Doeppenschmidt-Weidner Ranch–The Early Settlers and Their Families
I. THE JACOB DOEPPENSCHMIDT–MARIA ANNA (SCHNARR) DOEPPENSCHMIDT FAMILY
Jacob Doeppenschmidt and his wife Maria Anna were among the earliest German immigrant families to settle in the area that today is part of the Honey Creek State Natural Area. At age 47, Jacob had immigrated from Germany in 1854 with his wife and five children, including four sons. Near the end of the Civil War, Jacob bought a few hundred acres on the north side of the Guadalupe River in the Curry Creek area, and then in 1869 bought a 160 acre plot for $130, where he settled with Marianne and their three youngest sons, Philip , Adam, and Peter (1850–1931). Just two years later, Jacob died in 1872. In 1878 Philip died of rattlesnake bite. Meanwhile, Adam and Peter, now settled on their own farmsteads in the Honey Creek area, gradually increased their land holdings, eventually owning most of what is now Honey Creek State Natural Area. They soon were successfully raising cattle and/or sheep on their ranch.
After a series of family tragedies, including the murder by a hired hand of his 12-year old daughter Anna in 1888 while she was going to fetch water and the burning to death of his wife Magdalena while incinerating trash in 1892, Peter sold his share of the ranch to Adam in 1894 (see promissory note in photos below). Eventually, Adam accumulated over 4,000 acres north and south of the Guadalupe River. In 1910, at age 61, Adam retired from ranching, moving to New Braunfels. He sold his ranch to two young second-generation German immigrants, Otto Carl Weidner and Fritz Wilhelm Rust.
Doeppenschmidt Family Tree
II. THE HENRY RUST—LOUISE MUELLER RUST FAMILY
Henry and Louise Rust were not the first family to settle in what was to become the Honey Creek State Natural Area. But their history is strongly intertwined with the Weidner family. In 1910, Otto Weidner (see next photo section) and Fritz Rust, son of Henry and Louise, purchased the Doeppenschmidt Ranch from Adam Doeppenschmidt for $22,000. Otto married Fritz’ sister, Meta Rust , but soon sold their portion to the elder Rusts. In 1915, Fritz Rust (age 30) was murdered, bringing great hardship to his family since all capable hands were needed to wrest a living farming and ranching in the Hill Country at that time. Otto and Meta moved back to the land to help. In 1917, the Rusts and Weidners split their holdings, with the Rusts ending up with acreage west of Honey Creek. In the same year, the Rusts built the house that now goes by their name, and is the meeting place for visitors going on the interpretive nature walk into Honey Creek Canyon. Henry and Louise both died in 1950. Their heirs, the three daughters of the couple, Meta (Rust) Weidner, Erna (Rust) Richter, and Alma (Rust) Gass, kept the collective properties together, but with the death of Otto in 1961 and Meta in 1971, inheritance taxes proved an insurmountable obstacle to family ownership. Their lands were sold to a Nueces County philanthropist, Bartles, who sold the land in 1981 to the Texas nature Conservancy.
Rust Family Tree
III. THE OTTO CARL WEIDNER—META RUST WEIDNER FAMILY
Otto Carl Weidner and Fritz Rust were close friends, business partners, and in-laws, for Otto had married Fritz’ sister Meta in 1908. In 1910 they bought the Doeppenschmidt Ranch from Adam Doeppenschmidt, but hard times just before and during the first year of WW I induced Otto and Meta to sell their share of the ranch to Henry and Louise Rust in 1915. But that was the same tragic year that the elder Rust’s son, Fritz, was killed, leaving Henry and Louise in shock and in desperate need of help. Fortunately, Otto and Meta were willing to lend a helping hand, moving back to the ranch. In 1917, they helped the elder Rusts build the Rust House, while Otto and Meta moved into the old Doeppenschmidt ranch house, where they lived for the next several decades, until their deaths.
Many were the developments over that time, as seen, for instance, by the addition of the windmill that replaced an old hand-pump, to be replaced in turn by an electric pump once the ranch was electrified. Before electricity, lighting was supplied originally by kerosene lanterns, but probably sometime in the 1920s, carbide-gas lighting was used in the renovated house.
Otto Weidner Family Tree
IV. EMIL “MUTT” RAHE–PEARL LOUISE WEIDNER RAHE FAMILY
Once the children of Otto and Meta Weidner had grown and married, they moved off the ranch into towns like New Braunfels and San Antonio. But they still returned to the ranch on weekends, to help with work and to celebrate special occasions. Often, it seems, these visitors took more photos than their parents, who apparently had little time off from ranch work to attend to photographic hobbies. The photos taken by the visitors often provide marvelous perspectives on the ranch during the 1920s through the 1960s.
Rahe Family Tree
V. OSWALD HENRY WEIDNER–LAURA GASS WEIDNER FAMILY
After Oswald and Laura married in 1939, they moved moved from the Hill Country homes of their parents to San Antonio. Like the Rahes, they made frequent visits back to the Weidner ranch and took photos that provide insights into the lifestyle of this Hill Country ranch in the first part of the twentieth century. The Gass descendants still ranch on land adjacent to the Park and Honey Creek State Natural Area.
Oswald Weidner Family Tree
VI. RETURN TO THE RANCH
The old ranch eventually was bought by the Texas Nature Conservancy in 1981, and then sold to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in 1985 when it became the Honey Creek State Natural Area. The photos below capture moments from a nostalgic visit by Weidner descendant to the old ranch in 1986, shortly after it became part of the Honey Creek State Natural Area.
