The German Texas Frontier in 1853 Volume 1: Ferdinand Lindheimer's Newspaper Accounts of the Environment, Gold, and Indians(Randolph B. "Mike" Campbell Series)

Ferdinand Lindheimer was already renowned as the father of Texas botany when, in late 1852, he became the founding editor of the Neu-Braunfelser Zeitung, a German-language weekly newspaper for the German settler community on the Central Texas frontier. His first year of publication was a pivotal time for the settlers and the American Indians whose territories they occupied. Based on an analysis of the paper’s first year—and drawing on methods from documentary and narrative history, ethnohistory, and literary analysis—Daniel J. Gelo and Christopher J. Wickham deliver a new chronicle of the frontier in 1853. Lindheimer reports in detail on the area’s Indian peoples. Some Lipan Apaches are killed when the army does not learn of their peaceful intentions; restitution is made at Fredericksburg. The Penateka band of Comanches honors the peace agreement they signed with the Germans six years earlier, but their days in the region are numbered.

About the Author :
Daniel J. Gelo is dean and professor of anthropology emeritus at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Christopher J. Wickham is professor emeritus of German at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Together they have written Comanches and Germans on the Texas Frontier.

Review :
"Overall, the book offers an informative and insightful overview of the first year of this highly interesting newspaper and thus makes a specific contribution to German-American studies. Researchers and students of German immigration to North America in general and the Texas history in particular can expect valuable information and inspiration from Gelo and Wickham's study."--Monatshefte "ln addition to a broader discussion of the Meusebach-Comanche Treaty issue, the authors reflect on various aspects of German and Comanche worldviews, and on why German settlers were apparently able to build positive relationships with tribes that eluded American settlers in other parts of the state. . . . [T]he authors provide a balanced assessment backed with strong evidence to show how Lindheimer was 'an invaluable witness to the key period in the relationship between Germans and lndigenous populations in Texas.'"--Journal of Southern History "In their book, Daniel J. Gelo and Christopher J. Wickham provide readers with a sophisticated and accessible analysis of nineteenth-century German-Texas history. Utilizing fresh and direct translations of inaccessible source material, the authors demonstrate the immense importance of reevaluating source materials to add greater detail and depth to historical narratives. A welcome addition to the history of Texas and the American West, such methodology and prose serve as great examples for future historians to follow."--Western Historical Quarterly "This book is . . . a snapshot of a moment in time, one which provides useful insight, depth, and color to the history of Texas' historically third-largest ethnic group, which contributes to deepening the present understanding of the frontier in Texas and the struggle to tame it."--Southwestern Historical Quarterly "This book is an important contribution to the controversy about the Hill Country Germans and their relationship to Native Americans, and especially their relationship to the southern (Penateka) Comanches and the storied Comanche Peace Treaty of 1847. Lindheimer was an important commentator of the period who, as a newspaperman, had the pulse of his constituency. An examination of his writings on the subject is therefore of great value."--James C. Kearney, author of Nassau Plantation (UNT Press) and translator and editor of Friedrichsburg: Colony of the German Fürstenverein "Despite Germans being a highly significant ethnic group in frontier-era Texas, relatively few German-language sources from this period have been translated. This gaping hole in our understanding of the period is remedied by this work. The authors' analysis of German-Indian relations in the Hill Country is a particularly valuable contribution, and bringing German-Texan voices into this important debate does a service to historical scholarship on the topic. The authors' emphasis on the dependence on the natural environment by both Indians and settlers alike is also an important point and ties their work into environmental history themes."--Nicholas K. Roland, author of Violence in the Hill Country: The Texas Frontier in the Civil War Era