Comal County Blacksmith Shop Bears Witness to Early Days
Source: Article by: Oscar Haas, Express Correspondent (Date unknown)
New Braunfels, Jan. 6-
Two "handwrought" steel tires for oxcart wheels, lean against the old oak where a Nineteenth Century artisan had rolled them.
Valentin Fuhrmann, master blacksmith and pioneer settler in the Spring Branch community, Comal County, had made the tires in anticipation that one day an oxcart owner would be in need of them.
Silently they bear witness to an ancient mode of transportation and together with the imprints of cattle brands on the cypress board walls of the shop, bear witness of the artisan’s part in the taming of the wilderness along the Guadalupe River and the hill country in the western section of the county.
Valentin Fuhrmann was born 1821 at Ellfels (sic), Nassau, came to Texas 1852, by which time he had served the customary apprentice required of young men in the Old World, before they could launch on their chosen life’s vocation.
In his ‘Wanderbuch’ the dictionary translates Wanderbuch, Travelling Journeyman’s Book (serving as a passport), entries therein by authoritative officials certified to by their official stamps, show that he began his apprenticeship at Mannheim, June 1844.
And that during his seven apprenticeship years, he was in Heidelberg, Freiburg, Balsthal, Fribourg, Geneva, Mainz, Heidelburg, Castel in Hessen, and by the 7 October 1852 in Coln.
It probably was at Coln where he passed his examinations before the authorities. He was now a master blacksmith. The blacksmith shops of then were different from those of today they do mainly repair work, then they were manufactories.
He landed in New Braunfels late 1852 with two distant relatives. The three operated a shop on San Antonio street, manufactured plows, wagons, horse shoes, nails and much other blacksmith hardware. The tools they used they had brought along and some of which today still are in the shop, the subject of this story.
Fuhrmann was married 1854 in New Braunfels to Miss Catherine Beierle. Two years later they purchased 102 acres of land on the Spring Branch 25 miles Northwest of New Braunfels. By that time settlers were spreading out from New Braunfels along the water courses and the Fuhrmanns saw their opportunity to serve the new communities.
A decade later, 1866, they purchased 640 acres on the south bank of the Guadalupe. Tall cedars were cut and squared for another comfortable pioneer settler’s residence. This same residence is used today by great-grandchildren of the couple for storing grain.
Giant cypress trees from the banks of the Guadalupe were cut into floor boards and into wall boards. And a shop of cedar and cypress was built to house the blacksmith equipment.
The wheelwright block, the anvil, forge and bellows, handmade horse shoes, thread cutters, a plane that required a he-man to handle, the tongs, hammers, all bear witness to the once busy community smithy, in whose daybook entries reveal that this and that was ‘made for’ so and so.
Mrs. Fuhrmann, the pioneer woman, assisted her husband in all pioneer labors. Miles of stone fence had to be laid on the new place. If a neighbor needed some article which had to be made in the shop, the neighbor would help Mrs. Fuhrmann with the stone fence while Mr. Fuhrmann finished the article.
The pioneer communities were plagued with cattle rustlers and in 1875 the settlers associated themselves into a farmers’ co-operative to protect their livestock against the thieves. They named their association Germania Farmers Association of Anhalt and resolved to brand all cattle belonging to the members with the letter ‘G’ on the left shoulder in addition to each members private brand.
Mr. Fuhrmann was charter member of the association and official brandmaker. And whenever he had finished a brand he would prove it out on the cypress board of his shop. There the brands to this day bear witness to his handicraft.
The Fuhrmanns had one daughter. She became the wife of Hermann Pfeuffer, son of Valentin Pfeuffer, charter settler of New Braunfels. And the Fuhrmanns retired to live in New Braunfels. The Pfeuffers added more land, and went into the ranching business.
The blacksmith shop was closed and remains closed to this day. The youngest daughter of the Pfeuffers, Mrs. Herman Hitzfelder, with her husband, one son, Herman, Jr., and one daughter, Dorene, live on the ranch and zealously guard every item in the shop.
Said Mr. Hitzfelder: I would not let any item go out of the shop. And then he proudly points out, an axle grease bucket such as swung suspended from the rear axle of oxcarts, a rawhide hobble, a horse-shoeing hammer used in early times.
Mrs. Hitzfelder has two sisters; Mrs. Gus Weidner of Wetmore, route 1, Mrs. Albert Ludewig (sic) of New Braunfels.
