admire the native plants in the beautiful gardens surrounding the buildings.

(For information on the Pioneer Museum: www.pioneermuseum.com or (830) 997-2835)