German Pioneers Monument

Photographed By James Hulse, November 9, 2022

4. Closeup of Panel 2

The largest ethnic group in Texas derived directly from Europe was persons of German birth

Photographed By James Hulse, November 9, 2022

5. Closeup of Panel 3

or descent. As early as 1850, they constituted more than 5 percent of the total Texas population, a proportion that remained constant through the remainder of the nineteenth century. Intermarriage has blurred ethnic lines, but the 1990 United States census revealed that 1,175,888 Texans claimed pure and 1,775,838 partial German ancestry, for a total of 2,951,726, or 17½ percent of the total population. By this count, Germans rank behind Hispanics and form the third-largest national-origin group in the state. Most persons of German descent do not regard themselves as ethnic Germans, however. From their first immigration to Texas in the 1830s, the Germans tended to cluster in ethnic enclaves. A majority settled in a broad, fragmented belt across the south central part of the state. This belt stretched from Galveston and Houston on the east to Kerrville, Mason, and Hondo in the west; from the fertile, humid Coastal Plain to the semiarid Hill Country. This German Belt included most of the Teutonic settlements in the state, both rural and urban.

The Fisher-Miller land grant comprised lands between the Llano and Colorado rivers and constituted the hunting grounds

Photographed By James Hulse, November 9, 2022

6. Closeup of Panel 4

of the Comanche Indians. This land was to be used for the settlements of the immigrants who arrived in Texas under the auspices of the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants. Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, the first commissioner of the society, had pledged from the beginning that he would do his utmost to get on good terms with the Indians. It was, however, not until John O. Meusebach had taken charge of the affairs of the German immigrants that regular expeditions into Indian-controlled lands took place.

Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer, naturalist and newspaper editor, was born on May 21, 1801, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the youngest son of Johann Hartmann and Jahnette Magdeline (Reisser) Lindheimer. His father was an affluent merchant. Lindheimer is often called the father of Texas botany because of his work as the first permanent-resident plant collector in Texas. He received his education at the Frankfurt Gymnasium and attended a preparatory school in Berlin. He attended the University of Wiesbaden, the University of Jena, and the University of Bonn, where he won a scholarship in philology. He returned to Frankfurt and became

Photographed By James Hulse, November 9, 2022

7. The view of the German Pioneers Monument in Landa Park

a teacher at the Bunsen Institute in the fall of 1827. There he became active in the political movement agitating for reform of the German government. In 1834 Lindheimer, whose political affiliations had alienated his family and placed him at risk, immigrated to the United States as a political refugee.