The Dissertation Committee for Judith L - The University of Texas at ...

hundred families per community, at least five leagues of land, or 22,140 acres, would be
needed to meet the requirement. Compounding the issue was the group expected to bring
thousands of Germans to Texas to be settled in communities near one another. Braunfels,
having lost the initial grant, was challenged to find a solid piece of land at least several
hundred thousand acres in size. 54
Prince Braunfels thought he solved the problem when he purchased the Fisher-
Miller land grant in June of 1844. This grant consisted of 3,878,000 million acres, which
amply met all the requirements set forth by the Adelsverein. 55 (See Figure 2.1) 56 The
grant’s location, as described to Braunfels by the surveyor Colonel John Coffee Hays, 57
Starts at the springs of the Llano River, follows the left bank of the same
to the Colorado River and extends up on to a point where a line 45 degrees N.W.
from the beginning intersects the Colorado. The land along the Colorado is
claimed throughout the grant . . . It is hilly, but still choice land with plenty of
good soil, well forested and watered; and since large stretches of land are still
unclaimed, it is the most superior of all the grants. 58
San Marcos.
53
Richardson, et al, Texas, 146, 170.
54
Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, “Second Report to the Directors of the Adelsverein on the German
colonization in Texas, 1844-1847,” Charles and Esther Geue trans, A New Land Beckoned: German
Immigration to Texas, 1844-1847, (Waco: Texian Press, 1966), 25-34.
55
John O. Meusebach, Answer to Interrogatories in Case No. 396, Mary C. Paschal et al, vs. Theodore
Evans, District Court of McCulloch County, Texas, November Term, 1893 (Austin: Pemberton Press,
reprint 1964), 4.
56
Used with permission, Terry Jordan, German Seed in Texas Soil, 45.
57
Colonel John Coffee Hays surveyed the first useable wagon route from Austin and San Antonio across
western Texas to El Paso. He was also a Ranger and participated in several Indian wars in Texas. This
background explains why he would know the land so well and be able to describe the located to Prince
Braunfels. Dudley R. Dobie, A Brief History of Hays County,17.
58
Prince Solms- Braunfels, “Third Report to the Adelsverein Committee, 26 August 1844,” A New Land
Beckoned, Geue trans., 35.
29