The First Families of Kendall County

Sponsored by the Genealogical Society of Kendall County (GSKC), The First Families of Kendall County project began in 1999. The purpose of this project is to recognize the living descendants of persons instrumental in founding and settling of the area encompassed by present day Kendall County, Texas and to preserve the history of their families and the county.

To date, 586 applications have been approved for 318 different individuals. One hundred seventy (170) Founders and one hundred four (104) Early Settlers have been documented and recognized. They represent one hundred thirty-five (135) different families in Kendall County. There are two hundred sixty-two (262) volumes of First Families notebooks on the shelves at the Family History Place.

Heinrich August Theodor Wendler 1828 – 1906

Pauline Auguste Luckenbach

1845 - 1918

by James Hurst

Here we will share with you some of the stories of those First Families who settled this beautiful area of the Texas hill country. We hope you enjoy!

To learn more about The First Families of Kendall County project visit www.gskctx.org or stop by the Family History Place at 114 E. Blanco in Boerne.

Follow on Facebook at Facebook.com/GenealogicalSocietyOfKendallCounty

AAfter Pauline Auguste Luckenbach married Heinrich “Henry” August Theodore Wendler in Gillespie County on December 17, 1864, the couple settled in the house he built at 302 S. Main in Boerne. Here the couple had seven children, six boys, and a girl, all of whom were born at home in the four-poster family bed, which is still in the family. The descendants of Pauline and Henry occupied the home until 1939. Parts of the original house are still standing; the remainder has been restored and is still in use today.

Pauline came to Texas as a very young child when her parents, Jacob, and Justina (Rübsamen) Luckenbach, emigrated from Stein, Nassau, Germany, with her older sister Amalia. The family settled near Fredericksburg sometime between 1845, when Pauline was born in Naussau, and 1848 when their daughter Henriette was born in Gillespie County. The family later moved to the Luckenbach area, where their descendants still live.

Family stories say Henry was a cabinet maker when he emigrated to Texas from Bielefeld, Westphalen, Germany, in 1853. He planned to follow this trade in America, so he brought his tools with him. They sailed across the Atlantic together, but when the ship reached Galveston Bay, it encountered a storm. It was necessary to lighten the ship's load to save the ship and the passengers, so cargo was thrown overboard, including his tools. However, we did not find him on the Galveston passenger lists. We found a twenty-six-year-old wheelwright Heinrich Wendler who arrived in New Orleans in December 1854 on board the ship Jeverland. Heinrich was accompanied by a seventeen-year-old baker, Ferdinand Wendler. Of course, the ship that Henry sailed on from New Orleans to Indianola could have encountered a storm which resulted in the loss of his tools. In the 1870 census for Boerne, Henry Wendler is listed as a

"wagonmacher", so the New Orleans Heinrich was the right age and occupation to be a match. His father, Carl August, was a cabinet maker, and he and the rest of his household followed Henry to Texas in 1855, settling in Gillespie County.

Henry initially lived in the Sisterdale area, but in September 1856, he purchased Town Lot 29 on Main Street in Boerne for $200, where he established a cabinet shop and other businesses and built his home. The first part of his home was a long room made of stone with a fireplace at one end. Another house was built in front of this one, on page 13