| Schumannsville And the Schumannsville
Cemetery
by Walter F. Rudeloff 1985
The small community of Schumannsville
is located on Farm Road 725 in Guadalupe County, Texas about 3 miles
south
of New Braunfels. It was established by German Immigrants in
1847,
and was named for August Schumann, who
bought
the original tract of land on which the
community
is located. 1
Schumannsville Cemetery lies about 1 1/2
miles
north of the community on Lakeside Drive
358, a short county road that extends from Farm Road
725 eastward to Lake Dunlap, a distance of
about
1 1/2 miles. The cemetery is about 0.7 mile
from
Farm Road 725. Both the community of
Schumannsville
and Schumannsville Cemetery are shown on
the accompanying map.
Schumannsville and Schumannsville
Cemetery are both located in the Ignatius S. Johnson
Survey
which Anson Jones, as President of
Texas issued the patent for in 1846, and which
contains "18 labors" of land (3,188.5 acres). It
is
described in the original land patent as being
located
" on the Southwest side of the Guadalupe
River, a distance of approximately 5
miles
below the old Nacogoches [sic] Road."2
August Wilhelm Schumann, a well to do
German
immigrant from Kothen, West Prussia,
arrived
on the Texas coast aboard the SS
Franziska
on January 11, 1846, with his
wife
and 8 children.3
When he arrived in Guadalupe County, he purchased the entire
Ignatius
S. Johnson Survey of 3, 188.5 acres.4
A few months later, he met a wagon train
of immigrants, all from the same area in
the eastern part of West Prussia, who had arrived on
the
Texas coast aboard the SS Johanna and other
ships
in December 1846. Mr.
Schumann
agreed to sell each family a
strip
of land on the Guadalupe River on which to settle. Thereupon he
divided
approximately 350 acres in the northern
part
of the survey into 15 long narrow strips, each
approximately 1 mile in length and
approximately
208 feet wide, which he then sold to the
immigrants,
apparently by oral agreement because it was not until September,
1850 that the deeds to the 15 tracts of land were executed
and filed of record in the Deed Records
of
Guadalupe County, Texas. 5
The deeds, each of which is dated in September, 1850, recite the following information:
Each immigrant family built a house on their tract near the River. Early Schumannsville thus consisted of 15 houses near the River, about 200 feet apart. Figures 1 and 2 in the appendix are photographs of one of such houses, that of Friedrich Rudeloff.6 The river is to the rear of the house. Note that extra rooms appear to have been added to the house as the family grew. The construction is probably typical of the other houses. Shortly after the immigrants built their homes, they entered into an oral agreement in 1847 to construct a communal fence to surround all 15 tracts of land in order to protect their cultivated crops from damage by cattle. This agreement was reduced to writing in 1852, and filed for record.7 It reads in part as follows:
The reason for the delay in filing the deed and agreement was the distance of Schumannsville from Seguin, and the necessity of crossing the Guadalupe River. In his definitive work on Texas German history, Dr. Rudolph Biesele stated that " The proximity of the settlement to New Braunfels, the racial and lingual relationship of its settlers and those of New Braunfels, and the need of crossing the Guadalupe in order to attend the official business in Seguin, the county seat, caused the settlers of Schumannsville on October 29, 1849, to petition the Legislature for a change in the boundaries of Guadalupe and Comal counties so that Schumannsville would be located in Comal County. The petition was signed by:
The request was not granted.8
Since the petition to locate Schumannsville in Comal was refused in
1849,
and the deeds to the 15 tracts of land in Schumannsville were dated
in
1850, it is reasonable to assume that the settlers waited
until
the Legislature acted on their petition before filing their respective
deeds.
Records do not indicate who was the first to die in Schumannsville, but the earliest recorded death is that of Carl Blumberg, who died in 1853 of Yellow Fever which he became infected with while hauling freight and passengers from Indianola in his wagon which he had had to foresight of bringing with him from Prussia.10 His death was an even greater loss to the community because he was a school teacher by profession. No written account of Carl Blumberg's funeral has been found, but perhaps the following description by an early Texas writer, Ferdinand Roemer, of a funeral in New Braunfels may be similar:
The people
in Carl Blumberg's funeral
procession were probably mounted as the
cemetery
is about 1 1/2 miles from the community of
Schumannsville.
Schumannsville Cemetery, where
Carl Blumberg was buried, lies in the
northern
part of the land which August Wilhelm Schumann
purchased.
The Deed Records do not reflect that Mr. Schumann made
a
formal dedication of the land for cemetery purposes, but again the
reason
may be that the trip to Seguin was long and crossing the
Guadalupe
difficult. A formal dedication was simply
postponed.
The cemetery is now enclosed with a fence. It is roughly rectangular in shape, approximately 522 feet deep, and approximately 170 feet wide along the county road, widening to approximately 300 feet from the center to the back fence. The entire cemetery contains about 2 3/4 acres, but only the rear wider portion is used for internment. The founder of Schumannsville, August Wilhelm Schumann, was the second citizen of Schumannsville to be buried in the cemetery, dying on May 30 1858 at the age of 67 years. He was buried a short distance from the grave of Carl Blumberg, indicating that the early settlers must have intended the property to be used as a community cemetery. Mr. Schumann's son in law, Friedrich Rudeloff, was appointed Administrator of his estate since the eldest son, Gustav Schumann, had died in San Saba County where he lived, and the 2nd eldest, Wilhelm Schumann, lived in far away Gillespie County. The only other son, Karl Schumann, was still a minor.12 Mr. Schumann was not only one of the oldest citizens of the community, having been born in 1791, but was probably one of the wealthiest, as a partial list of the assets of his estate as filed by the Administrator, Friedrich Rudeloff, will show:
August Wilhelm Schumann
was a learned and
cultured man, and his estate included a
flute,
music and
books.
