Day Trips

Little home in paradise (Photo By Gerald E. McLeod)

Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer saw more on the landscape of Texas than did the average immigrant who came looking for a place to raise cattle or plant corn. Nearly as soon as the German-educated adventurer landed on the Texas coast he recognized the uniqueness of the native plants of his adopted homeland.

Every spring Texans should whisper a word of thanks on the wind to the man who helped categorize hundreds of indigenous plants. Native plant gardeners and day trippers should remember his name when the wildflowers begin to bloom, the trees bud, and the fields turn a magnificent color of green. Honored as the "Father of Texas Botany," Lindheimer helped spread the word of this exciting new republic's vast potential. He was one of the first to recognize the botanical bounty of the landscape.

The Lindheimer Home in New Braunfels is a small monument to a man credited with discovering several hundred plant species, including a milkweed, a loco weed, a mimosa, and a rock daisy. Antiques and period pieces, some that belonged to the self-taught botanist, fill the four small rooms of the wood and fachwerk house. Operated as a museum by the New Braunfels Conservation Society, the house was occupied by the Lindheimer family until the early 1960s. Behind the house an expansive lawn falls toward the banks of the Comal River.

Decorating the yard are flower beds filled with the carefully preserved remains of Lindheimer's collection of native plants. Soon after he arrived in New Braunfels in 1844, he envisioned a great botanical garden here. Although the grandeur of his dreams were never realized, the landscaping would make any gardener proud. Born in 1801, in Frankfurt, Germany, Lindheimer was the well-educated son of an affluent merchant. He was a well respected professor of literature and linguistics until he began advocating the reformation of the national government. In 1834, his political affiliations forced his immigration to the Americas as a political refugee.

Disillusioned young European intellectuals populated much of the western frontier of the United States looking for space to build new societies. Lindheimer first joined a group of German expatriates in Illinois and then moved to Veracruz, Mexico. Rather than being excited by the plans of a utopia in the jungle, Ferdinand found a paradise of new plants and insects that he began collecting.

As it did for many a young man at the time, the Texas Revolution aroused a sense of adventure in Lindheimer. Unfortunately, he arrived with a company of Kentucky volunteers the day after the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836. The German revolutionary still managed to serve a year on the Texas frontier under the command of Ranger Captain John C. Hays.

The brief military service gave Lindheimer an understanding of Texas terrain and the people, native and immigrants, who populated the wild country. By 1843, he entered into a contract with George Engelmann, a friend from Frankfurt, and Asa Gray, a Harvard botanist, to collect plant specimens.

Along with the new territories being opened west of the Mississippi River was the discovery of hundreds of plants previously unknown to European scientists. Entrepreneurs such as Engelmann and Gray would sell specimens of the new plants around the world on a subscription basis. Explorers, especially well-educated ones like Lindheimer, searched the territories for unique samples. Lindheimer became the first permanent-resident plant collector in Texas.

Over a period of nine years, Lindheimer collected plant specimens from a variety of areas ranging from the Gulf Coast to as far west as Comanche Springs, near present-day Fort Stockton. In all, 48 plants were named after him, including the Texas prickly pear cactus Opuntia lindheimeri and the Texas yellow star, also called the Lindheimer daisy (Lindheimera texana). The professor moved to the German settlement of New Braunfels in 1844. He continued to collect plants, served as the first justice of the peace, and ran a private school for gifted children in the colony. In 1852, he became the first editor of the German language newspaper, Neu Braunfelser Zeitung (the forerunner of the current New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung).

By all indications Lindheimer's 20 years with the Zeitung were anything but placid. At the outbreak of the Civil War, his support of the Confederacy appalled the majority of German Americans in the area. Legend has it that they threw his printing press into the river because of his views. He eventually fished it out and resumed publishing. He died in New Braunfels in 1879 after committing the majority of his life to building a new world on the Texas frontier.

A true Texas original, Lindheimer was both independent and civic-minded. The tiny house that he shared with his wife, Eleanor, and their four children remains much as he left it. At 491 Comal, a block north of Seguin Avenue and east of the Main Plaza, the museum and gardens are open to the public Saturday and Sunday 2-5pm, with a Conservation Society docent present. Memorial Day through August 31, the home opens daily, except Wednesday, and during Wurstfest 2-5pm. Admission is a bargain at $2 per person. For special tours, call 830/629-2943.

Coming up this weekend...

Texas Independence Day Celebration at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historical Park, "the birthplace of Texas," presents history programs, cultural events, and the grand opening of Barrington Living History Farm, Mar. 4-5. 409/878-2214.

Dawn at the Alamo brings re-enactors to the Texas shrine in San Antonio to pay homage to the great sacrifices made on both sides of the mission walls on the anniversary of the final day of the battle, Mar. 6. 210/732-6055.

Texas Cowboy Rendezvous & Independence Day Celebration at Luckenbach brings out the washers, horseshoes, and guitars, 3pm-midnight, Mar. 4. 830/997-3224 or http://www.luckenbachtexas.com.

Hill Country Antiques Show & Sale in Boerne fills two buildings at the Kendall County Fairgrounds with a variety of goods, Mar. 4-5. 830/995-3670.

St. Francis Xavier Parish Festival in Stonewall features barbecue, prizes, country store, fish pond, and more, Mar. 5. 830/644-2306.

Oysterfest in Fulton at Navigation Park honors the brave soul who ate the first raw oyster with massive quantities of entertainment and fresh oyster stew, Mar. 3-5. 800/826-6441.