Jacob Schroeder and Early Spring Branch Community

Jacob Schroeder and Early Spring Branch Community. . , The earliest Europeans to settle in the Spring Branch area were Jacob Schroeder and his wife Dorothea. They arrived in Houston from Germany in about 1838, bringing two children. In 1839, Jacob applied for a Republic of Texas land grant of 640 acres, and the family built a log cabin in an unpopulated area on the Isaac Bunker tract, a few hundred feet northwest of this point. Their cabin was built on a tallgrass prairie, just to the north of a pine forest. Jacob raised corn and kept milk cows, sheep and hogs., Jacob Schroeder was a founding member of the German Society of Texas, which was incorporated in Houston in 1840. By the late 1840s, there were many German settlers coming into the area, fleeing war and poverty in Europe. In 1848, the Carl Wilhelm Rummel and Carl Siegismund Bauer families arrived from Germany late in the year with plans to settle near a grove of oaks, now the location of St. Peter Church on Long Point Road. Facing a difficult winter with inadequate shelter, the Schroeder family hosted the new arrivals until their own cabins were built., The Schroeder's son Fritz built a frame house in about 1865, along what is now Smithdale Road. He owned a farm there, on a part of the John Taylor League. That house was moved to 435 Piney Point Road in 1992, where it sits today. Fritz Schroeder's son Henry inherited part of the farm, and married Hedwig Jankowski. The surrounding rural area began to be developed in the 1950s. Henry's widow Hedwig donated the land to Harris County for what became Hedwig and Smithdale Roads. Today, Hedwig Village bears her name.