German-Texan Heritage Society Newsletter, Volume 9, Number 1, Spring 1987 Page: 25
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AC5
SCISSORTAILS STILL RETURN TO SCHOENAU, by Geraldine
Mittanck Luetge. Dallas: Taylor Publishing Company,
1985. Available from Mrs. Luetge, Rt. 2, Box 143, New
Ulm, Tx. 78950. Price: $38.04 incl. tax and postage.
I usually do not like to read genealogies.
Therefore I was surprised to spend an entire Saturday
evening recently reading Mrs. Luetge's genealogy of the
small town of Schoenau and its inhabitants. Perhaps
the title attracted me to the book, since I am myself a
bird aficionado. Certainly the last paragraph of Mrs.
Luetge's preface to her work vividly recreated in my
mind the beautiful, wildflower covered landscape which
is typical of Austin County in the spring, and which
must have appeared to the Swiss German ancestor, who
named the town, as an exotic version of the Au (meadow)
in his native country. Or it might have been the
fascinating pictures contained in this book which made
it so spellbinding. The faces of the people, the
details of their houses, the scenes from their work and
leisure time all narrate their own stories. Marvelous
pictures of stern and sturdy looking women,
photographed standing up straight and with their hand
on the shoulder of their man sitting down on a chair,
tell of their dedication to family, work and endurance.
Classic pictures of family men wearing big Mexican-type
hats and sporting huge drooping mustaches or full
beards transport the reader back to pioneer times.
Also, I probably was so engrossed in this genealogy of
a town because I knew some of the people: there was
Fairy Wittner, granddaughter of one of the "founding
fathers" of the German settlements in that area,
Charles Fordtran, riding on a horse. She contributed
such funny stories to our (Dona Reeves and my) research
in Industry. Then there were the pictures of Jesse
Buenger, the self-styled historian of Industry, who so
generously shared his knowledge with us when we
recorded some video film in that area in 1979/80. And
the note about the time when Ella Kautz's house was
moved to Industry. In any event, I found the book
entertaining reading!But of course this work, since it is about
people, also is a major contribution about the history
of a German immigrant community and therefore a
valuable resource for researchers. Since the
information about the families in Schoenau is arranged
chronologically in the order in which settlers arrived,
it presents fascinating demographic facts. To begin
with: the early arrivals appear to have come from areas
in Westphalia and Lower Saxony. Is it, in fact,
possible that the famous America letter written by
Friedrich Ernst, alias Fritz Dirks, the socalled
"Father of German Immigration in Texas," did indeedCopyright 1987 German-Texan Heritage Society
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German-Texan Heritage Society. German-Texan Heritage Society Newsletter, Volume 9, Number 1, Spring 1987, periodical, Spring 1987; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1507400/m1/29/?rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting German-Texan Heritage Society.