Fate decreed that the next persons to be buried in Schumannsville Cemetery were the respective widows of Carl Blumberg and August Wilhelm Schumann. Katherine Ruff Blumberg and Amalie Walbe Schumann both died in 1869. Mrs. Blumberg was buried to the left of her husband, in the American South tradition. The American South tradition of feet to the east interment, however, was not adhered to, as Carl Blumberg's' grave (the first in the cemetery and therefore a precedent for those that followed) was aligned perpendicular to the road leading to the cemetery, thus giving the graves a Northwest Southeast axis. Amelia Walbe Schumann, wife of August Wilhelm Schumann, was interred in tandem with her husband in a feet to the Northwest alignment whereas her husband was interred in a feet to the Southeast alignment. A common tombstone is inscribed with August Wilhelm Schumann's date of birth and death on the east side with the traditional Texas German individual grave curbing marking his grave east of the tombstone. Amalia Schumann's date of birth and death is inscribed on the west side of the tombstone. The two graves together form a plot about 2 1/2 feet wide and 10-12 feet long, with the tombstone in the center. Thus by the year 1870, Schumannsville Cemetery contained only four marked graves, vis., that of Carl Blumberg and his wife, Katherine Ruff Blumberg, and that of August Wilhelm Schumann and his wife Amalie Schumann. Inevitably, however, internment after internment followed and by the year 1984, 137 years after the founding of the community of Schumannsville, a total of 175 persons have been interred in Schumannsville Cemetery. Terry Jordan, in fascinating work, Texas Graveyards - A Cultural Legacy, describes various customs and traditions which are common in most Texas German cemeteries, some more unique than others.13 It is not only of interest, but more important, it is necessary to note which of such customs and traditions have been adhered to in a cemetery being considered for a historical marker. In Schumannsville Cemetery there seems to have been almost a complete absence of the orderliness and symmetry common to most German cemeteries. Although all of the graves are more or less aligned perpendicular to the road leading to the cemetery and parallel to the longitudinal fences, many graves are not parallel with one another, but are slightly askew. Many are not even in a straight line but lie in curved or jagged lines. Some graves even extend into footpaths. No tradition seems to
have been strictly adhered to. In many
graves, the husband is buried to the right of the wife; in almost an
equal
number, the husband is buried to the left of the wife. In one
instance,
that of the graves of August Wilhelm Schumann and wife noted above, the
husband and wife lie in tandem. There are no highly decorated
graves
and only a few unusual tombstones. There are no hex signs and
related
symbols except for only one Teutonic Sonnenrad. The cemetery does
not appear to have been sanctified and there is no church in the
vicinity.
German Immigrants interred in Schumannsville Cemetery
An examination of the list of persons interred in the Schumannsville Cemetery reveals that this is indeed a German cemetery. Of the 155 persons interred there, 149 or 96% have German surnames. There are a large number of epitaphs in the cemetery, but very few are written in English, and even the English words, "Born" and "Died" appear very seldom; instead, most tombstones are marked with the German equivalents, "Geb." (Geborn = Born) and "Ges." (Gestorben = Died). Epitaphs written in the German language are abundant, most of which are given with the English translation on an accompanying list. Many of the epitaphs are standard German epitaphs, straight out of the stone cutters verse book. Even so, some contained flawed spelling or archaic wording. There are some individualized epitaphs, many "speaking dead" epitaphs; some are directed at the passerby while others eulogize the deceased. A few name the European village of birth or give the deceased's maiden name. Schumannsville Cemetery has historical significance. It is the final resting place of at least 31 German immigrants, most of whom emigrated from the same area in Prussia, at about the same time and who lived together in the community of Schumannsville until their respective deaths. They contributed significantly to building Texas the great State that it now is and their descendants, many of whom still live in Comal and Guadalupe Counties and who number in the thousands, are still contributing to building Texas an even greater State.
FOOTNOTES:
1. Webb,
Walter Prescott and H. Baily Caroll, eds. The Handbook
of Texas.
2 vols. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1952, Vol II, p. 58 2. Guadalupe County Deed Records, Vol. A, p. 14 3.
Family records kept by Walter F. Rudeloff, Great Great Grandson of A.
W.
Schumann; see also ships' lists quoted in
Geue, Chester William and Ethel Hander
Geue.
4. Guadalupe County Deed Records. Vol. p. 5. The 15 Deeds from A. W. Schumann to each of the 15 original inhabitants of the community of Schumannsville are recorded in the Guadalupe County Deed Records, Vol. C, pp. 304-357 and Vol. E, p. 800. 6. Two of four photographs in possession of Walter F. Rudeloff, Great Grandson of Friedrich Rudeloff, taken by O. D. Rudeloff at family visit to Schumannsville on March 29, 1923. 7. Guadalupe County Deed Records, Vol. D, pp. 199-200 8. Biesele, Rudolph L. The History of the German Settlements in Texas, 1831-1861. Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1930, pp. 166-167 9. Letter
written by Carl Blumberg in 1846, quoted in Lich,
Glen
E. The German Texans . San Antonio:
10. Blumberg, C. F. The Carl F. and Catherine Ruff Blumberg Klan Book. New Braunfels: New Braunfels Zeitung Print, 1938, pp. 2-6 11. Roemer,
Ferdinand,
Texas, with Particular Reference to German Immigration and the
Physical
Appearance of the Country. Tr. Oswald Mueller.
San
Antonio: Standard, 1935; rpt. Waco:
12. Guadalupe County Court Probate Minutes. Vol. B, pp 29 and 425; Vol. E, pp 56, 181 and 188. 13. Jordan,
Terry G. Texas Graveyards: A Cultural Legacy.
Austin:
University of Texas Press. 1982,
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