The Leyendecker Family Papers record in detail the business and personal affairs of one of Texas's earliest German families. Margaretha and Friedrich Zimmerscheidt came from the Rhine Valley to New York in 1828 and moved on to Texas in 1834 where they took up residence on Cummins Creek in Austin's Colony. In 1843 they were joined by their daughter Josephine, who had stayed behind with cousins, her husband Johann Leyendecker, and their four children. These were literate, enterprising people who had been fairly successful at home. Johann Leyendecker had been mayor of the town of Neuhäusel and had operated a tavern there. The lure of free land and unlimited opportunity enticed them and a few friends and relatives to form a small pocket of immigrants in what was by that time Colorado County in the Republic of Texas. The collection reflects their isolated struggle to achieve their goals and creates a much different picture from that of the later, large communities of exclusively German immigrants.
Johann Leyendecker raised cotton and ran a gin, and he had a large herd of cattle and other livestock. His oldest son Johann Friedrich, with whose family most of the material is concerned, after serving in the Civil War, became intimately involved in Colorado County politics, held at one time or another most of the local political positions, and engaged in various types of legal and financial business, as well as investing extensively in land. He was elected to the Texas legislature in 1872. He established the Pearfield Nursery in 1876 and became well known for his horticultural activities. When he died in 1908, his daughters Katherine (Carrie) and Laura and the latter's husband Emil Brune remained in the family home and ran the nursery.
Because of the multiple public and private activities of the family, recorded in two languages over a long period and concerning disparate groups of people, there are many overlapping areas. The older account books and notebooks, in particular, almost all contain sections having to do with several different enterprises over extended, though intermittent, time periods. For instance, the account book filed under “Colorado County records” also contains farm and nursery material, financial and land accounts, and material relating to estate administration. The business correspondence and personal letters are also not mutually exclusive, and in a few places letters have been photocopied so that they could appear under two headings to point out their dual relationship; an example is the case of Andrew Waugh, Catherine Leyendecker Hahn's son-in-law, who encouraged his uncle, J. F. Leyendecker, to enter the poultry business with him. The placing of such items has been dictated by the predominant subject, if possible, or otherwise was arbitrarily made. However, serious research in any field covered by the Leyendecker Family Papers will, of course, necessitate a thorough examination of the whole collection. Although the papers are primarily organized chronologically by subject, several groups of material have been arranged by name classification. In the case of the personal letters, which are arranged alphabetically, several generations and branches of a family may appear under one name even though more than one surname is involved. The genealogy contained in the collection can be used to identify the location of the more recent branches of the family. One small deviation in the arrangement of the personal letters is the insertion of the correspondence between J. F. and F. A. Leyendecker. This correspondence recording the courtship and early years of marriage of the main protagonists in the collection had been kept together with care through the years, and it was important to maintain it as a unit. The other classified groups contain only material as indicated and are arranged alphabetically or, in the case of the school papers and copy books, chronologically.
In several areas it seemed advisable to distinguish between documentation of activities that took place in Germany and those in Texas. Generally these can be separated by the emigration date of 1843, but since Johann Leyendecker instigated a series of suits in Germany as well as selling property there after his departure, this is not always true. There is, of course, much German material throughout the collection since the Leyendeckers continued to use that language as well as English in communications with acquaintances and relatives, both in Texas and in the Old Country. Part of this material has been translated, and the translations are interfiled with the documents. In a few places only a brief indication of the contents of the German material is given. A number of the letters from friends and relatives in Germany have deteriorated to the point that much of their content cannot be deciphered. These letters, along with the crumbling pieces, have been encapsulated, and in some cases an attempt has been made to translate the more legible parts.
There are a few oversize items in each large subject area dealt with. These are listed on a separation sheet included after the inventory. Pictorial items are also listed separately, as well as materials that have been transferred to the newspaper, map, broadside, and ephemera collections.
Collection includes artifact collection.
Access to a portion of this collection is restricted. See Inventory below, Box 3P193a. Contact repository for further information.
Leyendecker Family Papers, 1817-1987, The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.
Processed by Jeanne R. Willson
Date: 15 September 1982