About the Book:

America has been and still is a land of immigrants, a melting pot of many races and creeds. From 1832 until 1847, people poured into Texas from the American backwoods and from Europe. They sought the same things: land and a new life in a democratic society. As part of that wave, German immigrants came between 1845 and 1847. They came legally and helped establish what would become major cities in Central Texas.

 This story is about one immigrant and his family who left Germany expecting to rise from subsistence farming to commercial farming in the New World, only to be thrust into the role of pioneering farmer by an inept emigration company, the Adelsverein. Of course, legal emigration was more difficult in 1846 than it is today. The statement, "they came over on the boat," belies the fact that voyages across the ocean were long, tedious, and dangerous. Wagon trains from the coast into the interior of the state were no easier. Hostile Indians, intent on keeping their cultures intact, occupied the land they settled. Creating a farm out of raw wilderness was not for the weak of heart or weak of limb. It took work, more difficult and more dangerous than most of us in the 21st century can imagine.

 See what it was like to emigrate during the nineteenth century through the story of Christoph Feuge and his large family from Heiningen (Germany) as they travel to Karlshafen (Texas) and on to the colony of Fredericksburg (Texas). Through luck, bold action, and sheer determination, he manages to survive hurricanes, disease, and years of absolute destitution to establish his dream in America. To round out his story of emigration, anecdotes and accounts from other emigrant diaries are added into his story. Thus, the story remakes Christoph Feuge into a "Everyman" German Immigrant," one who experiences all of what those early German Pioneers went through to put down roots in Texas.

About the Author:

Robert Lamar Feuge was born and raised in Fredericksburg, Texas. He is the great, great grandson of the title character of this book. From his earliest days, he has been interested in the history of Fredericksburg and the German settlers who lived it. What was it like to emigrate from Germany to Texas in 1846? A graduate of Fredericksburg High School and Howard Payne College, Robert received his PhD from the University of New Mexico in 1969 and spent much of his adult life in San Diego. He has been an avid beach volleyball player, hiker, and collector of southwestern Indian art. Today, he lives in retirement with his wife, Margaret, and two miniature Dachshunds in Sedona, Arizona.