Ingram / Hunt «

Ingram / Hunt

Written By: Greg Forest

8000 b.c. Early Native American inhabitants arrive. Numerous successive cultures inhabited the area in prehistoric times. Historic tribes encountered by Europeans included the Kiowa, Comanche and Lipan Apache.

1842 Adelsverein Fisher-Miller Land Grant sets aside three million acres (12,000 km²) to settle 600 families and single men of German, Dutch, Swiss, Danish,Swedish, and Norwegian ancestry in Texas.

1844, June 26 – Henry Francis Fisher sells interest in land grant to Adelsverein.

1845 Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels secures title to 1,265 acres (5.12 km²) of the Veramendi grant, including the Comal Springs and River, for the Adelsverein. Thousands of German immigrants are stranded at port of disembarkation Indianaola onMatagorda Bay. With no food or shelters, living in holes dug into the ground, an estimated 50% die from disease or starvation.

1854 May 14–15, The Texas State Convention of Germans meet in San Antonio and adopt a political, social and religious platform, including: Equal pay for equal work; 2) Direct election of the President of the United States; 3) Abolition of capital punishment; 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.

1856 Kerr County is formed from Bexar Land District Number 2. Joshua Brown donates the land that will become Kerrville, and has it named for his friend James Kerr. Kerrville is the county seat. U.S. Camel Corps headquartered at Verde is the brainchild of United States Secretary of War (1853–57) Jefferson Davis.

1860-1861 County population of 634, includes 49 slaves. Sons of Hermann lodge, for descendents of German heritage, is established in the County. The lodge is named for German chieftain folk hero Hermann the Cherusker.

1861 A bitterly divided Kerr County votes 76-57 for secession from the Union, with most German residents being against it. Unionists from Kerr, Gillespie, and Kendall counties participate in the formation of the Union League, a secret organization to support President Abraham Lincoln’s policies.

1862 The Union League forms companies to protect the frontier against Indians and their families against local Confederate forces.Conscientious objectors to the military draft are primarily among Tejanos and Germans . Confederate authorities impose martial law on Central Texas. Nueces massacre in Kinney County. Jacob Kuechler serves as a guide for sixty-one conscientious objectors attempting to flee to Mexico. Scottish born Confederate irregular James Duff and his Duff’s Partisan Rangers pursue and overtake them at the Nueces River. Thirty-four are killed, some executed after being taken prisoner. Jacob Kuechler survives the battle. The cruelty shocks the people of Gillespie County. 2,000 take to the hills to escape Duff’s reign of terror. Spring Creek Cemetery near Harper in Gillespie County has a singular grave with the names Sebird Henderson, Hiram Nelson, Gus Tegener and Frank Scott. The inscription reads “Hanged and thrown in Spring Creek by Col. James Duff’s Confederate Regiment.”

1866, August 10 – Treue der Union Monument (“Loyalty to the Union”) in Comfort dedicated to the Texans slain at the Nueces massacre. It is the only monument to the Union outside of the National Cemeteries on Confederate territory. It is one of only six such sites allowed to fly the United States flag at half-mast in perpetuity.

1919 The American Legion of Texas establishes what will eventually be called the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Kerrville.